From the “I scream, you scream, we all scream for higher temperatures” department. Yesterday, Paul Homewood and I went on a collaborative search to find the weather station at Strathclyde Park which had it’s all-time Scottish high temperature record denied by the Met Office, to no avail. It just wasn’t easily visible. One of Paul’s readers went to the scene and took photos, but it isn’t just the photos, it’s what he found out. Photo credits to Duncan McNeil. Read on.
The Met Office said:
“Unfortunately in this particular instance we have evidence that a stationary vehicle with its engine running was parked too close to the observing enclosure and the Stevenson screen housing the thermometers during the afternoon of 28th June,”
Turns out, it was an ice cream truck.
Here is what Duncan McNeil wrote after asking around at the scene, bolded sentence mine.
From: DMcNeil
Sent: 06 July 2018 22:14
To: paul homewood
Subject: Re: StrathclydeHi Paul,
Having read that they were blaming a car exhaust I revisited the park. I discovered that the weather station is split over two sites. The anemometer and wind direction indicators are on the roof. The stevenson screen is in the boat compound. I have attached two google screen shots showing the position of the Stevenson Screen as well as photos. The screen shot shows a large tent? close beside the Stevenson screen, but over the last couple of summers and without doubt in our extraordinary weather recently that position is taken up by an ice cream van which stays there all day with it’s engine running to keep the freezers working. The boat compound is in a continual state of flux depending on what events are being held in the park.
Thanks for all the work you put into your site,
Duncan
So claims of “extreme heat due to global warming” have been shot down by the Good Humor Man. I found this photo of an ice cream truck in Strathclyde Country Park here:
It doesn’t get any more ridiculous than this for climate alarmists
This is why yearly site inspections for all weather stations that report to the climatic record are needed. Otherwise you end up with bogus data. How many others like this exist that we don’t know about?
UPDATE: As I was writing this, one of our own WUWT readers (Peta of Newark) chimed in with these photos (annotations mine):
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
S’pose you want pictures huh…
I hope they work.Up close and personal…
https://postimg.cc/image/bel7msnlj/
Same angle but steeped back, now we see the ‘parked vehicle’
https://postimg.cc/image/7i7vqpuvb/
Oh the ironing, its an ice cream van.
From the exact opposite side..
https://postimg.cc/image/5qeww4ogn/
The piers/water are off to the left and we’re looking into the gym (those S shaped things are treadmills) in the top left corner of the big white roof building in the top photo..
Yes, that is a diesel generator attached to the back of the ice cream vanIt is one very large water park, set below the town and driving into there is like walking into a fridge. The water really does cool it – or is the a carbon dioxide hole above the park?
The ice cream girl (that’s her in the drivers seat with her back to us) was ever so ever so sweet – from Poland I guess, not Scottish at all. Hope that cow May doesn’t send her home.
It made her soooo happy to be a World Record Breaker, just the smile on her face made the trip worthwhile.Otherwise what a Complete Mess of a weather station
The ‘gallery’ should be here: https://postimg.cc/gallery/f8lhzifs/
In case you don’t know, ice cream trucks have usually 2 or 3 aircons or chillers with heat exchangers, plus a generator. They are true “urban heat islands”.
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Well the fact that it was an icecream truck proves the planet is warming.
If it had been a hot soup truck then that would have been evidence of an ice age.
You couldn’t make it up! Except the “climate change” alarmists do.
And this is what Hansesn and GISS call science is it? UHI polluted data, adjusted by the number of street lights nearby visible from space.
Am utter joke.
My wife and I had a few trips to stay in Morecambe while our daughter was at Lancaster uni on a trundle along the sea front we found the local weather station positioned about 10ft on the landward side of the shore road with the breeze taking the warmth from the tarmac to the temp sensor.
Of course there is also the famous Heathrow high temp from a weather station right next to the taxi/runway with the high temp coinciding with the passing of an aircraft?
James Bull
A nice bit of investigation!
Its a pity the general public will probably never hear about it from the BBC.
BBC Headline and story:
“Scotland’s hottest day record ‘not accepted’ by Met Office”
Doesn’t matter. The first, wrong, headline is what people will remember. Doesn’t matter if the MO retracts it or alters it. The damage is done.
The issue is, this ‘record temperature’ would have remained a record if it had not been checked out.
It would have remained in the ‘Internet history’ for ever. Echoing around the world.
Why are non official temperature readings reported at all? It is difficult enough to get semi sensible readings with good equipment.
Why would a national weather service take an interest in an unapproved site?
If the site had been located slightly better, would the MO adopt the readings?
Sounds odd.
Here are the other Northern Hemisphere temperate records set recently
US
Denver, Colorado, tied its all-time high-temperature record of 40.5C on June 28.
Mount Washington, in New Hampshire, tied its all-time warmest low temperature of 15.5C on July 2.
That same date saw Vermont’s Burlington set its all-time warmest low temperature ever recorded of 27C.
Montreal too recorded its highest temperature in recorded history of 36.6C on July 2. The city also experienced its most extreme midnight combination of heat and humidity.
Europe
Excessive heat torched the British Isles late last week. The stifling heat caused railway lines and roofs to buckle, the Weather Channel reported, and resulted in multiple all-time record highs:
>>Apart from the Ice Cream one :Scotland provisionally set its hottest temperature on record. The UK Met Office reported Motherwell, hit 33.2 Celsius on June 28, passing the previous record of 32.9C set in August 2003 at Greycrook. <<
Additionally, Glasgow had its hottest day on record, hitting 31.9C.
In Ireland, on June 28, Shannon hit 32C, its record.
Over in the North, Belfast hit 29.5C on June 28, while the village of Castlederg hit 30.1C on June 29 – records both.
Eurasia
A large dome of high pressure, or heat dome, has persistently sat on top of Eurasia over the past week, resulting in some extraordinarily hot weather:
Tbilisi, Georgia: on July 4, the capital city soared to 40.5C, its all-time record.
Yerevan, Armenia: on July 2, the capital city soared to 42C, a record high for July and tying its record for any month.
Meanwhile, several locations in southern Russia topped or matched their warmest June temperatures on record on June 28 – as England's footballers discovered against Belgium.
Middle East
Quriyat, Oman, posted the world’s hottest low temperature ever recorded on June 28: 42.6C.
Golly. These ice cream vans must be everywhere.
Come on team. -2 likes? Not what you want to see, so you pretend that it isn’t true? Ah, well.
Most on this site would rather concentrate on the temperature that may or may not have been a record, and ignore the large number of record highs.
What an untidy dump this place is.
In fairness to Strathclyde Park, it is a large water park that hosts many national and international sporting events over the year. It needs a large area for “parking” boats, secure storage and the many other activities associated with water sports. The rest of the site is actually attractive, clean and very well maintained.
Duncan McNeil. Your photographs were very interesting. How about getting one of your colleagues to help you in recording the temperature at the Park weather station at the very same time that your colleague recorded the temperature in an open space away from the park. Both recording the actual and recorded temperature at, say 2pm on the day. We would then be able to see exactly the difference between the two temperatures? It would need to be while the ice cream vehicle is operating next to the park station. It could be a very interesting result and provide conclusive evidence of the futility of the siting of some of these stations.
Hi George,
I actually thought of that idea this morning and may even get around to doing it when I have the time. Thanks for taking the time and effort to respond to this posting,
Duncan
T’was a lovely way to indulge my only remaining vice (thank you Medical Profession) of driving/exploring/meeting people. (Mindless Dance Music fits in there somewhere but that’s Physiotherapy. Genuine thanks to Doc for that one)
One thing I did find, cross threading here, is A Reason why Greggs The Bakers are suffering from ha ha Climate Change.
Maybe there is some rebellion rising against Tasteless Nutrient Free Mush, even before it gets soaked in foul tasting & cancerous vegetable oil.
As per Greggs’ usual fayre.
Apart from meeting Polish ice cream girls, here’s another good reason to visit Scotland…
https://www.browningsbakers.com/products/pies-pastries/kilmarnock-pie
Best described as a beef-steak version of a PROPER (cannot emphasis that too much) Melton Mowbray pork pie.
Isn’t that a bizarre coincidence that Melton Mowbray is not far from Newark
😀
There just *had* to be a reason I moved all the way from North East Cumbria.
Always trust your instinct
Missed a bit – See the pie ingredients – Palm oil, admittedly vegetable but like coconut oil = saturated fat
A true measure of Climate Insanity that so much of that stuff is now being grown and then burned as diesel.
Hello Mars, here we come.
(How’s that Saharan Dust Storm that landed on the Mid-West recently doing – still blowing red dust everywhere is it?)
What Midwest dust storm?
Peta : Nothing nutritionally wrong with EITHER saturated
vegetable OR animal fats ! The human body can handle them OK !
What has caused ALL THE HEALTH PROBLEMS is the use of SUGAR and
TRANS-FATS
( partially- hydrogenated vegetable oils mainly…. & MARGARINE !! )
Butter really DOES make it better !! And good old olive-oil !!
The REAL PROBLEM with Palm Oil is that it UPSETS THE GREENIE’S !!
Forest is cleared to establish the Palm Trees …..and YOU MUST NOT
CLEAR FOREST to produce food for HUMANS !!! Next thing you know ,
hunger and poverty will be alleviated and they will start breeding !!!
( Pity WWF can’t get Pandas to EAT PROPER FOOD and breed normally !
BUT that is NO REASON to deny humans the ability to eat ! )
ps. .Peta….I loved that name..
.Pity an animal rights organisation adopted it and gave it a NEW meaning !
There is an old photo around home here showing a “Mr Whippy” ice cream truck from the 1970s in Perth, West Australia.
The back of it carried this message
MR WHIPPY
BEWARE OF CHILDREN
FRESHLY MADE FOR YOU
One of these vans was the subject of a road test by famous motoring journalist Romsey Quints, named in this article, with an image suited for the article on record high temperatures –
http://wwwbollyblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-mr-whippy-melted-before-i-made-it.html
Can’t find the Mr Whippy review, but it included specifications and performance figures for both motors, the one for the van and the one in the back for the refrigerator. The name Romsey Quints was for Bill Tuckey in real life, though it reminded us of that spoonerism, “shivering quits”. Geoff
let alone the proximity to the tarmac rd the solid object to radiate/ deflect heat wind etc its another of those “you have to be joking!” sites
O/T-ish: Superficially the advert below (for a car!) is just fun: computer special effects used to gently mock a “melting Arctic” activist. But just below the surface perhaps it shows that the advertising agencies have acknowledge that “Deluded Arctic Activist” has become so iconic that most of the audience will immediately be grabbed be the start of the storyboard and laugh at the outcome seconds later. Ten years ago such an ad would not have been commissioned, as the allusions and irony would be understood only by a minority. https://www.facebook.com/sharkenergydrinkofficial/videos/750607195129218/?t=100 (at 1 min 40sec)
So was the record temperature a 99 (in farenheit).
Sorry, very poor English ice cream joke….
R
The proper wording of any reporting is:
“City X had the hottest recorded temperature on the official thermometer at location X. Temperatures vary widely and this reading may or may not be relevant to any place outside of the physical space occupied by said thermomter used in the reading.”
One can change a trend line by carefully choosing locations. Temperatures vary by 10 degrees over a mile distance, sometimes less. All this “highest ever” really has little to no meaning. It’s fun with statistics, maybe, but nothing more. Not fun if you start acting as if it really matters.
Not to worry. The ice cream is homogenized, no doubt.
Slight TYPO Anthony.. ” but it (isnit) just the photos” !
Perturbing factors of weather measuring sites are uniformly those which cause an inaccurate increase in temperature data, i.e. location near concrete, blacktop and such, air conditioner unit, parking lot, or in this case an ice cream truck…never one which decreases temps. Ever heard of one INSIDE an air conditioned space or dripping with water spray? It’s so prevalent it’s almost like it’s planned.
Anthony, just to let you know I’m an avid reader of your site as well as Paul’s. I think your site is one of the most important, if not the most important site demanding to see the science that supports the AGW theory. Please keep up the good work,
kindest regards,
Duncan
“In case you don’t know, ice cream trucks have usually 2 or 3 aircons or chillers with heat exchangers, plus a generator”
In all my years (over 60) I’ve never seen an Ice Cream truck towing (and apparently using) an external generator! In the old days they would simply have cool boxes containing dry-ice, and could only sell pre-packed ices and lollys. These days the public wants more choice, and so on-board dispensers supply “Whipped” ice cream direct into cones. These, naturally, have chillers to cool the mixture down, and they are normally driven by an extra belt from the vehicle engine, which has to sit there all day running at idle. Some vans have a (smaller) dedicated engine, but this is not common. Maybe the operator of the red van sited next to the screen can’t stand the unholy racket produced by Ford’s “old tech” 2.5DI diesel, and chose the trailer mounted unit instead?
The ice cream truck is only part of the problem. The reporting sites are surrounded by concrete and/or asphalt! They retain heat and radiate it back into the air skewing the readings of the equipment.
Oh my goodness.
I appreciate that Americans have their own linguistic terminology for a lorry but an ice cream “truck”? Do Americans not distinguish between a lorry and a van?