NOAA/ESRL - April 2026 Atmospheric CO2 Content: 431.12 ppm; April 2025 429.64 ppm; April 2024 426.51 ppm

[hatrack]

Whaddya know?!? ESRL is (apparently) partially staffed!!

They also provide official monthly data for the prior month.

March 2026 Atmospheric CO2 Content: 430.15 ppm
March 2025 Atmospheric CO2 Content: 428.15 ppm
March 2024 Atmospheric CO2 Content: 425.38 ppm

This: https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/

Leads to this: https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/data.html

Leads to this: https://gml.noaa.gov/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2/co2_mm_mlo.txt

[NNadir]

1. All of the daily measurements this week have been labeled "unavailable. "

Last edited Fri May 8, 2026, 06:12 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm very worried that the instrument, a cavity ring down spectrometer is down with no money to fix it, the scientists have been fired, the purchase of analytical standards have been defunded, any and all of the above. The spectrometer is a relatively inexpensive device, about 200K, but surely one with a very limited pool of service engineers.

We have lost only one week of data since 1959, this during the orange pedophile's recent government shutdown. This week would be tragic, since we are nearing the annual maxima, which could be lost forever.

The last accepted daily reading was on the first of May, 433.95 ppm.

I have been very worried about the Observatory, given the reign of ignorance.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Their webcams also appear to be off-line, suggesting something other than a spectrometer failure

https://gml.noaa.gov/obop/mlo/livecam/livecam.html

[hatrack]

3. Didn't a fairly recent eruption of Kilauea cut the road to the observatory?

This would have been, oh, four or five years ago.

IIRC, they were unable to do measurements for a couple of weeks.

[NNadir]

4. That happened, but they moved their operations to a nearby university lab, noting as much on the website. I have...

...in my files, the average reading for every weekly average going back to the week beginning, May 25, 1975, as of this reading, for 2,654 weeks. Of these, only 7 were based on a single reading for the week, and one was missing presumably because of the ignorant Orange Pedophile's shutdown.

There were notes during the weeks that they could not operate at the Observatory normal site that the location of the instruments was different. (I didn't record that in my spreadsheet, but probably should have.)

The scientists working in this lab are very, very, very serious people.

In analytical chemistry of high quality, statistical rules are rigorously applied; these involve generally precision (the spread of data, i.e. repeatability in a series of measurements within a given time frame) and accuracy, (comparison with carefully prepared standards of scrupulously dried air). On these grounds a measurement can be rejected, and so there are many weeks where the weekly average is represented by fewer than 7 daily data points, themselves averages of readings throughout the day. The statistical tests for data inclusion are rigorous. A day can be rejected based on the number of data points meeting statistical criteria. This is high end stuff. Of the 2,654 weekly data points, 1,810 are based on a 7 day average, about 68%.

A cavity ring down spectrometer is a Fourier transform device. It records the decay of a signal for emission at a known wave length characteristic of the gas, generated by a laser pulse over time and transforms it into a concentration measurement.

The website has a very nice and impressive description of the procedures utilized.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Kīlauea is catching her breath, but there is still an active advisory in effect

https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/volcano-updates

HAWAIIAN VOLCANO OBSERVATORY DAILY UPDATE
U.S. Geological Survey
Friday, May 8, 2026, 8:50 AM HST (Friday, May 8, 2026, 18:50 UTC)

KILAUEA (VNUM #332010)
19°25'16" N 155°17'13" W, Summit Elevation 4091 ft (1247 m)
Current Volcano Alert Level: ADVISORY
Current Aviation Color Code: YELLOW

Summary: The eruption at the summit of Kīlauea is currently paused. The preliminary forecast window for episode 47 is May 12 – May 17, 2026.

Overview:
Episode 46 of lava fountaining in Halemaʻumaʻu at the summit of Kīlauea occurred on May 5. The eruption is currently paused. The preliminary forecast window for episode 47, based on tilt data, suggests that lava fountaining will occur again sometime between Tuesday, May 12 and Sunday, May 17. This window may be adjusted based on continuing observations.
No significant activity has been noted along Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone.
NOTE: Significant changes in activity between Daily Updates are posted here: https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/observatory-messages

…

Analysis:
The rapid return of inflationary tilt and strong glow from both Halemaʻumaʻu eruptive vents indicates that another lava fountaining episode is likely. The preliminary forecast window for episode 47 is based on data from summit tiltmeters and suggests that lava fountaining will occur sometime between Tuesday, May 12 and Sunday, May 17. This window may be adjusted based on changes to the rate of summit inflation as measured by summit tiltmeters.

…

Or, you know… it may be a spectrometer failure…

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Yes, 2022

https://gml.noaa.gov/obop/mlo/

The 2022 eruption of the Mauna Loa volcano cut off road access to the Mauna Loa Baseline Observatory. Construction on the temporary Mauna Loa Access road was completed on 26 March, 2026.

At this time, there is no site access for the general public to the Mauna Loa Observatory and NOAA has not yet established a public opening date. GML and scientific partners are working together to bring mission critical scientific projects back online. It is still unclear when utility infrastructure will be replaced and power re-established to the site.

We will provide another update as more information becomes available.

Media contact: Theo Stein at [phone] or [e-mail].

…