Kalamazoo State Hospital
In an effort to add to the surfacestation.org survey coverage, I’ve been looking at a number of stations from the aerial vantage points available in Google Earth and Microsoft Live Maps. I particularly look for the stations that have Stevenson Screens, as those are the most visible and easy to spot from these online resources.
I was disappointed to learn though that the USHCN station at Kalamazoo State Hospital (a state psychiatric hospital) has been closed. It was probably due to recent construction of new wards as seen here:
While I was scouring online image databases looking for a surviving photo that would show the placement of the Stevenson Screen, I stumbled across this photo on Flickr taken from afar and this strange comment about it:
Flickr caption reads: I took this photo from well away from the grounds of the State Hospital, so as to avoid violating state law.
“Apparently, it is illegal to take photographs on the grounds of the state hospital as a protection to those who are patients there. I received a lengthy explanation of this law from the Michigan State Police officer who was on patrol at the hospital the morning I visited. He advised me that the hospital office has quite a collection of confiscated cameras.”
I did visit another state mental hospital in Napa, CA and found this placement of the MMTS:
You can see a full set of pictures, at the surfacestations.org image database.
So WUWT readers, here is the challenge against very unlikely odds:
Find a surviving photo of the USHCN weather station at Kalamazoo State Hospital.
Good hunting.
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Anthony,
This is OT, but this link was passed to me from a fellow AGW sceptic in Galicia, Spain and I believe you should be appraised of it.
http://www.ukcip.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=156&Itemid=288
Regards,
Perry
Perhaps there is an artist among us. A set of acrylics would be wonderful, but charcoals would do fine, or even pencil sketches.
Winner! Insensitive title of the year
REPLY: Hmmm, I never thought about that. When I was growing up in the midwest, “Krazy in Kalamazoo” was a saying I’d heard several times, sort of like “Sleepless in Seattle”.
The saying went something like this, though I can’t remember the exact wording: If I’m wrong about that, then they’re Krazy in Kalamazoo
The title wasn’t meant to offend anyone. But I’ve changed it since the title really isn’t of any consequence to my hope that somebody will help me get photos of this station. – Anthony
Re Perry link:
Why do the “Updates” stop in Feb. 08? They didn’t care for the trend?
we have a small group looking for exact locations of all the UK weather stations to asses their quality on the world famous Watts 5 point scale. Photo’s are hard to come by, Met office location data are wrong and google earth doesn’t spot them all. Like you we are just going to have to visit them.
More when we have some useful information
Possible source of information below:
http://climate.geo.msu.edu/stations/4244/NARRAT.txt
“Station History of Kalamazoo
Observations began on August 1, 1866, as a temperature-only station, and
continued through March 31, 1867, but the exact station location is unknown.
In January 1876 a precipitation-only station was established. In January 1877
the station was converted into a full climate station located at the State
Hospital, 1.5 mi. SW of town (0.9 mi. SW of the post office). The station has
been at this location to the present.
For more information please contact:
Michigan Departent of Agriculture, Climatology Program
417 Natural Science Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Voice (517)373-8338 BBS (517)336-1075
(517)355-0231 FAX (517)336-1076”
Another interesting weather site referring to Kalamazoo:
http://climexp.knmi.nl/getmin.cgi?someone@somewhere+72635.1+KALAMAZOO_STATE_HOSPITAL+
Seems you can do your own charting here.
People have said this before but what is it about these air conditioners that makes them such a great attractor for an MMTS sensor right in front of them.
Mr. Watts,
What is the white box shape .11 miles ssw of the water tower @ur momisugly
42*16’39.90″N, 85*36’19.40″W on Google Earth’
It is just off a small rectangular parking lot and next to a dirt or gravel road.
It seems to have a peak roof. Not sure if Stevenson Screens are made with that style roof or not.
REPLY: It is half the size of a vehicle, too big and wrong roof to be a screen. Besides NCDC reports the station closed around 2000, so doubtfull it is still there, and I think the aerial photos are more recent than that. – Anthony
Hey, Kalamazoo is a great town full of college students who would likely take pride in the original title. Apparently air conditioners attract thermometers. Perhaps a Watt are the odds post is in order.
I just finished a post on Dr Loehles paper regarding tree rings and temp reconstructions. It is an interesting topic which relates to the continued use of tree rings in spite of the “divergence” problem.
http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/the-800lb-gorrilla-in-the-hockey-sticks-locker-room/
The Kalamazoo Valley Museum at the Kalamazoo Community College advertises their “Kalamazoo Valley Museum Weather Station 3”. That link shows a photo of their “weather station”.
(It looks like it is mounted over a black roof! They may have an exhibit about anthropogenic global warming.)
The museum curator at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum may be able to help with photos of the old Kalamazoo State Hospital weather station. See contact details at the bottom of the page.
Bill Illis
I believe it’s based on the same principle that causes trailer parks to attract tornados.
There is an R-squared correlation. You could look it up on RealClimate.
It could be nothing but there is something in the bottom corner of the picture on the right on the following site.
I went to high school in Stevensville, MI, 1 hr west of K-zoo. Krazy in Kalamazoo was something I was familiar with as well.
Colin Aldridge (14:50:23) :
we have a small group looking for exact locations of all the UK weather stations to asses their quality on the world famous Watts 5 point scale. Photo’s are hard to come by, Met office location data are wrong and google earth doesn’t spot them all. Like you we are just going to have to visit them.
How do I join in?
BigJim (13:21:58) :
Winner! Insensitive title of the year
Winner! Oversensitive comment of the year
Lawyers call for international court for the environment
A former chairman of the Bar Council is calling for an international court for the environment to punish states that fail to protect wildlife and prevent climate change.
The court would be led by retired judges, climate change experts and public figures. It would include a scientific body to consider evidence and provide access to any data on the environment.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/3530607/Lawyers-call-for-international-court-for-the-environment.html
Granted OT but…what is the deal with that brick tower in the middle of the square…guard tower, water tower, isolation rooms?? Never seen anything like that before. Wouldn’t suprise me if they had the sensors up there before.
Jeff K
I found a short post on antarctic temperature trends fairly interesting. You might want to check it out.
http://digitaldiatribes.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/2008-update-on-antarctic-temperatures-rss/
OT, but the madness here in the UK grows. Reported by the BBC and all the MSM is the report by the Climate Change Committee entitled “Building a low-carbon economy – the UK’s contribution to tackling climate change”. See http://www.theccc.org.uk/reports/.
It is obvious that we in the UK are intent on leading the western world back to the dark ages.
OT:
Came across this report, 10% of species will disappear for every degree C increase. Good grief another piece of junk getting media attention:
http://www.cbd.int/doc/meetings/cc/ahteg-bdcc-01/other/ahteg-bdcc-01-findings-en.pdf
JeffK,
It is indeed a water tower.
My alma mater, Western Michigan University is right across the street (Stadium Drive) from the hospital.
We used to say that patients were attending “Kalamazoo State”
d
JeffK, inquired about the brick tower on the grounds of the Kalamazoo state hospital. I grew up about 7 miles away. The tower has a rather foreboding appearance, especially on a cold gray day, of which there are many in Kazoo. The kids in the neighborhood and I believed the insane asylum kept their most dangerous inmates chained up inside the tower. I later found out It’s a water tower.
Alarmists like to teach kids about global warming. Kids love fanciful stories, especially if they involve really scary stuff.
BigJim (13:21:58) :
Winner! Insensitive title of the year
God Bi-Jim, get a life, will ya? I’m so sick of the Politically Correct Police that I’m about to slit my North American-American wrists and commit suicide.
Whoops! Is that too “insensitive” to the borderline psychotics out there that may be considering ending it all? Wow! I should be more careful with my “hate speech”.
I did it again! I sincerely apologize to any non North American-Americans that I may have offended in my obvious omission to those of other races, colors, creeds, mental state of health or continent of origin.
Sheez.