A second report of the mysterious Californian picture collector in Howard. The Howard observer thinks it was earlier than June tho. So that’s two reports of him on this trip, one on the southern tier (Howard) and one on the northern tier (Mellette/Northville). Makes me think he might have gotten more of the same ones I got this weekend as well. Yet none uploaded to the surfacestaitons db. Curious.

REPLY: Gallery db has some serious issues, it may have been hacked, or it may be some SQL issue, can’t tell just yet. Will be OL for a couple of days. – Anthony

Watertown was fun as it was both my first airport and my first ASOS Hygrothermometer. Luckily I did my homework and new what I was looking for. Still long range shots at max 5x zoom to see it, as the whole thing was fenced at a distance, but still recognizable. And I had my 7-21x variable zoom binocs with me too, and saw it even better thru those for the first time the binocs have proved useful on one of these trips.

Mellette was interesting for a different reason. I talked to the observer there, and he said someone from California who was “driving through” stopped by in June and took pictures. But there are none in the SS gallery for Mellette (until I have my dinner anyway). One of our SS volunteers who didn’t follow through on uploading? Or something else?

Anyway, the pizza should be here soon.

Two more (Forestburg and Howard) tomorrow on the road home.

Is anyone still reading this thread besides me and the mod? :) Should I not bother posting here anymore?

So, off to SD in the morning for a weekend of walkabout.

Looking at Watertown, Clark, Mellete, Highmore, Forestburg and Howard in South Dakota all in one trip. At least none have pictures in the SS gallery. I haven’t started reviewing yet which seem to still be likely to be active and actually at the location shown on the GE .kml and/or the USGHCN coordinates.

Anyone have some advice/insight on any of these?

Heh. Made me wonder if they got our plates registered on the way out the first time and knew the answer before they asked.

Anyway, no strip searches, dogs, or mirrors under vehicles were involved.

We also stopped at Iron Mountain/Kingsford, MI and got pics this morning after Minocqua.

Tomorrow we’re aiming for Canton, NY

You may have done this already, but I thought it would be interesting to calculate a weighted average of the errors (bias) based on the percent of stations at each CRN level and the error levels at each. I calculated an average positive bias of ~2.25 deg C., which is ~4.0 deg F. To be conservative, I assumed a bias of 0 for CRN-1, 0.5 for CRN-2, 1.5 for CRN-3, 2.5 for CRN-4, and 5.0 for CRN-5.

Chasm Falls has apparently been gone since 1995, so scratch that (at least so far as me visiting it).

Lawrenceville shows to “Nov 2008″ instead of “Present”. On the one hand, that seems recent enough that it might be worthwhile. On the other hand, I don’t have the time on this trip to do a lot of sleuthing. So scratch that one too. Maybe I’ll look for another one in WI or New York to consider. Right now it’s just Iron Mountain, MI and Canton, NY on my list this trip.

Looking in GE at the coords you provided for Iron Mountain, MI, they seem a lot more likely than the ones on the GE KML Unsurveyed Sites map. The KML Unsurveyed map puts the MMTS basically out in the woods of suburbia with no structures visible for hundreds of feet in any direction. The ones you give look a lot more like what I’ve seen so far on my travels. I’ll take both with me, of course, but I’ll try yours first.

http://mi3.ncdc.noaa.gov/mi3qry/login.cfm seems to be down right now. Working for anyone else?

I’m leaving tomorrow evening so any help appreciated. I see the SS Gallery is currently in turtle mode for security reasons.

The other sites I’ve got my eye on are in upper New York:

Canton, NY. This looks pretty reasonable a location in GE at 44.5772, -75.108994
Lawrenceville, NY. Doesn’t look terribly likely in GE at 44.72139 -74.74361. No visible structures for quite some distance in any direction. Tho it is listed as a min-max, rather than a MMTS.
Chasm Falls, NY. In Google Earth at 44.75, -74.21667 this looks pretty unlikely. Solid heavy wood with no obvious structures yet it is listed as a MMTS.

Obviously I can’t see the galleries right now. Are those sites still on the “to do” list? Any advice on them? We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon if anyone has anything to chip in.

The other sites I’m looking at for this trip

I’ve got 3 out of 4 station owners contacted in SW Wi and will stop in next week. One SW Wisconsin station (Darlington) closed down 6 years ago. Is the goal to contact the last station owners and snap pictures of the grassy knoll where the station used to sit? Or does the station get marked closed with no action needed?

Thanks
G Block

REPLY: If you can determine with accuracy of a couple of feet where the station was then yes. If you have no such evidence clearly pinpointing location then no. – Anthony