WUWT Commenter “Boy on a Bike” was inspired by Willis article on Darwin (See: The Smoking Gun At Darwin Zero) to have a look at stations in his part of the world, he didn’t have to look far. He’s found what we’ve been saying for years on WUWT. Just have a look in our Weather Stations Category. One notable example, Lampasas, TX
He writes:
UPDATE: The writer has misidentified the lighthouse shown in the photos below. it is actually Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, not Cape Naturaliste. Not being familiar with Australian lighthouses, I did not catch this right away. But I have verified that it is Cape Leeuwin in Google Earth. The siting issue of the weather station at Cape Leeuwin remains a concern. I’ll add the temperature record at Cape Leeuwin as soon as I can locate it. UPDATE: Graphs have been posted in comments – Anthony
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Australian weather records – how much can we trust them?
After reading a few articles on weather stations in the
US and
Australia over the last year or so, I decided to do a random check on one station in WA [Western Australia] to see what the records looked like.
I chose Cape Naturaliste, as I have visited it several times, and the lighthouse has been there for around a century. I guessed that the weather station would be at the lighthouse – and I was right.
One glance at the annual mean maximum temp from around 1900 to today would convince most people that we are all about to fry. However, I decided to have a look for photos of the site to check out the location of the weather station.
The weather station is located between the two buildings on the far right – and it is about a foot from an asphalt road. Note that the asphalt is a dark black colour – the colour of fresh tar.
Here’s a side on view.
If memory serves me correctly, when I visited this place back in the 1980s, this was a gravel road – not tarmac.
If the weather station has not been relocated since 1901, what impact would moving from a gravel road to tarmac have on temperature readings? Undoubtedly, it would skew them upwards. The key question is when the tarmac was laid – or relaid – and what impact this has had on the temperature record.
Like this:
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Well, there is an obvious step up in the data in the mid-1990s.
What’s the point of the the Stevenson screen if not to counteract that?
And what do you know, there are no adjustments to this station.
Funny how that works:
http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/climgraph.aspx?pltparms=GHCNT100XJanDecI188020080900111AS50194600000x
Nice job, the answer is it has absolutely no impact. The IPCC has determined that only positive adjustments are required to temperature data as it is simply impossible that local additions of asphalt, air conditioner outlets would have any effect whatsoever on thermometers.
In fact, I read somewhere that all thermometers are going to be replaced with clocks. The clocks will count the seconds since installation and this will be used as a true temperature measure. Nearby tree rings will be used for verification. Then scientists can get rid of all this denialist rubbish about ‘heat affecting temperature’ and such.
@John Hooper If I understand it correctly, the Stevenson screen will block radiant heating. The asphalt actuayl accepts the radiant energy from the sun, and turns it into heat, with then heats the air. A Stevenson screen can not stop the effects of artificialy heated air. That is why there are rules for placement, and the point of the Surface Station audit (to determin the quality of the placements). See http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.surfacestations.org%2F
Where’s the barbee?
Are those measured data or adjusted?
“What’s the point of the the Stevenson screen if not to counteract that?”
To stop birds nesting inside.
Are you sure were are looking at the correct photos here?
From the linked page’s links I would say these photos are of Cape Leeuwin rather than Cape Naturaliste.
I could be wrong of course ….
Triggered by Willis’ excellent piece, Matt Briggs has started an interesting and informative discussion on homogenization at his blog. See http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=1459
The plot is too small to see the dates but it would seem that it departs from almost a flat line to rise up again in 1960… hide the decline trick temperature adjustment maybe?
Lets find someone to go there and paint that tarmac in white! I bet we’ll see at the news that the Ice Age is comming, and that in 10 years that lighthouse will be half in ice.
The alarmism does great tv ratings!! ;]
Jeff Id:
Hahahaha! Careful . . . someone might try to implement that . . .
This is an unfenced road and it looks nice in the pictures but is it inundated with tourists who would park along the road or would people visiting the nearby buildings tend to park along the road here?
It seems to me that parking could be the big unknown here and that may also be influenced by nearby buildings that do not directly influence the temperature measurement but if one suddenly changed from an occasional storage centre to a works canteen, for example, it would influence vehicle behaviour.
The idea of being away from roads and car parks is just as much about insulating the measurement from traffic as the road surface itself. and traffic would be the most difficult to compensate for.
It could be that a scenarios such as I have described could be difficult to detect or identify.
OT. The Cryoshpere Today says that they still are unsure of current ice imaging due to satellite problems. Does anyone have an accurate analysis of current arctic ice extent?
If one is looking for GLOBAL averages does one need any adjustments at all? IF stations are subject to random change – eg moves up or down hill, or from fields to tarmac or vice versa, wouldn’t it be better to just use raw data? (My guess would be that any net bias would be over recording due UHI, more tarmac roads, more air con outlets, etc)
If this is right, the use of adjustments is a cure worse than the disease ( which is error margins around the averages used ?
My reason for asking is that I’m trying to persuade folk re AGW over hype and so far just get shouted down, mostly!
PS
Annual mean maximum temperature?
What have other charts shown?
annual mean average temperature?
Is this the “value added” data or raw data? If “value added” then we seem to have the fingerprint post 1960 growth correction here where each year more correction is added.
Yeah, you may need to work on the citation and images here. That definitely doesn’t look like the Cape Naturaliste light house.
See archival photo here: http://members.upnaway.com/~obees/lights/swest/oldnatts.jpg
John Hooper (09:32:26) :
“What’s the point of the the Stevenson screen if not to counteract that?”
The screen is to shield the instruments from direct exposure to sunlight, so they measure ambient air temperatures rather than direct radiant heating. It doesn’t counteract the ambient air getting additional heating from the micro UHI.
I have a thermometer on my porch (not screened; I’m not doing science). When the sun reaches the point where it is shining directly on the thermometer, its reading jumps 20 degrees.
With google earth it should be possible to locate those few, those valiant few, weather stations that have remained far from any contaminating artificial heat effects. Go beyond just checking whether roads, buildings, etc., have changed during the data record — because it is always possible that the way these roads were travelled on and buildings heated have changed. Then, once this selection has been made, check what those obviously raw and uncontaminated data series show about warming. Now, that would be interesting …
Re: GP (09:50:44)
I agree – the photos on the original page are listed as being of the Cape Leeuwin site. It’s not clear from either the radio amateur photos or from the “Lighthouses of Australia Inc” web site where the Stevenson screen is located at Cape Naturaliste.
Hopefully someone will identify the location.
Are tohos anual temperatures based on raw data or “value added” data? Do we know?
The buildings around the station are not 109 years old, so it is reasonable to assume they were built after the station was in place. Also likely, the roadway was the width of buckboard and obviously gravel. This would have placed the roadway further away from station. And let’s not forget the concrete sidewalk leading up to the antenna as being an add-on sometime after 1900. It’s no surprise the temperature record is showing significant heating.
From a quick Google Check that is Cape Leeuwin:
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/41/51/be/cape-leeuwin-lighthouse.jpg
recent picture of Cape Naturaliste:
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/photos/Australia/CapeNaturalisteWAU.jpg
I don’t have as trained an eye as many here, so maybe the Cape Naturaliste station is visible here:
http://www.lighthouse.net.au/LIGHTS/WA/Cape%20Naturaliste/Cape%20Naturaliste%20wb%201.jpg
OT, but too thick to work out where else I post this. From Copenhagen, a breath of fresh air:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1234515/Copenhagen-summit-The-world-COOLING-warming-says-scientist-Peter-Taylor.html