Jim River, AK closed in on the all time record coldest temperature of -80°F set in 1971, which is not only the Alaska all-time record, but the record for the entire United States. Unfortunately, it seems the battery died in the weather station just at the critical moment.
While the continental USA has a mild winter and has set a number of high temperature records in the last week and pundits ponder whether they will be blaming the dreaded “global warming” for those temperatures, Alaska and Canada have been suffering through some of the coldest temperatures on record during the last week.
For example in Circle Hot Springs, AK on Sunday, 29 Jan 2012 the HIGH temperature was a blistering -49°F, breaking the -44°F record which has stood since 1917. It gets better.
That same day in Circle Hot Springs the low temperature was -58°F breaking the old record of -52°F set in 1941 by six degrees.
Here’s a list of temperature records in Alaska from the past week:
Brrr!
While all that was happening, the weather station in Jim River, AK closed in on the all time record coldest temperature of -80°F set in 1971. That’s not only the Alaska all-time record, but the record for the entire United States. Unfortunately, the weather station stopped reporting at -79°F.
Here’s the data feed at that moment:
2012-01-28 14:20:00,1028.30,-75.0,-87.6,39,,,1021.19,-55.3,-57.7,85,1.5,155 2012-01-28 14:35:00,1028.00,-77.0,-89.5,39,,,1021.19,-54.2,-65.3,48,1.5,155 2012-01-28 14:50:00,1027.90,-75.0,-87.6,39,,,1021.84,-54.2,-67.8,40,1.5,155 2012-01-28 16:05:00,1027.40,-77.0,-89.5,39,,,1022.74,-57.0,-68.2,47,1.7,160 2012-01-28 16:35:00,1027.10,-77.0,-89.5,39,,,1022.74,-54.6,-59.0,75,1.7,160 2012-01-28 16:51:00,1027.10,-77.0,-89.8,38,,,1022.74,-54.6,-59.0,75,1.7,160 2012-01-28 17:05:00,1027.20,-77.0,-89.5,39,,,1022.10,-56.0,-67.2,47,1.4,163 2012-01-28 17:20:00,1027.20,-77.0,-89.8,38,,,1022.10,-56.0,-67.2,47,1.4,163 2012-01-28 17:49:00,1027.20,-77.0,-89.8,38,,,1022.30,-54.7,-66.0,47,1.4,163 2012-01-28 18:04:00,1027.20,-77.0,-89.8,38,,,1019.33,-55.8,-67.2,47,1.7,174 2012-01-28 18:19:00,1027.10,-79.0,-91.6,38,,,1019.30,-55.8,-71.0,36,1.7,174 2012-01-28 18:34:00,1026.90,-79.0,-91.6,38,,,1019.28,-54.6,-67.9,41,1.7,174 2012-01-28 18:49:00,1026.90,,,,,,1019.30,,,,, 2012-01-28 19:04:00,1026.80,,,,,,1019.39,,,,, 2012-01-28 19:19:00,1026.80,,,,,,1019.39,,,,, 2012-01-28 19:34:00,1026.60,,,,,,1018.84,,,,, 2012-01-28 19:49:00,1026.30,,,,,,1018.84,,,,, 2012-01-28 20:04:00,1026.20,,,,,,1018.45,,,,, 2012-01-28 20:19:00,1026.20,,,,,,1018.46,,,,, 2012-01-28 20:34:00,1025.70,,,,,,1018.46,,,,, 2012-01-28 20:50:00,1025.70,,,,,,1018.46,,,,,
Note at 18:49 on 1/28/12 it stopped reporting all data except barometric pressure.
Some background on the equipment tells us the likely cause.
The station is the venerable Vantage Pro2 by Davis Instruments, arguably one of the best weather stations available to consumers. I have deployed several myself and put them online, for example here and here. They are hardy, accurate, and well constructed, being manufactured in the USA in Hayward, CA instead of some Chinese gadget mill. They also have NIST traceability on sensors.
The Integrated Sensor Suite (ISS) communicates wirelessly with the console below, and the console has an optional PC and/or standalone Internet interface (for DSL/Cable modems) attached.
This station at weather station in Jim River, AK was recording temperatures in conditions way out of its design spec, it only goes to –40 F
From: http://davisnet.com/product_documents/weather/manuals/07395-249_IM_06152.pdf
Appendix B: Specifications Complete specifications for the ISS and other products are available in the Weather Support section of our website at www.davisnet.com. Cabled ISS Temperature range: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -40 to 150° Fahrenheit (-40 to 65° Celsius) Power input: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Console Cable from Vantage Pro2 console Optional Vantage Pro2 AC power adapter Wireless ISS Temperature range: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -40 to 150° Fahrenheit (-40 to 65° Celsius)
While they operate on solar power during the day, these units have an internal lithium battery for operation at night and through extended cloudy periods.
I suspect the internal CR123A Lithium 3 volt battery in the outside ISS died. Note that on 2012-01-28 18:49:00 the data for barometric pressure is still reporting after temperature and other values die. At that temperature, the battery likely could not sustain enough voltage to keep the transmitter running.
The barometric pressure sensor is in the internal LCD console, inside the house/office where the unit is connected to the Internet. All other sensors are outside in the ISS.
The CR123A Lithium 3 volt battery specifications are:
3V 1400mAh Lithium Battery
Wide operating temperature range: -40°C to 85°C
So it was operating way out of spec as well.
Some people have emailed me wondering about why the readings at Jim River, AK stopped just shy of a new all time record. I don’t see any nefarious motive here, just simple equipment failure under extraordinary extreme conditions combined with Murphy’s Law.
Let’s hope the observer there has a backup thermometer, but who’d want to go outside in cold like that to read it?
h/t to Dr. Ryan Maue and Joe D’Aleo
BTW, if you want one of these splendid weather stations, you can get them here. Details here.
UPDATE: The NWS in Fairbanks moves quickly to disavow the temperature report. I suppose the Drudge link has the phones ringing off the hook. But here’s the interesting thing, the nearest other “official” station, PAPR at Prospect Creek Airport, AK only 0.9 miles away, is also offline.
Data Status
Over the last 28 days, no data was seen on the following dates: 2012-01-04 to 2012-01-16, 2012-01-18 to 2012-01-20, 2012-01-22 to 2012-01-29.
It would be interesting to see how they defend an official airport station failure.
NOAK49 PAFG 302352 PNSAFG AKZ219-222-311200- PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FAIRBANKS AK 252 PM AKST MON JAN 30 2012 ...CLARIFICATION OF TEMPERATURES FROM JIM RIVER DOT CAMP... TEMPERATURES THIS PAST WEEKEND AT THE ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION JIM RIVER MAINTENANCE CAMP AT MILE 138 DALTON HIGHWAY...STATION JMTA2...HAVE BEEN REPORTED AS LOW AS 79 BELOW. THE TEMPERATURES ARE NOT CORRECT. THE WEATHER STATION IN USE AT THE JIM RIVER DOT CAMP IS A PERSONAL WEATHER STATION THAT IS NOT RATED FOR TEMPERATURE COLDER THAN 40 BELOW. THE UNREALISTICALLY LOW TEMPERATURES ARE BELIEVED TO BE A FUNCTION OF THE BATTERY FAILING AT VERY LOW TEMPERATURES. THERE ARE NO OFFICIAL...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STANDARD... TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS AT JIM RIVER DOT CAMP.$$ RT/JL JAN 12
UPDATE2 1/31/2012 9:30AM PST
According to Gladstone and NCDC MMS, PAPR (Prospect Creek, just 0.9 mile from Jim River DOT station, and holder of the low temperature record from 1971) is an AWOS station, part of the “B” COOP network.
https://mi3.ncdc.noaa.gov/mi3qry/identityGrid.cfm?setCookie=1&fid=22862
Details on AWOS:
http://www.allweatherinc.com/aviation/awos_dom.html
and as I understand it, it is not rated to –80F, the specs for the thermistor say:
Ambient Temperature Sensor.
The sensor shall be thermally isolated in a
motor aspirated radiation shield to accurately measure air temperature.
A. Range. From –40C to +60C (-40 oF t o +140 oF)
B. Accuracy. ±0.3C.
C. Resolution. 1 oF.
Source: http://www.allweatherinc.com/pdf/awos_level_iii.pdf
So, given the official equipment there at Prospect Creek, it seems NOAA has either purposely or unintentionally created an impossibility of the Prospect Creek record of ever having been broken there again.
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Mary Turner apparently doesn’t even understand the theory she advocates.
As long as AGW cultists are claiming floods and droughts both prove AGW then pointing out increasing numbers of record lows that break temperatures records set before 1900 is countervailing proof of that every severe weather occurrence indicates AGW. You can’t have it both ways since the GAT is made of ALL the average temps in any one year, record lows pull down the average, just as record highs push up the average. GAT= Global AVERAGE Temperature. So yes new record lows disprove CO2 influencing temperature. IF AGW were true, then the numbers of record lows would be minimal and decreasing in occurrence, especially since those lows are set at night when temperatures are usually at their coldest. Remember, the AGW claim is that CO2, NOT the sun (whose influence is dismissed as never changing significantly) is pushing up temperatures overall. Therefore the AGW signal should be strongest seen in the ever decreasing low temperature record occurrence.
“”””” RHO says:
January 31, 2012 at 5:11 pm
They are anyway. It is has been shown that the old mercury thermometers were woefully inaccurate and the digital ones can be just as bad. Garbage in, garbage out. “””””
I hesitate to say:- “There is no such thing as a digital thermometer.” but it is very likely that is true.
Since the very concept of Temperature relates to the statistical properties of a large assemblage of “particles”, then Temperature is essentially non digital. I doubt that quantum mechanics provides us with any sort of digital Temperature or Thermometer. (But I stand fully ready to learn of any such quantum Temperature sensor.)
So Temperature is inherently analog, and measuring it, relies on sensing, and measuring any one of a vast array of Temperature dependent variables. Well it is easier to find a Temperature dependent physical variable, than it is to find a non-Temperature dependent physical variable. Good luck on that one.
So what we may have is digital readout thermometers, which not only require accurate analog sensing of Temperature, but then also accurate, and hopefully non-Temperature dependent analog to digital conversion; and that is an art form in itself.
So don’t kid yourselves that didgital thermometry means accurate determination of Temperature.
It’s just that some people find it hard to read where the hands are on a clock; or understand semaphore signalling.
If you signal a message:- “Send us reinforcements; we are going to advance.” and it gets read incorrectly as:- “Send us three and fourpence, we are going to a dance.” (British joke), it doesn’t matter whether you sent the message by didgeridoo or by Texting on the Apple iPhone 5.
Okay, so we have settled that the equipment is inherently inconsistent. We also know that the people taking the measurements are “volunteers”, using a very wide array of equipment that may be extremely inaccurate or obsolete. We also know that the positioning of the measuring devices is critical, and we know that many of them are poorly positioned. Many have been found over concrete, asphalt, in the direct line of reflected sun, on top of metal roofing. Some have even been found to be located in the direct path of jet engine exhaust. And we also know that they eliminate measuring stations, move measuring stations, and change the overall number of stations and their locations. So just how is it that anyone thinks that the data is has any value whatsoever? And to top it all off, the Anglican researcher who crunched the numbers didn’t even keep the original data so the results could be verified. Now who with any common sense whatsoever would believe any conclusion reached with that kind of shoddy approach?
Anthony says;
“This station at weather station in Jim River, AK was recording temperatures in conditions way out of its design spec, it only goes to –40 F”
I do seem to remember a certain soild fuel rocket booster that was also “operating way out of it’s design spec”, for a little while at least…….
In electrical engineering we have a saying (OK, lots of them in fact); “every transistor is a HIGH power transistor, it’s only a question of how long it lasts”, microseconds or decades, your choice.
When, Oh, When are folks going to trust engineers when we say “It’s not specified to do that”, as much as folks trust “climate scientists” when they say; “We are all going to DIE” ?
Cheers, Kevin.
Whoops, “soild fuel” should of course be “solid fuel”. RIP, Nasa folks.
George E. Smith says;
”So don’t kid yourselves that digital thermometry means accurate determination of Temperature.”
Yes indeed, as an “old hand” I do in fact remember the classes about how to properly read the indications of a “meter”. You know, that little sliver of metal that moved above a graduated scale behind it. We were carefully instructed about how to properly interpret what that little sliver of metal told us.
I do get a big kick out of folks that assume that a new modern digital display with lots of digits is inherently more accurate. It’s funny but once lots of digits became “cheap”, starting with the NIXIE tube and then advancing to the LED display with lots of “cheap” digits the whole understanding of precision and accuracy when to Hades in a hand basket. Nowadays everybody assumes that more digits necessarily yields more accuracy.
I have seen commercial instrumentation that boasts 5-6-7 digits of “accuracy” without any traceability to any standard (i.e. like NIST). So you get lots of meaningless digits, and averaging them together still makes them meaningless……(but less noisy)….
Cheers, Kevin.
Feb 01, 2012 6:26 PM CST
From ABC News
WASHINGTON — Many states in America are experiencing the warmest winter on record for over 40 years.
Blossoms in the nation’s capital are blooming and snow has not been seen across the majority of the U.S this winter. Yesterday, most states were experiencing temperatures around 50 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.
In Washington, D.C., where temperatures neared 70 degrees Fahrenheit, cherry trees are budding weeks early and the scene on the National Mall looked as though it could have been early May.
Though some admit to being concerned about global warming, they admit they’re enjoying it.
“I think it’s fabulous. I am enjoying it so much. It’s just, I don’t know, part of me is like, is this real?” said Diana from Washington, D.C., who was out taking a walk on the National Mall at lunch time on Wednesday.
Callie Friesen, a tourist from California, actually thought she’d end the day with a suntan.
“It’s amazing. I had a wool coat and a scarf and a sweatshirt. And now I’m in a tank top,” Friesen said.
In the state of Ohio, unseasonable weather is bringing golfers and hikers out in greater numbers, attracting more visitors to zoos and allowing the operator of a Lake Erie ferry to run for the first time in six winters.
From December through January, average temperatures in Columbus, Ohio were the 10th highest on record — a welcome change for those who want to play golf all year around.
While Mike Raby, a professional golfer, is enjoying the unseasonable winter- he admitted not everybody is happy about the warm weather.
“You know, normally, this time of year the golf course is open for cross country skiing, not golf…. So, the cross country skiers aren’t a big fan of this weather but the golfers are sure enjoying it,” Raby said.
For a large portion of the United States, January 2012 delivered the third least amount of snow on record for a month, which goes back to 1967, according to the Global Snow Lab at Rutgers University.
Bismarck, North Dakota, typically covered by deep snow in early February, has had one-fifth of its normal amount, Boston only a third.
And last year was one of the coldest and snowiest on record. It doesn’t confirm global warming. It confirms the jet stream is running farther north, pushing the brutally cold weather all the way into Europe.
“”””” I have seen commercial instrumentation that boasts 5-6-7 digits of “accuracy” without any traceability to any standard (i.e. like NIST). So you get lots of meaningless digits, and averaging them together still makes them meaningless……(but less noisy)….
Cheers, Kevin. “””””
Kevin there are times when 5-6-7 or more “digits” make sense, and they don’t have to be “accurate” to any traceable standard; local resolution is all that matters.
The obvious example is “digital sound recording” Early CDs used 16 bit A-D conversion techniques, and those techniques were not necessarily good at that LSB level.
Well 16 bits is 96dB of total signal range, and a world standard Symphony Orchestra, can easily dish out a 96dB dynamic range; No not on your baroque flute sonata on KDFC; but put on some good German/Austrian romantic symphonic music, and you can really rattle the walls, as well as present the clean ppp passages.
So the soft passages on those CDs might have one or two bits of resolution at the most; and it sounds like crap compared to a good 1960s era LP recording.
But now there are A-D conversion methodologies that can resolve 24 bits or more at any frequency of interest to audio buffs, but they aren’t necessarily accurate to any more than 0.1%. Plenty good enough.
But the last thing anyone wants is to “average” that kind of data; that just gets you JP Rampall, or the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and there you get what you deserve.
That’s a very interesting point and some mathematicians ridicule the concept of an “average” temperature of the earth. Just how do you arrive at such a conclusion? Would you set a number of measuring points and record them diligently and then take an average? You can average the temperature for a specific point, but how do you do it for thousands? And wouldn’t it be obvious that you must use the exact same points over a fairly long period of time? The AGW crowd eliminates and adds points constantly. It is shoddy.
Sounds like a normal winter for the North Country of New York State–
Temperatures similar to the Adirondacks\\–
Snow fall similar to the Tug Hill Region at the east end of Lake Ontario–
I was stationed at a military installation deep in Alaska in the mid 1960’s and we had -94f (-70C) one day. No one went out needless to say. It kinds of burns your skin at first, then the cold hits.