h/t to Dr. Ryan Maue
In Spain, Paco Eslava García has been following my lead on the poor quality of weather stations that produce record-high temperatures. I recently pointed out how the tentative all time high temperature in Africa could very well be due to being at an airport. I also pointed out that high temperature records in the Los Angeles area could be a product of poor siting. Such as this station on the roof of the Santa Ana fire station:
But what Paco has found in Spain is truly laughable.
Here’s his Tweet showing why:
Translation:
This is the meteorological station, which has the highest temperature record in Spain, is located in the municipal district of Montoro… maybe a little maintenance would not hurt!
What Paco is speaking of is the Stevenson Screen. The box with slats to allow airflow. That’s where the thermometer is located. It’s supposed to be white, to minimize the solar heating effect. But as you can see, it’s not white at all, it’s brown due to lack of paint, which seems to have worn off:
It also appears that the front door of the screen may be missing. The vegetation is too high near it, blocking wind, and there’s a large concrete structure nearby.
Paco adds this photo, where you can see the station in the distance just under the word “Vega”:
Here’s the rub as to why this station is a problem.The 2017 heat wave that brought a new all-time high temperature record.
Spain records hottest day at 47.3C (117F)
I wonder if the State Meteorological Service of Spain (AEMET) bothered to go look at the weather station at Montoro before they verified that all-time high record. Probably not. That’s an embarrassing failure of science either way.
Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that this station is part of GHCN, so it doesn’t make it into temperature trends. But it does make it into climatic citations for all-time-records, and plenty of headlines. That’s still unacceptable.
Surface albedo matters when it comes to high temperatures, and a Stevenson screen that has lost it’s paint and exposes darkened wood absorbs more incoming solar radiation during the day, making the interior warmer than it should be.
But hey, let’s just call it “climate change” and nod to the consensus, as AEMET apparently did.
A friend of Paco, Juan Antonio Salado has found some other issues. He writes (translated):
Here you can see three central AEMet stations. The first manual, the second with two wind towers in the front of the building and between the Grove and the last, the automatic which is officially used on the terrace.
For example, here’s another Stevenson Screen with a dark roof.
Another freind, Zdenek Nejedly writes of another poorly sited station (also with a dark roof and chipping paint) that set the previous record:
Be cautious about Tmax on some Spain stations in next days. I have doubts about Montoro (p.1) st. Every day is 1-2 °C warmer than other hottest st. in Spain P.2 Murcia Alfonso X measured 47,2 in 1995, BUT…
Measuring temperature in the street, on rooftops, and using poorly maintained equipment is just irresponsible, and isn’t what you’d expect of science. One wonders if AEMET is just lazy, incompetent, or both?
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The standards of temperature monitoring are not followed because the decrepit installations are giving the Warmistas exactly the sort of high temperatures that they are wanting in order to terrify the population.
No one is held accountable for the lack of maintenance as it is giving the Warmistas the desired outcome.
The mainstream media ignores it because it provides them with scary headlines.
The reason for the lack of maintenance is that this is not the equipment currently in use at Montoro.
Anthony said:
“I wonder if the State Meteorological Service of Spain (AEMET) bothered to go look at the weather station at Montoro before they verified that all-time high record. Probably not. That’s an embarrassing failure of science either way.”
An embarrassing failure of science? How about failing to find out if a station is actually in use before creating an article claiming that it’s use, and the failure to check it’s condition, are an example of an embarrassing failure of science?
Not the best look when you’re complaining about other people not being careful enough in gathering data and forming conclusions from it.
Nick Stokes debunking is the only thing keeping this site sane.
Well, not the only thing, but definitely an important part. The accusations that get thrown at him are amazing. Imagine if the conduct of those who relentlessly attack him were assessed by the same standard that he is judged by. That is explained away by examples of him refusing to agree with someone about something.
Indeed Philip.
Anthony, I love the work you do, but a close look at the photo of Montoro provided makes it appear to me that no-one has walked inside that enclosure for years. The grass is almost waist high, even immediately inside the gate where the operator would have top walk to get to the screen.
The same applies to the Stephenson Screen in the 1st photo supplied by Juan Salado. Look at the gate & the grass growing up around it, & the grassy area near the gate. If someone was reading instruments in that station daily, there would be a visible path worn into the grass, & you would be able to see the effect of the gate being opened & closed on the grass growing up around it.
Excellent piece of work. Without bothering about such scenarios researchers “take it granted” attitude present sensational articles in reputed journals. In real sence have no meaning. Let me give my experience in Niger in West Africa. I went with Ethiopian delegation to look at agriculture scenario as ICRISAT/Hyderabad established a sub-centre. I saw the met observation in a delapadated condition under trees in front of the airport. International agencies take flights from this airport including UN agencies never bothered on relocating the station or modernizing the observatory.
Dr. S. Jeevananda Reddy
Excellent piece of work? What is excellent about taking a photo of a station, and claiming that it’s use, and failure to check it’s condition are an embarrassing failure of science, when the reason the station is in such bad condition is that it is no longer in use?
Also, what was that station in Niger for? Was it for climate analysis, or was it a dilapidated weather system for a dilapidated airport?
Phillip the only way you or Nick or whoever are going to gain the high ground here is to show a picture of the new installation because at the moment the comments are pure conjecture. You are assuming that the gate is the access used to approach that station – as we have only one view, any body is guessing. Whats to say that automatic equipment has
not been installed here as there is a mast and a solar panel right next to it.
This isnt a court of law but science is all about proof. You have suggested that the photograph shows a disused station but you dont say how you came to this conclusion and show no evidence of the new siting – nor does Nick.
I agree that there is an element of doubt properly raised initially, what you need to carry it through is a picture of the current station or complete proof that this station is not still in use
Mark,
The Aemet page for Montoro is here. If you scroll down, you will see that they plot the recent hourly data, 24 hrs a day (click Table for numbers). You don’t do that with a thermometer in a Stevenson screen. They have an AWS, and it is the basis of the temperatures they report.
So what on earth would they do with this dilapidated, overgrown CRS?
The sign on the gate in García’s photo identifies that site as ‘C. H. La Vega’. One of the previous Montoro weather station sites listed in the article you linked to is ‘Montoro Vega Armijo’. This was operational 2008-2013. That would seem to fit with the general state of dereliction at the site in García’s photos.
Don’t know if you noticed, but in the AEMET page for Montoro there is a link to a map of the current site’s location, Presa de Yeguas. It appears to be sited in the grounds of a pumping station or similar, connected to the Guadalquivir river.
Im not saying anybody is right or wrong here Nick but scroll down to position and location, change to the satellite map and zoom in and the indicated position seems to exactly correlate with the stevenson screen picture (picture yourself by the gate you can see across the road) and the building to the right with the tin roof and tower exactly corresponds with the photo through the gate. I agree with you that precise readings from a derelict site are most likely not manual but where have they put the automatic station – looks to me like right on the edge of a tarmac roadway if its part of the new looking solar panel pole or perhaps still contained within the delapidated stevenson screen. Either way the position indicated on the sites web page seems to be unchanged from the old position
Mark,
“the indicated position seems to exactly correlate with the stevenson screen picture”
It’s not that exact. The lat/lon is to the nearest second, which is 30 m, and it looks to me something like the distance from the marker to the old CRS. But there is plenty of room on the site to locate an AWS, which would have the same coords, or very near (they probably wouldn’t correct). Anyway, as you say, the hourly data they are posting is clearly not manual, so that rules out the box pictured as the source.
Incidentally, the article here isn’t very clear, but it seems the record in question isn’t from the current heat wave, but is from 14 July 2017. The graph I showed above, clearly AWS, is from that day, and the maximum shown is indeed 47.3°C. So the record in question was measured by AWS.
The abuse of the station locations amounts to conspiracy to make them read higher. They’re leaving babies in hot cars on purpose now.
I live in the middle of a small town, ca 15k people, in central England. last night I went out for a walk across some fields that are close to my home. On entering the edge of the town on my return the increase in temperature was most noticeable. This was a most striking demonstration of the UHI that I have ever experienced.
Here is a novel thought( I am too lazy to look up its true novelty)…how about WUWT creates a temperature logger and station design and whoever wants to participate joins the temperature gathering mob?
Standards of device, let’s say a raspberry pi zero and thermistor or two; a housing design, placement, importance of verifying and validating the placement and nearby geological and houses and other features.
Get enough people and see what sort of results can be captured over time.
I am sure there would
Be some cheating by AWG crowd, but it would be a fascinating attempt to do real science without political agendas.
PREVIOUS RECORD TEMPERATURES SUPPORTED AS GENUINE RECORDS
The 850hpa barely peaked 24c for this so called Spain record temperature on 13th July 2013.
http://www.wetterzentrale.de/reanalysis.php?map=1&model=noaa&var=2&jaar=2013&maand=07&dag=13&uur=1800&h=0&tr=360&nmaps=24#mapref
Unofficial 51c for Seville was recorded for July 30th 1876, where below the 850hpa temp touching ~29c.
http://www.wetterzentrale.de/reanalysis.php?map=1&model=noaa&var=2&jaar=1876&maand=07&dag=30&uur=1800&h=0&tr=360&nmaps=24#mapref
On 4th August 1881 when the official for over a century 50c was recorded in Seville, during the day 850hpa temp reached 28c.
http://www.wetterzentrale.de/reanalysis.php?map=1&model=noaa&var=2&jaar=1881&maand=08&dag=04&uur=1800&h=0&tr=360&nmaps=24#mapref
On both occasions 850hpa temperatures were around 4/5c above the peak reached on 13th July 2013. The record temperatures back on those days are easily supported being 4/5c above this record of 47.3c would be of course 51.3c/52.3c. Even if the old records were still 1c/2c out they still support hottest record temperatures.
This is another example why this supposed record 47.3c in Spain was fake.
The AEMET website gives the location of the Montoro weather station as 38° 00′ 48″N, 4° 19′ 49″W. This seems to be the site shown in the above article.
It makes no difference that this station is not next to Seville. Montoro weather station is near Cordoba around 100 miles NE from Seville. The whole region recorded temperatures around 44c or higher. (the near surface temperature easily being 20c to 23c higher than 850hpa temps)
My point being the whole region was around 4/5c higher with 850hpa temperatures centuries ago, so what would the near surface temperatures be if this had occurred on 13th July 2013?
For that reason record temperatures in the past are verified because this proves that those record temperatures can occur. Not only can they occur, but Seville did have the official record Europe temperature of 50c until only recently.
“Who measured that at 850hpa?”
Part of the NOAA reanalysis v2.0.
“On 4th August 1881 when the official for over a century 50c was recorded in Seville, during the day 850hpa temp reached 28c.”
Who measured that at 850hpa?
Finding an accurate location for an Outside Air (OSA) sesnor on a building is close to impossible for HVAC operations. This sensor is used to enable and disable central plant chillers and boilers, airside econimization on air handlers, etc.
Found one recently that was on the roof, just downwind of the cooling tower discharge plume. Based on wind direction, you could get a 10-degree differential in just a few minutes. This was driving the entire 600,000SF building HVAC system, and has been for better part of 20 years. As a result, the past enrgy use profile has no real connection to what should be happening. Yet, many HVAC-industry engineers will grab the bad data and mangle it to produce good-looking backup for a large energy project where they make a lot of money.
So, let me see if I get this right, we’re basing our entire global economic policy on bad data from these poorly sited and maintained weather stations???
Do you know which of these poorly sited and maintained weathers stations are actually in use, and what they are used for?
I think you should go back through the discussion and pay close attention to the information presented by Nick Stokes.
I remember a Mythbusters program which looked at the possibility of temperature rise in parked cars being sufficient to explode aerosol cans. They used two identical cars – completely identical except that one was black and the other one white. The internal temp of the black car rose, IIRC about 10F more than in the white car.
So if you want a high temp record, paint your Stevenson Screen black – or at least allow the paint to discolour over time.
Dudley;
Cars are made of metal.
Stevenson screens of wood.
Of course you are correct, but the effect is tiny and in the case of this article, mute, as it is an abandoned site.
I see that that fact has been amended to the post (sarc)
Yes, Anthony Banton. I am saddened that the WUWT moderators, & our host, have not paid sufficient attention to comments on this article. Nick Stokes, myself, & Philip Schaeffer, have all pointed out that the images which instigated this post are of no-longer-operational Stephenson Screens.
The lack of an update to the post concerning this puts WUWT in the same league as the climate alarmists – a victim of confirmation bias.
Not enough background research was undertaken before the post went up, & very few of us who have viewed the post have looked sufficiently close at the photo’s to realise that there is a problem with it’s content.
Faversham in Kent is the Met Office and BBC ‘ darling fir record UK temps. It keeps coming up which caught me attention. I did a hunt on the interweb and found a picture proporting to be the station. Can anyone confirm the concrete road way I saw right next to the weather station?
See below