WUWT readers will probably remember yesterdays’ story about the malfunctioning temperature sensor at the ASOS station at Honolulu airport next to an asphalt access road. Well guess what? Even though NOAA admits the sensor is in error by as much as 2 degrees, they are going to keep the data and the string of new high temperature records. “BUT” they fixed the recent record rainfall data from the same station. See below. How’s that for science? Fix one broken record due to faulty equipment but leave others?
FROM KITV-TV (hat tip to Becka)
HONOLULU — Honolulu’s run of record heat came to an end Wednesday, but it may not have been any cooler.The weather has been warm most of the month, with highs in the 90s the past nine days.However, between 11 a.m. and noon, the city’s temperature dropped from Wednesday’s high of 89 degrees to 86 degrees, the same hour a new thermometer was installed at Honolulu International Airport.
The old one had been showing a warm bias of a degree or two, officials said. The National Weather Service said that is not significant enough to throw out the data and recent records.
Here is the string of temperature records that have been set from this faulty ASOS station:
RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT HONOLULU HI
436 PM HST TUE JUN 16 2009
A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 91 DEGREES WAS SET AT HONOLULU HI TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 89 SET IN 2005. $$ HOAG
RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT HONOLULU HI
431 PM HST MON JUN 15 2009
A HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 92 DEGREES AT HONOLULU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TODAY BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 90 SET IN 1982. $$
RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT HONOLULU HI
627 PM HST SUN JUN 14 2009
A TEMPERATURE OF 92 DEGREES AT HONOLULU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TODAY BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 90 SET IN 2005. $$
RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT HONOLULU HI
456 PM HST SAT JUN 13 2009
A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 92 DEGREES WAS SET AT HONOLULU HI TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 90 SET IN 2005. $$
RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT HONOLULU
525 PM HST FRI JUN 12 2009
A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 92 DEGREES WAS SET AT HONOLULU TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 89 SET IN 1993. $$
RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE TIED AT HONOLULU HI
426 PM HST THU JUN 11 2009
A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 92 DEGREES WAS TIED AT HONOLULU HI TODAY. THIS TIES THE OLD RECORD OF 92 SET IN 1996. $$
RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT HONOLULU HI
427 PM HST WED JUN 10 2009
A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 92 DEGREES WAS SET AT HONOLULU HI TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 91 SET IN 1982. $$
RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT HONOLULU HI
430 PM HST TUE JUN 9 2009
A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 91 DEGREES AT HONOLULU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TODAY BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 90 SET IN 2003. $$
RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT HONOLULU HI
0426 PM HST MON JUN 08 2009
A HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 92 DEGREES HONOLULU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TODAY BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 90 SET IN 1997. $$
RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT HONOLULU HI
428 PM HST FRI JUN 05 2009
A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 91 DEGREES WAS SET AT HONOLULU HI TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 90 SET IN 1997. $$ WATKINS
RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT HONOLULU
445 PM HST TUE JUN 2 2009
A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 91 DEGREES WAS SET AT HONOLULU TODAY. THIS TIES THE OLD RECORD OF 91 SET IN 1996. $$
CORRECTION TO RAINFALL RECORD AT HONOLULU AIRPORT
0915 PM HST THU MAY 28 2009
DUE TO TECHNICAL PROBLEMS…THE HONOLULU AIRPORT OBSERVATION STATED A RECORD RAINFALL OF 0.14 INCHES FOR THURSDAY MAY 28…BUT THIS IS INCORRECT. ONLY 0.02 INCHES FELL AT THE AIRPORT. NO RECORD WAS BROKEN. $$ MORRISON
RECORD DAILY MAXIMUM RAINFALL SET AT HONOLULU HI
445 PM HST THU MAY 28 2009
HONOLULU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT RECORDED RAINFALL OF 0.14 INCHES TODAY BREAKING THE OLD RECORD OF 0.11 SET IN 1963. $$
Let me say it first: THIS IS JUST WRONG.
If they know the error, how can they possibly justify keeping the new maximum records? You can’t get away with this sort of thing in the world of professional sports records, Olympic records, or even the cheesy Guinness Book of Records. Heck they even fix mistakes made on the TV quiz show Jeopardy and dock the contestant’s winnings!
Surely NOAA has more scruples than a TV game show?
If the record can’t be verified because the equipment is faulty, how does that make it a valid record? They can’t, it’s FUBAR!
Here is the contact email links (right off their web page, I’m not outing anymore) for the Meteorologist in Charge and staff at NWS Honolulu. I say we give them an earful.
- James Weyman
- Meteorologist in Charge
- Richard Knabb
- Director of Operations
- Robert Ballard
- Science & Operations Officer
- Ray Tanabe
- Warning Coordination Meteorologist
- Kevin Kodama
- Hydrologist
- Bill Boone
- Electronic System Analyst
- Pam Fujiwara
- Administrative Assistant
Or if you’d like to write:
National Weather Service Forecast Office
2525 Correa Road, Suite 250
Honolulu, HI 96822-2219
Tel: (808) 973-5286
UPDATE:
WUWT reader Leon Brozyna points out the temperature dropped 3 degrees at the time of the sensor change, not 2 as indicated in the original TV story admission by NWS PHNL.
I’ve recovered the hourly data from the ASOS station and that is verified. Note there do not seem to be any other meteorological conditions that occurred at that time (such as increased cloud cover or rain) that could add a cooling trend. With solar insolation still increasing, and the high of the day likely yet to occur ( there was a second peak later) it seems that the sensor was off at least 3 degrees. Plus the temperature trend at that time of the day is usually upwards, so it may be even more than 3 degrees. Possibly 4.- Anthony
Source: http://www.weather.gov/data/obhistory/PHNL.html
| D
a t e |
Time
(hst) |
Wind
(mph) |
Vis.
(mi.) |
Weather | Sky Cond. | Temperature (ºF) | Pressure | Precipitation (in.) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air | Dwpt | 6 hour | altimeter
(in.) |
sea level
(mb) |
1 hr | 3 hr | 6 hr | |||||||
| Max. | Min. | |||||||||||||
| 17 | 17:53 | E 16 | 10.00 | Mostly Cloudy | FEW033 BKN075 | 83 | 67 | 30.00 | 1015.7 | |||||
| 17 | 16:53 | NE 20 G 24 | 10.00 | Mostly Cloudy | SCT028 BKN049 | 85 | 67 | 29.98 | 1015.3 | |||||
| 17 | 15:53 | NE 14 G 24 | 10.00 | Mostly Cloudy | SCT028 BKN070 | 86 | 66 | 29.98 | 1015.3 | |||||
| 17 | 14:53 | NE 18 G 25 | 10.00 | Mostly Cloudy | SCT044 BKN075 | 87 | 65 | 29.99 | 1015.6 | |||||
| 17 | 13:53 | NE 14 G 24 | 10.00 | Mostly Cloudy | SCT042 BKN075 | 88 | 65 | 89 | 84 | 30.00 | 1016.0 | |||
| 17 | 12:53 | NE 13 G 22 | 10.00 | Partly Cloudy | FEW043 SCT075 | 87 | 65 | 30.02 | 1016.4 | |||||
| 17 | 11:53 | NE 20 G 25 | 10.00 | Partly Cloudy | SCT045 | 86 | 65 | 30.03 | 1016.9 | |||||
| 17 | 10:53 | E 15 G 23 | 10.00 | Partly Cloudy | SCT042 | 89 | 66 | 30.04 | 1017.3 | |||||
| 17 | 09:53 | E 15 G 24 | 10.00 | A Few Clouds | FEW042 | 86 | 65 | 30.05 | 1017.5 | |||||
| 17 | 08:53 | NE 16 G 24 | 10.00 | A Few Clouds | FEW040 | 86 | 67 | 30.05 | 1017.5 | |||||
| 17 | 07:53 | E 15 G 22 | 10.00 | A Few Clouds | FEW033 | 84 | 66 | 84 | 79 | 30.05 | 1017.5 | |||
| 17 | 06:53 | E 7 | 10.00 | A Few Clouds | FEW033 | 82 | 67 | 30.04 | 1017.2 | |||||
| 17 | 05:53 | E 7 | 10.00 | Partly Cloudy | FEW028 SCT060 | 80 | 68 | 30.03 | 1016.8 | |||||
| 17 | 04:53 | NE 5 | 10.00 | Partly Cloudy | FEW033 SCT065 | 80 | 67 | 30.01 | 1016.3 | |||||
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This is the outline of QC procedures for NOAA’s surface observations. My take is that it is mostly eye-candy.
http://madis.noaa.gov/madis_sfc_qc.html
[snip -policy]
Also off topic, there’s a big report out today here in the UK with “predictions” for 2080. Needless to say it’s raising the level of alarmism considerably at the BBC (and the nationals tomorrow no doubt), as if that were possible:
More BBC alarmism
Richard Bacon is hosting a phone-in about it on his show on 5-live this evening (11pm). Are there any articulate sceptics among us who will give his show a call I wonder?
British summers could soon be like those in the drought-ridden Mediterranean, and the winters characterized by severe flooding, according to a new report on climate change.
U.K. Climate Impacts Report predicts extremes of temperature will hit the U.K. if global temperatures continue to rise.
The report is the Met Office’s most comprehensive assessment yet of what might happen by the middle to end of the century.
“Certainly we would expect much warmer wetter winters to be part of the story and also a risk of drier summers,” James Murphy, the head of climate predictions at the Met Office, told Sky News Online:
The Met Office climate experts used their software to run 400 different computer models.
They wanted to understand the range of future climate changes the U.K. might have to deal with over the next 100 years.
The Met Office came up with three scenarios – low, medium and high – depending on how much carbon we emit over the next century.
Steven Hill (06:36:44) :
You need a demotivational poster from http://www.despair.com. I suggest “It’s always darkest just before it’s pitch black.” Buy one for your Congresscritter too, “If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait until you see our solutions.”
Eric Anderson (09:28:32) :
> Wow, pretty amazing result. Nearly every day for a week a record was set, and always either 91 or 92 degrees. That is incredibly stable.
Hawaii’s low latitude and island status give it a very limited range of weather. Their coldest month, January, has an average high of 80.1; the warmest month, August, is 88.7. That’s a range of only 8.6 degrees, so that 1-2 (or was it 3?) degree error is something like 1/3 of the annual range, or it would read July temeperatures in May.
I live near Concord New Hampshire. Our coldest month, January, has an average high of 29.8; the warmest month, July, is 82.4, a difference of 52.6 degrees. The error in Honolulu’s thermometer scaled thusly would be 17 degrees! Like reading July temperatures in May.
http://www.climate-zone.com/climate/united-states/hawaii/honolulu/
http://www.climate-zone.com/climate/united-states/new-hampshire/concord/
[snip]
Anyone remember how fast NWS discounted the record cold registered in Rochelle, Illinois this January due to “calibration” problems?
The Great Climate Information Ratchet only cranks in one direction.
“UK ‘must plan’ for warmer climate”
Computer models
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climatechange/guide/ukcp/
don’t tarp me bro
Maybe I’m missing something, but surely taking rectal temperatures would increase the fudge, at least on the thermometer?
Ron de Haan.
[snip – and previous comments snipped]
I usually enjoy Ron’s comments but this debate is polarised enough already and the above comment borders on the fanaticism it decries. That said, I am as shocked as all of you at FUBAR’s lack of rigour along with the cooking of the books.
REPLY: I agree, let’s not incite any further name calling or labeling. The issue is data. – Anthony
Sarychev Volcano pumps out substantial volume of SO2.
Watch for nice red sunsets again and perhaps lower temperatures.
http://volcanism.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/sarychev-pumps-out-the-so2/
John Wright: “..the above comment borders on the fanaticism it decries..”
Ron was just referring to their favorite inkjet color: the red.
Hopefully NOAA are still taking temperature readings with the faulty temperature sensor and comparing them with the newly installed (presumably more accurate) sensor. If there is a clear bias, then all of the data using the faulty sensor should be thrown out. Better to have no data for a period than bad data.
Adolfo Giurfa (11:55:15) :
John Wright: “..the above comment borders on the fanaticism it decries..”
Ron was just referring to their favorite inkjet color: the red.
Yeeeah, Pull the other it’s got bells on…
[snip – that’s it, you are done, I’ve warned you about stupid comments and yet you keep posting them, such as the “reds” comment earlier. We may be on the same side of the argument – but you are no longer welcome to post here, I don’t need the liability of your outlandish and off-color comments, you live to pile on. – Anthony]
Some other FUBAR derivatives:
[snip funny. But piling on. Lets stick to the data issues – Anthony]
[snip]
Canadian sensors appear to
be still buried under towering snowdrifts.
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/199706
As always, one ~must~ remember: The effect can ~never~ overcome the cause.
Uk Met Office say their new UK Climate Projections 2009 can give details of likely climate change in 25km gridded squares. Are they lying or just disingenuous?
here are the top 2 hawaiian newspapers:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/
submit a letter: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SUBMITLETTER
submit a commentary: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/section/commentaries
http://www.starbulletin.com/
email: letters@starbulletin.com
While we don’t know how long the volcano will keep blowing I did check the latest SST and wind readings in the Nino regions with TAO’s colorful temperature image, the 30C pool has been getting a bit smaller in the past 2 days and quite a few of the arrows in that same image representing wind have been getting longer, so the warm pool in the west hasn’t been building up very good and lends credence to what some here say El Nino may not form.
Then some of you say a La Nina may pop up sometime around next winter which if so it could form not long after that major eruption that would cool the Earth even further O.O!
Luckily if that means an extremely cold Winter we lost two sizable cottonwood limbs from storms recently that means we partially rebuilt our stock of firewood 🙂
It is outrageous that a .7 C increase in the earth’s temperature over 100 years is considered very significant but that a 2 degree error in a USHCN thermometer is not significant enough to disregard the historical data obtained from that thermometer. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe there is skulduggery afoot here.
NOTE: Folks I know this issue is maddening, but let’s please try to stick the data issues and lose the labeling of people and organizations. – Anthony