Weather station 'X'

A mystery for you.

This weekend (weather permitting) Willis and I will be visiting the location of this weather station in the USA. Can you guess where it is? I can assure you it is not the schoolhouse at Bodega nor is it Alfred Hitchcock’s summer house.

station_x

Note the Stevenson screen housing the thermometer to the left of the path. Click for a much larger image.

The interest for this station is that this particular station might have a very pristine record unblemished by UHI and other man-made encroachments. What we don’t know yet is if it is continuous record since the station was installed.

 

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May 22, 2014 11:32 pm

I’ll take a wild stab at it — Oregon North Coast. It looks familiar.

May 22, 2014 11:35 pm

Los Farallones, 21 miles west of San Francisco.

Alan Robertson
May 22, 2014 11:47 pm

I be happy that you two be havin’ an adventure together. (an’ be hopin’ you find the post’s grammatical error.)
[we be fixing it -mod]

Mike T
May 22, 2014 11:50 pm

I’m not American, so it could be anywhere coastal, or an offshore island, judging by the low grasses and the fact the only tree is in the shelter of the house. I can’t see an anemometer mast (unless that’s it up against the house, in which case the readings would be awful). The screen is too close to the house, too. If it’s been this way for a long time the record would be OK, but the house looks fairly recent.

May 22, 2014 11:56 pm

Randall already nailed it.
but more precisely:
Farallon National Wildlife Refuge
1 Marshlands Rd, Fremont, CA 94555
N37.698244, W123.003355
Have fun.
But Watch out for Billionaire Tom Steyer’s big big yacht belching diesel soot in your row boat.

Mick
May 22, 2014 11:58 pm

“…might have a very pristine record…” yeah, but is it pristine from seagulls? Bird-poo heat radiation is ….
/stupidity off…. resuming normall transition 🙂

Titus
May 23, 2014 12:03 am

Boy you guys are quick. Saw it on my phone and recognized it as the research center on South Farallon Islands. By the time I got to log on to my computer to check and add a comment you guys already got it……

Keith Minto
May 23, 2014 12:04 am

Port Angeles ?

Jordan
May 23, 2014 12:13 am

There might be bird-made encroachments (or coatings) here. Is surface condition of the screen likely to be a feature of this record?
If so, it’s likely to have added about 0.7 degC. I can just feel it in my waters.

Titus
May 23, 2014 12:14 am

Should be a good day for whale watching. Make sure to have a camera ready on the boat ride.

May 23, 2014 12:16 am

Farallon National Wildlife Refuge Weather Station. From Robin in NZ.

nzrobin
May 23, 2014 12:18 am

Ah – I see some others already got it. Hope you have a great wee excursion Anthony and Willis.

May 23, 2014 12:23 am

The sixth place decimal-degree coordinates for your target weather station are:
N37.698119, W123.003536

Richard111
May 23, 2014 12:30 am

The seagulls caught my attention. Have a lot of them where I live. When it is NOT raining you can watch the seagulls on the grass verges near the road. They do a little dance, patter their feet rapidly on the grass, this seems to fool the worms into thinking it IS raining, pop their heads up for a look see and become lunch. 🙂

May 23, 2014 12:32 am

NOAA data on Farallon has no data, but here are the ID’s:
NESDIS ID 15CCE6A4 NWS Location ID FNDC1
Location FARALLON ISLAND NEAR SAN FRANCISCO
Latitude N 37°41’54” Longitude W 123°00’06” HSA MTR State CA
Owner NWSWRH Channel 142 Initial Transmit Time (HH:MM:SS) 00:17:20

Truthseeker
May 23, 2014 12:32 am

Great photo.

Nick Stokes
May 23, 2014 12:38 am

Here is a history page. The Weather Bureau ran a station there from 1902-1913. GHCN Daily has it as USC00048376 and has some precip etc data from 1948-1951, but no temp.

May 23, 2014 12:41 am

P.S. we need a selfie of you and Willis at the wx station with a Seagull on your shoulder.

May 23, 2014 12:47 am

Brokeback Stevenson Screen?

May 23, 2014 12:51 am

NEW WEATHER STATION Observer Established on the Highest Peak of Farallone Islands
SAN FRANCISCO, March 27— Observer Stanley Boykin will leave today for his new station on the Farallone islands, twenty-s , eve.n miles wept of the Golden Gate. The new observatory will facilitate the weather forecast in this city and w ill also be provided with a powerful telescope by which faffing versel* can be seen thirty miles off the station. The station has been named Main Top, as It is located on the only accessible peak of the rocky island?’. San Francisco hap now Ihe largest we-ather bureau in the United States except that at Washington, 0. C., withj three well-equipped’fUb-ofIlce« as* feed-: ers—at Point Reyes, Mount Tamalpais l and the Farallones.

http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19030328.2.62

asybot
May 23, 2014 12:58 am

, LOL welcome to common core less. (btw those gulls did instantly remind me of Hitchcock)

May 23, 2014 12:59 am

Richard111 wrote: “They do a little dance, patter their feet rapidly on the grass, this seems to fool the worms into thinking it IS raining, pop their heads up for a look see and become lunch. :-)”
It is called pore pressure. The stamping of their webbed feet and weight induces liquefaction of the soil, the water pore pressure causes the soil to become liquid, just like when it rains and saturates the soil. The air and the owrms are forced to the surface…. lunch.
And lunch is what Anthony and Willis will be if Farallon Asset Management Billionaire Tom Steyer sees them rowing in their little dinghy boat out to Farallon Islands, and Tom is in his 40 meter super-yacht. He’d ran flank speed and burn a kiloton of diesel to do in his #1 and #5 nemesis and chalk it up to climate change-induced “fog” for the Coast Guard.
(sorry Willis, but you are at least #5. Anthony is #1, Curry is #2, JoNova, is #3, and Tisdale is #4.)

knr
May 23, 2014 1:09 am

No matter how many ways you cook it , sooner or later you would get sick of Seagull , still not far to go to the ‘shop’

LearDog
May 23, 2014 1:19 am

Based on the geology, flora and fauna (not to mention coastal view) I am guessing Bend, OR.

May 23, 2014 2:07 am

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.770715,-123.104553,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m5!1e2!3m3!1s13160485!2e1!3e10?hl=en
Anthony and Willis at the North Farallons, in their reincarnations, after the unfortunate Mr Steyer’s Mega-Yacht incident in a “Climate change fog bank”.

J. Philip Peterson
May 23, 2014 2:14 am

Here’s another view of it – (the house to the right):
http://www.panoramio.com/photo_explorer#view=photo&position=19&with_photo_id=16603128&order=date_desc&user=2537316
Looks like fun!!
Next stop, North Sentinel Island? – (beware of the natives – the Sentinelese)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/North_Sentinel_Island.jpg

J Broadbent
May 23, 2014 2:41 am

Don’t slip on the path to knowledge!

NZ Willy
May 23, 2014 3:09 am

It’s on the island of Myst. Obvious to anyone who’s played it.

Dr Burns
May 23, 2014 3:38 am
Mike T
Reply to  Dr Burns
May 23, 2014 4:16 am

Interesting thread, the one on Stevenson screens. It’s not difficult to keep them painted, it’s not as if they have to be redone all that often if quality paint is used, and usually it’s touch-ups, not complete repainting. They’d certainly misread if NOT painted, but it’s equally important to keep them clean- they get covered in dust, urban pollution and bird droppings. Of more concern to me is changes in instrumentation over the years (from glass thermometers to electronic probes) and changes from large Stevenson screens to small ones. The old ones had room for clockwork autographic instruments such as thermograph and hair hygrograph. There are also practices such as leaving the bottle of water (for refilling the wet bulb muslins, especially in dry climates) inside the screen which might affect readings. There is also the “accuracy” or tolerance of the thermometers, which might be 0.3 degrees C with a smaller tolerance on the travelling instrument used to check that tolerance (hopefully twice annually). Given all the above it does make one wonder about the temperature record, but what else is there to rely on? Before the commencement of the satellite record, very little. Satellites need to be calibrated against ground instruments, too.

Tom J
May 23, 2014 3:52 am

Well, it’s nice to know that screen is continuously whitewashed.

May 23, 2014 3:56 am

Please get Tippi Hedren’s autograph. She has always been one of my favorites! 😉

Bob MacLean
May 23, 2014 3:58 am

If the seagulls are as aggressive as those in Brighton & Hove at this time of year you’ll need to wear hard hats to avoid serious scalp injuries.
http://www.thisbrighton.co.uk/culture-wildlife3.htm

John Silver
May 23, 2014 4:29 am

Google Earth says:
37°41’53.23″N
123° 0’11.26″W

Chris D.
May 23, 2014 5:27 am

Be sure to look into the function of those pipes along the sidewalk. I’m guessing probably for rain gutter runoff, but who knows. Looks like a really pleasant setting in any event.

beng
May 23, 2014 5:36 am

Must be on Planet X, home of Monster Zero:
http://www.stomptokyo.com/movies/godzilla-vs-monster-zero.html

Dave
May 23, 2014 5:49 am

If you look closely, there’s a seagull (AKA sea rat) standing on top of the Stevensen screen. So not only do you have to consider the effect that seagull poop has on the radiative heat transfer characteristics of the screen (maybe a new category to consider under the Surface Stations project 🙂 ) but you also have to consider radiative heating from sea rats perched on the screen.
I think it would be a crappy job surveying this site. Call Mike Rowe for help. He lives in San Fran.

May 23, 2014 6:08 am

I am in agreement with those who recommend you wear hats.
“There are three kinds of people in the world:
those that poop on people, those that are pooped on,
and those that say, “Oh, look at all that poop!”
🙂

Glenn
May 23, 2014 6:36 am

“From 1902 to 1913, the former U.S. Weather Bureau maintained a weather station on the southeast island, which was connected with the mainland by cable. The results of the meteorological study were later published in a book on California’s climate. Temperatures during those years never exceeded 90 °F (32 °C) or dropped to 32 °F (0 °C).[15] Years later, the National Weather Service provided some weather observations from the lighthouse on its local radio station.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Islands

May 23, 2014 6:40 am

You might get to see some Great Whites leaping out of the water while attacking sea lions.
Note: I sailed out of Alameda under the Golden Gate and out around the Farallon Islands in my Pacific Seacraft 37 in 1999/2000. It is expected to usually be a hull down bouncy sail.
John

Tom in South Jersey
May 23, 2014 6:54 am

Looks to me like it’s measuring the body temperature of an unladen seagull.

Evan Jones
Editor
May 23, 2014 8:28 am

Bird Albedo to counteract the Bird Waste Heat?

Sleepalot
May 23, 2014 8:42 am

Hmm. It seems a bad idea, to me, to put two such important people in a small craft travelling over the horizon, where the only witnesses would be; the CIA, the FBI, LAPD,
the Secret Service, Homeland Security, US Coast Gaurd, US Border Service, US Navy, US Airforce, …. Are you travelling on US Weapons-Testing Day?

milodonharlani
May 23, 2014 8:49 am

Joel O’Bryan says:
May 23, 2014 at 12:59 am
IMO for humiliating Mann, McIntyre & McKitrick occupy lower circles of CACA hell than some on your ranked list.

milodonharlani
May 23, 2014 8:51 am

Sleepalot says:
May 23, 2014 at 8:42 am
SFPD or SF County Sheriffs.
LAPD would be nearer Channel Islands.

Steve C
May 23, 2014 8:59 am

BTW, we commenters all expect picture postcards!

Gary Pearse
May 23, 2014 9:11 am

Isn’t this likely to simply have a sea-surface temperature? Virtually all the air around the screen will be directly from the sea. I guess this would still record the status of global warmiing.

Evan Jones
Editor
May 23, 2014 9:14 am

Okay, Anthony,
Google Earth is a little fuzzy, but, if including the photo, adequate to the task. You’ve got a half-meter paved path ~6 m away. That comes to ~8 m.^2 or so. Then you have the house, ~155m^2, within 30 m. I noticed an odd stepping stone, but so long as that doesn’t add up to ~1 m^2 within 5 m., we are okay.
So It’s a Class 2, Leroy (2010).
I give you my official blessing.
Using Leroy (1999), it’s Class 4 if including the path (“strict”), Class 3 if counting only the house. This is just like those stations I was joking about when we were saying “all Class 4 stations are created equal but some Class 4 stations are more equal than others”. Using Leroy (1999), it is Class 4. But using Leroy (2010), which actually measures the size of the heat sink, it is Class 2.

Max Hugoson
May 23, 2014 10:08 am

I’m flummoxed… but I think it’s somewhere in the Turd-world.

Aphan
May 23, 2014 10:14 am

“On the news tonight, we investigate the mysterious destruction of a weather station located in a remote nature preserve in California. All evidence points to a drone strike, but authorities have no idea who would have targeted the station or why. Watch more tonight at 11 on W.A.R.M. tv.”

milodonharlani
May 23, 2014 10:44 am

“But that’s the nature of forecasts, the closer you get to the target time, the more accurate they become.”
So in AD 2100 the forecast by NOAA for that year’s global T will be 1.2 degrees C above the 20th century average?

milodonharlani
May 23, 2014 10:56 am

In case anyone is interested, in 2013 NOAA determined that the annual global combined land & ocean surface temperature was 0.62°C (1.12°F) above the 20th century average of 13.9°C (57.0°F). So my guess is 0.58°C warmer in 2100 than last year. Earth might then be just a few years into a warm phase, following the c. 2067-96 cool phase, following the c. 2037-66 warm phase, following the current 2007-36 cooling.
I’m almost certain to be wrong, but also likely to be a lot closer to reality than the IPCC.

Jeffrey
May 23, 2014 11:11 am

Are we sure those gulls aren’t getting all broody on the thermometer bulb and trying to hatch it? What’s the temperature of a seagull’s butt? Watts up that gull?

Editor
May 23, 2014 11:19 am

Thanks for an entertaining puzzle, Anthony. And I agree about the weather. When the report says “STEEP SHORT PERIOD SQUARED SEAS”, thats Coast Guard code a really ugly chop with vertical sides. And the problem gets very large right outside the Golden Gate.
As with many such narrow passages to the sea, the channel under the Golden Gate Bridge is deep. But outside of the mouth, the silt load drops out, and there are shallows there. There’s a dredged ships’ channel, but the shallow spot north of the channel, called “The Potato Patch” by local fishermen, is prone to the occasional “sneaker wave” even on a nice day.

But on a day with small craft advisories and the aforementioned “STEEP SHORT PERIOD SQUARED SEAS”, the whole mouth of the bay can get downright ugly. The waves bounce off the shore both north and south of the mouth of the Bay, and you get very confused seas coming from several directions, standing waves, strong cross currents. It’s what we used to call “Washing Machine Charley”, where you feel like you’re caught in said machine.
So, it’s a day when as Anthony comments, there’s no point in being out there unless you have to … I’ve had to in the past, lack of money is a strong motivative force, but now, I have the luxury of not needing to.
My best to all, especially Anthony,
w.

RichardD
May 23, 2014 11:25 am

NW wind around 26 kt, with gusts as high as 32 kt. Patchy fog before 11am. Mixed swell…WNW 9 ft at 8 seconds and SSW 3 ft at 17 seconds. Wind waves around 6 ft.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Peppy and adventurous, but could build to scary or worse. Be safe.

RichardD
May 23, 2014 11:37 am

there are shallows there.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Serious sailing grounds. Smart call….cheers,

RichardD
May 23, 2014 12:11 pm

Willis, could you describe the boat? Power or sail?

May 23, 2014 1:18 pm

nearby there is a bouy
http://berkeleyearth.lbl.gov/stations/32529
a while back Jones did a comparison marine air temps and coastal temps and land temps to address the UHI question.. Result: no evidence.
there are piles of bouy data you can use to compare the trends in maritime air temp and nearby cities.
but then you’ll also find that bouys differ from lighthouses and islands..and lighthouses differ from islands, and islands differ from rural and islands differ from urban

Marc DePeel
May 23, 2014 1:25 pm

I worked at a radio station that had a weather observation station in front. We took manual reading of the thermometer and precipitation every day. It had been at there for around 40-50 years. We actually got an award for being an observation station for so long from the NWS.

Man Bearpig
May 23, 2014 2:07 pm

Judging by the landscape and all those penguins this is obviously a photo taken during the ‘Ship of Fools’ daytrip that went wrong in Antarctica

May 23, 2014 2:40 pm

Anthony Watts says:
May 23, 2014 at 10:18 am
But that’s the nature of forecasts, the closer you get to the target time, the more accurate they become.

=====================================================================
A couple of years ago I asked my local NWS about precipitation forecast. The answer i got was a bit detailed but what I took away from it was that for 4 to 10 days out the chance of precipitation refereed to the chance of precipitation anywhere in in the forecast area. 1 to 3 days out it referred to the percentage of the forecast area that would receive precipitation.
Did I understand that right or should I dig out that old email and reread it?
PS are those herring gulls in the picture?

May 23, 2014 3:39 pm

Well, Anthony, you can’t really cite this one for not receiving routine coats of “whitewash”. It’s probably caked on there several layers thick.

RichardD
May 23, 2014 4:35 pm

but then you’ll also find that bouys differ from lighthouses and islands..and lighthouses differ from islands, and islands differ from rural and islands differ from urban
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Steven, it’s similar here come get the data….I’m a coastal sailor around the Outer Banks of NC (Cape Fear and Hatteras). Pernicious greens and dilettante legislators are pushing the catastrophic sea-level rise meme.

J. Philip Peterson
May 23, 2014 7:19 pm

I wouldn’t give up on the Idea. Are you going to try this again in the near future? Do you have to get special permission to land on this island – and from who? Hope they are willing to cooperate with your endeavor…
Phil

george e. smith
May 23, 2014 10:05 pm

“””””…..Mike T says:
May 22, 2014 at 11:50 pm
I’m not American, so it could be anywhere coastal, or an offshore island, judging by the low grasses and the fact the only tree is in the shelter of the house. I can’t see an anemometer mast (unless that’s it up against the house, in which case the readings would be awful). The screen is too close to the house, too. …….””””””
Well, I guessed it was on the Farallon Islands, just from the rocky peaks; make that peaky rocks, and the seagulls. No idea, whereabouts in Mexico, Los Farallones might be.
As for the distance between the screen, and the house. I defy anyone to identify from the Temperature records, or the temperature anomaly records, precisely when that house appeared on the scene.

Mike T
Reply to  george e. smith
May 23, 2014 10:21 pm

I don’t know about US practice, but it’s usual here for weather stations to have frequent (every couple of years) skyline surveys which show whether buildings are encroaching on the observation area or nearby trees are growing overlarge. This then goes on the station file with other information such as dates of changes in thermometers (type, brand, serial number), plus their calibration data (every 6-12 months) plus addition (or subtraction) of equipment such as an anemometer mast or evaporation pan. All these instruments have siting requirements, such as an anemometer mast should be a minimum of 30 times the height of nearest building away from that building, but thin masts are OK.

noaaprogrammer
May 23, 2014 10:17 pm

Land on the island while it is still above sea level!

george e. smith
May 23, 2014 10:26 pm

“””””…..Willis Eschenbach says:
May 23, 2014 at 11:19 am
Thanks for an entertaining puzzle, Anthony. And I agree about the weather. When the report says “STEEP SHORT PERIOD SQUARED SEAS”, thats Coast Guard code a really ugly chop with vertical sides. And the problem gets very large right outside the Golden Gate.
As with many such narrow passages to the sea, the channel under the Golden Gate Bridge is deep. But outside of the mouth, the silt load drops out, and there are shallows there. There’s a dredged ships’ channel, but the shallow spot north of the channel, called “The Potato Patch” by local fishermen, is prone to the occasional “sneaker wave” even on a nice day. …..”””””
Well the “potato patch”, is actually an excellent demonstration, of the principles of wave “optics”.
There are steep cliffs to the north and south, which reflect any waves coming into that region, and the result is you get interference of several wave patterns all at once. I have sat out there in the PP, in a 20 ft boat
(offshore power boat) stationary, and watched the water in total amazement. It was quite impossible (on that occasion) to say which direction the waves were moving in. The pattern was a total standing wave pattern and the only direction water was moving, was vertically, straight up and down. No lateral movement of any kind of wave crest was discernible.
That’s why, they call it “the dancing waters”. Now it is NOT always stationary standing waves. The sandy bottom shoals do impact it depending on; well damn near everything there is out there.
It is a freaky place at times. I’ve never felt it was dangerous out there; but quite often, there is NO direction, and NO speed, at which it is comfortable, to run through there.
So you just have to go in the direction you want, and pick a speed that your kidneys don’t object to.
At other times, I have surfed through there as If I was at Waikiki beach. (in my boat). Quite spectacular. (and safe too)

May 23, 2014 10:41 pm

Mike T says terrestrial thermometers have to be calibrated against terrestrial thermometers. I thought that too, but Roy Spencer corrected me. Satellite platinum resistance thermometers calibrate themselves by reference to the known temperature of the cosmic background temperature, taken via mirrors.

Mike T
Reply to  Monckton of Brenchley
May 23, 2014 11:57 pm

Monckton of Brenchley, you are correct, except that it’s terrestrial thermometers calibrated against terrestrial, satellite using other methods (although believe there is some ground truthing of satellites against sea temperature data, for instance from drifting buoys).

May 23, 2014 11:21 pm

Why does it not seem to be in the BEST database?
Here is the result for a search based upon Lat / Lon
RE: Joel O’Bryan 12:23 am N37.698119, W123.003536
http://berkeleyearth.lbl.gov/station-list/?latitude=37.7&longitude=-123
Stations near 37.7, -123
Station_Name Months Distance_(km) Earliest Most)Recent
ENVIRONM BUOY 46026 293 16.08 Jan 1983 Oct 2013
SAN FRANCISCO (PBS) 11 26.96 Apr 1995 Jun 1996
PACIFIC BUOY 19 28.62 Mar 1983 Mar 1985
POINT REYES 45 31.60 Feb 2010 Oct 2013
POINT REYES LIGHT STN 154 33.39 Jan 1931 Dec 1943
HALF MOON BAY 271 38.91 May 1982 Apr 2013
PACIFIC BUOY 24 42.56 Jan 1982 Mar 1985
MUIR WOODS 9 43.35 Jun 2012 Sep 2013
SAN FRANCISCO OCEANSIDE 592 43.62 Dec 1958 Aug 2013
BARNABY CALIFORNIA 180 44.88 Mar 1997 Oct 2013
WOODACRE CALIFORNIA 75 44.91 Jun 2003 Oct 2013
MOUNT TAMALPAIS 2 SSE 86 45.04 Feb 1898 Dec 1946
PACIFICA 2 S 88 46.48 Nov 2000 Apr 2009
SAN FRANCISCO ACAD OF SCIENCE 72 47.47 Aug 1951 Jul 1957
KENTFIELD 1292 47.61 Jan 1902 Sep 2013 (Note: BEST cut the KENTFIELD record six times between 1900 and 1990, then cut it six more times between 1990 and 2013 ! )
PACIFICA 4 SSE 338 48.04 Nov 1983 Nov 2012
SAN FRANCISCO 90 48.16 May 2005 Oct 2013
HALF MOON BAY AIRPOR 48 48.62 Aug 2009 Oct 2013
SPRING VALLEY CALIFORNIA 125 51.92 Nov 1998 Oct 2013
SAN RAFAEL CIVIC CENTER 767 52.45 Jan 1894 Aug 2013
SAN FRANCISCO/MISSION DOLORES 1112 52.87 Jan 1921 Sep 2013
(BEST says 1 move and 2 empirical cuts between 1921-1982, then 4 station moves between 1982 and 2013 — I’ll grant the first two moves look legit based upon minimums.)
BIG ROCK CALIFORNIA 109 53.37 Oct 2003 Oct 2013
TIBURON PIER 61 54.00 Nov 2006 May 2013
SAN FRANCISCO /PIER 23 54.46 Oct 2011 Oct 2013
HALF MOON BAY 854 55.18 Jul 1939 Sep 2013
RICHMOND 705 56.04 Dec 1950 Aug 2013

May 23, 2014 11:31 pm

george e. smith says:
May 23, 2014 at 10:26 pm
As with many such narrow passages to the sea, the channel under the Golden Gate Bridge is deep. But outside of the mouth, the silt load drops out, and there are shallows there.
——————————————————————————————————————-
and that is why they never found the ship “Rio de Janeiro” when it went down with it,s cargo of gold bullion and many unfortunate souls.

Mark Luhman
May 24, 2014 12:05 am

Anthony Watts says
“Willis is a seasoned mariner, me, not so much. But in a 25′ boat, no point in risking our lives for a weekend joyride. Earlier in the week, the forecast looked promising, now it worsens by the hour.
But that’s the nature of forecasts, the closer you get to the target time, the more accurate they become.”
I agree with you Anthony with the forecasts, yet we get people like Gavin telling climate is not weather and yes they can use a computer program to tell us what the climate is going to be fifty years out. I consider that complete adult bovine fetal manner. Climate is the accumulation of weather events, weather is chaos you cannot predict a chaotic system out more than a few hours since the variables cannot be predicted. It would be like tell me in real dollars how much my house or the one that replaces it would be worth in fifth years. I would expect it to be more, the only thing for certain is I will be dead and gone by then. I could even be wrong about the latter since at this point and time most humans don’t get beyond 100 let alone one hundred and eleven, but medicine could have a break through on ageing but it highly unlikely, just like Gavin model and it many computer runs.

Brian H
May 24, 2014 12:16 am

Steven Mosher says:
May 23, 2014 at 1:18 pm
nearby there is a bouy

there are piles of bouy data you
but then you’ll also find that bouys

Thar ain’t no such aminal as a bouy. Believe your spellcheck when it redlines something. It’s prob’ly Not A Word.
buoy

Chris D.
May 24, 2014 4:46 am

Lewis P Buckingham says:
May 23, 2014 at 2:24 pm
“Notice though that none are perched on the screen, so hopefully their guano is essentially absent.”
Actually, there is one perched on the screen.

May 24, 2014 6:01 am

“This weekend (weather permitting)…”
Well, the weather may not have permitted, but perhaps the climate would?

observa
May 24, 2014 8:06 am

Obviously with the usual flapping of all those seagull wings the temperature measured today would be somewhat cooler than in the past, so clearly all past temperatures will need to be adjusted down by a 97% consensus of Big Climate scientists to compensate. Being extremely busy with media and politician briefings, as well as grant submissions, naturally they’ll need to sub it out to Cook and Lewandowsky’s raters and no further correspondence will be entered into, in order to protect the privacy of the seagulls and sundry tertiary institutions.

D$
May 24, 2014 10:30 am

are you really stating that the finest minds in climate science in universities couldn’t find UHI ? Really ? I did a GCSE geography project in England where we took temperatures in a village and outside of a village to demonstrate the UHI effect.

george e. smith
May 24, 2014 1:03 pm

“””””……JohnWho says:
May 24, 2014 at 6:01 am
“This weekend (weather permitting)…”
Well, the weather may not have permitted, but perhaps the climate would?…..”””””
I have been out there in a 20 ft center console fishing boat, in very quiet seas. Almost glassy calm ocean, say a hundred yards from the shore of any of those islands.
Even so, three’s no way in hell, I would ever have tried to actually land, on that one. There are very few places, where it is reasonably safe to land, and it’s best to be with somebody, who actually knows where and how to do so safely. Quite apart from the fact, you are generally not allowed to. Was worth the run just to say I’d been out there. Furthest out I ever went in that boat, (out of Santa Cruz) was 75 miles; chasing albacore.

george e. smith
May 24, 2014 1:07 pm

“””””…..goldminor says:
May 23, 2014 at 11:31 pm
george e. smith says:
May 23, 2014 at 10:26 pm
As with many such narrow passages to the sea, the channel under the Golden Gate Bridge is deep. But outside of the mouth, the silt load drops out, and there are shallows there……”””””
Actually, I never said any such thing.
I believe you are citing something Willis posted; NOT me.

Editor
May 24, 2014 6:41 pm

Steven Mosher says:
May 23, 2014 at 1:18 pm

nearby there is a bouy
http://berkeleyearth.lbl.gov/stations/32529
a while back Jones did a comparison marine air temps and coastal temps and land temps to address the UHI question.. Result: no evidence.
there are piles of bouy data you can use to compare the trends in maritime air temp and nearby cities.
but then you’ll also find that bouys differ from lighthouses and islands..and lighthouses differ from islands, and islands differ from rural and islands differ from urban

Steven, I gotta say, once your algorithm gets done with it, I’m not surprised you find no UHI effect. Here is the record you cite, from the San Francisco Bay Buoy:

Mean Rate of Change ( °C / Century )
Raw monthly anomalies -3.55
After quality control -3.19
After breakpoint alignment -1.86
Regional expectation during same months 0.72 ± 0.19

Let me get this straight. It’s a buoy. Takes temperatures every hour. Has a gap in the data.
The raw data is cooling fast, 3.55 degrees per century.
After “quality control”, shockingly, it shows less cooling, 3.19°C per century.
But then, after “breakpoint alignment”, meaning adjustment to better agree with the surrounding region, we’re down to a drop of 1.86°C per century. Funny how that works … seems to me I’d need a whole lot more evidence before I screwed with my own data that way.
But in any case, even after “adjustment” the buoy record is cooling at nearly 2°C per century, and the “regional expectation” during that time is warming, not cooling but warming, at 0.7 ± 0.2°C per century.
Hardly seems like a poster child for either your method or your claims about UHI … I’m not seeing the logic in the “breakpoint alignment”.
w.