Over at Tallbloke’s Talkshop, moderator Tim Channon wondered about this regularly hot station reported in the news:
An often appearing name in the BBC news as the hottest place in the country is Gravesend but the true location of the Met Office thermometer is a mystery. By chance I followed up today and discovered a new snippet of information.
From the BBC – 2003: Britain swelters in record heat
Britain has recorded its hottest day ever as the temperature soared to 38.1C (100.6F) in Gravesend, Kent.
The record has actually been broken twice today. The first place to beat the previous record of 37.1C (98.8F), set in Cheltenham in 1990, was Heathrow Airport where the temperature earlier today registered 37.9C (100.2F).
Then an even higher temperature was recorded in Kent, making today the hottest day since records began about 130 years ago in 1875.
Here’s another example: Gravesend sizzles in late September sun
It’s definitely time to get that sun screen out as Gravesend is officially one of the hottest places in the UK today.Temperatures reached 28.6C this afternoon, making it Kent’s warmest September 30 ever!
Clearly, it is a leading hot spot.
So what does the Met office say about how official weather stations should be sited? They have it right here:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/science/first-steps/observations/weather-stations
And what does the officially hottest station in the UK at Gravesend look like?
The process of discovery of this station was a long one, aided by a global discussion at Tallbloke’s Talkshop. This Bing Maps aerial view I found and posted at TB’s confirmed to me that there was in fact a Stevenson Screen there:
Source: http://binged.it/RqV8Cv
And that lead commenter “Caz” to make the discovery of the photo:
Caz says:
The Bing Link cracked it for me. It was obvious looking at the shadows that the weather station, transmitter and radar tower were sat on a level depression protected on three sides by banking ie they had their own micro climate.
I then selected Ordnance survey mapping and confirmed that this was indeed a place with a micro climate as the banks are clearly marked on the OS map. But it gave one other vital piece information, the location is Broadness Salt Marsh.
Just a few steps later and a Google of Broadness Salt Marsh and I had the picture and all the information required to see that this weather station is a dud. Note the banking, brick power building with ventilation equipment and the weather station.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Broadness_Radar_-_geograph.org.uk_-_48941.jpg
The Met Office should hang their heads in shame and also the BBC for reporting the temperatures recorded by this station. Well done chaps I hope you can get the message out to the wider world. If anyone lives in that area the site looks easily accessible.
Getting the message out to the wider world is what we do here at WUWT, happy to help.
Now here’s the interesting thing about this station, it has a trifecta of siting issues, and not just from the air conditioner and brick building. Look at the location located by Tim Channon:
That spit of land juts into the Thames. What is nearby? Channon writes:
This is east of London, is the tidal lower Thames close to the estuary. It is going to be permanently humid, including any effect from the elevation of the temperature of the Thames, heat from London.
Industrial activity is obvious as is close dense residential.
Go towards London (left) and within 5 km is the non-motorway section of the M25 London orbital “motorway”, blue on the map. This is 8 lanes all told with queues a lot of the time, is a toll road. Queen Elizabeth bridge southbound and the Dartford tunnel northbound. Both expel heat into the air, a bridge and ventilated tunnel. South side to the left of that see the bright circles? Heavy oil storage tanks, river pontoon for fuel delivery tankers. Next across is the RWE Littlebrook power station. Being oil is probably not run continuously, about 1.4GW output and has additional gas turbine generator sets. This will eject circa 2GW of waste heat, up prevailing wind. RWE web page on station, head photo is looking east toward bridge and weather station.
Next to the left is a wee and poo plant, also tends to be warm stuff. I expect the sludge is tankered into the outer estuary for disposal. (used to be the case)
Little Reach Sewage Treatment plant, run by Thames Water. Photo looking west, can see the edge of the power station.
Is that all?
Figure 3Just off the right of the previous image, north side of the river is… another power station. Top of image here is the electricity output site.
RWE Tilbury Power station, coal fired, hence the pontoon for delivery and black stuff but the RWE web page says the site is being converted. Looks like another 2 to 3GW of waste heat, east winter winds or blocking highs have this one upwind. I notice the RWE photo doesn’t want to show much.
Converting to biomass? I bet the conversion efficiency is lower than conventional fuels, therefore even more waste heat.
There are other power stations a little further away, at least two major ones to the east. (there because of the river, coal delivery)
All this sparkery, I’ve not reached the end yet.
Figure 4
So what is that? Met site is top right. Four piles at the base, is a large power grid pylon, can look bizarre from an aircraft (these are aerial photos, not satellite).
Electricity transmission is not 100% efficient, the lines get hot, are a compromise. Actual lines are aluminium with a steel core. The alignment, this is a river crossing.
Other side are several sites
I pointed out that:
It may be that the station is affected by heated water discharge from the power plant and the sewage plant into the river. Being on that spit of land it has water on three sides.
Only some water temperature measurements will tell for sure.
But another commenter pointed out:
Scute says:
Following up on Anthony’s comments, I have been digging a little, using Tim’s links. The Littlebrook power station just to the west of the QE Bridge does discharge warm water from its condenser into the Thames. The intake and outflow are the two circles in the Thames, visible in the Bing ariel view if you scroll left. The PDF document on the site that Tim linked says:
“The condensate is pumped back to the boiler for reuse and the cooling water [i.e. now warm water] is returned to the river.”
This must be several hundred megawatts at least, given the fact that it is cooling something approaching 800kg of condensate per second at full operating capacity. This would be in addition to the heat lost up the chimney during oil combustion which may or may not drift over the station in question. What is certain is that a large portion of the condenser outflow ends up bathing the station on three sides. Even if there is some convective/turbulent mixing, the mixed water will retain this heat energy quite well at or near the surface albeit as lower grade heat. Since water has a specific heat capacity four times that of air and the mass of air directly above the Thames is much less than the now-mixed surface layer, it means that the water surface can heat the air above it to the same temperature without dropping in temperature itself, or at least by a negligible amount. This amounts to a very reliable, permanently elevated heating source, one which is likely to be elevated further when the power station cranks up in the evening….I noticed that Thursdays temperature graph for Gravesend showed an anomalous rise at 6PM. I was waiting for today’s 6PM update to see if it happened again but as of starting this comment it hadn’t come through. It might warrant monitoring over the next few weeks or months- though tides will dull or enhance the effect I should think.
Speaking of tides:
tchannon says:
Scute,
Hundreds of MW, probably upper, however, oil is an unusual fuel so I suspect this is peak times only. They mention gas plant but seem to casually throw this in without detail. Presumably a similar power and the thermal efficiency is a little better.
More subtly, I mentioned this is lower reaches, the Thames is a small river with low flow: it is tidal.
For this reason any cooling outfall from the station nominally downstream will flow back upstream… and cooling upstream will stagnate in a pool of water.
Goodness knows the effect, for all I know, none.
So, I decided to have a look at that tidal issue. Again Bing aerial view is our friend:
Source: http://binged.it/NblzVn
Note the exposed dark mudflats. What sort of natural surface has the lowest albedo, and thus absorbs the greatest amount of solar radiation?
Dark and wet…like a mudflat on two sides of the station as seen in the Bing aerial view.
The new “hottest ever” record set in the UK was on August 1o, 2003.
I downloaded the tide data for the outlet of the Thames, Sheerness for that day from the UK National Oceanography center. Times are local to the station, +1 GMT.
21217) 2003/08/10 00:00:00 4.356 0.081
21218) 2003/08/10 00:15:00 4.101 0.063
21219) 2003/08/10 00:30:00 3.840 0.048
21220) 2003/08/10 00:45:00 3.581 0.038
21221) 2003/08/10 01:00:00 3.325 0.032
21222) 2003/08/10 01:15:00 3.065 0.018
21223) 2003/08/10 01:30:00 2.825 0.018
21224) 2003/08/10 01:45:00 2.592 0.015
21225) 2003/08/10 02:00:00 2.372 0.013
21226) 2003/08/10 02:15:00 2.168 0.013
21227) 2003/08/10 02:30:00 1.983 0.014
21228) 2003/08/10 02:45:00 1.824 0.022
21229) 2003/08/10 03:00:00 1.690 0.035
21230) 2003/08/10 03:15:00 1.567 0.040
21231) 2003/08/10 03:30:00 1.469 0.051
21232) 2003/08/10 03:45:00 1.385 0.057
21233) 2003/08/10 04:00:00 1.308 0.053
21234) 2003/08/10 04:15:00 1.245 0.044
21235) 2003/08/10 04:30:00 1.196 0.029
21236) 2003/08/10 04:45:00 1.173 0.016
21237) 2003/08/10 05:00:00 1.186 0.011
21238) 2003/08/10 05:15:00 1.235 0.010
21239) 2003/08/10 05:30:00 1.325 0.015
21240) 2003/08/10 05:45:00 1.458 0.028
21241) 2003/08/10 06:00:00 1.610 0.025
21242) 2003/08/10 06:15:00 1.805 0.037
21243) 2003/08/10 06:30:00 2.011 0.038
21244) 2003/08/10 06:45:00 2.228 0.037
21245) 2003/08/10 07:00:00 2.461 0.046
21246) 2003/08/10 07:15:00 2.686 0.046
21247) 2003/08/10 07:30:00 2.909 0.047
21248) 2003/08/10 07:45:00 3.134 0.053
21249) 2003/08/10 08:00:00 3.350 0.054
21250) 2003/08/10 08:15:00 3.577 0.067
21251) 2003/08/10 08:30:00 3.791 0.068
21252) 2003/08/10 08:45:00 4.011 0.075
21253) 2003/08/10 09:00:00 4.226 0.079
21254) 2003/08/10 09:15:00 4.436 0.082
21255) 2003/08/10 09:30:00 4.645 0.095
21256) 2003/08/10 09:45:00 4.842 0.110
21257) 2003/08/10 10:00:00 5.019 0.127
21258) 2003/08/10 10:15:00 5.171 0.149
21259) 2003/08/10 10:30:00 5.290 0.173
21260) 2003/08/10 10:45:00 5.365 0.196
21261) 2003/08/10 11:00:00 5.387 0.212
21262) 2003/08/10 11:15:00 5.358 0.226
21263) 2003/08/10 11:30:00 5.272 0.230
21264) 2003/08/10 11:45:00 5.125 0.218
21265) 2003/08/10 12:00:00 4.942 0.207
21266) 2003/08/10 12:15:00 4.718 0.187
21267) 2003/08/10 12:30:00 4.475 0.171
21268) 2003/08/10 12:45:00 4.213 0.153
21269) 2003/08/10 13:00:00 3.937 0.133
21270) 2003/08/10 13:15:00 3.670 0.128
21271) 2003/08/10 13:30:00 3.404 0.127
21272) 2003/08/10 13:45:00 3.140 0.126
21273) 2003/08/10 14:00:00 2.882 0.126
21274) 2003/08/10 14:15:00 2.630 0.122
21275) 2003/08/10 14:30:00 2.394 0.121
21276) 2003/08/10 14:45:00 2.172 0.116
21277) 2003/08/10 15:00:00 1.969 0.110
21278) 2003/08/10 15:15:00 1.791 0.107
21279) 2003/08/10 15:30:00 1.628 0.097
21280) 2003/08/10 15:45:00 1.508 0.109
21281) 2003/08/10 16:00:00 1.397 0.112
21282) 2003/08/10 16:15:00 1.302 0.114
21283) 2003/08/10 16:30:00 1.223 0.116
21284) 2003/08/10 16:45:00 1.156 0.113
21285) 2003/08/10 17:00:00 1.110 0.112
21286) 2003/08/10 17:15:00 1.084 0.108
21287) 2003/08/10 17:30:00 1.094 0.111
21288) 2003/08/10 17:45:00 1.141 0.116
21289) 2003/08/10 18:00:00 1.231 0.126
21290) 2003/08/10 18:15:00 1.360 0.135
21291) 2003/08/10 18:30:00 1.528 0.147
21292) 2003/08/10 18:45:00 1.720 0.151
21293) 2003/08/10 19:00:00 1.946 0.164
21294) 2003/08/10 19:15:00 2.187 0.177
21295) 2003/08/10 19:30:00 2.436 0.189
21296) 2003/08/10 19:45:00 2.684 0.197
21297) 2003/08/10 20:00:00 2.928 0.201
21298) 2003/08/10 20:15:00 3.180 0.213
21299) 2003/08/10 20:30:00 3.433 0.225
21300) 2003/08/10 20:45:00 3.685 0.235
21301) 2003/08/10 21:00:00 3.930 0.236
21302) 2003/08/10 21:15:00 4.178 0.237
21303) 2003/08/10 21:30:00 4.425 0.237
21304) 2003/08/10 21:45:00 4.670 0.238
21305) 2003/08/10 22:00:00 4.902 0.236
21306) 2003/08/10 22:15:00 5.133 0.250
21307) 2003/08/10 22:30:00 5.337 0.261
21308) 2003/08/10 22:45:00 5.507 0.273
21309) 2003/08/10 23:00:00 5.637 0.287
21310) 2003/08/10 23:15:00 5.715 0.299
21311) 2003/08/10 23:30:00 5.741 0.313
21312) 2003/08/10 23:45:00 5.695 0.310
As you can see from the data, the low tide was about 1.08 meter at 5:15PM local time.
I looked for historical data for Gravesend, which has a tide gauge according to the London Port authority, but I couldn’t find any actual data. So I had to rely on a tide prediction program. Given that Gravesend is well upstream from Sheerness. one would expect the tide to be lower, since it has an higher elevation difference, which is why the Thames flows east. I downloaded the wxtide32 program since it had a location for Tilbury dock, not too far away from Gravesend.
The tide prediction for Tilbury Dock for 8/10/2003:
Tilbury Dock, Thames Rvr
Sheerness, England - READ flaterco.com/pol.html
+ Corrections: High(+0:20 +1.50) Low(+0:20 -1.00)
Units are meters, initial timezone is CUT
August 2003 low is 0.2m, high is 6.2m, range is 6.0m.
Predicted historical low is -2.1m, high is 8.4m, range is 10.6m.
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
07-27 07-28 New 07-29 07-30 07-31 08-01 08-02
L0523 1.0 H0001 5.7 H0043 5.9 H0123 6.0 H0203 6.1 H0245 6.2 H0327 6.2
H1140 5.6 L0606 0.9 L0646 0.8 L0726 0.7 L0808 0.7 L0852 0.6 L0934 0.7
L1753 0.9 H1220 5.8 H1258 5.9 H1335 6.0 H1413 6.1 H1453 6.2 H1533 6.2
L1837 0.7 L1918 0.5 L2000 0.4 L2043 0.3 L2126 0.3 L2207 0.3
08-03 08-04 FQtr 08-05 08-06 08-07 08-08 08-09
H0409 6.1 H0452 6.0 H0537 5.8 L0014 0.7 L0111 0.8 L0221 1.0 L0344 1.0
L1014 0.8 L1054 0.9 L1136 1.0 H0629 5.6 H0735 5.4 H0856 5.4 H1010 5.6
H1614 6.1 H1656 6.0 H1743 5.9 L1228 1.1 L1333 1.2 L1452 1.2 L1622 1.0
L2248 0.4 L2328 0.5 H1840 5.7 H1959 5.5 H2129 5.6 H2241 5.8
08-10 08-11 Full 08-12 08-13 08-14 08-15 08-16
L0500 0.9 L0600 0.8 H0034 6.2 H0121 6.2 H0204 6.2 H0244 6.1 H0321 6.0
H1112 5.8 H1206 6.0 L0648 0.7 L0730 0.7 L0809 0.8 L0844 0.8 L0918 0.8
L1734 0.7 L1830 0.4 H1253 6.1 H1336 6.1 H1415 6.1 H1451 6.1 H1524 6.0
H2341 6.0 L1918 0.3 L2001 0.2 L2041 0.2 L2119 0.3 L2153 0.4
The plot for Sunday 8-10-2003:
The low tide of 0.7m was reached late in the afternoon, about 5:34PM.
Here is what an aerial view of the station and the point looks like at low tide of similar magnitude:
As you can see (if you click image for the closeup) the boatyard to the SW is completely dry. Mudflats are around the station every direction except SE.
So, depending on wind direction that day, combined with the low tide, the station may have picked up some heated air from the mud flats. Unfortunately the station does not record wind data. Given the nearby stations (such as London City) show a shift of wind direction to northerly after about 5PM local time on that date, it is quite possible though:
All news reports I read said the high temperature in Gravesend occurred in late afternoon on Sunday August 10th. The historical data available from the Met Office is rather slim. So if somebody knows where to find the exact time the high temperature was recorded, that would help solve this mystery.
One final thing, this IR map shows that area of Kent near Gravesend to be one of the warmer places around London, warmer even than the cityscape of London itself:
So to summarize the surroundings of this station:
- City UHI nearby
- Industrial area surrounding it
- River with heated water from power plant and sewage plant dumped into it nearby
- Surrounded by water on three sides
- Surrounded by low albedo (high solar absorbing) mudflats nearby with low tide near time of Tmax
- Sited at a radar station with waste heat exhaust systems clearly visible
- Sited directly next to a sidewalk
No wonder it is consistently a high temperature record breaker! On that day August 10 2003, it was warmer than Heathrow Airport where the temperature earlier registered 37.9C (100.2F).
UK residents: Feel free to add any information you can find that will help. Still looking for the high temperature time on 8-10-2003 at Gravesend.
UPDATE: I’ve located this photo also. What looked to be a sidewalk turned out to be a big chunk of concrete. Heat sink anyone?
This photo is from a Royal Meteorological Society publication, they apparently didn’t want the world to see the other nearby issues related to the radar station.
More on that publication, and how I’ve caught the Met Office in a lie, coming soon.
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It’s a microwave oven with all those megawatta of microwave energy spraying around!
Do I see a heat pump exhaust on the side of the building?
Philip Bradley, here in Canberra, our stocks of recyclables burn down all the time as well. They are serious fire hazards.
Still, better that than contribute to pollution! 🙂
Fascinating Research!
I too research and I want to share my findings.
The meanings behind the BBC “Flagging” of this area is William the Conquerer overtook/mis-ruled the country from Barking Abbey. That’s why on BBC East Enders the camera follows the Serpent Isis down to the Abbey area > GRAVES_END > East Enders
So look to your past for the answers behind their charades
‘Norman’ Barons were by blood “Vi-kings”
hint East-Enders is a form of SAGA
N-joy
There appears to be a British version of Surface Stations that previously identified the location of the Gravesend site at:
http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/site/03784
They have the arrow right on the Stevenson Screen, but they do not have the nice picture of Broadness Radar from wikimedia.
“Kelvin Vaughan says:
August 19, 2012 at 7:12 am
Do I see a heat pump exhaust on the side of the building?”
Yes it’s a condenser (of maybe a reversible). When running will chuck out a few kW but at that distance I very much doubt it reaches the screen except under freak circumstances.
Possibly more important is thermal radiation from the building (and banks), one of the reasons why there must be no structures anywhere near a screen.
Exposure is one of the most critical factors, it means an open sky in all directions to a very low elevation above the horizon.
The effect of the use of Thames water for cooling purposes by power stations alone is said to be about 3 degrees C since 1920.
Out of interest, since when were the BBC the experts on British climate records? If you believe the media you deserve the ridicule it brings you.
On the other hand, should reported temp reflect what was actually experienced? And as I hope we all know, if a site is typically over exposed by 2c then over time the record it produces is equally valid as one which is not over exposed (if you don’t get that, do back to school). Trends are about comparing like with like.
“Taphonomic says:
August 19, 2012 at 8:36 am
There appears to be a British version of Surface Stations that previously identified the location of the Gravesend site at: …”
Useful, made me look at when I reported the location to get the marker moved. Didn’t realise it was that long ago.
As the author of the original article, from an email December 2008. Quotes because this is from a handshake email.
“> Unconfirmed, located using GE.
> Information elsewhere says site is at Port of London Authority
> transmitter site.
> This site is suspected of anomalous high temperature readings. ”
Similar to surfacestations project? Different objective.
“The Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) is a public-private partnership with three main goals: 1) to collect weather data contributed by citizens; 2) to make these data available for weather services and homeland security; and 3) to provide feedback to the data contributors so that they have the tools to check and improve their data quality. In fact, the web address, wxqa.com, stands for weather quality assurance.”
if it is located in a depression wouldn’t that make it COOLER ????????
If an accurate, properly-screened thermometer records a temperature in a given area, that is the actual temperature at that spot, but other external factors may, obviously affect it. The Brogdale reading for 10 August 2003 is, I believe, as accurate as can be reasonably expected. Brogdale is an orchard, far from an urban site, in the area chosen by Henry VIII for his cherry orchards in the 16th century, given its warm climate.
Stephen Burt apparently felt that the Brogdale temperature was anomalous but considered the urban Kew Gardens, London, readings to be accurate although there are heat emitting greenhouses in the park and a wooden fence around the screen. I have readings for several sites in Kent on 10 August 2003, and my own taken every half hour and they are certainly unusual. On 9 August 2003 almost 400ft above sea level in a breezy garden on the hills of east Kent I recorded 89.4f (31.9C) with a south-westerly breeze gusting to 11mph. On 10 August 2003 the temperature jumped to 96.8F (36C) at 3.30pm with a south-westerly breeze backing south-easterly (warm air off the European mainland?) touching 10mph. On 11 August 2003 I recorded 89.5f (31.9C) with a north-easterly touching 22mph. All readings were taken conventionally in a Stevenson screen and with Davis equipment.
The Brogdale (Faversham) area, sheltered by the Isle of Sheppey, is probably the warmest area in Britain and I have no reason to doubt the reading given that it would have experienced the same surge of warm air from the European mainland as I recorded.The Gravesend site is well known but the readings from there are unlikely to be any less meaningful than those from urban London which do, after all, reflect the temperature in which people are living and working. A temperature of over 100f was recorded in the 19th century in west Kent but later discounted. I believe the Cheltenham reading may have been taken at an old airport.
Just an anecdote about waste heat being put into waterways having a real effect…. As a boy growing up in the Wirral, I used to love to go fishing. One of the spots was downstream from a Power Station (hope it wasn’t nuclear…) and as people are wont to do, unwanted pet fish had been thrown in the water over the years. The fish had naturally sorted themselves out by degree of Tropicality and heat needs, such that the further downstream you went, the less tropical the fish. I still remember line-catching a large Angel Fish (put it back of course, this was Coarse Fishing, not Game!)
@David re weatherstations UK
I had a look at the weather records for a number of RAF bases some time ago. Looking back over 20 years or so, the mean temperature had increased – in the daytime. Which I presumed was down to more tarmac sitting in the sun, more flights etc.
I even asked if I could come to RAF Brize Norton to look at the weather station. They sort of said yes, after a few weeks, but I never bothered…
Would be interesting to look at how the RAF bases (the majority of UK weather stations) have changed over the years.
The weather data for UK stations is available and easily extracted back to about 1854 but only become hourly sometime after 1970s.
@David
Also, you probably don’t need to photograph the weather station, just rate it according to standard methods by eye. Some google earthing would be a good start, plus some records of local housebuilding
In the photograph of the Brogdale site the row of conifers could have a significant effect on the temperature readings. I remember being taught that the effect of a shelter belt on wind speed extended down-wind for a distance equal to 10 times the height of the shelter belt.
Bill Parsons says:
August 18, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Sorry for your discomfort.
Meanwhile, temps in the Grand Canyon, AZ, are in the cool 80′s daytime, and 50′s at night – they’ll remain so for the next several days as nice cool showers blanket the area during the day.
Go figure.
This in a place that is usually a 106 F. oven (average daytime highs) in August. (A nephew hiking in to camp with his geology class.) Lucky bugger.
—————————
You would love Ireland. We have two seasons.
In Winter the rain is cold.
In Summer the rain is warm.
We see funny round things in the sky occasionally . People say they are the Sun and the Moon, but we never see enough of either to be sure 🙂
If one of Anthony Watts mobile temperature recorders were put in the windstream in front of every UK electric-powered passenger train, which pretty much cover the whole island, tied in via cellular data links for reporting to a central place, wouldn’t averaging that give a much more accurate temperature for the UK than these stupid old wooden boxes sitting out in the sun, painted dirty white? If the sensor were in a foam-insulated tube that wouldn’t get hot when the train stopped, out of the sun, and sampled only while the train were in motion, it would measure the air going through the tube.
There’s gotta be a better way of measuring the temperature of air, nowhere near a stationary 50 ton air conditioner condensor MOVING through the country.
Magnificent. Worthy of Michael Crichton at his best.
Well done.
When I binged that site and saw the mudflats I was immediately jerked back to my time at Berkeley and the hours spent at the mudflats near the Berkeley pier. That in fact is where I was during the tsunami from the 1964 Alaskan Earthquake. Anyway – the heat that rolls off wet mud is warmed by the albedo of both water and mud. You can feel it when the tide is going out – the heat rise is stifling. Combined with the smell and humidity and it becomes something you don’t forget. The wind from across the bay goes straight up University Ave, perpendicular to the shoreline, and brings the fresh smell of seafloor with it. Not so bad as living downwind from a pig farm, but not by much 🙂
Sorry if this has been covered above. The masts will have either a large concrete base the top of which will be probably 500 mm below ground level or a large reinforced concrete pile cap foundation on concrete piles?
In a “REPLY:” to tcvaughn (original posting August 18, 2012 at 3:37 pm), Anthony wrote:
REPLY:I thought of that, having worked on radar system in the past. … Microwave ovens operate at a frequency of about 915 MHz—wavelength 328 millimetres. … – Anthony
In the U.S., most home microwave ovens operate in the 2.4 GHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) band. That’s why microwave ovens can interfere with 2.4 GHz WiFi signals. According to Wikipedia (I know, I know), large commercial and industrial microwave ovens do operate at 915 MHz. (If you aren’t willing to trust Wikipedia, see the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, “Microwave Ovens and their Hazards“, which says the same thing.)
John Edmondson @ur momisugly 4:44 am on the 19th August 2012:
I’m not sure I’d trust Cheltenham measurements either; at least I would want to know where exactly the measurements are done. They have a small airport nearby, they are just below the Cotswold escarpment and there is a certain other set-up next door also.
Perhaps I can add some comments on the “Gravesend” site. I was struck by how many times Gravesend was reported as the warmest/hottest place in the UK at any time of the year. The coordinates indicated that the site was in the middle of the Thames so I conacted the met office for more precise details. They said that “the area around is generally built up and urban which is one of the reasons that is often the hottest place in the country”. I replied that Broadness was anything but built up and was surrounded on 3 sides by water. No respone to this!
What is interesting is the fact that the maximum temperatures recorded on these peak days are always above any of their hourly recordings and sometimes by more than 1C. Sudden surges in temperature seem to occur at any time of day as recorded hourly – that may be due to the state of the tides, wind direction and exposure of the extensive grey mud flats.
Seriously. How much heat do you really think is going to reach from the radar ‘building’ to the station in such an exposed location?
The Met Office spec says an undesirable: Warming effect from buildings on measurements.
OK the building has NO warming effect. End of story.
REPLY: So prove it. Just saying it does not make it so, especially when you are an anonymous coward. Meanwhile we have an accepted WMO ISO standard that quantifies that they do have an effect, and that weather stations should not be next to them or other heat sinks like the big chunk of concrete.
World Meteorological Organization Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation, Fifteenth session, (CIMO-XV, 2010) WMO publication Number 1064, available online at: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/CIMO/CIMO15-WMO1064/1064_en.pdf
That was adapted from:
Leroy, M., 2010: Siting Classification for Surface Observing Stations on Land, Climate, and Upper-air Observations JMA/WMO Workshop on Quality Management in Surface, Tokyo, Japan 27-30 July 2010 http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/Activities/qmws_2010/CountryReport/CS202_Leroy.pdf
OK. Just had a look at your WMO document and the Google satelite view of the location.
Clearly the radar building is over 10m away. Which means it would have to occupy 10% of a 30m radius circle. That is extremely unlikely. The large mast isn’t a building. The only ‘issue’ that I can see is the concrete plinth a few metres away (about 3 to 4m) which may or may not represent a problem.
REPLY: We’ll see, a site survey is int he works. Most warmists such as yourself want the issue to go away, but it won’t – anthony