A favorite tactic of those who deny global warming is to exagerate the importance of the temperature record of the contiguous United States (the lower 48 states of the continental USA).

It’s only 1.6% of the surface area of the planet, so it’s not truly representative of the globe as a whole.

But what the heck, it is part of planet earth, so it’s interesting to examine the temperature history of the contiguous U.S., aka the “lower 48 states,” aka “USA48.”

[See graph]

Another recurring tactic is to portray USA48 temperature change (and other things too) unrealistically.

...Splitting the record into pieces at 1998 is yet another common tactic.

Not only does doing so omit the extreme 1998 rise from earlier data, it also makes for an artificially high starting point for subsequent data — kinda like tracking the heights of men walking through a doorway but deliberately starting with Shaquille O’Neal, because you know that whoever comes afterward is likely to be shorter.

Should we take to calling that tactic the “Shaq attack”?