Mad Scientist or Visionary??

John- I'm now going to focus on some of the "characters" in the global warming debate- none seems more characterful and eccentric that Piers Corbyn, the "mad professor" look-a-like solar physicist who runs his own company "Weather Action". The company makes long range weather forecasts and sells them mainly to farmers. Piers has written to politicians many times warning them of the dangers of their incorrect views on global warming. He was featured in the national press after making a lot of money at the bookies betting his forecasts against The Met Office. In the late 1960's he was student union leader and a campaigner for squatters rights. A colourful character if ever there was one.


















Piers claims to have a revolutionary system of forecasting the weather using his "solar magnetic method" which he refuses to divulge. Well, fair enough- its his invention and he's making his living out of it though his Weather Action company. William Hill bookies have banned him from placing bets on the weather against the Met Office forecasts- so he must be on to something. Wikipedia has a somewhat biased entry, but then it does on anyone or anything which questions man made global warming or any other subject Wikki is baised about. Piers has also appeared on the film "The Great Global Warming Swindle".




















As for Piers, he's also an outspoken critic of the man-made global warming theory, this criticism is based on his knowledge of the sun and how changes on the sun affect weather and climate. Fair enough, I can understand the connection between sun and climate according to the various theories of climate change over decades or hundreds or throusands of years, but Piers claims to have a method of accurate weather forecasting- he correctly predicted the path and intensity of hurricane 'Gustav', for instance. If this is indeed the case, then Piers and Weather Action could be onto something remarkable, using readily observable changes in the sun and its magnetic field and solar particle emmissions to give accurate weather forecasts. If Piers is right then his method is nothing less than a breakthrough in climate and weather forecasting and the whole world deserves to take note.

Currently this statement has been on the front page of the weather action site for some time:-
"OCTOBER 2008 .

Unusually Cold with sleet and snow at times on frequent Northerly winds. Often foggy. Milder later ... a major damaging storm .""Detailed 30d ahead Forecast OCTOBER 08 SWT24f (Lbs1) Issued 29 Sept

29 - 31 Oct /1st Nov 2008. A (85%).
Stormy and becoming very
mild. Heavy rain, local
floods, severe damaging
gales esp in Ireland and
West / South/West. 2 inches
of rain likely in places.
A deep ‘dartboard’ low drives
into British Isles from West."

Sounds quite dramatic! Although I'm not looking forward to the storm, I'd love such a dramatic prediction to come true based on "solar magnetic" methods, and predicted by a global warming "sceptic" (we prefer the term "realist" here on the Climate Change Realist blog). We will also be monitoring forthcoming predictions from Weather Action and see how they match up to weather events.
Good Luck Piers!

http://www.weatheraction.com/
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.02/weather.html
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000053C3.htm
http://www.1968andallthat.net/node/87
http://www.felixonline.co.uk/articles/2568/My_uncle_the_global_warming_sceptic