New Zealand’s favourite astrologer, the self-appointed “long range weather forecaster” Ken Ring — who is wrong about everything — has not been having a good start to the year. He’s having trouble reconciling NZ’s record drought with the forecasts he’s been making. Here’s Ring on February 26th, in an opinion piece headlined Hang on farmers, rain is coming, published at Yahoo News:
So the question being asked is whether or not a drought is imminent. The answer is no.
Compare and contrast with this news report from Friday last (March 15th):
The entire North Island has been declared a drought zone this morning.
Every time anyone other than Ring takes a look at his forecasts, they are found to be useless ((In January, the Greymouth Star noted:
Self-proclaimed weather guru Ken Ring is wildly astray in his January predictions for the South Island hydro lakes region, in his 2013 weather almanac. His summary for January, based on lunar patterns, says “the driest regions for the South Island for January may be the hydro lakes”.
But Environment Canterbury flood controller Tony Henderson said the 500mm of rain in the Waitaki and Rangitata river catchments over four days was “probably the most we’ve had over the summer in several decades”.
)). But Ring is working hard to rewrite history to his advantage. His Yahoo News column was posted on Feb 26th, but the same article seems to have been posted to his website a few days earlier ((The datestamp says Feb 22nd.)). He’s revisited the piece, and added some notes in red attempting to justify his failed forecasts. But there’s one other change he’s made. Here it is:
So the question being asked is whether or not a lingering drought is imminent. The answer is no.
Of such little dishonesties are Ring successes made. He remains a charlatan, and is — as ever — wrong about everything.
aha! Good that someone’s keeping an eye on this ridiculous man: nice work Gareth.
A sad commentary on the gullibility of those who keep buying his almanacs.
I noticed that he no longer allows comments on his yahoo site. I presume because he was barraged with comments from people asking for evidence. He continued to spout the same crap over and over again. I find it mind-blowing that he thinks he has debunked climate change by saying that CO2 has no heating properties.
Just thought I would chip in with Ken’s predictions versus the actual weather for Ireland so far this winter….
Ken Said – Nov 2013 He’s warning of very heavy rain falls in November, Actual Weather – Rainfall was below average everywhere except at Malin Head… driest November since 1945 (68 years)
Ken Said – 30th Nov 2013 The first serious cold spell is in the last few days of November with the possibility of widespread snow on or near the last day.
Actual Weather – No frost in the last week of Nov, daytime temperatures of 10 to 12 degrees.
Ken Said – 24th Dec 2013 Plunging sub-zero temperatures
Actual Weather – Wet and Windy, temperatures not below 3 degrees.
Ken Said – 25th Dec 2013 White Christmas for the South of Ireland, sub-zero temperatures
Actual Weather – Wet and Windy, temperatures ranging from 6 to 9 degrees.
We have just experienced the most severe Rain and Winds here, for the last 2 weeks, that we have had in years with flooding and structural damage but Ken never mentioned that in his “predictions”… how strange.
Ahhh! But let him tell you about the time he DID get it right!
I have a watch that gives the exact time two times day. My other watch is always out by up to 5 minutes – depending upon how needful I am of the correct time…but funnily enough that is the most useful.. I think climate science is a lot like the second watch, and Ken a lot like the first.