There’s lots of hullabaloo over the supposedly tied all time temperature record of 117°F in Las Vegas on June 29th, and the potential for a new all-time temperature record in Death Valley, which would negate the all time world record of 134F set on July 10th, 1913, since the previous world record in Libya of 136.4°F (58°C) was recently said to be unreliable. More on Death Valley in the next post, but for now let’s look at Las Vegas.
I don’t know where NBC news got 117°F where they say:
The high temperature officially hit 117 degrees at Las Vegas-McCarran International Airport — equaling the airport’s record
Even Drudge reported this.
Did NBC make this up? It wouldn’t be the first time they made up a news report to make it more spectacular. The official report from NWS Las Vegas for June 29th says 115°F:
CLIMATE REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAS VEGAS, NV
212 AM PDT SUN JUN 30 2013
...................................
...THE LAS VEGAS NV CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR JUNE 29 2013...
CLIMATE NORMAL PERIOD 1981 TO 2010
CLIMATE RECORD PERIOD 1937 TO 2013
WEATHER ITEM OBSERVED TIME RECORD YEAR NORMAL DEPARTURE LAST
VALUE (LST) VALUE VALUE FROM YEAR
NORMAL
..................................................................
TEMPERATURE (F)
YESTERDAY
MAXIMUM 115R 452 PM 115 1994 103 12 105
MINIMUM 89 529 AM 60 1941 79 10 82
AVERAGE 102 90 12 94
The 117°F is not mentioned in the Record Event Report either: 115°F is.
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAS VEGAS, NV
150 AM PDT SAT JUN 29 2013
...SUMMARY OF RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES BROKEN ON 28 JUNE 2013...
IN LAS VEGAS THE HIGH TEMPERATURE AT THE OFFICIAL CLIMATE STATION AT
MCCARRAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT REACHED 115 DEGREES. THIS TIED THE
DAILY RECORD FOR JUNE 28TH SET IN 1994. THIS MARKS THE FIRST TIME
LAS VEGAS HAS REACHED 115 AT MCCARRAN SINCE JULY 6, 2007 AND IN THE
MONTH OF JUNE SINCE JUNE 30, 1994.IN LAS VEGAS AT NORTH LAS VEGAS AIRPORT THE HIGH TEMPERATURE REACHED
113 DEGREES. THIS BREAKS THE OLD DAILY RECORD OF 108 DEGREES SET ON
JUNE 28TH 2003. THIS MARKS THE FIRST TIME NORTH LAS VEGAS AIRPORT
HAS REACHED 113 SINCE JULY 7, 2007.
So, that 115°F is fairly unremarkable as temperatures go, having been reached twice before. According to the NWS Las Vegas, summary the all time high of 117°F has been reached twice before:
Highest Maximum Temperatures Recorded in Las Vegas – 117 degrees
July 19, 2005
July 24, 1942
Source: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/vef/climate/LasVegasClimateBook/Highest%20and%20Lowest%20Maximum%20Temperatures%20Ever%20Recorded.pdf
Interesting to note that NWS Las Vegas has followed the lead of the Surface Stations project, and on their main web page today, provided photos of each weather station…well almost, they don’t have photos of the Ellis AFB weather station, just the tarmac. 5 out of six isn’t bad though, I’ll give them props for effort.
Their caption reads:
Although there are 6 official weather stations in the Las Vegas Valley, our long-term climate station is at McCarran Airport. Most weather stations are located at airports since the aviation community relies heavily on weather data for flights.
UPDATE: The new record report (preliminary, pending certification) for June 30th, today does show that the temperature reached 117F:
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAS VEGAS, NV
450 PM PDT SUN JUN 30 2013
...LAS VEGAS TIES THE JACKPOT OF ALL-TIME RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES...
...ALL-TIME JUNE RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT LAS VEGAS...
THE HIGH TEMPERATURE SO FAR TODAY AT MCCARRAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
IN LAS VEGAS HAS REACHED 117 DEGREES. THIS TIES THE ALL-TIME RECORD
HIGH FOR LAS VEGAS FOR ANY MONTH FIRST SET ON JULY 24, 1942 AND TIED
ON JULY 19, 2005.
THIS ALSO SETS THE ALL-TIME JUNE RECORD HIGH FOR LAS VEGAS. THE
PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 116 DEGREES ON JUNE 15, 1940.
THE ABOVE INFORMATION IS PRELIMINARY AND IS SUBJECT TO A FINAL
REVIEW AND CERTIFICATION BY THE NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER.
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Steven Mosher says:
June 30, 2013 at 12:36 pm
“DMarshall says:
June 30, 2013 at 10:43 am
According to the linked NOAA PDF, 115° F has been achieved 30 times since 1937 but calling it unremarkable is a stretch when it’s the highest temp for that location since July 2007 and only 5 times has it been reached this early, the last was 21 yrs ago and the time before that was 43 yrs past.
###########################
you haven’t figured it out yet. No temperature no matter how high will ever be regarded as “remarkable”. There is an unstated skeptical position that nothing remarkable can ever happen. It’s all happened before. Even if it reached 130F in Las Vegas, that record would still be attacked, because nothing remarkable can ever happen. It’s all happened before is a null hypothesis that will never be rejected, ever.
Steven,
There is a difference in a temperature that has been acheived before several times and one that has never been seen in that place before.
I do sense some projection in your reasoning on the null hypothesis though – had you thought about that? 😉
“Area-wise – maybe, yes.”
Area-wise the largest city in the US (and on earth apparently) is Jacksonville, Florida.
Human made new records?
http://www.john-daly.com/stations/badwater.htm
Steven Mosher says:
June 30, 2013 at 12:36 pm
you haven’t figured it out yet. No temperature no matter how high will ever be regarded as “remarkable”.
==================
Oh contraire. I’d say that a reported temperature of 117F at anAirport which turns out to not have been the reported temperature at all is quite ‘remarkable’. FYI, I’m a skeptic.
Steven Mosher says:
June 30, 2013 at 12:36 pm
“you haven’t figured it out yet. No temperature no matter how high will ever be regarded as “remarkable”. There is an unstated skeptical position that nothing remarkable can ever happen. It’s all happened before. Even if it reached 130F in Las Vegas, that record would still be attacked, because nothing remarkable can ever happen. It’s all happened before is a null hypothesis that will never be rejected, ever.”
When the hypothesis being bandied about is that humanity is inflicting “change” on the climate that hasn’t been seen in “millions” of years, why would you even suggest that the null should be rejected?
I’ll never understand the excitement a CAGW NGO gets at learning that the weather is almost as hot as it was decades or centuries ago, and at a time when CO2 and SUV’s were far more rare.
The population of Clark County, NV is 100x what it was in 1942.
I live in Phoenix and was monitoring The Weather Channel on Friday. At about 2 PM, they reported a temperature of 117. I figured the record of 118 would certainly be broken. However, at around 3 PM, The Weather Channel backed down the temperature to 115 and it maxed out at 116 according to The Weather Channel and the NWS. The 117 degree reading was bogus. I point this out because the NBC reporter who claimed that Las Vegas hit a record of 117 that day apparently got his numbers from The Weather Channel. Maybe the “glitch” that caused the erroneous reading in Phoenix was somehow duplicated in Las Vegas. Of course, if that were the case, you would expect NBC to update their article and say so…
I was out there in Las Vegas this time of year many times but in either 1991 or 1992 there was 115°F on that big clock on the upper strip ( near the Sahara ) in the afternoon and it still read 100°F at midnight. I checked the PDF linked above and it does not show up.
At most places the local airport is the source for local temps, and these airports are usually “developed” or “urban” when compared to the surrounding “rural” areas. For example, here in upstate NY the airport temp shown on the local news channel and the weather channel is almost always a couple of degrees warmer than we actually see on thermometers outside.
So I am wondering if any Las Vegas locals can comment on this, do you have kind of a reverse situation out there? Is it possible that McCarran is a cooler micro-climate ( well, less urban ) than on the strip? Up where that clock was 20 years ago there was nothing but brick, concrete and asphalt. Just buildings, streets and parking lots. No dirt, no sand, except around the odd palm tree.
Hehe. Steve Mosher is whining that skeptics aren’t impressed by all the alarmism that his buddies are frantically plastering all over the media. Exactly which alarmist report grabs your fancy but not ours Steve? Please don’t tell me that high temp fraud has you all worked up.
And right back at you: one might wonder why 17 years of non-Warming doesn’t impress you and your buddies?
Where is the nearest USHCN station to Las Vegas?
Is it: NV Baker 5 W Great Basin National Park (Gravel Pit Site)
It only got to 95.4 deg 6/29 15:00.
Or is it NV Mercury 3 SSW
Got to 109.6 deg F at 16:00.
Monthly summary. Got to 107.1 deg F on Jun 8.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/crn/newmonthsummary?station_id=1049&yyyymm=201306
I wouldn’t have believed this if I didn’t see it for myself…
The weekly temp chart for NV Mercury 3 is clipped at 40 deg C
http://i44.tinypic.com/2uhludc.jpg
Rounding error?
If it stays at this temperature every day for the next ten years, we might… just might… have a problem.
Steven Mosher says:
June 30, 2013 at 12:36 pm
> you haven’t figured it out yet. No temperature no matter how high will ever be regarded as “remarkable”.
It most certainly is remarkable – there are 35 comments here remarking on the weather mentioned in this post.
Question for Anthony and Moderators …
My above post ( #comment-1350890 ) is stuck in moderation.
Is there something in it that tripped a spam or content filter? I cannot seen anything, and there are no links either.
Has the forum changed again? I could swear that I have had recent posts go straight through without moderation. This is not impatience, just wondering.
[Reply: For unknown reasons sometimes WordPress will put a comment in spam. Found your comment above in Spam folder & now posted. — Mod.]
Stephen Rasey says:
June 30, 2013 at 1:56 pm
###
To be fair, one has to realize that the local temps can vary a great deal in an area like south eastern Nevada. It does not take much change in elevation to have a dramatic effect. I was camping at Lake Mead during the mid 70’s when the local temp hit 122 F. That is only 20 miles south of Las Vegas, but down in the Colorado Valley. Our Chocolate Bars in the ice chest, sitting on ice, where melting on top!
Mike Smith, you are wrong. The temperatures are not adjusted, they are homogenised, manipulated and/or tortured.
The word “adjusted” suggests there might have been some valid reason for the change.
“Manipulated”, or “tortured” are much better words to describe what the Climate Establishment does to temperature records.
That little squeal that Steven Mosher emitted a couple of posts back is so typical of the Warmist reaction. It’s a squeal of frustration that the planet is simply failing to respond according to their predictions.
It reminds me of Dr Phil Jones Climategate email, the one in which he laments…”I hope you’re not right about the lack of warming lasting till 2020″.
They so want to be right, they so hate it that they’re wrong.
When it’s 115°F in Maine, Washington or Alaska, call me. I may be curious then. 115°F at an airport in a city surrounded by desert and rock, in late June? Meh…not so much.
Nellis AFB, not Ellis. Sorry, anal retentive hat on tonight.
Steven Mosher says:
June 30, 2013 at 12:36 pm
“you haven’t figured it out yet. No temperature no matter how high will ever be regarded as “remarkable”. There is an unstated skeptical position that nothing remarkable can ever happen. It’s all happened before. Even if it reached 130F in Las Vegas, that record would still be attacked, because nothing remarkable can ever happen. It’s all happened before is a null hypothesis that will never be rejected, ever.”
==========
Haha, It is only the stupid policies enacted by data challenged politicians, that “we” wish to avoid. That is all.
I remember visiting Las Vegas once when it was 116 F. I was from Michigan so was shocked by the high number, but nobody there seemed impressed. Too hot do anything outdoors except walk from building to car; that’s it. No one ever mentioned climate problems or thought it was unusual.
This is an example of normal weather and abnormal people talking about it.
Just got home (Lakewood, CO) yesterday from Mt. Shasta, CA. Came through Death Valley. Stayed two days in DV. That was a study in contrasts. Having been in DV a half dozen times before, it is a place where one can see subtle contrasts. But it was HOT!!!! It is one of the unique areas on earth. Well worth a visit in any season. Really!! Today it is 71 in Lakewood.
115 degrees is certainly remarkable enough. It just isn’t unprecedented. Now if all those high had been set in the last thee years, that would be unprecedented.
@Mosher, no comment then of the fact that it was 115F and not 117F ? Apparently that’s not “remarkable” for you.
But one more 115F previously hit 30 times in LAS is remarkable?
You’ve strayed into your own secular BS zone my friend. Lose the snark-hate, it isn’t becoming of you. You are acting like Seth when it comes to “remarkable” temperatures.
Ian W says:
June 30, 2013 at 11:50 am
Perhaps someone would check my maths the formula is rather nasty – but I just did a rough comparison –
Florida (Daytona Beach) Temp 25.1C Humidity 83% – Heat Content – 1257.6 Kilojoules/Kilogram
Nevada (Las Vegas) Temp 41.6C Humidity 12% – Heat Content – 307.2 Kilojoules/Kilogram
I was under the impression that green house gases trapped heat – not ‘temperature’. There is more heat on the East coast than there is in Nevada because the enthalpy of the air is higher due to its water vapor content.
That is a remarkably important point that is not discussed nearly as often as it ought to be.
I understand why there are a lot of weather stations at airports. Pilots need to know the current weather at the airport, but what they don’t need to know is what the historic data was. Until recently no one really needed to know the historic data. In the sane world we used to live in before 1980 or so it really did not matter if the record temperature was 115 or 117. It might have been a curiosity, but it really did not matter, now with global warming alarmistism running amok it means way more than it should. .