Gary Boden sends word today of finding the weather station at the Colmbia, SC Weather Bureau Office, as shown below:
Note the Stevenson Screen on the roof. This is where daily high and low temperatures were measured. It seems that this was a fairly common practice back then. Here’s the USWB office in Lander, WY in 1906:
I’ve covered other rooftop stations in the USWB COOP network, notably the Sacramento, Eureka, and Baltimore stations. There’s also an oddball rooftop station in Oakland at the Museum. the Baltimore office rooftop location was so bad that the NWS eventually closed it because it was setting new and erroneous weather records. It is not hard to see why:
Baltimore USHCN station circa 1990’s photo courtesy NOAA, click for more images
NOAA even wrote a training manual on siting issues, using this station’s high temperature anomaly as en example of what to avoid
Reference: NOAA Professional Competency Unit 6 (PCU6) manual (PDF)
The photo from Columbia made me curious about how the temperature might be affected by the rooftop location,so I checked the un-homogenized station temperature plot from GISS to see if anything stood out.
The jump downward between 1956 to 1957 seems to me to be like a “step change” upon simple visual inspection.It may or may not be related to a station move or equipment change.
Unfortunately, NCDC’s MMS metadatabase is down today with a “server” error, as often happens on weekends so I can’t look at their records right now to determine if the station was moved about that time.
But the Columbia NWS office has a writeup of the station history:
The presence of a full-time weather observation site in Columbia began on June 5, 1887 when the Army Signal Corps established a third order station in Columbia in the Old Agricultural Hall near the northwest corner of Gervais and Main Streets. Weather observations remained the responsibility of the Army Signal Corps until October 1, 1891 when the U.S. Weather Bureau assumed the station responsibility.
The first of several moves occurred on June 8, 1895 when the office moved to the Federal Building at the southwest corner of Laurel and Main Streets. The office remained at this location until February 15, 1901.
On February 15, 1901 the office once again was relocated, this time to City Hall at the northwest corner of Gervais and Main Streets. The station was also upgraded from a third order station to a first order station.
On October 1, 1903 the Weather Office relocated once again, this time to the Loan and Exchange Bank Building on the southeast corner of Main and Washington Streets.
March 1, 1905 once again found the Weather Office in a new location, this time in the Weather Bureau Building at the southeast corner of Laurel and Assembly Streets. For over 30 years the Weather Office called this location home.
On March 11, 1934 airline personnel began taking observations at Owens Field Airport, 4 miles southeast of downtown.
By June 3, 1935 the office had once again been relocated. This time the office had been moved to the Sylvan Building on the northeast corner of Main and Hampton Streets.
At Owens Field, Weather Bureau airway observers took over weather observation responsibilities.
The move to the Sylvan Building was short, on August 26, 1936 the Weather Office once again had a new home, this time in the U.S. Courthouse at the southeast corner of Laurel and Assembly Streets. The Weather Office remained at this location through June 1, 1954.
Airline operations were increasing in the Columbia area, especially at Owens Field and Weather Bureau observers assumed greater responsibilities at that location.
On February 14, 1947 the Weather Office moved again, this time from Owens Field to the new Columbia Airport. The move was to an old Army prefab building which was located about one mile east of the present location on the left side of the service road near the intersection with the main airport road. It was just across the street from the lake.
On January 20, 1967 we moved to the present Weather Service Building located east of the main terminal. When the building was dedicated, Karl Johannessen (sp?), Director of NWS Eastern Region, said the COlumbia National Weather Service had been in that “temporary” building for 20 years.
While the office hasn’t moved since 1967, there have been significant changes in the office. One of the most visible changes has been the change in the agency’s name … from the Weather Bureau to the National Weather Service.
As a part of the reorganization of the National Weather Service, more and more of the manual work has been computerized, including routine weather observations. The Automated Surface Observation System (ASOS) was commissioned on December 1, 1995.
Also as a part of the reorganization, the Columbia an Augusta Georgia offices were consolidated on October 1, 1995. Routine weather observations in the Augusta area are provided by ASOS units at both Bush Field and Daniel Field.
I find it curious that the NWS writeup never mentions anything about the rooftop location.They also seem to mix the two station histories (COOP and airport) which as I understand it, are separate stations.
Here is the current USHCN station at the University of South Carolina:
Looks better than a rooftop. More photos here.
Looks good to me!
So the owner of this masterpiece is a sailing enthusiast; and he understands the concept of “winds aloft”.
So much for being 60 inches above the ground.
George
The most interesting feature of the Columbia record, to me, is the almost constant upward surge starting in 1967. I’d be very curious to know the construction dates of the buildings around the station. There’s a tall building just to the southwest (?) in particular that looks interesting. It casts a long shadow. Another tall building to the northwest (?) has many windows–will the afternoon sun reflect off those windows toward the station? And what is that gezeets on the left edge of photo #Columbia_381944_North_32?
Were there enough SUVs on the road between 1900 and 1930 to explain that temprature rise?
Anthony, what *are* the standards for siting a station?
Speaking of Stevenson Screens, did you ever get that paint series wrapped up? – I tried to search through but couldn’t find it.
Jorge:
The building with windows and connecting walkways is the Bates Dormitory of USC that has two tower sections. The area has been continually upgraded with multiple buildings and a raised walkway. On the first ariel photo the unmarked street is actually a walkway to connect this part of the university with the main campus. The valley that the walkway spans is the fault line from the ancient US and African coast fusion that raised the Applachian mountains. The second ariel photo shows the athletic center which is a large building that also has extensive concrete basketball courts near the unit. And of course the railroad lines that join together with their gravel ballasts. Picture 6 shows the back of the atheletic complex.
Does anyone have a way to find which stations are used to report the current record heat in Australia, including Melbourne?
How can you ever sort that out. There are too many possibilities and the step function is absolutely huge. I need to get out and photo the stations near here.
I’ve been looking at antarctic ice trends to see if Steig’s paper is reasonable. I did a plot of the 30 yr trend at each grid point of monthly data provided by the NSIDC
http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/gridded-antarctic-sea-ice-trend/
If I recall from historical references, the weather station in Galveston, pre-1900 was on the roof of the office building housing the local weather bureau.
Columbia is in the hot belt. It includes Florence, S.C., Columbia, Augusta.
Columbia is the hottest of the lot. Thermal inversions are common and only intensify the heat and humidity. In the summer, it is not uncommon to see 100 Deg F and 90% RH on a daily basis.
I always thought, that differences in measurement on roof-top, mountain-top, city-station, ocean-ship-bases and satellite would cause a difference of more than one centigrade C°; apart from the right statistical processing.
Fine contribution with smashing pics!
Sylvia, you will find many resources here to answer your questions
http://surfacestations.org/resources.htm
More specifically.
NOAA standards including a link to a PDF around siting. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/coop/standard.htm
Weather Station Siting Guidelines. http://www.campbellsci.com/documents/apnotes/siting.pdf
honest question anthony (i am a big skeptic and read this site daily)……but why do the AGW’s say that you aren’t really a meteorologist? wikipedia says the same thing, but they are so hopelessly biased on this issue, i have difficulty taking them seriously…
one of the only reasons i care (because i find the mention of it to fall into the classification of ad hominem fallacy) is that there is a relatively unintelligent poster on one of the boards i frequent who always brings it up if i link to a story here….
While the importance of maintaining continuity at an individual station is crucial to establishing an accurate record, how can the movements of data collection sites be accurately accounted for when long term records are being analyzed? The data points are extremely important to the area they represent. A single data collection station could be very important to local, regional, continental or global analysis depending on the weight the particular station is being given.
Columbia SC is hotter than Hell. I’m serious. I turned down a job there back in 2005 because it jsut wasnlt enough $$$ to live in that heat. It’s really unbearable there in July/August. Imagine Tampa, FL without the afternoon T-storms, and that’s about right.
One of your references to Columbia got me confused at first. I thought you meant Columbia University in NYC. Of course, it’s right around there that GISS has some offices. Right by the Seinfeld diner, actually. It would be pretty darn funny if there were a weather station on the roof. I wonder…Next time I’m at a meeting there, mebbe I can sneak a peek.
I wouldn’t want to base billions in spending on the gypsy habits of the wandering weather station.
To DR…
The Australian BOM website… Bureau Of Meteorology.
On the home page map of Australia, click on Victoria. Then you have a page full of options….. down the bottom left there is a heading in blue called ‘Climate Information’, click on ‘Victorian climate averages’. It will give you all the recording centers… Might not be the info you are looking for but what you are looking for should be on BOM’s website.
G’luck. : )
One of the problems with Steig is the reporting of warming since 1957, while not reporting the more recent decades of cooling. 30 years is far enough for reality, but not far enough for Steig.
Anthony, what *are* the standards for siting a station?
http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/uscrn/documentation/program/X030FullDocumentD0.pdf
Top of page 6.
one of the only reasons i care (because i find the mention of it to fall into the classification of ad hominem fallacy) is that there is a relatively unintelligent poster on one of the boards i frequent who always brings it up if i link to a story here….
It’s unimportant. That’s the same kind of (often very hi-IQ) idiot who says that Herman Kahn wasn’t an economist (he demolished the club of Rome), or a historian (he invented futurology–not the word, just the field of study), or a military strategist (he invented sane nuclear deterrence policy, which was adopted wholesale by both sides starting in 1960) because he didn’t have some toilet-worthy foolscap that said he was.
Ignore the pedants, the educated-incapacitated. They love to use their little clubbery and petty snobbery as tools of ignorance to dominate and exclude. And indulge, I might add.
I have an MA in history. Big deal. 99% of what I know about history has nothing to do with stupidass degrees. Make that 99.9%. And there are millions of folks out there who never got past high school, whose knowledge of history dwarfs mine.
Anthony is a scientist. How can I tell? Easy. He DOES SCIENCE.
BTW, you’re right. It is ad hominem, and therefore, by definition, invalid. Also, unworthy.
evanjones (22:59:35) : ” there is a relatively unintelligent poster on one of the boards i frequent who always brings it up if i link to a story here….”
It’s unimportant. That’s the same kind of (often very hi-IQ) idiot who says that Herman Kahn wasn’t an economist (he demolished the club of Rome), […]
Anthony is a scientist. How can I tell? Easy. He DOES SCIENCE.
While I generally agree with your assessment, I’d ‘look to the source’. From:
http://www.ametsoc.org/amscert/ in the section about the ‘seal’:
The AMS Seal of Approval was launched in 1957 as a way to recognize on-air meteorologists for their sound delivery of weather information to the general public. Among radio and television meteorologists, the AMS Seal of Approval is sought as a mark of distinction.
I’ve bolded a couple of words… So what does the group who issued the cert think it is? A certification for meteorologists.
I also notice that they are no longer accepting application for this cert. That is a very common thing in the life cycle of a professional body. I hold a certification from a professional data processing organization (ICCP). Lifetime cert. They no longer issue them. I hold a lifetime certification (teaching credential, clear) from the State of California at the community college level. They no longer issue them. Certification processes and even individual certifications change over time and the holders of the older certs are often ‘grandfathered’ and don’t need to keep ‘starting over’ every time the agency changes it’s mind.
So, IMHO, (and apparently in the opinion of the Certifying Body) Anthony is quite definitely a meteorologist. He just didn’t have to jump through the latest incarnation of the certification process.
Sidebar: One of the reasons for this is laws against age discrimination. I hold no degree in “Computer Science”. There was no such degree when I was starting out. It was math, or electrical engineering, or something else. If you require that anyone who applies for a job with computers show a Computer Science Degree, by definition you are discriminating illegally against older folks.
So I’m an Economist with lots of computer classes (a technical “minor” of sorts) that the State of California felt had everything needed to teach anything in the field of data processing. (I did have to take some graduate education theory classes and present some materials validating education and experience.)
Does that lack of a C.S. degree mean I am not a Computer Scientist? That I can not say that I’m a professional computer programmer? Not for a moment.
OT, from the BBC news web site –
Australian fire death toll rises
Australian emergency crews are stepping up their efforts to tackle wildfires in the state of Victoria, as the death toll rises to 65. Thousands of firefighters are battling several major fires, and the number of dead is expected to rise. . . .
. . . Bush fires are common in Australia, but the current blazes are the most deadly since 1983, when 75 people died on a day that became known as Ash Wednesday.
The Greens Party has said summer fires will only worsen unless the government does more to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.