Temperature differences recorded in the U.K. on the same date a year apart cited misleadingly to deny climate change

What is the claim?

A Facebook user from the U.K. has posted a comparison of the daily temperature in the U.K. on the same date, June 11, but a year apart — 2023 and 2024 — to call climate change a hoax. The user also implied that "geoengineering" is the reason behind it. The viral post has been shared around 100 times so far, and an archived version can be viewed here. 

According to the United Nations, "Geoengineering, also referred to as climate engineering, is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth's climatic system, with the aim of reducing global warming."

Screenshot of a post showing a comparison of temperatures recorded on two particular days to misleadingly claim it is proof of climate change being a hoax. (Source: Screenshot/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, we found that the claim is misleading as the social media post makes a cherry-picked comparison of the weather on two particular dates to deny climate change. 

Weather vs climate

It is important to note that when the post talks about temperatures on two particular days, the user is talking about the weather. The climate is the long-term average of the weather. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website explains this. "When we are talking about climate change, we are talking about changes in long-term averages of daily weather. In most places, weather can change from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season," it states. "Climate, however, is the average of weather over time and space."

The IPCC's (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Sixth Assessment report (2021) states that human emissions have increased global temperatures by nearly 2°F (1.1°C) since 1850-1900. The global average temperature is projected to reach or exceed 1.5°C (3°F) within the next few decades, impacting all regions of Earth. 

There is a greater scientific consensus that global temperatures will continue to keep rising for many decades, primarily due to greenhouse gases from human activities. The severity of the effects of climate change will depend on future human actions, with more emissions causing greater climate extremes and widespread damage globally.

What did the Met Office say?

The Met Office of the U.K. confirmed to Logically Facts that the temperatures stated in the social media post are accurate. A spokesperson said that the "temperatures on the Facebook post look correct."

However, they also pointed out, "The evidence is clear: the world's climate is warming, globally, we have seen average temperatures at Earth's surface warm by more than 1.1°C over the past 160 years. With climate change the U.K. can expect to see warmer and wetter winters, hotter and drier summers and more frequent and intense weather extremes."

They further explained, "While climate change will make these conditions more likely, the U.K.'s weather will continue to be variable, temperatures are not expected to rise every single year. Natural fluctuations will still cause cold years and seasons, but these events will become less likely."

What did experts say?

Professor Bill McGuire, Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at University College London, told Logically Facts, "This is the usual nonsense that comes from not understanding the difference between weather and climate — the latter being weather averaged out over an extended period of time. One relatively cool summer in one tiny part of the world means nothing, especially when temperature records are being smashed across the globe, and wildfires and flash floods continue to plague many countries including — most recently — the U.S. and China."

Dr. Matt Patterson, a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, told Logically Facts, "It is ludicrous to claim that relatively cool U.K. temperatures on one particular day this June compared with a heatwave on the same day one year ago provides any evidence of geo-engineering. Our U.K. weather varies considerably from day to day and week to week, mostly driven by natural variation in weather patterns … the author of this Facebook post has cherry-picked two dates on which the temperature was particularly different, but all that this graphic shows is that U.K. temperature varies a lot."

In an article published in The Conversation, Dr. Patterson wrote about the phenomenon described by ecologists as "shifting baseline syndrome" which he felt also applies to climate change "as people forget or have no experience of the climate in the not-too-distant past."

Dr. Patterson explained to Logically Facts, "There has been considerable public conversation about the fact that June 2024 'felt' unusually cold. However, observed data show that June temperatures were similar to the long-term average. Due to human-induced climate change, U.K. summers have warmed rapidly and are now about 1.2°C warmer than they were in the 1970s. This rapid warming has made heatwaves become more common, meaning that periods that would have been considered average, now feel cold."

What about the claims of geoengineering?

Geoengineering is still a largely theoretical concept at the present time, and there are no confirmed reports of it being employed on a scale large enough to lead to the extreme weather conditions witnessed recently around the globe. 

Logically Facts also contacted the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, U.K., for comments. A spokesperson for the department confirmed to Logically Facts, "There is no cloud seeding or any other type of weather modification activity being undertaken in U.K. airspace. The government is not deploying solar radiation management and has no plans to do so."

The spokesperson added, however, that "the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Climate Change Committee have both recognized the importance of greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technologies for reaching net zero – balancing residual emissions from hard-to-decarbonise sectors."

Logically Facts has earlier debunked multiple false claims about geoengineering and cloud seeding causing climate change. 

The verdict

While the temperatures stated in the social media post are accurate, the temperature difference between two particular days cannot be used to deny long-term changes in the weather conditions, which clearly show human-induced climate change. Therefore, we mark this claim as misleading.