Like tornados and trailer parks, USHCN temperature sensors and barbecues seem to have mutual attraction.
This is the official NOAA USHCN climate station of record in Fairbury Nebraska.
Click for a larger image
Photo taken by surfacestations.org volunteer Eric Gamberg
Here is the station temperature plot from GISS. Care to guess when the station was located here?
Click for source image
According to the NCDC MMS database the station was placed here in 1998.
[1998-12-07] 2004-10-01 40.135560 (40°08’08″N) -97.171390 (97°10’17″W)
GROUND: 1360 FEET JEFFERSON 09 – SOUTHEAST CENTRAL (+6)
Location Description: OBSERVERS RESIDENCE WITHIN AND 0.5 MILES NW OF PO AT FAIRBURY NE
The step change seen in the temperature record is quite pronounced and continues today.
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Why did I guess 1998?
Weather Station Surprise:
Find an official NOAA USHCN climate station of record!
Win one of the following:
Fire Station!
Airport!
Sewage plant!
Hamburger, hot off the BBQ!!!
Parking Lot!
Hot tar roof!
So, many choices, so much AGW. Be a warming winner!
With such a large jump it is not going to take too many like this to have a real impact on the overall figures. Have there been a list released yet of the stations that are so obviously wrong and by how much? I guess wht I am really asking is, is there hard evidence out in the public domain that could definitively prove that the global temparature is being over estimated?
Wow, that’s the worst weather station I have ever seen. Even with barbecues, roads, tree canopies, cars and nearby homes, it will be hard to pretend the world is still warming (now that the sun is no longer unusually active) when the headlines start to look like this:
http://nieveyalgomas.blogspot.com/2008/11/snow-vember-sees-ski-resorts-open-early.html
Wonder how many days had a high of 160 °F ?
On CA, Steve Mc found problems with a temperature data file. As the issue was being discussed, NOAA began deleting files.
http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=4395
So I guess the coverup is afoot, or will NOAA do the right thing?
Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.
How not to measure Temperatures.
In an earlier posting I asked if anyone new the locations of UK weather stations.
Unlike the States, the locations of UK weather stations are not readily available.
I came across a Met office web page.
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/networks/index.html
The web page links to maps showing the towns which have weather stations.
(I was surprised to find my home town on the list. I’m going down to the harbour this afternoon and try and find it.)
No locations lat/long are given.
I also found the “Eastbourne’s official Met Office standard weather station”.
http://www.eastbourne.gov.uk/environment/weather/weather-stations/station/
They are rightfully proud of their weather station.
“(I)n 1912 the Meteorological Office decided to encourage local authorities to set up climatological stations which would be inspected annually to ensure that common high standards of observing were maintained.”
Clearly the weather station is of a very high standard, as it is annually inspected by the Met Office. That is reassuring.
The picture of the Stevenson Screen is also very reassuring being surrounded by grass and a row of flowers.
The linked presentation: “Presentation – The History of Eastbourne’s Meteorological Service – [2.81 MB]” at the foot of the web page is even more interesting. It is worth a look.
The picture on page 7 shows the weather station in its true glory.
Yes that’s it next to the “Small Tours” building.
You cannot miss the “Small Tours” building at it has a safety cage over the chimney or gas flue.
The weather station is easy to get to as you can park right next to it. That must be handy when its raining.
The picture on page 9 shows the thermometers themselves.
How accurately can temperatures be measured with standard thermometers?
Two or three decimal places?
Averages are usually given to one decimal place.
IPCC always give two decimal places, but then again they are more accurate than everyone else.
I wish the people on page 10 would hurry up and get over to the “Park View Hotel” do they not realise that they could be affecting max/min temperatures by leaving the doors open for that length of time!!!
So where is the weather station in Eastbourne?
This isn’t a Siberian weather station it can be located in Google Earth.
“Our Met Office approved station is part of the UK Climatological Observing Network and is situated Latitude 50º,46’N : Longitude 0º,17’E.”
This is not much help.
The web page says that the weather station is in the “Enclosure opposite Congress Theatre, Carlisle Road”. I hope the people going to the Park View Hotel are not too disappointed looking onto an enclosure!!
Quick Google Earth search and guess what, success.
Position 50.762274°, 0.283856°
The weather station is on an island.
Yes a traffic island! It looks more like a race track.
Hang on, hang on, this weather station is annually inspected to ensure common high standards. I fell depressed.
Is this the high standards that the Met office expect and demands?
Heaven help us!
Clearly UK weather stations need to be examined along the lines of “how not to measure temperatures”.
Any takers?
Can anyone help?
Please help!
I should be down in the South of England sometime next year.
I’ll pop into Enviro-Fact and check it out.
No I think I’ll miss that out, look at the picture on page 22!
Yuke!
Oh when will this nightmare end? This fiasco just gets worse.
Re out sites in the UK: For the benefit of the keen North American readers – you are all going to get a nasty shock if this site’s focus ever moves to England.
Many, many sites are on air fields. These are usually Royal Air Force bases which have had wind and temp stations since they opened, for obvious air safety reasons.
This is going to raise eyebrows because of the previous absurd numbers coming out of places like Reno, but the situation is not quite as awful because these bases are generally small and have extremely few flights per day compared to a civilian airport.
On the up side these sites are mostly “rural” and maintained to military standards (grass cut with nail clippers by servicemen on report, if it moves salute it, if it doesn’t, paint it – you know the sort of thing).
On the down side of course there will be a big strip of tarmac nearby, and a big big difficulty in being allowed to take photographs anywhere nearby.
B Kerr,
I have set up a thread to discuss UK sites at
http://www.climateaudit.org/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=6
(you need to register).
What matters is which stations are used by GISS.
As far as I can make out, GISS only uses 9 UK stations.
GISS does give lat and long, and it looks like 7 of these are at airports!
4 commercial airports and 3 RAF bases. So be careful if you go and photograph those.
It seems this is not unusual – in Canada and Australia also, most of the stations GISS currently uses are at airports. So if you are interested in the average temperature at airports around the world, maybe GISTEMP gives quite an accurate picture.
Well spotted Eric Gamberg. Another spectacular example. Is that black thing really a barbecue?
OT, NASA discovers that the sun does affect planetary weather after all, just not on earth.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/21nov_plasmoids.htm
Nov. 21, 2008: Researchers have found new evidence that the atmosphere of Mars is being stripped away by solar wind. It’s not a gently continuous erosion, but rather a ripping process in which chunks of Martian air detach themselves from the planet and tumble into deep space. This surprising mechanism could help solve a longstanding mystery about the Red Planet.
That MMTS looks a little more than 2 m in elevation and is also quite close to the car and driveway… it’s like drive through global warming with a fresh braut to go.
[snip]
Oh, and I guessed “1996”, or thereabouts, for the placement of the instrument(s).
There should be vigorous legal action under FOIA to stop this Orwellian rewrite of history.
These AGW fear mongers are serious bout imposing their vision on the world. Facts, integrity, civil rights, law, and justice are mere road bumps. The failure of their models to actually work is not important.
Skeptics need to wake up and realize the AGW community is completely serious about this. They will destroy what exists to pursue what likely cannot exist in the name of incorrect predictions, no matter what. Their beliefs cannot be falsified, which means they are not amenable to reason.
Hmm, how about the weather station at Aberdeen/Dyce airport.
Looking on Google Earth it seems like it may be here?
57°12’18.00″N 2°12’19.00″W.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=dyce&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=21.297675,48.735352&ie=UTF8&ll=57.205108,-2.205326&spn=0.001187,0.002975&t=h&z=19&iwloc=addr
Not so sure about all those planes hanging around it, no doubt with engines on, waiting on the tower…
The black car beneath the sensor, the overhanging trees, and the surrounding buildings are nice touches. At least the little red wagon isn’t too much of biasing factor.
I’m missing something here. I don’t see how 1998 means anything. The dot for it is in the middle of the rising temperatures that started in 1996.
REPLY: it was relocated in December 1998, and thus the impact on that year was negligible. 1999 and beyond to 2008, if you average those years your find that the average has a “step” higher than an average of 1988-1998 fpr example. Basically there’s an offset in the signal, which increases the trend.
-Anthony
When relocating a weather station, no one in their right mind would remove the old one without an overlap of several years to compare readings and establish a correction to preserve the long term integrity of the record. I guess that is too much to expect from NOAA USHCN.
Messrs. Watts and McIntyre recognized by the Washington Times’ Wesley Pruden.
PRUDEN: The killer frost for global warming
Man’s notion that his science can realign the stars, adjust the orbit of planets and reorganize the universe leads him to say silly things and assert goofy claims. Saying silly things and asserting goofy claims is usually harmless as entertainment, so long as the claims are subjected to rigorous analysis and debate. But contrarian arguments about global warming, climate change and freezing heat are not tolerated by the scientists with an uneasy grip on the research money.
It’s clear now that the earth has been cooling for the past decade, to the sorrow of the special pleaders and despite everything Al can do about it. The solar cycle peaked, the sun is quieter, the sunspots have faded and everybody but Al is cooling off.
Even the United Nations says so. The director of the U.N.’s panel on climate change concedes that nature has overwhelmed everything man can do and it might even be another decade before man can rally and the warming resumes. Until then, like it or not, nature rules the cosmos.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/21/the-killer-frost-for-global-warming/
REPLY: Thanks but…I’ll repeat again that commenter “Chris” here first brought attention to this data flaw and regular contributor John Goetz confirmed the problem. My contribution was solely as proprietor of this blog, and thus minimal. – Anthony
I see it now.
I noticed a similar step at about the same time for Hebron, NE, located just to the west of Fairbury:
http://gallery.surfacestations.org/main.php?g2_itemId=38786
The plot I got from USHCN for Hebron also shows this after a rather long cooling trend:
http://cdiac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/broker?id=253735&_PROGRAM=prog.gplot_meanclim_mon_yr.sas&_SERVICE=default¶m=TAVE&minyear=1886&maxyear=2006
As can be seen at the surfacestations photo, Hebron also has an MMTS. While it is on an area of grass, it’s located between concrete pavement and a concrete(?) patio and there is that requisite air conditioning unit nearby.
http://gallery.surfacestations.org/main.php?g2_itemId=38447
In comparing the two, I was struck by their differences. Fairbury shows quite a rollercoaster with its temps while Hebron seems to show a steady cooling trend. Perhaps there were siting issues at Fairbury before the MMTS installation.
REPLY: You have a point, perhaps the step is natural. But I discovered the Hebron station also went through a move about the same time, here its the data from NCDC’ MMS database on the location:
[2001-11-30] 2002-05-20 40.175560 (40°10’32″N) -97.590000 (97°35’24″W) GROUND: 1480 FEET — THAYER 09 – SOUTHEAST CENTRAL (+6)
Location Description: OBSERVERS HOME 666 N 4TH STREET HEBRON NE
Topographic Details: ROLLING TO HILLY
[1998-12-08] 2001-11-30 40.175560 (40°10’32″N) -97.590000 (97°35’24″W) GROUND: 1480 FEET — THAYER 09 – SOUTHEAST CENTRAL (+6)
Location Description: OBSERVERS HOME 1015 LINCOLN HEBRON NE
Topographic Details: ROLLING TO HILLY. LITTLE BLUE RIVER 0.5 MILE SOUTH. LAND RISES TO TABLE WITHIN 1 MILE TO NORTH
[1997-04-22] 1998-12-08 40.165280 (40°09’55″N) -97.581940 (97°34’54″W) GROUND: 1480 FEET NW/1/MILES THAYER 09 – SOUTHEAST CENTRAL (+6)
GROUND: 1480 FEET SE/5/CITY BLOCKS
Location Description: OBSERVERS HOME WITHIN AND 4 CITY BLOCKS N OF PO AT HEBRON, NE
When the sensors keep getting moved around into different environments, it really becomes difficult to pick out what is the true signal and what is location bias. – Anthony
Somewhat off topic: As the AGW myth starts to unwind along with the economy, the first things getting axed are climate initiatives. eg. The automakers, if they get a bailout, will be given money intended to help them develop fuel efficient cars.
This is a good sign. If the feds were sticking to their AGW guns like the Euros, we could be in more trouble than we needed to be.
Meacham continues to record record daytime highs this month. On the 19th it was 60 degrees. Meacham, in the Blue Mountains, has been the low leader nearly every year. A high there is unusual. I think November will be quite warm, maybe as warm as it has ever been, for the NW part of the US.
Record Report
000
SXUS76 KPDT 191259
RERPDT
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PENDLETON OR
411 PM PST TUE NOV 18 2008
…NEW DAILY RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES FOR NOVEMBER 18TH…
NOTE: STATIONS MARKED WITH * INDICATE THAT THE STATION REPORTS ONCE
PER DAY. FOR CONSISTENCY…THESE VALUES ARE CONSIDERED TO HAVE
OCCURRED ON THE DAY THE OBSERVATION WAS TAKEN BUT MAY HAVE ACTUALLY
OCCURRED (ESPECIALLY FOR MAX TEMPERATURE) ON THE PREVIOUS DAY.
STATION PREVIOUS NEW RECORDS
RECORD/YEAR RECORD BEGAN
MEACHAM, OR 57 / 1949 60 1948 :SINCE MID
REDMOND, OR 65 / 2003 69 1949 :SINCE MID
Hell, thats not a weather station, its a meat thermometer.
I meant as warm as its been since 1949.
the change in 1952 looks pretty similar. as does 1905.
Averages are usually given to one decimal place.
IPCC always give two decimal places, but then again they are more accurate than everyone else.
some basic information about statistics might bring the explanation to this “problem”….
REPLY: The difference is that there are no reported station moves that coincide with those dates at NCDC’s database, plus if you’ll notice, post 1998 has all been with a positive offset, where the other dates you cite have both positive and negative excursions of the signal.
– Anthony