The USHCN Climate station of record in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. Note the beige smoking stand.
The casual way that NOAA treats quality control of the measurement environment of the surface network has been evident for some time. The above photo is of course just one of many examples. Now before anyone jumps to a conclusion thinking that I’m suggesting heat from cigarettes might affect the temperature reading, let me be clear, I am not.
But a couple of guys hanging around the temperature sensor on a cold day shooting the bull and puffing, maybe. Body heat carried by wind to then nearby MMTS sensor “could” be an issue in making Tmax just a bit higher than it might normally be.
But that is likely swamped by the larger local signal near the temperature sensor –
Click for larger image
– the waste heat from the sewage treatment plant.
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Looks like a good place for a new CO2 sensor as well eh?
What would a coating of cigarette tar do to a MMTS sensor?
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/boston-smokin/354312789/?icid=VIDLRVMUS06
Does a modern sewage treatment facility give off methane? If so, on a still day the smokers may warm up the sensor to unprecedented Temps. Call it Gasstemp.
Any idea what the narrow black object on three legs is between the smoke stand and the MMTS is? Could it be a heater to keep smokers warm on cold days?
REPLY: It is the rain gauge – Anthony
The first five letters of the facility’s name say it all — Waste.
If that station shows an anomalous warming trend, perhaps it is from the Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide, and other fun GHGs from the cigarettes and the smokers standing around emitting CO2 with every breath.
The smoking thingy is obviously there to remind smokers not to use the adjacent rainfall gauge as an ashtray.
Sewage arrives from underground lines at around 55 degrees F. The large open treatment areas keep sewage plants smelly and warm.
I think climatebeagle’s onto something important here. That sure looks like a burner for heat to me…what else can it be?
Good nose – er, I mean eyes – ‘beagle!
But it would still be swamped out by the waste heat from the plant. The whole place represents another one of the many ways to spell, “duh”.
I assumed it was a rain gauge. It may be an optical delusion but it looks like it is not quite upright and hence the area taking precipitation will be an ellipse rather than a circle.
I think the more important question is….
Is that thing on the bottom left of the picture one of those round life preservers.
At the waste treatment plant.
*shudder*
I don’t guess that black asphalt would heat up anything or would it ?
They should measure methane there too… it would be a really good place to find some.
Looks like the new system, MMTS/BBQ.
As a long time smoker, the brown object by the rain guage is for cigarette disposal.
Thermal sensors would be much more responsive to human body heat, than from a cigarette.
climatebeagle: My guess is that the narrow black cylinder is a precipitation sensor, and also a coffee cup holder.
Maybe the cigarette disposal should be reconsidered as a heat source/release mechanism. Warm air trapped and released at night?
Maybe the butt container is there so that anyone working near the gauge will extinguish their smokes. As far as large, immobile objects influencing readings goes, as long as they are always present, they may influence absolute readings but the trends from the data would be unaffected. This whole project to try to discredit sensor placement is a little too “gotcha” and seems aimed at swaying the opinions of the, how shall I put this…less “analytical” among the population. Perfect example is those who think the rain gauge is a “heater”.
If anyone except the gov did government-mandated work like this, the govs would get after them.
That’s a Standard Rain Gauge, no question whatsoever. But the ones I see are usually silvery, not black. Could a black SRG placed that close to an MMTS have a small heat sink effect?
REPLY: Bronze, it is, not black.- Anthony
Oh dear…..
Ahhh, globular warming.
Anti-tobacco hysteria next to GW hysteria: Funny. Both with a common origin. Have you wonder if “they” worried about our health? Or “they” worry about earth´s future? or is it just their political agenda which counts?: First Tobacco companies, now oil companies. What next?
ALERT! ALERT! Sorry Anthony, I know this off topic but does Cryosphere Today use the same satellite as NSIDC because if not Cryosphere is having sever satellite troubles as well…..Take a look:
http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=02&fd=19&fy=1980&sm=02&sd=20&sy=2009
REPLY: Cryosphere Today added snow cover to the imagery in recent years. No trouble there, no alerts (if that is what you were referring to).
Updated reply: here is what they have to say about it, I thought CT was using the AMSR-E sensor, apparently not.
FROM CT:
– Anthony
Peter (12:03:43) :
Unless the site placement is the same now as it was in 1914, there is a significant problem in assuming that microclimate effects are static.
It may be that the microsite impacts on daily minimum temperatures are exactly the same now as they were in 1914. It may be that the microsite impacts on daily maximum temperature are exactly the same as they were in 1914.
Without even looking at the data or the metadata on station moves, I’m willing to bet that things are nothing like they were 95 years ago, both in terms of the physical conditions of the temperature monitoring station and in terms of the influence on the temperature measurements from the surrounding environment.