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.
MattN says:
Obviously it was hot in Kansas. But when no other station is even close to that, you have to question it. Unless you don’t want to.
Obviously, all the other regional thermometers were miscalibrated, so the temperature readings on them must be adjusted upward to match this one…
/s
By the way, this is good opportunity to remind folks to stop accessing “Weather Underground” for their weather information needs, but instead choose one of the many MUCH BETTER alternatives, such as Accuweather.com. Every time you click on weatherunderground.com, you are enriching Jeff Masters and contributing to his efforts to spread climate alarmism. Thanks.
Interesting post and discussion. Thanks.
Frank K. says:
May 6, 2014 at 7:45 am
The site I use is WeatherTap.com. Costs $7.95/mo but has great radar graphics and good regional forecasts. Accuyweather is on my smartphone.
cirrection: Accuweather..
dalyplanet ,
YW
at least they didn’t put it directly behind jets taking off …
“The rest of the Winter wheat(SRW) crop is OK but very cold temps over Winter took some yield potential away from a crop that had perfect planting conditions last Fall and went dormant in outstanding shape”
I should add that the Soft Red Winter Wheat in grown outside the S.Plains.
The Ohio Valley and points south.
http://www.smallgrains.org/whfacts/growreg.htm
Bruce G Wilkins says: May 5, 2014 at 4:09 pm
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!
The egt is measured before the turbines that drive the compressors and fan, which extract energy and decrease temperature.
The temperature coming out of a JT8 on a 727, which is an old engine and airplane is only 200 degrees F and falls to 100 degrees F, 100 feet away.
Page 33 here of this report. Copy and paste link into Google.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a211266.pdf
People, people!
When professionals like Christopher C. Burt and Jeff Masters say there is no urban heat island effect, they are correct! How could anyone doubt the knowledge and integrity of these two professionals? Dr. Masters stated several months back that it was the warmest period in Earths history. Mr. Burt states that the UHI effect was dismissed years ago.
Remember, one of these two professionals flew into hurricane Hugo!
For me those sites are primarily used to calculate the lift threshold for aircraft as other people have mentioned. Our airport is virtually at the same elevation as Witchita. When air temps reach the high nineties we get info from radio and TV as to the possibility of delays until temps drop to a safer level. These sites should not be at all used as “official” sites, they are there for safety reasons and therefore very very local (air safety) reasons.(hot air is thinner providing less lift there are a few AHHH OOOOO moments on youtube).
When Wichita gets Ebola? Then time to worry
Brewster,
Remember, one of these two professionals flew into hurricane Hugo!
Heyyyy! I flew into hurricane Gloria in September 1985.
Funny thing is that another tv meteorologist from Pittsburgh was there and we joked about the 2 of us(me from Indiana) had viewers from a place that would never take a direct hit from a hurricane.
Wait, maybe global warming will melt enough ice to increase sea levels so that by 2100, all the states between Indiana and the ocean will be engulfed (: