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.
I’m sure Al gores concocting a new scheme, like man made global cooling to win another nobel prize and to make billions.
The ‘equipment’ is designed for (albeit) high-end domestic consumer market, not the military; “over-design” and your competitive advantage goes away and you get ‘eaten’ by your _competition_ …
And we used to ‘cold-soak’ product (a dual-mode nose-mounted aircraft RADAR for the Panavia Tornado aircraft) at -55 deg C in the anticipated application of a high-altitude (cold!) transiting flights (in silent mode w/power off!) to target area followed by some nap-of-the-earth flying (via the TFR or Terrain Following RADAR) and land feature identification (during less-than-ideal-weather; this was the European Theater after all and the Russian/Soviet bear was still an active ‘threat’) via the GMR or Ground Mapping RADAR for ‘payload’ delivery to target (e.g. runway demolition during The Gulf War.)
Which ones? The $2 spun-aluminum (or even plastic) cheapies? The cheapies run three cells in series (Zinc-carbon as bought, Alkaline which I use as replacements for longevity, and I’ve used NiCd and NiMH successfully too, and all three types of batteries ‘dim’ when nearing end-of-life), NO current limit (save whatever an individual LEDs may present insofar as bulk resistivity.)
When said “thermometric gizmo” (albeit) high-end domestic consumer market is operated significantly below specification?
C’mon George,we both know you and I would love for you to be building my equipment (including weather stations!) for me and the rest of the world, but a) what would the time-to-market be and 2) could we afford it, even in quantity?
Remember too, it’s not enough to simply build it, you have to test it as well, during the development cycle (of course), as well as during the manufacturing cycle (at the minimum a sampling of product if you’re just shipping to the public and 100% if NOAA or various DOTs or govts are your customer!)
.
Alaska can keep the cold weather. Because of the jetstream, when it is way below freezing in Fairbanks in January it is balmy here in the mid atlantic.
So now in Alaska the thermometer missed the -80 or so (battery went into hypothermia). In fact there are statements that say the instrument is good only to -40. So possibly an error of -40 degrees. Alaska is a pretty big state (country?) with very low temperatures across its land. We say we know the temperatures to .xx or so. How can that be.
Anthony, the battery problem could easily produce an incorrect low temperature reading. Measuring the resistance of a thermistor is critical, as the temperature is calculated from the measured resistance. Measuring resistance requires accurate measurement of current, assuming a constant voltage, however, if the voltage also changes, the problem becomes more difficult. Using my previous thermistor example, applying 3 volts to the thermistor with a resistance of 1,640,357 ohms (the value corresponding to -80F) would produce a current of 1.83 microamps, a very small current. But, if the applied voltage were reduced to 2.4 volts, that current would require to a resistance of only 1,312,286 ohms. Comparing this value with the thermistor shows that the corresponding temperature would have been -75F. When you correspond with the manufacturer, you might ask them at what voltage the transmitter quits, information which could be used to correct the reading for the low battery output.
Wait wait wait…its the “extremes” don’t you see, so when you get both record lows and record highs in the very same year its “climate disruption” don’t you see. Oh wait, that was 1934 the year of record breaking “extremes” (except extreme climate BS – that occurred in 2008)
One cool way to stay warm –
http://www.bullerjan.com/web/en/bullerjan/design.html
Enjoy!
Por favor, a do-over mods .. I muffed formatting on the prev. post … TNX
Sounds plausible when delivered in rhetoric, but, does the record to date even come close to bearing this out?
And – do we have ‘instrument complications’ (e.g. the case of the Davis wx station as presented in the head post of this thread) because mercury-filled indicating devices are no longer being used, and the use of “modern devices” can be seen to potentially ‘limit’ the accurate measuring and recording of cold weather, and therefore cold climate, events?
I would ask the sharp-tongued -er- penned Mary Turner the same thing; can you back your rhetoric up with any data or studies which support the rhetoric?
How do you make the case where your instrumentation is presenting a major handicap in obtaining hard, cold, factual data upon which to base assertions, make projections, perform extrapolations of ‘climate’ into the future?
.
Mary Turner says:
January 31, 2012 at 4:07 am
“A warming world does not preclude record low temperatures…”
Please explain the physics and thermodynamics behind this assertion. Remember, the earth has been “warming” for over 100 years…
Earth is tilting slightly
Regarding the official statement, there’s a fine difference between saying temperatures from a personal station operating way out of its spec are unreliable and between saying they’re not correct. If they said they’re unreliable I’d definitely agree with them. But if they say they’re incorrect then I start wondering how much incorrect may them be. Maybe they could make the airport people fix their National Weather Service Standard-compliant equipment to allow some cross-callibration while it’s still chilly there?
Will someone please find a warmer temperature within 1200 miles and average them so we produce a much more appealing scenario.
Where is the energizer bunny when
you need him?
John says:
January 31, 2012 at 3:51 am
Climate change means ‘extremes’ at both ends of the spectrum (extreme cold, extreme heat), because the hydrological cycle is disrupted (globally). Record lows then become expected, and the same for record highs. These readings are actually proof that climate change is in fact occurring, quite rapidly now. Those that doubt this are basically idiots, ill-informed and opinionated without evidence or proof to back up their claims.
Isn’t is amazing that temperatures have been much warmer during our own little Interglacial (Holocene) without destroying civilization. Maybe you need to take off the blinders and find out what’s really happening. Hang around and you’ll get an education.
In addition to Alaska, extremes are occurring in many other places of the world, including torrential rains (India, Pakistan, Australia, Vietnam) all part of the hydrological cycle. Other extremes are also occurring too, killer tornadoes in Indonesia, and Mozambique with killer storms. Bulgaria just experienced deadly blizzards, China massive snowfalls. There are climate extremes now occurring non-stop around the world.
Yes, weather happens. Always has and always will. It is no different today and trends in violent weather have not changed. You really need to get away from all the doom and gloom sites and learn the truth.
What the hell do all of you do when you aren’t on here?????? Where do you find time to disprove each other on weather facts???? Go…go outside…go talk to another human being. Come up out of your parents basement and venture out into society. Geeze……..
John said:
Climate change means ‘extremes’ at both ends of the spectrum (extreme cold, extreme heat), because the hydrological cycle is disrupted (globally) …
No one here is stating that the climate doesn’t change, it’s just the question on mans’ influence thru the introduction of CO2. Part of the main observation is that the models that predicted Global Warming, I mean Climate Change, I mean Global Climate Disruption, those models didn’t predict these extremes. Only afterwards are they tailoring their models to include these.
On the comments that these are Climate Extremes, shouldn’t we classify these as Weather Extremes? It’s been well debated that there is a difference between Weather and Climate. Single instances, even a season or two does not make climate. It may be a terrible burden on the populations living in those areas, but whether the weather was influenced by CO2 in the atmosphere, thus changing the hydrological cycle, has not been proven. And to dictate to countries how they should conduct their affairs inside their borders, based on flawed science, is ludicrous.
The earth is ‘alive’, so to speak. It is a dynamic system that we try to measure, model and predict. But when people state “see, there are floods here, or droughts there, AGW and CO2 are to blame” the science just doesn’t prove it.
With the population of the earth growing, more and more people are living in ever more crowded and deplorable conditions. You throw in heavy rain storms and high winds, casualties start increasing. Then with instant access news, it’s all over the world.
Not all starvation in Africa is occurring because of droughts brought on by weather/climate.. Warlords fighting each other, keeping supplies of food, medicine and hardware from reaching the people most affected. Governmental (i.e. the U.N.) interference in countries developing their own energy infrastructure are keeping their people in poverty.. Places in Africa are sitting on huge deposits of coal. They could use that to help lift their people out of poverty.. But the U.N. keep insisting these countries follow a Green path.. Doctors have to select whether to use their solar power for illumination to see patients, or to run the refrigerator with the medicine. Choices that are imposed by bureaucrats, living comfortable lives in comfortable homes…
One could trace back a lot of the social and economic problems back to bureaucratic interference, regulation and their ‘good intentions’ based on unsound information. Let’s not make a mistake with CO2 and our energy future.. (Go Thorium!!)
Global warming my a$$, I guess this puts an end to that hoax.
Andrew30 says:
January 30, 2012 at 4:29 pm
MaxL says: January 30, 2012 at 4:20 pm
Your from Canada? You must know Bob Franklin, he lives there too, near the beer store 🙂
All the time, many people just do not grasp the size of this country.
————————————————————
Plus the fact that there are four beer stores and two Bob Franklins. How are supposed to know how to contact him and let him know he made the Internet?
It’s been an unusually warm winter where I am in the northeast US. Could wind up being our warmest winter ever.
But every time there is a record low, it proves global warming wrong.
@TimO says:
January 30, 2012 at 5:06 pm
“-80??? Been through -60 during the Blizzard of ’78 in Ohio and that was bloody cold. […]”
-60F in Ohio didn’t happen unless that was wind chill. The record cold reading for Ohio is -39F if my google-fu is good. Yup. I was in that blizzard too.
Ric Werme says: (in response to me…)
January 30, 2012 at 9:34 pm
>It’s not a NOAA station. It’s a DOT (Dept. of Transportation) station.
True… But I did preface it by stating my uncertainty as to who owned it. I also stated “…an official US station should be properly spanned.” That is still true. You don’t use measuring instruments where you expect them to go near or above (or below) their ranges. Its just bad science. I would have savagely beaten with broccoli undergraduates who used measurements outside the range of the measurement devices.
Thermistors use a curve fit to interpolate voltage to temperature. Dependent upon the equation (and there are a few standard ones – wiki has a good discussion of it) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermistor. Due to the log function, it may go out of linearity 50 c below its lowest temperature. But the good folks at Davis should be able to back calculate how badly its doing at that point (they have the constants for their thermistor, after all, and know how it works). After all, they have sold a device that is good to within +/- x degree. They just won’t stand behind something outside that range. I’m sure Anthony will report what that is.
As for our friends at DOT/NOAA (and even Davis). I mentioned the low temp lithium batteries that they should use. Since their temperature sensor is a plug in (and replaceable) they should make a low temperature spanned version. You don’t need to replace the entire unit. Just replace the plug in and do a software update. They should not be just tweaking the software to give a N/A when it gets below -40. They know they have a problem and their solution is to ignore it? Dumb.
Satellites measured -73 F day before yesterday. http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/9672
Frank K. says:
January 31, 2012 at 5:37 am
Mary Turner says:
January 31, 2012 at 4:07 am
“A warming world does not preclude record low temperatures…”
Please explain the physics and thermodynamics behind this assertion. Remember, the earth has been “warming” for over 100 years…
…by <a href="http://woodfortrees.org/plot/hadcrut3vgl/from:1850/trend"0.8°C.
I’m not sure why you think outliers in a chaotic system should be constrained if we add energy to it, but lets assume its true. The lowest temperature recorded on earth is -89.2°C, the temperature rise seen since then, 0.45°C, would still allow lows of -88.75°C without falsifying claims of global warming.
John, you are the one appearing to site a metric without also including proofs or links. So how do you measure the hydrological cycle? What parameters of weather (since extremes are properly referred to as weather, not climate, according to AGW-speak) would you look at to determine baseline hydrological cycles and the anomalies you say are occuring? I have news for you but I will keep quiet for now. Please go ahead and state your case for a disrupted cycle and provide links.
WUWT gets listed on the Drudge report!