Like tornados and trailer parks, USHCN temperature sensors and barbecues seem to have mutual attraction.
This is the official NOAA USHCN climate station of record in Fairbury Nebraska.
Click for a larger image
Photo taken by surfacestations.org volunteer Eric Gamberg
Here is the station temperature plot from GISS. Care to guess when the station was located here?
Click for source image
According to the NCDC MMS database the station was placed here in 1998.
[1998-12-07] 2004-10-01 40.135560 (40°08’08″N) -97.171390 (97°10’17″W)
GROUND: 1360 FEET JEFFERSON 09 – SOUTHEAST CENTRAL (+6)
Location Description: OBSERVERS RESIDENCE WITHIN AND 0.5 MILES NW OF PO AT FAIRBURY NE
The step change seen in the temperature record is quite pronounced and continues today.
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The global list of stations from the met office appears to give locations to a reasonably fine level. However, the locations don’t seem to be too accurate, but feed the lat/long into google maps and you should see the general area. See if you can spot a likely candidate on the satellite image.
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/met/metlog/mdb_global_stationlist.txt
I wonder if we can divide the data into two sets. One that has all good station locations and record keeping,and the rest of the crap? That may give the clearest picture we can hope for.
I am new to this site. Has there been data-gathering station among the 75 examples that, due to whatever reason, might have a tendency to underreport temperatures?
REPLY: The difference is that there are no reported station moves that coincide with those dates at NCDC’s database, plus if you’ll notice, post 1998 has all been with a positive offset, where the other dates you cite have both positive and negative excursions of the signal.
Anthony, i do respect some parts of your work.
but each of these posts leaves similar crucial gaps in the explanation of the phenomenon:
for example, why would temperature rise for 3 years after the location change?
now, a mid-year change in location explains the jump being spread over 2 years. and some part of the change could be a real temperature rise.
but do you have any explanation for the change spreading 4 years? (and that is the actual center of this topic!)
For those interested. Hound dog Steve McIntyre is sniffing the trail of something:
It looks like NOAA is busy deleting public files perhaps to cover up bad data from Finland surface stations showing a warm October:
http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=4414
You think it’s cold now?
http://www.accuweather.com/mt-news-blogs.asp?partner=accuweather&blog=Meteomadness&pgurl=/mtweb/content/Meteomadness/archives/2008/11/you_think_its_cold_now.asp
“REPLY: Thanks but…I’ll repeat again that commenter “Chris” here first brought attention to this data flaw and regular contributor John Goetz confirmed the problem. My contribution was solely as proprietor of this blog, and thus minimal. – Anthony”
In fairness, you give credit to “Chris” and John Goetz for the original discovery. The credit, which you and Steve McIntyre have earned, is in disseminating the information through your individual blogs to an international audience. Publication in the MSM, although limited, is important in informing the public. Publication in the Washington Times indicates that the information has penetrated the Belt-Way, where the outcome of the AGW hoax will be decided.
I’m smoking a pork shoulder for Thanksgiving to make pulled pork BBQ. Does anyone have an official MMTS unit I can borrow to monitor the temp of my smoker? I get kind of tired walking outside to check it.
PaulM
Thanks I have registered.
I take your point about GISS UK stations. I came across this list and dismissed it only contained 9 locations. I found an answer to parliamentary questions which stated that there are 72 official MET office weather stations.
I think I have just about tracked them down with lat/longs.
I have been trying to find the weather station in Lerwick, Shetland.
One of the GISS stations.
Even with ordinates correct to 3 decimal places it is difficult to track down on Google Earth.
The weather station turns out to be at Baila House.
http://www.vetrack.com/weather/
Position 60.146090, -1.175576
I hope not!
The weather station at Dyce Airport is certainly worth a look.
Surprised that it has not been knocked over.
Somewhat OT:
The US National Intelligence Council just released its public report to prepare Obama for the upcoming term. Among other alarming things this report claims:
“global warming will aggravate the scarcity of water, food and energy resources. Citing a British study, it said that climate change could force up to 200 million people to migrate to more temperate zones. “Widening gaps in birth rates and wealth-to-poverty ratios, and the impact of climate change, could further exacerbate tensions,” it said.
The report says the warming earth will extend Russia and Canada’s growing season and ease their access to northern oil fields, strengthening their economies. But Russia’s potential emergence as a world power may be clouded by lagging investment in its energy sector, persistent crime and government corruption, the report says.”
source- Foxnews.com
National Intelligence Council, indeed (sigh).
Again:
For year and years and years (since early 90’s), probe after probe have been reporting Polar “Ice” shrinkage on MARS. – For last couple years, I’ve not read a single word about it!
If that has stopped in a time of a quieter sun, it would be a huge indicator for the sun’s role on climate change. If Mars polar “ICE” start’s to increase in the next couple years, it would say a lot about the influence of the sun on planets.
Anyone knows where that can be researched?
Pitsford Hall in the centre of England is proud of its weather station. They have a website with historical data for Northamptonshire, some of which is downloadable.
The sensors all used to be at ground level but unfortunately vandalism forced a move to a more secure location.
<a href=”http://www.northantsweather.org.uk”
Note the useful photos.
Meanwhile, the earth continues to warm……
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/hadleycentre/news/warming_goes_on.html
Food for the MSM.
I’ll take my steak Medium Rare!! 🙂
….love the series!
http://www.cookevilleweatherguy.com
The UK RAF Valley site also looks poor. Acres of tarmac, buildings and aircraft parking areas. This site is also immediately adjacent to the Irish Sea.
Check out 53 15′ 09.5″ N 4 32′ 11.5″ W
Clearly as others have observed, the UK needs a serious study, but as the sites are all located in security areas, the task seems to be impossible.
No wonder I couldn’t find it!!
I went to Fairbury in May on a surfacestations quest and couldn’t find the sensor. Now, I know why.
Well, you guys are not giving the GWA’s (global warming alarmists) enough credit. After all, they’ve been saying for years that barbecues are contributing to global warming. 🙂
sod: We can’t know with certainty why the temperatures are higher, but the nearby parked car and cooking grille (the black rectangle on a post to the right of the sensor) suggest the placement is not quite up to standards. From this viewpoint it is not obvious how far from the building the sensor is.
If anyone writes a book on this, you couldn’t go far wrong with this title.
Everyman is appalled.
The cause of the anomalous temp rise is of course…..
… the 1985 Pontiac Sunbird sitting in the driveway.
Suspected NOAA temperature readings were not all they’re cracked up to be!
“Anthony Watts set out to do what big-time armchair-climate modelers like James Hansen and no one else has ever done – physically quality-check each weather station to see if it’s being operated properly.” (surveyed in Oregon and California)
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, By Bill Steigerwald
What he found: temperature instruments on top of concrete base, some standing 10 feet from an air conditioner exhaust vent, one on the rooftop near an AC unit and another next to a trash drum for burning.
And we should place our faith in the NOAA temperature readings? Hadley Centre in London has done a survey and founduch the same problems in temperature measurements around the world – lacking true readings!
QUESTION?
If the amount of CO2 being produced man-made and recorded by Keeling Towers at 385ppmv, why are’nt the temperatures constantly higher?
PROBLEM?
Keeling Towers have indicated a decline of CO2 in the past two years. Eddy Covariance instruments have indicated a concentration of CO2 along the 40th parallel Lat. with only traces in the southern hempisphere. Strange!
Could it be that CO2 is not the greenhouse gas it has been made out to be heating up the Earth?
Regarding my earlier post @Leon Brozyna (06:32:25) with Anthony’s reply. I wasn’t really trying to suggest that the step was natural {although it might be possible}. When I looked for another site to compare to Fairbury and found Hebron, I was struck by the fact that both had a similar step. I then guessed that the step at Hebron was also a result of the installation of an MMTS. This really was my main point — that at both locations it appeared that they had a similar step function not because of any change in the weather but because of the installation of the MMTS, which seems to invariably be located close to structures and other things that might affect the device’s readings.
The other thing that stood out was the huge difference between the temperature record of these two locations. Hebron’s temperatures show a slow and steady negative trend before becoming rather level before jumping with the the installation of the MMTS {and the appearance of the step}. Fairbury, on the other hand, has quite a history where the temps rise till the 1930’s then fall till around 1970 before rising again, especially with the introduction of the MMTS. This makes the Fairbury record suspect in my mind.
In comparing these two sites and their different temperature histories as well as site moves and equipment changes, I wonder what real use there is in these records. In this era of satellites, use ground stations to inform local residents and use the satellite records for the serious study of climate.
From JonT (23:33:04) :
With such a large jump it is not going to take too many like this to have a real impact on the overall figures.
end quote.
And remember that they re-write history and fill-in-the-blanks with a fictional number made from a long term average. One has to wonder how a step function high changes the fictional past / missing numbers on an ongoing basis as the average is drifted higher… Anthropogenic Climate Data Change anyone? AC/DC …
And Lord help you if this is counted as a “rural” thermometer for adjusting the UHI effect for the nearby (1000 mile away) site… and ITS mythical past…
Don’t forget the Black Body radiation off the Bonnet of that Poniac; aimed straight up the skirts of that there Barn Owl box; or is that car sitting up on cinder blocks we can’t see.
Some people’s yards are mighty untidy; like mine I guess.
George
Let us in on the secret Anthony; it’s really you carrying that Owl box around from one hilarious place to another just to keep us amused; well hell; it’s working!