Also, on your Australian stations thread, a quick glance at a number of station photos seems to indicate that the folks Down Under have done a pretty good job of avoiding micro-site problems in positioning their thermometers. Is there data available on the weather history for those sites long-term? It would be interesting to see what the trend is, though IIRC, there is no long term warming trend in the southern hemisphere. Could that be because Australia’s stations are “clean” with no UHI issues?

I wonder if that has changed along with the name re-addition….

;)

With the name in hand I can usually find a phone number thru 411 or, upon arrival in these small towns, by hunting down a local phone book.

Personally I was not really prepared to go banging on doors unannounced!

“conspiracy” is not a word I ever used. It is your word.

Please see http://www.norcalblogs.com/watts/2007/06/noaa_throws_a_roadblock_my_way.html

Then from that page show me exactly where you claim I’ve used that word. Note that a third party commenter’s use of the word on my blog doesn’t count as me having used the word. That commenter Jeff Wood, said “It’s more a case of organisational embarrassment, than a conspiracy against the record. ” I agree with that.

What is clear is that NOAA reacted to complaints from some people over “possible” problems and pulled the data.

When they realized there weren’t any such problems, and that their position was unsupportable, they did the correct thing and put the data back.

The “Managing Parties” field that had been removed from NCDC’s MMS system contained two types of names:

- Private Observer Names
- Entity Names

The entity names were often things like Fire Stations, Park Service Headquarters, Waste Water Treatment Plants, etc., which have no expectation of privacy.

We can easily look up the addresses of those government entities. If the facility is open to the public, then a site survey is fair game at any time. If it is restricted in some way, then permission must be asked for and granted, unless the station is visible from a public street.

In the case of private observers at residences, they can also be looked up via various methods, then contacted by telephone to see if they would allow a site survey. If they do not, volunteers are bound by our privacy policy not to press further.

So far, no private observer has turned down such a request that I know of.

Thanks to NOAA and to you, Anthony, for doing the right thing.