Steve, are you really surprised, or is that a rhetorical question?

I have to respect that. Early on people criticized his effort for being “regional”
Rememeber when they argued he would not stray far from home to survey a station? I also argued with him on CA to do a random sampling approach.
His answer: no moshpit, I’m going to finish the survey.

The other thing that befudles me is why the pro AGW crowd isnt out there proving the quality of the network by taking pictures? Strange.

It would be a great tool in the argument against climate alarmism if we could directly point to the fact that the stations on concrete or pavement or near the outflow vents of industrial air conditioners are significantly above average in reporting temperature increases and, thus, skewing the data when compared to data collected at stations that haven’t seen significant development nearby.

REPLY: When the project is complete, yes. Until then I will resist such calls for preliminary conclusions.

Turn your wayback machines to 1997 and watch how PR at Goddard changes.

http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/archives2000.html

look at 1997-1999. See anything?
After 1999 the approach changes:

2000
NASA SCIENTIST PREDICTS LESS CLIMATE COOLING FROM CLOUDS
UNPRECEDENTED FIRE SEASON IN SOUTHERN AFRICA AIDS AIR QUALITY, CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH
NEW VIEWS ON THE CULPRITS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
(Note language of crime)
2001
SATELLITE DATA HELP RESEARCHERS TRACK CARBON IN NORTHERN HEMISPHERE FORESTS
METHANE EXPLOSION WARMED THE PREHISTORIC EARTH, POSSIBLE AGAIN
COTTON DOESN’T SHRINK FROM CLIMATE CHANGE
RED ALERT! “RECYCLED” OZONE ADDS TO HEALTH HAZARDS IN ZAMBIA
THE SUN’S CHILLY IMPACT ON EARTH
Ocean Circulation Shut Down by Melting Glaciers After Last Ice Age
( read the title, then read the text)
EARTH’S BECOMING A GREENER GREENHOUSE
GREATER SOLAR ACTIVITY MAY BRING U.S. MORE GRAY DAYS
NASA DEMONSTRATES HOW EARTH’S GLOBAL HEAT ENGINE DRIVES PLANT GROWTH
NASA IMAGE REVEALS GIANT CHIP OFF THE ANTARCTIC ICE BLOCK
CRACKS IN THE ICE – NEW INSIGHTS INTO ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET FAILURES

Go look at the rest. then explain.

REPLY: Evan is referring to the claims of cherry picking made about the project when it had a few dozen stations. No proof one way or another was claimed then either, only that there seems to be a number of stations out of compliance. But the point that many people miss is that this project is not funded by a grant. It’s on my own dime and with the help of volunteers. Getting over 300 people to volunteer (as has been the case) requires some motivation. The “how not to” series of station photographs showing interesting stations provides that motivation to get involved.

Those in the public sector that feed at the public trough just miss that because they’ve never had to do on project on zero budget. They don’t know how to motivate people to help on a project like this nor understand how it could be of any value without “proper funding” etc.

So now that we have nearly 500 stations, nobody can say “cherry picking” anymore, unless of course I take “sods” advice and make a claim of proof one way or another now with large holes in the midwest. Then the claim would be “regional cherry picking”.

But I’m sure I’ll hear the “USA is only 6% of world landmass” cherry picking argument when USHCN is done. Fine by me. GHCN next.

“january 07 was the warmest one on record”

and

“january 08 was the 49th coldest on record. “

sounds slightly less dramatic, eh?

and sorry Anthony, but until you start providing some evidence showing the opposit, i will safely assume that those stations have close to ZERO effect on the temperature.

REPLY: “sounds slightly less dramatic, eh?” Sorry “sod” you missed it then and miss it now. Science isn’t about drama. Unfortunately, science reporting lately seems to be more about drama than facts.

Also, the surfacestations project isn’t complete yet. You have to finish any job you start for it to be considered acceptable. I find it hilarious (and revealing) that you want proof prior to having a representative data set. If I had made a claim of proof at 33% surveyed (as one person did) or a claim now at 40%, it would be dismissed as being based on incomplete data, and rightly so.

Assume whatever you wish, opinions won’t change the mission or the schedule, or the outcome for that matter. The completeness of the data determines when it is time to start analysis, and the data determines the outcome. Right now that data seems to point to a problem. In the meantime, I’ll continue to provide updates and interesting examples as I have been doing.

Does tis mean that the datathat NCDC provides for the individual stations is metadata? How would this reflect on the surfacestation project? Those graphs that go with the sites.

I know this doesn’t matter to the extent that microsite error is not factored out. But what about gridding? Does it mean that the missing records of station A are filled in by an average of nearby B, C, and D, which may (or may not) have microsite or UHI issues of their own?

REPLY: It doesn’t explicitly say, but the assumption is yes.

For those interested in the stations used to compute this information:
Map: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/city.html
List: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/stations.html

I believe global numbers are available on their monthly reports (Jan. is not available yet):
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/monitoring.html

REPLY: Josiah, you are absolutely correct, and I’m aware that they do. My point in posting this was more to demonstrate that even NCDC creates labels such as “49th coolest January in 114 years” for comparison for the people whom criticized the label used here of “2nd coldest January in 15 years”.

In that spirit, I’d like to point out that the “2nd coldest January in 15 years” thread is the 3rd most visited thread on this blog since Britney Spears was admitted into rehab for the 2nd time. Just so you can get perspective. ;-)

Today I got an email from a TV news organization that talks about choosing the best headlines and sound bites…and I think I’ll share that in an upcoming post.

Thanks for the links.

And I feel
Like I’ve been here before
Feel
Like I’ve been here before
And you know
It makes me wonder

Well I see grass nearit and it appears they don’t let you park within 10 feet of it. LOL

REPLY: GHCN data is usually slow in coming. HadCRU usually gets the honor.

I laugh….