Are climate scientists at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) fudging some of their temperature records to buttress “evidence” of a warming trend? Perish the thought, they say. How could you even suspect such a thing? You people are so suspicious all the time and what are you doing looking at our data in the first place???

The problem is, people have been looking. The Daily Caller uncovers a recent story from Down Under where the BOM was caught red handed removing some temperature readings which didn’t seem to fit in with expectations and coming up with the most unusual explanation as to why they did it.

Australian scientists at the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) ordered a review of temperature recording instruments after the government agency was caught tampering with temperature logs in several locations.

Agency officials admit that the problem with instruments recording low temperatures likely happened in several locations throughout Australia, but they refuse to admit to manipulating temperature readings. The BOM located missing logs in Goulburn and the Snow Mountains, both of which are in New South Wales.

Meteorologist Lance Pidgeon watched the 13 degrees Fahrenheit Goulburn recording from July 2 disappear from the bureau’s website. The temperature readings fluctuated briefly and then disappeared from the government’s website.

This is just bizarre. Meteorologists were watching in real time as temperature readings from, among other places, Goulburn, located in New South Wales vanished before their eyes. The reason given was that the temperature reading in the period under study was 13 degrees Fahrenheit (or minus 10 C) and that was simply too low. But their other records clearly showed that, while definitely on the colder than usual side, that spot had previously recorded temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

The BOM explanation was that there are automatic limits set which “throw out spurious readings” which fall outside the norms. For Goulburn that limit was set at negative 10 C.

Wait… what? So they’re pulling the equipment to make sure that it’s calibrated correctly. That part makes sense. No harm in making sure your data is accurate. But why would you automatically throw out a temperature that’s too low, particularly when it’s still higher than other low temps you’ve recorded in the region previously? Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep the recorded data, verify the calibration of the sensors and then pull the data if the equipment is found to be malfunctioning?

As the DC reminds us, this isn’t the first time that BOM has been under fire for fudging their numbers. A similar incident in 2014 revealed that data which actually indicated a slight cooling trend was “adjusted” to support a “dramatic warming trend.”

Something sounds funny down in Australia. And I don’t just mean the accents and their propensity for hunting crocodiles with knives.