Comments on: GISS: World’s airports continue to run warmer than ROW

By: E.M.Smith

E.M.Smith — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:44:06 +0000

FWIW, GIStemp also uses airports to represent pristine “rural” stations in the STEP that “corrects” for Urban Heat Island effect:

http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/gistemp-fixes-uhi-using-airports-as-rural/

So not only are the bulk of the thermometers at airports, but 500+ of the “rural” stations used to “correct” for UHI are at airports.

Among the “gems” I found on the list were the Marine Corp Air Station at Quantico, yes, THAT Quantico and the main commercial air port at Lihue Kauai, Hawaii with over 100,000 flights a year…

So we correct for UHI at airports using airports via the Reference Station Method… Uh Huh…

By: ralph ellis

ralph ellis — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:46:57 +0000

>>>In Perth we call the sea breeze the Freemantle Doctor.

Indeed you do.
But if the met stations are all coastal, then one might be forgiven for thinking that the midday temperature in Western Oz never gets above 30oc – whereas it can climb to 47oc as you know (I had 47oc last time I was there).

Thus these coastal monitoring stations are completely misleading and largely useless, in that they measure sea temperature and not land temperature. How many others are similarly poorly sited?

By: Philip_B

Philip_B — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:18:15 +0000

If you zoom in the station is just around the corner where the Airport road leaves the Murchison downs road.

The BoMs metadata puts it 2 kilometers south of there. Unless the Google Earth’s GPS locations are wrong which doesn’t seem to be the case.

By: Rod Smith

Rod Smith — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:04:18 +0000

Rereke Whakaaro (22:46:24) :
Warning: non-scientist alert!

Several lifetimes ago, I spent some time in the air force, mainly in hot and uncomfortable places (and in the tropics too). At that time, the air force always mounted the airfield weather station at the top of a wooden tower, about twenty feet above ground level – presumably to remove bias caused by ground temperature.

All of the pictures I have seen recently that show civilian weather stations show them close to the ground.

———–

The observing stations were generally placed a bit higher that ground level to observe field conditions better. Every one I ever saw had thermometers and sling psychrometers in an instrument shelter that was properly placed close by and properly maintained. The observer was also usually equipped with a calibrated recording thermograph and often with special visibility sensors, both vertical and horizontal, some along the runways.

But much more was reported than temperatures, and at minimum every hour. That observer had the authority to close the field done whenever he observed conditions below minimums. Temperature was not one of those conditions. These folks were concerned with safe aircraft operations — not climate.

A B-29 crashed on take-off at Ladd Field, Alaska (I think in 1946) with the measured temperature at TO time (actually accident time) of -57F. He had his turbos compressing that dense air at full blower and blew the heads right off several cylinders at an inopportune moment.

By: Michael Twomey

Michael Twomey — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:01:06 +0000

Claude Harvey (10:07:57) :

Has anyone else noticed the AMSU-A satellite readings lately?

Steven Hill (12:41:21) :

Looks like July is heating up.

Agreed. Go to http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/execute.csh?amsutemps and set the graph for ch05. There is a dramatic warming in the last two weeks. Is there an equipment issue, or is this the effect of the return of El Nino?

Roy Spencer: If you’re reading this: What’s up with that?

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:45:59 +0000

Maybe this one will work. Type in Meacham, OR in the search field.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/stationlocator.html

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:43:15 +0000

And here

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?WWDI~StnSrch

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:37:48 +0000

For the old Meacham stuff, that’s easy DC.

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?or5396

By: Douglas DC

Douglas DC — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:13:46 +0000

Pamela-Meacham’s site is where the long gone FAA(really CAA) Flight Service
station was.-there used to be an Airport there too.I knew an old FSS fellow back in the 1970′s who was one of the last to “man” that FSS.-He likened it to his days at Solydatna Ak.-execpt Solydatna-not sure of the spelling-was warmer.
Meaham’s got a long string of records-at least into the 1930′s but finding it all
would be a challenge.As I recall 1948 is the oldest in the NOAA data…

By: Phil's Dad

Phil's Dad — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:54:55 +0000

OT but has anyone looked at the headline picture and thought “What happens next”?

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:21:25 +0000

An interesting study would be to look at record high max temps versus record low max temps, and record low min temps versus record high min temps as a function of airport placement. If Airport sites are over represented in the high records, that would be evidence of a temp sensor site bias. A case in point, the temp sensor at the Pendleton Airport is probably on record as the site of record highs while the sensors placed at the same elevation but away from the airport in this high plateau area will record the record low at that elevation. The NOAA sensor at Meacham, Oregon is in an area all its own. I swear that place really is an Arctic island that just got misplaced in the continental shuffle and neglected to adjust its climate accordingly.

By the way Frank, I emailed the Unisys site and attempted to educate on standard metrics for warm vs cool colors. Red is warmer than gray when it comes to standard definitions for color warmth but on the new color scheme at Unisys SST, red is used to show just a bit of warming while gray is used to show a lot of warming. The “warmest” color on their new design is…wait for it…BLUE.

By: Ian Random

Ian Random — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:26:39 +0000

Thank you for explaining the nature of the data. I was eyeballing it after looking at a lot of employment data and thought it might be picking-up construction work, but now that you point out it is airport data that makes sense why it didn’t pan out. I decided to eyeball some aggregate flight volume data and there is a peak in 2007 in both the heat anomaly and flight volume, then a decrease in both the following year. Unfortunately, the raw data looks expensive like $700 from OAG.

http://www.oag.com/graphics/4th+quarter+global+flight+volumes+10yr+view.jpg

By: Frank Lansner

Frank Lansner — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:09:26 +0000

and -0,1 K is indicated by yellow.
To get a bluish color you have to come below -2 K..

By: Frank Lansner

Frank Lansner — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:07:55 +0000

OT:

Unisys SST, change of colours..
Now anomaly of + 0,1K is indicated with DARK RED..

http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sst_anom.html

By: Jimmy Haigh

Jimmy Haigh — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:41:14 +0000

ralph ellis (23:44:26) :

>>>Broome Airport Western Australia. For all intents and
>>>purposes the Airport is practically in the middle of the town
>>>(a great planning coup). That could be a case of a double
>>>whammy. UHI plus AHI.

And there is also a b***** great sea breeze there.

In Perth, at The WACA, they call the sea breeze ‘The Freemantle Doctor’. It has been very welcome to many an England team toiling in many a long day in the field in the Boxing Day test match.