“At least they did not fudge the data, lie about it, or claim equipment error”
For that sin, they will be shunned, and their grant money bled dry.
No, they won’t cook the data. The Hockey Stick taught them a lesson.
But don’t think they won’t explain this away.
It will be easy enough to say that Global Warming caused more moisture to be carried in the atmosphere and also caused that moisture to carried further North than it otherwise would have to be deposited in the Alaskan mountains.
Actually, your ironic comment made it click for me. These researchers HAVE to say it’s caused by “climate change” OR ELSE they’ll get bled dry. Even though “climate change” is a meaningless term as it’s understood that the climate does change.