From Al’s Journal, some seriously dysfunctional thinking using props he doesn’t understand. Al brings attention to the fact that at Washington Reagan National Airport some tarmac asphalt got soft on a hot day, and the tires sunk into it a bit…making it a monumental event in his world of “weather is now climate”context.
So Hot the Asphalt is Melting July 13, 2012 : 2:53 PM
Sustained high temperatures from this year’s record-breaking heat wave caused an unusual disruption at Washington’s Reagan-National Airport. The Washington Post reports:
“Things were proceeding normally Friday evening as a US Airways flight was leaving the gate at Reagan National Airport to begin its flight to Charleston, S.C.
“But the temperature reached 100 degrees in Washington on Friday and that apparently softened the airport paving enough to immobilize the airplane. The small vehicle that usually tows planes away from the gate tugged and pulled, but the plane was stuck.”
. . .
“It was “pretty rare,” Mohr said. But then, she noted, “we’ve also had very unusual temperatures.”
Asphalt softening and rutting is something that happens at many traffic intersections around the world where cars idle in high temperature. It is a common occurrence.
High temperatures soften the asphalt binder, allowing heavy tire loads to deform the pavement into ruts. Paradoxically, high heat and strong sunlight also causes the asphalt to oxidize, becoming stiffer, less resilient and cracking. Cold temperatures can cause cracks as the asphalt contracts. Cold asphalt is also less resilient and more vulnerable to cracking. Source: Asphalt concrete degradation and restoration
Here’s an example from the Oregon Department of Transportation via Oregon State University:
The ASOS weather station at Reagan National Airport is right on the asphalt. That makes it the worst of the worst when it comes to station siting.
And Dr. James Hansen’s NASA GISS uses that very station in climate trend analysis, as seen here from their database:
Here’s Washington National Airport temperature data again (in blue), but this time plotted along with nearby neighboring stations within 40 km:
Given the growth of Washington DC and the airport itself, is it any surprise that it is the hottest station in the area? From Indur Goklany’s essay: The Highest Temperature Reading Doesn’t Necessarily Mean a Record Hot Day:
This is what Reagan National Airport looks like in the present.
Figure 1: Photograph from 2011. At left foreground is the Jefferson Monument. Behind it on the other side of the river, with the plane hovering over it is Reagan National Airport. Note the development, Crystal City, on the right hand side, also on the other side of the river.
But here is a photograph that shows us what this area look like a few decades ago.
Figure 2: This picture, taken in 1942, shows the Jefferson Monument under construction. There is no Crystal City on the right, nor is there any Reagan National Airport. In fact, as one can see, that area was still being filled in. In the 19th century, the area occupied by the Memorial and adjacent land was also water, since much of this is also filled-in land.
Remember this quote from airline spokesperson Michelle Mohr?
“It was “pretty rare,” Mohr said. But then, she noted, “we’ve also had very unusual temperatures.”
Well…no. What is even funnier, is that the 100°F temperature that day wasn’t even a record high:
I think the only thing that’s soft here is Al Gore’s argument.
h/t to Tom Nelson for Al’s comment
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I can remember whatever passed for pavement in rural Cuba in the late 50’s melting enough so bicycling was out of the question. Pushing those fat tyred beasts home wasn’t so much fun either.
Nicely done analysis!
Note that since 1970, the temperature trend has been relatively flat, with ups and downs the equivalent of “noise” in the data. The AGW crowd should be asked why temperatures are not following the CO2 trend. Could it be that they are not linked???
Climate-change votaries fetishise heat almost as much as trickery. Remember, they only persuaded US Congress of their case – after an unsuccessful first attempt – by doing the presentation on a hot day and sabotaging the air-conditioning system so that it didn’t work.
Thats not asphalt
Bigger culprit is likely Al’s big fat tucchus seated in the airplane.
The asphalt was substandard.
I work near Death Valley CA, It hits 125F here, I have never seen asphalt yield that severely. It probably has more to do with the density of the compaction done when laying the pavement. I suppose in cooler areas, it doesn’t compact as well. Yes, I have and do see grooves in the roads here and a bycycle kickstand can drill a hole in fresh asphalt, but even at the literally blistering temperatures our asphalt achieves, I have never seen a rubber tire sink in like that.
I hope nobody steals my idea…. was thinking of a patent…..
What if they did at Reagan what they do at Las Vegas? You don’t hear about many planes getting stuck at LAS.
I’m gonna call the stuff Con-Crete…
I live a few miles to the south of National Airport and the other day as i was driving Rt 400 (The George Washingon Parkway, on the western edge of the airport) from Alexandria to a place in Arlington, I noticed my car’s exterior temperature gage rose 2 degrees (F) as I passed the airport and fell back 2 degree by the time I had reached the Pentagon. Anecdotal, but interesting.
I wish you could see whats happenong in the UK, its not only a washout its been like autumn since March with a hint of sun in May:
Taken from Bablake weather station here in the heart of England (Coventry, its been recoring for ages and has some very interesting statistics), web address here:
http://bws.users.netlink.co.uk/
An environmental drought was decalred on the 16th April, since which time we have recorded 66 rain days out of a total of 87 days and 330.2mm of rain! .
Warmest day of 2012 so far 26.0°C 23rd May, flaming June came and went.
Warmest month of 2012 so far 14.0°C June
Wettest month of 2012 so far 142.4mm June
Average temperature in 2012 up to the end of June 8.6°C 0.0°C Compared to 30-year averages 1981-2010
July is meant to be our warmest month!
I’ll be glad to get to the States in a few months as there is no sign of a break in this dull, wet, cold weather.
Bring on melting tarmac! (I can remember our summer of ’76 and that was a scorcher, been downhill ever since)
Mike
DJ says:
July 13, 2012 at 1:57 pm
I hope nobody steals my idea…. was thinking of a patent…..
What if they did at Reagan what they do at Las Vegas? You don’t hear about many planes getting stuck at LAS.
I’m gonna call the stuff Con-Crete…
===============================================
I think Al would rather they used Pykrete. It would make a better photo-op.
Don’t see stuff like that at PHX. Must be the shoddy construction that is the usual result of awarding contracts based on political feedback rather then capability. The contractors probably got bonuses for using politically correct materials as opposed to mechanical correct.
Is this post a bonus bonus “Funny Friday”?
Aircraft tires are far more heavily weighted at rest, or taxiing, than cars or even trucks. That’s why taxiways at commercial airports are almost exclusively concrete. I suspect that this aircraft was off its authorized path when this occured.
Here in the desert, it regularly gets to 110F air temperature. Black surfaces get to about 160F in the intense sunlight that I doubt they had in DC. It gets to 160F inside my car on occasion. Planes have no trouble here, so I have to think it was a taxiway not specified for high temps. We have every kind of plane up to 747s here and they don’t sink.
Asphalt should never be used for airports to support planes, because of its low melting point.
Regardless of the temperature of the air, if the plane is left in place for long enough with engines running, it would melt the asphalt. Only high-grade concrete should be used in commercial airports, never asphalt.
Also, as pointed out above, commercial planes weigh maybe 50 to 250 tons, and this is a helluva weight for just a few tires, hence soft asphalt is really not suitable, and should not be used.
Article really should be on incorrect material use, nothing to do with CO2 or “global warming”.
Muppets.
Ummm,
Just glanced at the highway photo – that has to be in Washington State between Spokane and the Wash-Idaho state line…I 90 doesn’t go through Oregon.
Just Sayin’
Mike Bentley
PS
Asphalt would also soften from any kerosene spillage. Also, as it burns readily, is a fire hazard – in an airport.
Even better, a few years back they put in a new Lowe’s near where I lived. As part of the “improvement”, they repaved (with asphalt) the 4-lane city street in front of the new store. Naturally, they didn’t bother to redo the adjacent section of old concrete, & even more foresightedly, they did the paving in Winter. So, when I was riding a motorcycle down that very road the next Summer, there was an unexpected 6″ hump at the end of the new asphalt.
Jeff Westcott says (July 13, 2012 at 2:16 pm): “I suspect that this aircraft was off its authorized path when this occured.”
Maybe. Or maybe the surface was weakened by asphalt acidification. 🙂
Also, more evidence supporting the notion of insufficient paving methods: it’s not a particularly large aircraft. http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=N420AW
The airport pavement strength and the wheel loading from different types/marks of aircraft are codified in detail (see http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/advisory_circulars/index.cfm/go/document.information/documentID/1019460 amongst others)
The airport is expected to only put aircraft on pavement that has the strength to stand up to the wheel loading of that aircraft – when fully fueled. However, it is not uncommon for the wrong pavement surface materials to be used by contractors or for the temperature / strength specification to be incorrect so the pavement softens and weakens at a lower temperature than expected. I saw aircraft up to the axles in tarmac over 30 years ago for this reason. As another poster has said, repeated kerosene spills also soften the tarmac making it more likely to give way, or worse peel back in the jet wash of a taxiing or taking off aircraft: and I have seen that as well.
So this is not anything to do with climate, it is more to do with poor quality pavement, or ramp control putting an aircraft that was too heavy on lower quality pavement.
Low bid. I wonder what the contract specs were for that asphalt? Were they met?
Maybe we should go with best bid instead of low bid?
That road intersection is in Spokane and I was going to send a link to it before I saw you already had the image. It is Pines Road and the ruts are so bad they can be seen from space. Or at least from Bing.com’s aerial imagery. The link below shows the same intersection but looking north vs south. It is a few blocks from by brother-in-law’s house and I know it very well.
http://binged.it/M7JcBw
Algore missed the facts about the relationship between the rise in temp and CO2, why would he be on target for anything else?