Complaint
This article set out new evidence which claimed to show spring was warming faster than any other season in the UK.  A reader complained the headline and article were misleading as other calculations using different time scales and data sets led to different conclusions.  The ECU also considered the complainant’s claim that the article contained an inaccurate reference to data from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
Outcome
Having studied the available data, the ECU agreed it was possible to achieve different outcomes if different timescales or different data sets were used. The original version of the article included a link to the Climate Central website which included its analysis of the evidence, but the ECU acknowledged it would have been better had more information been included about the methodology used and a reference made to the fact that using different parameters could have led to different outcomes.Â
However, whilst more information might have been beneficial to the reader’s understanding, and was added subsequent to the complaint being received, the ECU did not consider the original headline and article misleading as significant evidence also existed to support the claims of the new research.  It did not therefore uphold this aspect of the complaint.  It did agree however that the original article misrepresented one aspect of the JNCC data in that it misquoted the comparative dates used to measure changes in the start dates for spring.
Partly Upheld
Further action
The article was discussed with the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Weather team and corrected, with a note added to explain that, according to the JNCC, events which herald the start of spring are happening on average nine days earlier since 1998 than they did early in the 20th Century. Â