Monthly Archives: April 2008

The pause that cools: No more warming until 2015?

Posted on April 30, 2008 by

You may recall the previous post where Basil Copeland and I looked at correlations between HadCRUT global temperature anomaly and sunspot numbers. This is similar, but looks at the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and uses the same Hodrick-Prescott (HPT) filter … Continue reading →

Posted in climate_change, Science, weather | 126 Comments

I hate it when that happens…

Posted on April 30, 2008 by

I was initially concerned that my stats were down this month, then I remembered that April has 30 days and March has 31. Of course there’s that nice spring weather, and I recall that TV station ratings suffer a drop … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments

More on the PDO shift cited by NASA

Posted on April 29, 2008 by

For now, we have about 1 year of significant cold phase tendency in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), here is the last 108 years of the PDO index, plotted from monthly values: Click for larger image – source Steven Hare, … Continue reading →

Posted in climate_change, Science, weather | 70 Comments

NASA: PDO flip to cool phase confirmed – cooler times ahead for the West Coast?

Posted on April 29, 2008 by

La Nina and Pacific Decadal Oscillation Cool the Pacific Click here to view full image (228 kb)  ”The shift in the PDO can have significant implications for global climate, affecting Pacific and Atlantic hurricane activity, droughts and flooding around the … Continue reading →

Posted in climate_change, Science, weather | 129 Comments

What the modernized USHCN will look like

Posted on April 29, 2008 by

USHCN-M station at Greensboro, AL While I was at NCDC, Grant Goodge showed and provided me with a PowerPoint presentation about the plan to update the USHCN manual observing network to USHCN-M or “modernized”. In a nutshell, it is a “light” … Continue reading →

Posted in climate_change, weather_stations | 19 Comments

Signs of the times

Posted on April 28, 2008 by

While I was on my week long road trip to survey weather stations and visit the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, NC last week, I encountered lots of signs. Restaurant signs, road signs, signs from above, you name it. I … Continue reading →

Posted in fun_stuff | 32 Comments

Fun with Thermometers

Posted on April 27, 2008 by

A guest post by David Smith Recently I completed my tenth survey for Surfacestations.org. These surveys are fun, almost like treasure hunts where the clues are good but not always great, thus requiring some ingenuity. Also, the surveyor gets to see … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 39 Comments

1828 Miles, 20 stations surveyed, out of 21 attempted.

Posted on April 26, 2008 by

The week was productive, 21 USHCN stations visited, 20 surveyed, one dropped due to access problems (Southport, NC which turned out to be at an Army Depot). My trip odometer said 1828 miles when I turned in the car in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments

I love the smell of sewage in the morning

Posted on April 26, 2008 by

With apologies to Robert Duvall in Apocalypse now- Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that? Lance: What? Kilgore: Sewage, son. Nothing in the world smells like that. [kneels] Kilgore: I love the smell of sewage in the morning.  The smell, you know … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Day 2 at NCDC and Press Release: NOAA to modernize USHCN

Posted on April 24, 2008 by

Click image for a live interactive view of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, NC Today started off terrible. I slipped in the bathtub last night at the hotel, and strained a back muscle and was so sore that … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, climate_change, weather_stations | 68 Comments

Road trip Update: Day 1 at NCDC

Posted on April 23, 2008 by

I felt right at home when I walked into Dr. Bruce Baker’s office for the Climate Reference Network (CRN): Why? Because the first thing they had, front and center, were pictures of every CRN site: and more of them on … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, climate_change | 42 Comments

Road Trip Update: What I’m doing Wednesday and Thursday

Posted on April 22, 2008 by

Having driven just over 800 miles around North Carolina, getting USHCN and GISS stations, like the one in Fayetteville NC yesterday, I’m pretty tired. But I’m at the middle of the trip, a trip made possible by the donations of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 66 Comments

This is why you don’t put an official NOAA temperature sensor over concrete

Posted on April 21, 2008 by

You’d think the answer would be obvious, but here we have a NOAA operated USHCN climate station of record providing a live experiment. It always helps to illustrate with photos. Today I surveyed a sewage treatment plant, one of 4 stations … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 103 Comments

Road trip update: 5 stations, 376 miles

Posted on April 20, 2008 by

I surveyed 5 NOAA USHCN stations today, 2 water plants, 1 sewage treatment plant, and two private observers. Total distance traveled: 376 miles. All stations had MMTS, and were CRN 3,4,5 rated. The sewage treatment plant was a real gem. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 41 Comments

ABC Poll: GW rates a big fat zero

Posted on April 19, 2008 by

A non panicked public says “where’s the fire”? Amazingly, “Global Warming” scores a ZERO in the latest ABC News poll. ABC and the Washington Post polled Americans about the most important issue to them in the upcoming elections. The economy … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 60 Comments

Surfacestations Update

Posted on April 18, 2008 by

I’ve recently updated the www.surfacestations.org website with the latest surveys and numbers. We have 534 stations surveyed. Here is where we stand now with USHCN station surveys: click for a larger image   Climate Reference Network Rating Guide – adopted … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 66 Comments

Open thread

Posted on April 18, 2008 by

Behave yourselves. I’ll be checking in from time to time and making reports from the road. Just remember that some comments with links might end up in the spam filter and may take some time before I notice them.  

Posted in Uncategorized | 82 Comments

How not to measure temperature, part 61 – maintenance optional

Posted on April 18, 2008 by

Every time I visit NOAA’s USHCN page I cringe when I see this phrase: “The United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) is a high quality, moderate-sized data set of daily and monthly records of basic meteorological variables from over 1000 … Continue reading →

Posted in weather_stations | 8 Comments

How not to measure temperature, part 60

Posted on April 17, 2008 by

A good number of official climate stations of record in the USHCN network used for climate studies are at airports. All have been converted to the automated ASOS systems, and the placement of these is often chosen to be away … Continue reading →

Posted in weather_stations | 26 Comments

How not to measure temperature, part 59

Posted on April 16, 2008 by

I’ve mentioned this before, but it is worth mentioning again. In the 30 years I’ve been involved in meteorology, I had no idea that water and sewage treatment plants were locations used for climate monitoring until I started the surfacestations.org … Continue reading →

Posted in weather_stations | 7 Comments

Road Trip

Posted on April 16, 2008 by

Craig writes: “That painting could use more concrete, a building, and an air conditioner next to the SS, and it would be perfect.” – your wish is my command… Original painting by Caitlin Schwerin (Weather station & accessories added) In … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 30 Comments

Journalists pan Gore secrecy

Posted on April 16, 2008 by

Photo: EPFL Security agents were much in evidence as EPFL President Patrick Aebischer welcomes Al Gore to Lausanne. Reporters take exception to a media blackout of the ceremony in the Vaud capital that confers an honorary degree on the Nobel … Continue reading →

Posted in Al Gore, Uncategorized | 27 Comments

Kristen Byrnes interview on NPR

Posted on April 15, 2008 by

16 year old Kristen Byrnes got some national media exposure today on National Public Radio. You can read the article and listen to the story via MP3 here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89619306 You might also want to visit her website and offer some … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 81 Comments

The newest green slogan

Posted on April 15, 2008 by

No Food for Oil! The new green biofuels slogan. A friend of mine, Lon Glazner, runs a blog about things in my hometown. We joke around a lot, the image above was the product of today’s humor. But he needs some … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, fun_stuff | Tagged , , , , , | 24 Comments

There’s a chill in the air

Posted on April 15, 2008 by

Click for a larger image For example, in America’s heartland (thanks to Joe D’Aleo at ICECAP): Cedar Rapids and the surrounding Midwest has been consistently colder than normal since December. In Cedar Rapids, December averaged 3.0 F below normal, January … Continue reading →

Posted in weather | 60 Comments