Yipes, again: Before we all get sterilized and move back into caves to prevent CO2 from overheating the poles, maybe we should read this 2005 ClimateGate email exchange about lack of data at both poles

2005 Climategate email

There isn't any data at the N. Pole. [Phil Jones]
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Why is there so much missing data for the South Pole? The period Jan 75 thru Dec 90 is all missing except Dec 81, July & Dec 85, Apr 87, Apr & Sept 88, Apr 89. Also, from and including Aug 2003 is missing.

Also -- more seriously but correctable. The S Pole is just represented by a single box at 87.5S (N Pole ditto I suspect). This screws up area averaging. It would be better to put the S Pole value in ALL boxes at 87.5S.

I have had to do this in my code -- but you really should fix the 'raw' gridded data.

For area averages, the difference is between having the S Pole represent the whole region south of 85S, and having (as now) it represent one 72nd of this region. It is pretty obvious to me what is better.

This affects the impression of missing data too of course. [Tom Wigley]