I thought I would compare TAVG data from the new BEST release to the NOAA data for the state of Alabama.

I got the BEST data here. I got the NOAA data here. The BEST anomalies are as of 1951 to 1980. So I calculated the NOAA anomalies for Alabama using the same time frame. Then I convert NOAA anomalies from Fahrenheit to Celsius.

So, for example, 1950 and 2010 (temperatures are anomalies from the 1951-1980 average):

	Year	Month	NOAA_F	NOAA_C	BEST_C	BEST minus NOAA
661	1950.00	1.00	16.00	8.89	6.83	-2.06
665	1950.00	2.00	7.00	3.89	2.70	-1.19
666	1950.00	3.00	-1.30	-0.72	-1.05	-0.33
667	1950.00	4.00	-3.50	-1.94	-1.77	0.17
668	1950.00	5.00	3.80	2.11	1.51	-0.60
669	1950.00	6.00	1.30	0.72	0.39	-0.34
670	1950.00	7.00	-1.50	-0.83	-1.10	-0.27
671	1950.00	8.00	-1.40	-0.78	-0.99	-0.21
672	1950.00	9.00	-1.60	-0.89	-0.81	0.07
662	1950.00	10.00	3.60	2.00	1.33	-0.67
663	1950.00	11.00	-3.70	-2.06	-2.32	-0.27
664	1950.00	12.00	-4.40	-2.44	-2.48	-0.03
1381	2010.00	1.00	-4.50	-2.50	-2.54	-0.04
1385	2010.00	2.00	-7.30	-4.06	-4.13	-0.08
1386	2010.00	3.00	-3.60	-2.00	-1.59	0.41
1387	2010.00	4.00	0.70	0.39	1.28	0.89
1388	2010.00	5.00	2.80	1.56	1.77	0.22
1389	2010.00	6.00	3.80	2.11	2.52	0.41
1390	2010.00	7.00	3.00	1.67	1.82	0.15
1391	2010.00	8.00	4.10	2.28	2.51	0.23
1392	2010.00	9.00	2.80	1.56	2.15	0.59
1382	2010.00	10.00	1.30	0.72	0.65	-0.07
1383	2010.00	11.00	2.30	1.28	1.44	0.16
1384	2010.00	12.00	-6.40	-3.56	-2.98	0.58

Hmmm. They don’t look too similar. So I double checked. 16 for Jan 1950? Yes, Jan 1950 was the warmest January in Alabama history according to the NOAA. It averaged 60F, which is 16F above the 1951-1980 average.

So, lets graph BEST minus NOAA_C. Whaaatttt! No wonder BEST can claim warming occurred after 1960.

They cooled all the pre-1960 data and warmed all the post-1960 data (compared to NOAA)!!