Gotta love this, with all the hullabaloo over a possible new world temperature record in Death Valley, a logging town in Washington has pre-empted them.
Hilariously, the reading of 139 degrees F is listed as “suspect” as it should be, but at 133 degrees F in the next reading (just under the Death Valley all time record of 134F) it is listed as “OK”.
See the screencap:
Source: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobext.php?wfo=otx&sid=KTLW1&num=72&raw=0
h/t to reader Dave Thompson.
Obviously it is an equipment malfunction. I wonder how many other weather stations will go on the fritz in our upcoming heat wave.
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Did I hear the words Hockey Stick or hide the decline?
Enjoy a favorite.
Dew points in the triple digits? Rain forest- and lots of dead, overheated animals.
I am sure those will make it into the monthlies though…
And weighted heavily 😉
In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.
Mark Twain
“Obviously it is an equipment malfunction. I wonder how many other weather stations will go on the fritz in our upcoming heat wave.”
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Where I work, over the years, we’ve gone more and more to digital instruments. One thing I’ve noticed is that a digital instrument is subject to “noise”. Oddly enough in this context, ambient temperature can throw the signal sent from an instrument off. So can the proximity of other lines running through the same conduit that carry an electrical current.
Feel free to jump on this comment if you know better, but isn’t it true that the temperature of a conductor affects it’s conductance?
What I don’t know is if higher ambient temperatures effect on a conductor would result in higher or lower recorded temperature.
While it true that temperature affects conductors- high reduces conductivity, it affect semiconductors more and probably affects the critical effect you are mentioning here Inductance resistance (Impedance- resistance to changing current) but it more likely its just bigger varying currents (its hot people use more electricity) induces an electrical current in the signal wire creating the noise.
At least it was a “dry heat” !!
With a dewpoint of 120F, that wouldn’t be a dry heat. I wonder what the heat index translates to?
Great information here on global warming and climate change. With many scientists believing we are headed for a global cooling period it will be interesting to see what happens. Sunspot activity has been relied on experts for centuries. How about global freezing?
Most digital temperature sensors used today use 1-wire, or I2C and send an actual number, not the analog signal, like the SHT11 or TMP100 – the wiring won’t introduce any noise into the measurement. It’s more likely you’ll see siting issues.
I have 3 temperature sensors around the house, and they all read the exact same number, usually, except for certain times of day when the sun heats one more than the others. For that reason I use the lowest number as definitive.
Low batterys also give higher temp reading up 0.4c in some cases ( going by my station any way).
Ok – the temperature rose 80 degrees F in 2 hours from 6:30 am to 8:30 am and the wind switched from SW to NE – 180 degree swing – maybe the exhaust of a logging truck??? I grew up north of the US border, not all that far from Kettle Falls. I used to drive through it regularly as it was the only paved route between cities on the southern Trans-Provincial Highway (the section between Rossland and Christina Lake was basically an upgraded power line access road up to 1962.) Kettle Falls is definitely high desert country surrounded by pine forests and adjacent to the upper reach of Roosevelt Reservoir, but I doubt it could be that hot at that time of day. Maybe the weather station is next to one of those beehive wood waste burners that used to be in Kettle Falls. 😓 Probably located on Log Deck Road.
It should be no surprise that every now and then we hear of some record high some place. If the records go back only 100 to 150 years and there are 365 days in a year, every day represents 1 chance out of 100 to 150 that a record high may be broken. Given that there are 365 days of the year, record highs should be broken on average 2 to 4 times per year.
And just across the border in Grand Forks BC, where it also rained in the morning, the high at around 3 pm was 32 C (about 90 F). Forecast high for next week is 41 C (106 F) Not unusual, I remember days there when the pavement was more like liquid than solid and your shoes would stick to it walking across the street. Forecast high next week for Kettle Falls is 42 C (108 F).
106 = Suspect
117 = Caution
133 = OK
That is “climatology” in a nutshell.
Gunga Din says: “…Oddly enough in this context, ambient temperature can throw the signal sent from an instrument off. So can the proximity of other lines running through the same conduit that carry an electrical current.”
Yes, obviously. Which may explain why all the specifications I’ve seen prohibit running power wiring and instrument wiring in the same conduit. I wonder if the Climate Reference Network stations comply…
This is a different station at Kettle Falls: http://www.usbr.gov/pn/agrimet/agrimetmap/kflwda.html
Next to the Roosevelt reservoir.
So is KTLW1. The reservoir is to the west but to the east and NE is the Boise Cascade Timber mill. The weather station is located in some trees adjacent to the log sort area. So the wind switched from off the lake to off the log sort area. But I still would bet the reading is erroneous.
Gunga Din says:
June 28, 2013 at 5:16 pm
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It would not suspect the wiring, though a heat related mechanical involvement might be indicated. The problem is more probably that the instrument was improperly/never calibrated for anything over 50 C. Modern instrumentation uses calibration curves in order to compensate for such things as instrument temperature. BTW, this is my field of expertise that actually pays my bills. I have designed calibration procedures and written the software that automates them. One of the areas I worked in was environmental testing.
I might get around to finding out what the measurement system used at the site is and what the calibration process is.
Kettle Falls can have some weird weather. My grandmother was in the mountains when it snowed on the 4th of July. I doubt it was 139 there though.
My wife texted me today as her Toyota said, 111 in Escondido, CA. I asked here if she had been parked and she said no. She texted me back to admit the thermometer had fallen to 93, well within the reported weather range (and yes, the car had been parked.) I wonder how many of these “weather stations”, are simply metal boxes designed for a specific highly specialized governmental purpose.
I just went to the Kettle-Falls.com (Chamber of Commerce) [zip code 99141] and clicked on “Kettle Falls weather forecast” and up came this:
http://www.weather.com/weather/today/Kettle+Falls+WA+99141
There you will read that the high today was 91 F at 5:05PM.
Guess nobody was up by 9:30AM to notice how hot it was then.
Well, that’s all from Kettle Falls, folks. Tune in next time, for more N-E-W-S!
Thus, it looks like NOAA may be attempting some propaganda… . It wouldn’t be the first time they have fudged the data. Guess their policy now, is, no more fudge, it’s burger time!: “If you’re going to tell a lie, tell a whopper.”
“MattN says:
June 28, 2013 at 5:54 pm
With a dewpoint of 120F, that wouldn’t be a dry heat. I wonder what the heat index translates to?”
I found a website that allowed me to calculate the heat index: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/heatindex.shtml
Inputting 139°C with 63% relative humidity gives a heat index of 377° F / 192° C
Inputting 139°F with 63% relative humidity gives a heat index of 377° F / 192° C
“What did you say?!!” cried Janice.
“Inputting 139°F with 63% relative humidity gives a heat index of 377° F / 192° C.,” replied Jim.
“THAT IS TOO HOT!” (to be true — #[:)] — “Suspect” my eye — how about “Error!”
Err0r perhaps – but will it stay in the record?