A number of terrestrial temperature-recording stations in the United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN), which is a subset of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), don’t actually exist. Instead, an interpolation method is used to assign data to these “zombie” stations—possibly using data from ‘nearby’ stations that could be over 100 miles away.
NTD discussed this phenomenon with Kevin Dayaratna, the chief statistician in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation. Mr. Dayaratna says this fabrication of data allows certain actors to “cook the books” to “justify a particular agenda.”
