Surfacestations update – help needed for the final stretch

I’m pleased to announce that after a quality control review of all stations surveyed so far we are now at the 80.4% mark. 982 stations out of 1221 of the USHCN network have been surveyed. 239 stations remain to be surveyed.

A Google Earth KML file has also been created to help volunteers assist us in surveying these remaining stations to the best of our ability. I don’t expect to get all of them, but we should be able to easily exceed the 1000 station mark and perhaps reach 90% before the end of summer.

You can download the Google Earth KML file which was used to make the map above, get it -click here.  [Note,  if using Internet Explorer, right mouse click and choose “Save Target As..”  ~ charles the moderator] It is very helpful in locating stations. Google Earth is a free download here.

For those who don’t have Google Earth capability, get it – click here, is the list of stations remaining that you can view in your browser. Both files are useful in different ways, so I suggest getting both.

Our goal is to find the few remaining “best” CRN1 and CRN2 stations. So far there have been very few of these “best” stations, 92 so far, making up only 10% of the network. The majority of those also happen to be ASOS stations at airports, and as we have seen from the MIC in Hawaii’s WSFO, ASOS stations have not been deemed suitable for climate monitoring, since they are placed for aviation purposes.

Here are the percentage breakdowns so far, plus a nice bar chart by Gary Boden showing the states that have been completed and those that need the most attention:

We have identified 45 closed stations, some of which have been able to be rated because the observer remained and could show us where the thermometer was placed, or we were able to find aerial photos or maps from NWS b44 forms that showed the location.

Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia are the states with the least coverage. If you live in one of these, please consider trying to survey a station or two. Details on how to survey stations can be found at surfacestations.org

Quality control checks performed:

Volunteers and I have been busy in the past couple of weeks adding some stations from recent surveys as well as doing a comprehensive QC on the applications  of ratings and the veracity of the station surveys.

Some stations that were surveyed were misidentified by volunteers, and thus have been removed and put back on the “available” list in the KML file above.

Some stations surveyed by aerial views only were misidentified, and this was made clear when when we went through QC reviews. We fixed those also, some were then correctly identified and rated, others went back on the “available” list.

I’m pretty happy about where we are now and what has been achieved. Finding the remaining best stations is the next goal. I’ll have more on that soon with some good candidates.

There will be another important post tomorrow or the next day on a related subject that needs addressing, stay tuned.