Over at Weather Underground, they are all excited about a new monthly high temperature record. Christopher Burt writes:
Wichita, Kansas Measures May Monthly High Temperature of 102°
On Sunday, May 4th, the temperature peaked at 102° at Wichita’s official NWS site Mid-Continent International Airport. Not only was this the hottest temperature ever measured during the month of May (previous record was 100° set on four different occasions) but was the earliest 100° reading on record (previous was May 9, 2011) and hottest reading so early in the season by a whole month: since June 4, 1933 when 102° was also observed. The city is off to its 2nd driest start of the year on record as well. Temperature and precipitation records for Wichita date back to 1888.
But, as I’ve pointed out many times, airports are one of the absolute worst places to measure temperature for climatic records. Not just because the airports themselves are massive heat sinks of asphalt and concrete, but also because the ASOS weather station system is known to be highly unreliable and prone to giving false high temperature readings like in Honolulu, Tucson, and more recently in Tacoma, where after fixing the ASOS temperature sensor, temperatures dropped to normal levels.
Have a look at where this thermometer is located for Wichita:
I think the asphalt pad right next to the ASOS (just north) is a nice touch, don’t you?
Location: 37.647564 -97.430027 Looking North. Image from Bing maps: http://binged.it/1mvYRyf
But look at the larger picture:
Looking North. Image from Bing maps
The location of the ASOS weather station is shown circled in red. It is surrounded on all sides by tarmac. You can bet that measurement environment didn’t exist for previous May high temperature records in Wichita.
Let’s look at the data for May 4th from KICT:
Source: http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KICT/2014/5/4/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA
Note that the high temperature of 102°F was set during a period of gusty winds which look to be WNW at the time. Winds normally act to suppress mid-day high temperatures, because the mixing interrupts the boundary layer and surface heating from solar insolation. Unless of course, that wind is doing heat transport from the road, tarmac, and nearby asphalt pad to the WNW. It is also possible that the ASOS temperature sensor malfunctioned in some way, giving an erroneous high temperature, which happens with some frequency according to the links to previous events I gave earlier.
No other nearby stations set records over 100°F:
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
130 AM CDT MON MAY 5 2014
...NUMEROUS RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES SET ON MAY 4TH...
WICHITA MID-CONTINENT AIRPORT REACHED 102 DEGREES AT 306 PM THIS
AFTERNOON. THIS NOT ONLY SHATTERED THE MAY 4TH RECORD OF 94 DEGREES
SET IN 1963...IT ALSO BROKE THE RECORD FOR THE EARLIEST 100 DEGREE
OR HIGHER TEMPERATURE...WHICH WAS MAY 9TH...2011.
SALINA REACHED A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 96 DEGREES TODAY. THE
PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 95 DEGREES SET BACK IN 2012.
CHANUTE REACHED A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 94 DEGREES TODAY. THE
PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 92 DEGREES SET WAY BACK IN 1909.
And, no other NOAA operated COOP station under the NWS Wichita office hit 102°F:
MAX/MIN TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION TABLE
FOR CENTRAL...SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST KANSAS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
921 AM CDT MON MAY 5 2014
.BR ICT 0505 C DH07/TAIRZX/TAIRZN/PPDRZZ/SFDRZZ/SDIRZZ
:
: Cooperative temperature and precipitation observations
: for the previous 24 hours ending around 7 am local time
:
:....................................................................
: ID Station Obs Max Min 24HR Snow Snow
: Name Time Temp Temp Pcpn Fall Depth
:....................................................................
:
: Cooperative observations for Central Kansas
:
BNSK1: Burns : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
CLFK1: Claflin : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
CWFK1: Cottonwood Falls : DH0800/ 97 / 58 / 0.00 / /
KANK1: Kanopolis Lake : DH0600/ 97 / M / 0.00 / /
LICK1: Lincoln : DH0700/ 89 / 50 / 0.00 / /
LSBK1: Lindsborg 3E : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
MCPK1: McPherson : DH0700/ 94 / 51 / 0.00 / /
PEAK1: Peabody : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
SRLK1: Sterling : DH0700/ 99 / 54 / 0.00 / /
SYLK1: Sylvan Grove 1NE : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
WLSK1: Wilson Lake : DH0800/ 90 / 49 / 0.00 / /
:
: Cooperative observations for South Central Kansas
:
ANYK1: Anthony : DH0700/ 101 / 60 / 0.00 / /
AGTK1: Augusta : DH0630/ / / 0.00 / /
BNSK1: Burns : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
CWFK1: Cottonwood Falls : DH0800/ 97 / 58 / 0.00 / /
ELDK1: El Dorado : DH0700/ 100 / 63 / 0.00 / /
HSEK1: Haysville 3SE : DH0800/ 101 / 64 / 0.00 / /
HUTK1: Hutchinson : DH0600/ 101 / 58 / 0.00 / /
NWTK1: Newton : DH0700/ 101 / 61 / 0.00 / /
OXDK1: Oxford : DH0800/ / / 0.00 / /
PEAK1: Peabody : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
WLGK1: Wellington : DH0600/ 100 / 58 / 0.00 / /
WWXK1: Wichita Weather : DH0705/ / / 0.00 / 0.0 /
: Cooperative observations for Southeast Kansas
:
CFVK1: Coffeyville : DH0600/ 94 / 59 / 0.00 / /
HMBK1: Humboldt : DH0700/ 93 / 65 / 0.00 / /
INDK1: Independence : DH0700/ 96 / 38 / 0.00 / /
IOAK1: Iola Water Plant : DH0800/ 93 / 66 / 0.00 / /
MRNK1: Moran : DH0800/ / / 0.00 / /
MVLK1: Mound Valley 3 WSW: DH0800/ 93 / 61 / 0.00 / /
PARK1: Parsons : DH0800/ 91 / 61 / 0.00 / /
SDAK1: Sedan : DH1300/ 98 / 65 / 0.00 / /
YATK1: Yates Center : DH0700/ 95 / 64 / 0.00 / /
:
.END
It seems to me that this record is suspect.
=================
[UPDATE by Willis] This post of Anthony’s inspired me to do some sleuthing. First, the history of the station is here. It reveals that the weather station moved from downtown Wichita to one airport in 1940, and then to its current airport in 1953. It switched to the ASOS automated system in 1992.
And an inordinate amount of digging located a 1956 photo of the airport, not long after the weather station moved there.
In comparison with the current aerial photo, we see that a third runway has been been added. You can also see that the airport in 1956 was surrounded by miles of farmland on all sides … and how it has suburbs all around it now.
Regards,
w.
before you compare absolutes you have to correct for differences in station altitude.
Period.
or you have to compare anomalies.
Period.
Wichita is a good-sized regional or national airport. It’s obvious from the photos the readings are contaminated by all the concrete and other man-made structures nearby.
Other readers have pointed out that the 102-degree temp recorded in Wichita is not an outlier — several other nearby stations also reported temps over 100. So what do the station sitings look like? Are they all as bad as Wichita’s?
=============================================================
Our host knows a thing or two about siting issues. This “record” is suspect.
The “big deal”, I suspect, will be how this questionable “record” will be used for it’s PR value. You see, it won’t be used as a poorly sited airport record but as an all-time record high for May.
Nip it in the bud.
Have you ever felt the blast from a jet engine? It’s quite warm, even on a cool day! Run several jets by a temperature station and some of that warmth will be picked up. Either the people who set this up are really stupid OR they want the readings to be very high.
in addition to the adjacent UHI effect…..
careful, this like many small airports, is probably classed as “rural”
here are three nearby stations at the same altitude.
100.9
http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KKSWICHI38#history/s20140504/e20140505/myesterday
and 101.8 Here
http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KKSWICHI79#history/s20140504/e20140505/myesterday
and here 101.9
http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KKSWICHI34#history/s20140504/e20140505/myesterday
“Bob Diaz says:
May 5, 2014 at 3:53 pm
Have you ever felt the blast from a jet engine? It’s quite warm, even on a cool day! Run several jets by a temperature station and some of that warmth will be picked up. Either the people who set this up are really stupid OR they want the readings to be very high.”
The heat from a jet engine at FULL POWER decreases to the ambient air temperature within less than the length of the aircraft.
Look at any airplane land operations safety guidelines published for the ground crews at airports.
having spent a considerable time looking at 1 minute data from airports I will say that you cannot find any evidence that the measurements of Min and Max for the day are effected by this.
There are piles of one minute data.
knock yourself out and look
Bob Diaz says:
May 5, 2014 at 3:53 pm
Have you ever felt the blast from a jet engine? It’s quite warm, even on a cool day! Run several jets by a temperature station and some of that warmth will be picked up. Either the people who set this up are really stupid OR they want the readings to be very high.
===
No, Bob, they want the readings to reflect take-off conditions for the aircraft (it’s related to lift), that’s why the thermometers are placed where the aircraft take take off. The stupidity is to take these readings as being an indication of something they were not set up to measure and for which they do not fit many of the basic siting criteria.
At least there’s no BBQ grill.
Not only do you have the heat sink of cement, etc. the jets taking off have a very high egt, exhaust gas temperture, to heat the area up. As an example the max egt of a 747-400 at take off is 650 degrees C. That is 1202 F. That will warm the area up nicely!
Here is WWXK1. It’s not the ASOS site, but seems to be on the boundary of the Wichita airport land, 1.6 km from the ASOS. It recorded 101°F
Tarmac is not a “heat sink.” The correct term is “Thermal Mass.” Heat sinks conduct heat away from equipment subject to overheating, as if draining water down the sink. Tarmac is black, tends to be hotter than any natural material when exposed to sunlight, with the possible exception of basaltic rock which is also black, or lava fields.
Mosher, since you know so much, how much hotter are airports than rural grasslands or forests within a mile or two?
This sounds like the ventilation fan on the 1088 was beginning to fail. When I last checked, just before I retired from NWS, the thermoelectric cooler housed in the 1088 sensor head had not been turned off, even though the new relative humidity sensor
had been substituted. If the fan fails, (after about 10,000 hours of operation), the heat
from the thermoelectric cooler is trapped in the sensor housing, about 2 inches away from the RTD temperature measuring device.
There is no sensor to measure if the fan has failed, or is slowing down due to worn out bearings.
Just thought you would like to know the nature of the problem.
WWXK1, where the temp reached 101°F, is a NWS site on the boundary of Wichita airport. Here’s a picture.
REPLY: Yes, but you aren’t showing the full picture Nick. Nice try at diversion. Still a parking lot, nice dark albedo, and all that, a Class 4 station. Note the nice WSR-88D doppler radar heat vents within the thermometer viewshed…wind direction will be a factor in heat transport.
Picture via Bing. http://binged.it/1iknAx0
Anthony
How long as the observation point been in this location again..? For however long it has been, this certainly should be the temperature of record for the date, whatever relative value it is. I don’t think there’s any getting around how hot it was there. The longer the records go back at that location, the more solid ground it attains. As you know, in climate matters, it’s not the absolute temperature value, but the relative change over time.
As phaedruscj points out, there are 6 other stations reporting 100 or 101. A quick Google search for the station codes shows their location: ANYK1, ELDK1, HSEK1, HUTK1, NWTK1, WLGK1. All but 1 (maybe 2) are in neighborhoods surrounded by asphalt streets and likely influenced by UHI.
I’m curious about HSEK1, which reports 101 and appears to be fairly well sited, but Anthony is the expert on that. At any rate it was a very hot day–maybe record high or very close to it–but it’s unlikely that 102 is accurate as compared to previous high temperatures for May. Previous high for May was 100 F in 1913, 1934, 1962, 1967, 1996.
The fact that it was 35 F just 2 days prior is unassailable proof that weather systems have a far larger and immediate impact on us than glacially slow (pun intended) long-term global warming.
Looking at NOAA’s Wichita Climate Records website makes it obvious that the last couple decades are about as warm as it was in the 1930’s:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ict/?n=records
Michael moon.
If you compare all airports to all non airports there is no
Difference. Except in japan where airports tend to run a bit cooler.
For reference airports are used as the rural reference for many urban rural studies. See oke and Stewart
Why
See long fetch.
At 7meters sec uhi is basically mixed away.
Been measured many times.
REPLY: And the argument you make is still wrong. Trend is one thing, absolutes (Tmax/min) is something else altogether. – Anthony
Bob Diaz says:
May 5, 2014 at 3:53 pm
“Have you ever felt the blast from a jet engine? It’s quite warm, even on a cool day!”
Steven Mosher says:
May 5, 2014 at 3:59 pm
“The heat from a jet engine at FULL POWER decreases to the ambient air temperature within less than the length of the aircraft.”
These two statements don’t add up. Has either of you two fellows actually stood in the blast of a jet engine? It sounds like you have, Bob. Have you?
I know air cools when it is decompressed, but can it really cool 600 degrees in the length of an airplane? (Willis could figure this out on the back of an envelope.)
And how about those reports of gusty winds. Is there a chance the winds are due to the blasts from jets as they turn on the runway?
Climate change on Earth: “glacially slow.” {Lauren T. — 5:06pm}
Very nice.
Typo at 5:17: Lauren R. (sorry about that Ms. or Mr. R.)
Nice questions, Caleb (at 5:15pm) — I’d also like to add:
What raised the ambient temperature to that level?
I had a similar argument with a CAGWer last summer regarding the temperature record at Las Vegas and McCarran IAP. At the time the record was set in the 30’s McCarran didn’t exist. Nellis AFB was a dirt strip. Last summer, surrounding areas, including Death Valley recorded temperatures 3-4*F less than the 1930’s record and coincidentally, Las Vegas had an UHI analysis done in 2010 (http://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/files/UHI_Report_2010-2.pdf) which attributes 3-4*F to the UHI. It’s not that hard to understand.
Well, Anthony, you know if you show me a site, the first thing I have to go and do is rate it.
This one, using Leroy (2010) is at best a class 3 (350 m^2 heat sink within 30 m.) and more probably a class 4, considering that the area directly north looks like is isn’t merely gravel.
Using Leroy (1999), it is a Class 4 in any case.
All of which means it is out of compliance insofar as siting is concerned.
Here is WWXK1. It’s not the ASOS site, but seems to be on the boundary of the Wichita airport land, 1.6 km from the ASOS. It recorded 101°F
No good.
I nailed both the CRS and the F-P from the ground using GE. Looking at it from above, the screen is directly adjacent to a paved path, in a crook almost. And the asphalt from the parking lot starts 5 m. away. Class 4 or even Class 5 rating: No good.
That’s what is going on with homogenization, folks. They find a nice cool Class 2 and then adjust that “outlier” according to the readings of half a dozen nearby sizzling Class 3, 4, or 5 stations.