UPDATE: 6/3/22 The acquistion period has closed, and I have what I need. Look for a new report in about a month. Sincere thanks to everyone who helped! – Anthony
UPDATE 5/24/22 I am contacting people individually by email now to get photos and I have updated the list of stations in the body of the post to show what has been surveyed. If you have not heard from me, and have photos to send, use our contact form.
Anthony
As many longtime readers of WUWT know, what brought this website to fame was the original surfacestations project done in 2007, 2008, and 2009. The exposure of the shoddy state of NOAA’s Cooperative Observer Network, and specifically its subset network the U.S. Historical Climatological Network (USHCN) caused quite a bit of consternation and embarrasment to NOAA as well as other agencies using the data such as NASA GISS, CRU in Britain, and others.
Since the publication of my How Not to Measure Temperature series and the subsequent booklet, NOAA has since disbanded the USHCN and no longer uses it in their National Temperature Index:
Please note: National USHCN monthly temperature updates have been discontinued. The official CONUS temperature record is now based upon nClimDiv. USHCN data for January 1895 to August 2012 will remain available for historical comparison.
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/national-temperature-index/
But they still use the data, they just don’t label it “USHCN.” Instead NOAA is favoring the “U.S. Climate Divisions” method, most likely due to the fact that we proved the USHCN network to be shoddily managed and unreliable. We reported back in 2012 that USHCN had been abandoned and Andy May did an analysis of the change, citing this passage from here, by NOAA:
“The switch [from USCHN] to nClimDiv has little effect on the average national temperature trend or on relative rankings for individual years, because the new dataset uses the same set of algorithms and corrections applied in the production of the USHCN v2.5 dataset. However, although both the USHCN v2.5 and nClimDiv yield comparable trends, the finer resolution dataset more explicitly accounts for variations in topography (e.g., mountainous areas). Therefore, the baseline temperature, to which the national temperature anomaly is applied, is cooler for nClimDiv than for USHCN v2.5. This new baseline affects anomalies for all years equally, and thus does not alter our understanding of trends.”
But, NOAA no longer had the public relations problem of refering to the compromised and embarrasing USHCN as nClimDiv became a new faceless dataset.
But many of those shoddy climate monitoring stations in the COOP network and USHCN remain open, and they are still used in the nClimDiv dataset either as primary stations or as stations used in pairwise comparisons for homogenization of the surface temperature record.
The bias effects of the poorly sited stations on the entire record is very clear, as I reported in 2015 at AGU.
Over a decade later since first starting the project, I want to find out what has changed, and how many stations have actually closed, gotten better, or gotten worse. So, I’m asking for your help again, to find and photograph those stations. We know some of the worst-case stations I embrassed them with have been closed.
Remember Marysville, CA, the poster child for bad station siting? It was the station that gave me my “light bulb moment” on the issue of station siting. Here is a photo I took in May 2007:
![marysville_badsiting[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/marysville_badsiting1.jpg?resize=480%2C360)
It was closed just a couple of months after I introduced it to the world as the prime example of “How not to measure temperature”. The MMTS sensor was in a parking lot, with hot air from a/c units from the nearby electronics sheds for the cell phone tower:
Another equally bad USHCN station has been closed, Tuczon Arizona, which was measuring climate change in the parking lot in front of the Atmospheric sciences building at the University of Arizona, Figure 4.
So, I want to find out what the state of the current surface temperature network is, and I need your help to do it. In the past three weeks, I have been traveling in California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana to look at some of the USHCN and COOP stations. What I’ve found so far on my sample suggests that in both the COOP and the USHCN, about 95% of the stations are compromised in some way and do not adhere to NOAA’s published siting standards, allowing a temperature bias to be part of the data. This has been proven by NOAA itself in a peer reviewed study, and vindicates me.
I’ve already found stations just as bad as before.
This is the USHCN station in Grants Pass, OR. Parking lots and air conditioners again.
The worst part? NOAA/NWS knows about it and doesn’t care. I received this comment on my Facebook page:
As the former Engineering Director there for 13 years I can say more than once when the Medford NWS office visited I asked if it could be moved to more suitable position. I even offered to do it. But the suggestion was always declined.
https://www.facebook.com/anthony.watts.chico/posts/5114537851927946?comment_id=5114579285257136
How can I help?
Well, it’s pretty simple, all you need is a cellphone (smartphone) and a web browser. If you really want to science it up, get a FLIR camera attachment for your phone.
Back in the day when I started the project, locating the stations was quite difficult. To NOAA’s credit, they have greatly improved the metadata for all surface stations an have a comprehensive database called the Historical Observing Metadata Repository (HOMR). In that database, you can find all the stations exact latitude/longitude, though they don’t give street address. Finding it on a map only requires Google Earth and dropping in the lat/lon values. Then you just drive there and look for it. Sometimes, you can even find them on Google Earth Street View.
So, I’m asking that wherever you live, you choose a station or two from the list below near you, announce it here in comments (to prevent doubling up), and follow the procedure I’ve listed below. Then post your photographs and description here, as well as emailing them as a zip file to me for inclusion in the database.
Here is the list of stations and their locations that I need to examine before the end of May 2022. These stations were included in my 2009 report IS THE U.S. SURFACE TEMPERATURE RECORD RELIABLE? Stations with line through them have either been closed or I have already surveyed them or plan to survey them. I have helpfully included a link to each one to the HOMR database that shows location. I’ve also included some notes on each station. You can see original photos of these stations in the original report in 2009.
Please see the procedure after the list on how to find and photograph them today.Amherst, MA – Sewage Treatment Plant, 1 Mullins Way Amherst, MA 01002 GE LinkArdmore, OK – CLOSED 2009 for temperature reporting due to horrible siting on street GE LinkAshland, OR – Sewage Treatment Plant, 1295 Oak St, Ashland, OR 97520 GE LINK
Atchison, KS – Benedictine College, 1020 N 2nd St, may be in courtyard GE LINK Baltimore, MD – CLOSED for temperature reporting due to horrible siting on roof.Bainbridge, GA – CLOSED 2010, sensor 8′ from road and A/C unit
Bartow, FL – Previously at P.D., sensor right on the street, MOVED. GE LINK Street ViewBlacksburg, VA Located at NWS Office, 1750 Forecast Drive, in the rear GE LINK Street ViewBlock Island, RI – Original Report showed ASOS, HOMR element data shows a CRS, Find it please.
Brinkley, AR – Sewage Treatment Plant, 1185 Rusher Dr, Brinkley, AR 72021 GE LinkBrookville, IN – Brookville Water Works on Driveway, 898 Cliff St, Brookville, Indiana GE LINKBuffalo Bill Dam, WY – May not be at vistor center, 4808 N Fork Hwy, Cody, WY 82414 GE LinkBunkie, LA – Surveyed already Sewage Treatment Plant. GE Street View LinkChampion, MI – CLOSED in 2011 due to location near parking lot. GE Street view Link
Clarksville, TN – at the WWTP off Quarry Rd. Lots of construction since original survey. GE LinkConway, SC – CLOSED, fire station closed, no new observer found.Cornwall, VT – 2900 Seth Warner Memorial Hwy (private residence, visible from road) GE Street View Link
Crosby, ND – 209 1st Ave NW, Crosby, ND 58730 (private residence, visible from road) GE LinkDayton, WA – Sewage Treatment Plant, Stockton Rd. GE Link
Detroit Lakes, MN – At KLDM radio, (moved 70′ west) 1060 Richwood Rd, Detroit Lakes, MN – GE LinkDillon, MT – Surveyed by A. Watts April 2022 Right next to campus generator bld, above sidewal – GE LINKDrain, OR – Surveyed already – A. Watts Sewage Treatment Plant, Division Ave, Drain, OR GE LinkDurham, NH – US Forest Service, W End Path, 271 Mast Rd, Durham, NH 03824 GE Link
Ennis, MT – Rainbow Valley Lodge, Hwy 287, Ennis MT GE Link
Enosburg Falls, VT Looks to be on a farm, 27-1 Birch Ln Enosburg Falls, VT GE LINKFalls Village, CT – CLOSED – went to automated SCADA data?Fort Morgan, CO – MOVED in 2017 and 2018. May now be at private residence. GE LINK
Fort Scott, KS – MOVED 2013 from Funderal Home to PRIVATE RESIDENCE – 1904 S. Margrave St, GE LINKGainesville, GA – Observer died in 2021, station disposition uncertain, 955 Sunset Blvd. GE Street ViewGrace, Idaho – Surveyed by A. Watts April 2022, over concrete, bizarre placment of MMTS. GE LinkGreenville, TX – Surveyed already.Greenwood, DE CLOSED – Unknown reason GE LinkGunnison, CO – At Gunnison County Electric Association near maintenance. GE Link GE Street ViewHaskell, TX – Moved from radio station, at private residence now. 900 N 8th St, GE Link GE Street View Hay Springs, NE – CLOSED in 2018, directly next to building. GE Link GE Street ViewHendersonville, NC – Still at WKHP radio next to satellite dish, road. GE LINK GE Street View
Heppner, OR – Looks to be right on the street, at oil facility. 776-650 Riverside Ave. Heppner, OR GE LinkHillsdale, MI – At Wastewater Treatment Plant. W Galloway Dr, Hillsdale, GE LinkHopkinsville, KY – Moved 2020 from ridiculous location at BBQ/AC 302 Briarwood Dr. GE Street View LinkHot Springs, SD – Looks to be next to parking lot, 501-599 N 5th St, Hot Springs, SD GE Link
Kennebec, SD – Looks to be in yard near garden, visible from 2nd street GE LinkLampasas, Texas CLOSED 2013 for temperature reporting due to horrible siting on street GE Street View
Lebanon, MO – At KJEL-FM next to parking lot. 18553 Gentry Road, Lebanon, MO GE LinkLenoir, NC – On the sidewalk at City Municipal Bld. 605 Harper Ave. GE link GE Street View
Lexington, VA -Looks to be at residence at 298-126 Walker St. GE LinkLogan, IA – at Sewage Treatment plant, CLOSED in 2021, Lovelock, NV – Already surveyed.Marengo, IL – Sewage Treatment 1400 N State St CLOSED in 2019, equipment may still be there. GE LinkMarysville, CA Terrible location. CLOSED. Removed from service. Miami, AZ – Terrible location. CLOSED. Removed from service due to “data default” in 2008. Midland, MI – Sewage Treatment Plant, Kent Ct. Midland. Sensor recently moved. GE Link
Milwaukee, WI Sewage Treatment Plant, 501 Sentry Dr. Wakesha, GE Link
Mohonk Lake, NY Huguenot Dr New Paltz, NY GE Link
Monticello, MS – Municipal Bldg. 317 Main St. GE Link GE Street View
Morrison, IL – Sewage Treatment Plant, 503 W Winfield St. Near SW fence border? GE Link
Mount Vernon, IN – Municpal Bldg. College and Water St. GE LinkNapoleon, OH – CLOSED, Sewage Plant, terrible siting GE LinkNeosho, MO at Neosho National Fish Hatchery 700 E, McKinney GE Link GE Street ViewNorthfield, VT – CLOSED, Sewage plant, observer quit, GE LinkOkemah, OK – CLOSED, unlocatableOrangeburg, SC – Sewage treatment plant, 395 Seaboard St NW, GE LINKOrland, CA – Surveyed by A. Watts May 2022, still a good station. GE LINKOrono, ME – CLOSED 2008, ridiculous siting on roof of steam generator plant. GE LINK GE Street ViewPanguitch, UT – Moved 2009 and in 2022, near house with watered lawn. GE Street ViewParis, IL – Sewage Plant, Near S. Fence 50’s of road and sewage tank GE Link GE Street ViewPaso Robles, CA – terrible siting at the off-ramp for Highway 101 over concrete, still open. GE Street View
Pocahontas, AR – Residence, 106 E. Wiley St. GE Link GE Street ViewRacine, WI Sewage Treatment Plant, 417 21st St. In front of office near parking. GE Link
Red Cloud, NE – City Garage? 763 US-281, looks to be on W side rear of building. GE Link
Assumption Richardton Abbey, ND – 418 3rd Ave W, could be at maintenance bldg. GE LinkRock Rapids, IA – Municipal Bldg. Between Street and Parking lot. GE Link GE Street ViewSalisbury, MD – CLOSED 2011, Sewage Treatment Plant GE Street View
Sandpoint, ID Formerly Ag Exp. Station, now at Airport Granite Aviation 2099 Industrial Dr, appears to be next to tarmac. GE Link GE Street ViewSanta Rosa, NM CLOSED, terrible siting in observers backyard. GE Link
Searchlight, NV – Highway maintence facility, 320 NV-164, changed to MMTS 2011. GE Link Street ViewSpanish Fork, UT Electric Substation, 2129 E. Powerhouse Rd. behind office near concrete wall? GE LinkSpooner, WI – Ag Research Station, out front. GE Link GE Street View.
St. George, UT – MOVED 2015 to private residence, original was sited in parking lot. GE LinkSt. Joseph, LA – Already surveyed.State College, PA Unchanged from 2008, CRS behind Walker science building on grass GE LINKStaunton, VA – Unchanged from survey in 2009, GE LINKTarboro, NC – Sewage treatment plant, unchanged from 2008. GE LINKThompson, UT – behind Utah Welcome Center off I-70 GE LinkTifton, GA – Still next to sidewalk, A/C units, road at WWTP. GE LINKTitusville, FL – Sewage treament plant 1205 Buffalo Rd, sensor may be moved GE LinkTroy, AL – Appears to be at Troy Univ. Downtown. 63 S. Court Square. May be on roof or in rear. GE LinkTroy Locks/Dam, NY – Appears to be near parking lot of admin bldg. GE LinkTuckerton, NJ – CLOSED 2010 reason unknown, previously at residence.Tucson, Ariz. – CLOSED. 2008 due to ridiculous siting in the parking lot. GE Street View LinkTularosa, NM – CLOSED. 2019 due to lack of observer interest.
Tullahoma, TN – Unchanged from 2008, at sewage plant between transformers & concrete. GE LINKUniontown, PA – CLOSED 2019 Sewage Treatment plant, “NOT INTERESTED IN THE PROGRAM.”
The Procedure:
- Locate a station near you from the list above
- Make plans to visit. Leave a note in comments below to avoid duplication. Note that government locations, such as sewage treament plants oftn have locked gates on weekends
- When visiting, note that temperature sensor may not be near rain gauge. Look for MMTS or Stevenson Screen, also called a Cotton Region Shelter (CRS).
- Take a smartphone and/or camera with you. You may want to preload the address into maps.
- If using a smartphone, ALWAYS turn the phone/camera horizontal to take pictures
- If possible take pictures from 20 feet away looking at temperature sensor from 4 cardinal compass points, plus one or two overall photos (wide view) to show what is near it from different angles.
- Be respectful of tressaping signs etc. Often you can get pictures through and/or above fences.
- Post note in comments that you have it, I will contact you by email to have you email photos directly.
- Deadline: May 29th, 2022
BONUS ROUND:
The list above is the USHCN, but there are many other stations that are part of the Cooperative Observers Network that are also used to observe temperature for climate data. These are part of the “A” network and contain a GHCN ID to indicate they are part of the Global Historical Climatology Network.
May of these stations don’t adhere to the 100 foot rule NOAA specification seen here.
You can find that designtion in the HOMR database under the Station-Level tab, seen below.
These are used in homogenization processes and for infilling missing data. There are many more of these stations that the USHCN we originally looked at. Here is how to find them.
- Open up the HOMR web page and use the selector to choose where you live, such as state and county.
- Make sure you choose “COOP” in the right hand NETWORK selector, and then click on the “Display Open Stations Only” checkbox.
- The result will look something like this:
Click on the red balloon in the map, and you’ll then see another map below it with a blue square, click on it to get the lat/lon data:
Paste the lat/lon data into google Earth (I use the downloadable program but the website version also works.)
Use the Google Earth Street view tools to locate the address, if it is a residence, use caution or select another station. Many stations are also on public facilities.
Can’t do any of this but want to help? Consider a donation to support the work.
THANK YOU – Anthony
Anthony…great to see you carrying on this important work. It was what got me hooked on WUWT all those years ago and revealed the true extent of the scam they were pushing. Many thanks for your ongoing efforts.
good
The meteorological authorities have absolutely no interest in correcting the faults in the surface stations as they are supplying them with the false readings that suit their political purpose. Accuracy and Truth are not their aim.
They always let me know if something is not right with my coop site. They are very interested in accuracy and good data. If you don’t believe me, try operating a coop site yourself and see if your assertion is true.
Another thing that has changed is that the NCDC (National Climatic Data Center)
is now NCEI (National Centers for Environmental Information):
It’s still a frustrating experience to find any data at the NCEI.
I can pick up Barstow on the 20th.
Well, that won’t help. I gotta get new glasses. It’s a long way from Los Angeles to Florida.
I think I’ll be getting that one.
How about a nice direct link to the list of stations?
And one to the HOMR web page?
just to make it easier on us old folks
These comments shouldn’t be under my comment! However,
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/homr/
I didn’t use it last night, Lessee, for “my” Durham station, the USHCN list says:
USH00272174 43.1500 -70.9500 24.4 NH DURHAM —— —— —— +5
There’s no header line with field names. There’s a layout file that confirms that the +5 is the timezone. Note it still has low resolution lat/long.
Oh, the search function is the thing to use, it’s not very intuitive. Neither are the results. The attached image shows a search that worked, and how I used the zoom/scrollbar below the information to extract just recent stuff. I clicked the little dot for relocations, and umm, it may indeed have been moved to a better, but not great, spot.
Thats all in the post. Every station has a direct link in its city/state name, and the link to HOMR for that station is that link.
Thanks.
It would be great to see a full article here about how to access that data. I prefer to get it directly from tthe official source, to avoid arguments about truth. I know KNMI is good, but indirect. In 2014 I downloaded all data from Ashland, OR for analysis, from NCDC. I tried to update that analysis from NCEI a few years ago, and I was unable to get the same data. It seems they redesigned the user interface to make it nearly impossible to get a full set of data. By that I mean temperature readings at daily and/or monthly timescales, RAW and TOBS corrected data, precipitation, etc. with start and stop dates. In 2014, I found major adjustments had been done to data going back 100 years and more, like 10 degree adjustments. And the metadata changes did not correspond to the adjustments.
I can do the Durham NH site. There are a pair of CRN stations in Durham I might be able to visit, they’re at different farms and not close to paved roads and all that. Do we have any tools for comparing CRN and USHCN data?
Thanks Ric
I’m in Boston so if you can’t get to these let me know and I’ll try to get up Portsmouth way.
I got ’em today, thanks for the offer.
Anthony
I went to the NWS coop link and when I clicked on daily temps I received the message “Server Not Found.”
“Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site.
We can’t connect to the server at http://www.weather.gov. ”
Getting this a lot …
There is the matter that the US Climate Reference Network of especially good surface stations has warming rate close enough to the same as that of USHCN (US Historical Climate Network). This indicates that poorly situated USHCN stations are overall not getting worse over time. The few USHCN stations that are affectable by air conditioner exhaust would have heating from air conditioner exhaust decreasing as old air conditioners are replaced by more-energy-efficient newer ones that use less electricity and produce less heat, and this would offset the effect of some other USHCN stations being in growing urban heat islands. For that matter, haven’t lots of urban areas increased their presence of trees in the past couple decades?
No, it shows that nClimDiv is being adjusted to match USCRN.
USCRN is controlling nClimDiv.
Just imagine the egg on the face if they let nClimDiv climb while USCRN stayed level.
I haven’t followed all this very closely for the past few years, but one of the hallmarks NASA/GISS adjustments to the temperature is cooling past temperatures. While it’s annoying seeing so few CRN references in current reports, it may well be that the CRN is influencing the the more numerous nClimDiv staions, as b.nice states.
I think that what you are missing is that most of the heat that comes off the outside heat-exchanger is heat being removed from the inside of the building.
I’m not sure what your point is, but note it takes energy to run a heat pump, so when the unit is cooling, then the exhaust is both the heat from indoors (from the whole building) plus waste heat expended to run the heat pump.
My point is that I think that the heat being removed from the building is much larger than the heat produced by the motor.
I was in particular taking exception to Klipstein’s remark, “The few USHCN stations that are affectable by air conditioner exhaust would have heating from air conditioner exhaust decreasing as old air conditioners are replaced by more-energy-efficient newer ones that use less electricity and produce less heat, …”
I may well be wrong about this, but it is my understanding that modern legal refrigerants are not as effective as the older CFCs and there may be no real gain in finding other ways of making the heat pump more efficient. In any case, I think that his assumption that modern heat pumps produce less waste heat needs to be verified.
Whatever the efficiency of the heat pumps over time, it still remains that the majority of the heat load is going to be what is removed from the building, never the “overhead” for the equipment.
It won’t matter if the station is moved away from any artificial heat source. That should be the standard.
Clyde Spencer, you are correct.
And concentrated by the exhaust/condenser fan directed toward the station.
A heat map will show the temperature gradient which should be at ambient near 100 ft distance.
It can easily be 2-3 degrees C hotter near the unit/exhaust than properly sited.
You’re not actually trying to argue that because the heat is from inside the house that improperly sited stations are actually measuring realistic temperatures? Are you?
When your car is parked in a parking lot, it’s absorbing the heat from the Sun like the rest of the surrounding area. Yet, we all know the temperature gauge on our dash will read 105° until we start drivin. Then it settles to the surrounding ambient temperature.
Is it 105° outside or is it 90°?
As for the Figure 1 1979-2008 graph: I noticed NOAA having a warming rate more than that of 3 worst classes of stations, which is more than that of the best 2 classes of stations.
I see time range being selected for cherrypicking.
Also, I wonder about stations being considered as the same station when they’re moved farther out of town. And, for better fair reporting, I ask for comparison between USHCN and USCRN over the time period so far when both exist.
Hey, I think we have a volunteer!
Anthony, what time frame are you looking for? I could do Paso Robles CA in late July.
Yeah I need it by the end of May, but I can work with the Google street view for now. You can get it on your own time frame and I’ll update the database.
Give em hell!
A note abut the FLIR camera adapters: you need to ensure that you charge them regularly. There are reports of the attachment’s batteries going flat and recharging anymore.
An alternative is getting a CAT S62 Pro phone that has a FLIR camera built-in. It is twice the cost of the adapter, but it has 160×220 pixels instead of 80×60, has more than twice the sensitivity 70 mK instead of 150 mK, and is integrated in to the phone, so guaranteed to work without software issues. I have one myself for 18 months now.
By the way, the frame rate of these cameras is limited to 9 fps because otherwise they fall under ITAR restrictions for military equipment.
Do’h, that should be 160×120 pixels, not 160×220
Funny France stopped cheese exports as a punishment for Crimea (not camembert for you dirty Russians, that will teach you not to attack Ukraine), but until recently France was exporting FLIR for military use to Russia.
But French citizens can only own FLIR sold without attachment, consuming one hand. Can’t have those on your head, dirty French civilians!
“ITAR restrictions for military equipment”
Do these Stinger missiles have reusable FLIR ranging modules, or is it 100% guaranteed tamper proof and only usable to shot down planes?
How many were sent?
To whom?
What are the chances all are recovered?
Do they expire?
Can they be remote killed like Tesla and Deere?
“National USHCN monthly temperature updates have been discontinued.”
ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ushcn/v2.5/
Looks up to date to me.
nClimDiv is also deliberately matched to USCRN.
USCRN has brought US temperature adjustments under control.
Basically ignore anything before USCRN and being non-data.
Greetings Anthony
I can handle Tifton, GA early next week although I don’t have a FLR attachment (looks like a neat gadget though)
No worries on the FLIR, just do what you can. Thanks.
Survey completed yesterday. Let me know what to do with the photos.
email sent to you
In 2019, I bought a bottom-of-the line thermal camera for my Pixels 3, “PerfectPrime IR0102 Thermal Imager for Android Cell Phones, -4-572°F, 9 Hz” see https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FF8RD14/ .
It runs off the camera’s battery, and is a heavy load, even when the app isn’t running, requires that I take the camera out of it’s case, I have to reset the visual/IR alignment every time I start the phone if I want photos worth sharing, and has a remarkable 30×30 pixel array.
They have a better, cheaper model now, see https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R93WZ6H/?th=1
It paid for itself diagnosing a frozen water in my well room. I thought the block was near floor level, it was where the porch/well room met the original house near the ceiling, a gap lets cold outside flow right over the pipe.
It may have a stuck pixel now. It was a good introduction. If I were to do it again, I’d probably go with Anthony’s recommendation. The two cameras near each other are a big win, as are the adjustable USB connector and internal battery.
reading thru the list of sites i noticed that there are many located near sewage treatment plants. like the one near me in hillsdale mi. so lets see, the climate jackals measure air temperature near industrial facilities where heat is a by byproduct of a process. what smells worse, the sewage being treated or the sewage they create? hell, why don’t they just take readings from the cabin temperature devices in every auto in america. is it just me or is anyone else here starting to question this man caused climate change thingy.
You didn’t mention two things:
1) Sewage treatment requires energy to process stuff. Ultimately, it releases heat. Ditto the bacterial digestion going on.
2) A growing populating population multiplies the above heat release.
The sewage comes from heated homes, including the hot water used in showers/dish washers, travels underground, insulated from the ambient air temp, and then goes through the digesters at the treatment plant. The plants commonly flare off the methane that is produced, generating more heat. It may not be a lot of heat, but it adds to the temperature of the air probably at the precision level that is reported. Definitely not an ideal situation.
Here are your choices for explaining lack of quality control in temperature measurement systems under government mismanagement.
1) We’ve always done it this way
2) Senior management has a bias problem
3) The chain of decision command is not being investigated or reported on
4) “We don’t know what you’re talking about” deaf and dumb statement from headquarters
5) It might get stolen if it was not attached to the building with parking lots and government vehicles close by
6) Agendas come before local quality control efforts
Let’s see a copy of the siting manual for location and installation at government facilities. The work order completion report probably does not specify quality issues other than level mostly open location (in the distance beyond the building install site).
What could possibly go wrong?
Commander at Pearl Harbor relieved of his duties – HISTORY
Well, I’d help out, but given the siting preferences of officialdom, there probably isn’t a station within 30 miles of me. I live in a hilly, wooded countryside area, so I’m sure there are no stations; they would distort their data too much. Well, maybe within 30 miles, at an airport. The Temps reported by the local news from the airport are usually about 10 degrees hotter than I read. I’ll look, probably sited on the tarmac.
Has anyone made parallel stations close to the offending UHI stations? If so, a few links would be appreciated as to how it went and what the difficulties will be.
This entire topic is ghoulishly fascinating – like a good horror movie
I have been doing Urban Heat Island work for the the last few years. I created a website containing my results, which you might find interesting.
http://www.urbanhi.net/pdsi.html
http://www.urbanhi.net
Next question. Do any environmental students know anything about these issues much less UHI?
No they don’t. Their just taught about the impacts of human development, ironically never realizing that that same development has irretrievably polluted the surface temperature record, and all of the gimmicks the computer nerds employ to “homogenize” the temperature record just spread the pollution around.
This reminds me of the way the government eliminated the corruption that was rife in the Bureau of Internal Revenue back in the early 1950s. They changed the name to Internal Revenue Service! That fixed it!
Is it just me or does I.R.S. sound more threatening than B.I.R?
Anytime the government starts calling any of its branches or agencies a “service,” start worrying.
I’ll check on Ashland , OR. I have a FLIR camera.
I can do state College.
I got some pics.
look for something in your email
You beat me to it. Given my photography skill level, though, that’s probably for the best.
An excellent idea. I was pleased to send funds for the first study and still have the little ‘prospectus’ report on the project. May I suggest you contact colleagues in Europe and and around the world to encourage a global project (locally managed of course).
I recall mentioning the idea should also be expanded to include other climate metrics, so that climateers don’t have a monopoly on the data, its manipulation, conclusions AND policy prescriptions.
What would be great, would be counter-reports like Jen. Marohasy’s work on the GBR and Susan Crockford’s on the health and numbers of polar bears, walruses, seals. They could use help and funds to run pograms, fielding grad students to count bears, dive on the largest coral reef in the world! ETC.
I also think it possible to undo the vandalism massively done, and continuing to be done by climateers on global station temperatures using a very simple statistic which I’ve demonstrated several times in comments:
The pattern of the raw temperatures of the US is faithfully repeated in the raw data of Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia, South Africa, Paraguay, Ecuador and even Australia (all had the record highs for the 20th century in the late 1930s, the great cooling that followed 1950s to 1979, 1990s highs and the Dreaded Pause). These patterns within a year or two corroborate each other as a global pattern.
This also is a bonafide discovery in climate science hidden by the vandalism of climate science for political and personal gain and celebrity. This is huge. It tells that climate changes such as the LIA and the other Holocene warm and cool periods were global phenomena occurring within a year or two around the globe! This tells us that a single high quality installation (perhaps a couple on each continent for security and redundancy) would be sufficient to provide a marker for any possible climate concern that may seem to require investigation. The hated tide gage network which underscores the lies of climateers estimating meters of SLR where it’s clear that in reality its inches is an example of what they are free up do with temperatures, coral or polar bears…
I would have difficulty getting to the temperature stations in the UK but I did do a bit of a search using the Met Office list of stations and Google Earth, along with their requirements for siting. The ones I looked at were all compromised, either by nearby roads or overhanging foliage – I’d be shocked if less than 95% were compromised in some way.
Here is the Gargle Maps location of the LA NOAA station in Oxnard. Nice of them to have that huge logo and “green” instrument field for easy identification.
https://tinyurl.com/ycksr4u5
Zoom out a few times to see every siting violation possible. Of note their immediate neighbors, east Mission Produce is a fruit/vegetable chilling plant, north Proctor & Gamble diaper manufacturing.
here is a photo of the actual site
Thanks Anthony. That’s one dirty Stevenson Screen.
Well that stinks.
O/T
– but –
Some of the folk you might be familiar with from the “climate crisis” space – “not for profits” etcetera…
2000 Mules
Link broken.
Anthony,
I can do a little loop and get Ft. Morgan and Gunnison, CO, then Thompson, Utah, this coming week?
K. Kilty
Plans have expanded. My wife insists on another loop. I can also hit Hot Springs, SD and Buffalo Bill Dam, WY sooner than the other planned trip above.
GREAT thanks!
You are doing a huge loop(s). I could do Gunnison if you want to eliminate that part of your loop. I live about 2 hours from Gunnison.
HI, Larry. Thanks for the offer. Gunnison is on my way from Pueblo, where I will stop for a visit to Thompson, Utah where I will get one more station. Five and I am done. Let me know. I am not opposed to having others help.
Steve Randle apparently got the Thompson, Utah site, so there is no reason for me driving U.S. 50. Can you get Gunnison still?
I have the FLIR One Pro and a regular FLIR handheld. I test substations and such out on the east side of the US. I travel extensively and will take a few pics of nearby the stations in question or if I see others. I’ve set up met gear before as well so I know what to look for👍
IR shot of transformer I took recently
The Flir one pro is more than well worth the money. For IOS and Android.
https://www.flir.com/products/flir-one-pro/?model=435-0007-02&creative=585580356907&keyword=flir%20one%20pro%20usb-c&matchtype=p&network=g&device=c&utm_campaign=americas.us.solutions.cmvol.l.aw.rw.flirone.search&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgJemrPbQ9wIVXD2tBh2zMQkUEAAYAyAAEgLEZfD_BwE
Also use the Flir Tools app.
https://www.flir.com/support-center/training/thermography-training/videos/how-to-use-the-flir-tools-app/
FLIR one pro used with FLIR tools app
Looks like the original project database is still broken.
http://surfacestations.org/online_database.htm
well aware. It was hacked by some scumbag
I can do the Amherst, Massachusetts location if it’s not already taken. I’m in Boston. I’ll drive out there Wednesday. I’ll look in the comments for any more that are open in the New England area.
thanks, go ahead
I did Amherst today. I can send you the pictures and details if you email me. Sewage treatment plant. Sensor is 10 feet from a parking lot and has an asphalt path leading up to the crushed stone square it sits on. You can see how much hotter the stone/asphalt are than the surrounding grass on the FLIR.
The Block Island, Rhode Island station seems to be in the middle of the runway on the airport. I can take the ferry over and try to get pictures but wondering if you have tips. Looks like I might be able to get a shot from the parking lot but at a few hundred feet.
no that is the ASOS …according to HOMR there’s an MMTS, probably near the FBO office
Pardon my ignorance. What’s the FBO office?
FBO = Fixed Base Operator? Okay I will look for it.
I don’t know if the Visitor Center at Lake Mead in Nevada is an official site, but a couple of years ago I was there and noticed the MMTS was right next to the old Stevenson screen, next to a paved driveway, near the side of a newer shed.
Here’s Alford, Mass., next to a house and pool.
Anthony, a question:- why are sewage treatment plants such popular sites for these weather stations? Doesn’t the stuff tend to generate heat?
A guess would be that they are on public land and the municipality volunteered to have a station. The individual employees may not have volunteered but it would be part of their job to take the readings.
And wastewater plants are usually in less developed areas downstream of the more more developed areas.
Yes, I believe it dates back to when local temperature records were desired by the authorities in the US, but the only government employees who were expected to provide cover every day of the year got the shitty end of the stick. The recorded temperature was never intended to be used for monitoring climate, but climateers found it particularly “useful” for the previously mentioned reasons.
Seems you’ve answered your own question. They have a method to their madness after all…
I can swing by Haskell TX on/around the 19th of May if someone doesn’t get there sooner.
thanks
Anthony, I was able to get the pictures of this site as best I could
email sent to you
I posted a link to this announcement on Gab. You guys should grab a channel there, or at least post under a handle.
I live close to the Oregon City, OR COOP station USC00356334. I photographed the station earlier today. If this station is representative of the broader set of COOP stations used for homogenization then I’d say that the UHI impact is worse than I thought. The station is right next to a sidewalk with cars that park in front of it regularly. It’s also right next to the parking lot of the local fire station and directly in front of a historic house. The public library across the street was expanded from 5,000 to 20,000 square feet about 5 years ago.
look for something in your email
Hi Anthony, I haven’t received anything from you in my email. I’ve also checked my junk mail folder (which I check nearly every day). Did you already send me something, or is that still pending?
check your email now…been traveling
I can get Tarboro NC before May 29th. Here on business for a few months and may be able to get others in NC.
thanks, you may have trouble getting in during weekend, gate likely closed. IF gate closed during week days, you can probably walk the fenceline and get photo through fence.
Got photos – pretty drive this morning and nice folks at the site.
look for an email from me
Or you could just use the Berkley Earth data – this skeptic funded and instigated project looked at tens of thousands of temperature stations and concluded there was no false UHI signal and that it was indeed warming.
Yeah they’re “skeptics” and OJ is really looking for the real killers.
Griff, you are truly ignorant. Theye never inspected actual stations like I’m doing, they simply used their data, proving NOTHING.
Not ignorant. Paid to disrupt.
Berkeley Earth are even more clueless than griff about the quality of stations they get pseudo-data from.
Heck, they don’t even know where most of them actually are.
They did not look at anything, just the lights during nighttime.
I bet none of them ever went anywhere near any of those surface stations.
Griff, you could at least have a look at one near you.
Please?
He daren’t – the ones in the UK are as equally bad as the ones in the USA.
I have obtained photos relevant to the Midland, Michigan MMTS (Coop ID 205436). Please provide directions for transmitting them to you.
thanks, check your email
The link to the HOMR database produces a ‘404’.
works for me: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/homr/
When I click on the link to the HOMR page I get a 404 error. I went directly to the NOAA website and tracked down the HOMR page there and also got a 404 error. Could it have been moved? Hmmm!!
works now: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/homr/
One of the stations is in my State, namely Dayton WA.
However, it is a 3-hour, one way, drive.
Maybe someone in Dayton could be asked to fulfill the request.
My suggestion is:
Desperado Cowboy Bullets
The store is less than a mile from the facility.
Google Earth will show the location and gives a phone number.
You could do this, or I can with your approval.
Regards,
John H.
———
Several folks question the locations at sewage facilities. These places are semi-secured (fenced), public owned, and long-term fixed in space. In that sense, they are unlike many other locations that succumb to developments.
Years ago, I did the one at Cle Elum WA. It is still there, on red cinders, partially shaded, and 265 yards from the lagoon. After several moves, the one in Ellensburg is located near a similar facility near asphalt and shade.
I’d apprciate it if you could ask.
Will do.
Hi Anthony (and John!), I don’t know if you remember me or not, but I’m the guy who finished up Illinois for you way back when (I did 18-19 stations in central and downstate IL on a 5 day tour). I’ve since moved to Washington. The station at Dayton is about a 5 hour drive from me (plus some time to charge my Tesla) but I’m happy to do this for you and don’t mind the drive at all. So John, if you strike out with the people you were going to ask or if you just don’t want to bother, please let me know. Will make a nice day-trip for me.
Ted, that would be great if you can do that!
I can get Hendersonville NC. It’s about 25 miles from me, but I drive there every Monday. So, next week. Don’t have a FLIR though.
Kind of ridiculous that they would place it there right within 20 feet of a black top parking lot and 50 feet of a heavily travel highway when there are huge areas all around me that would serve better.
On my way home from an OHV outing in Moab, UT and can easily get the Thompson and Spanish Fork sites on my way home this morning.
Amherst MA station done today and used a FLIR. It’s at a sewage treatment plant next to the UMass Amherst campus. It’s 10 feet from a parking lot with an asphalt path leading up to a square of crushed stone that it sits on.
I have access to the Titusville, FL station at the Osprey waste water plant. The area is under construction with several structure upgrades. I believe the enclosure will be staying at its current location near the West gate.
Not an ideal location, but beats being run over by trucks. Expected to be moved after construction completed. Will be a while.
I have Thompson and Spanish Fork completed.
OK. I guess I can cross Thompson off my list. It would help if you had checked this list. I could have driven a fair distan ce for no reason.
Why don’t you also give examples of well sited and maintained coop sites? Some of us volunteer our time and money to gather data as properly as we can. Stories like this feel like a witch hunt.
He’s done that already.
I would love to read it. Do you have a link or title?
Read this. He gives examples of good stations. http://surfacestations.org/
The pdf “surfacestationsreport_spring09.pdf” does give some examples of well sited stations. What this project does not give is practical suggestions to improve the quality of data gathered. For the volunteers who maintain coop stations It takes time, money and technical acumen. It also takes commitment every day year after year as the weather doesn’t take any holidays. If Anthony wanted to improve the quality of the data collected he could go straight to the source – try to encourage people to volunteer running a coop station and running it right.
Because the government has ***already done that*** and has an entire protocol for siting of stations etc. The entire point of Watts’ project was to show their own standards weren’t being followed and the data quality is crap. https://www.weather.gov/media/epz/mesonet/CWOP-Siting.pdf
Your comment is exactly what irks volunteers who are working hard to provide data that is not “crap”. My suggestion to you and everyone who thinks the government’s data is crap is stop complaining about it and do something to make it better – set up a good station and start sending good data yourself.
No. It requires both weeding out bad stations and keeping good ones. If volunteers can’t appropriately site a temperature station away from buildings and asphalt and put it on typical ground, maybe they’re not up to the task. You had one job. It’s not hard to read a document and follow instructions. If you messed up blame yourself, not the critics.
So why don’t you set up a station, operate it correctly, and try to get added to the coop network? You could help make things better on two fronts: adding good data while also pointing out bad data that could be corrected.
If by “you” you are referring to me in your last comment, I personally read the manual and set everything up to spec as closely as possible. I’m not blaming critics for anything I’m just saying if they really care about it they should become part of the network and also make it better from within.
@antonywatts
Haven’t commented before, I very much appreciate the articles you and your contributers post here. Unfortunately I cannot help you with this project as I live in the UK. Has any one looked at the siting of UK weather monitoring stations? My guess is that they are not compromised (but I have no basis for this hunch!).
I’ve not visited them in person but I had a look at the Met Office list of stations and siting requirements (all on their website), then put the coordinates into Google maps/earth to have a look. I looked at maybe a dozen and every single one was compromised. I have a feeling that, if we did the same project here, over 95% would be unfit for purpose.
But they still use the data, they just don’t label it “USHCN.” Instead NOAA is favoring OAA:
For those a little leery of spending a fair chunk, I can vouch for the worthiness of the USB port connecting FLIR infra red camera. It is an amazing technology.
It can be set to record a 24 hr time lapse video if you wish to see what a “day” looks like. Turn off the auto-ranging function so the colour set is preserved over whole time.
Anthony, recently Traverse City, Michigan has reported temperatures in the 90’s. Today the weather on local TV said the high was 95. This is the second or third record high.
I think something is amiss as cities around were not near those temps.
I tried to look up where the station might be but there are 7 listed for Traverse City with longest running one at the airport I believe. From 1938 and listed as FAA.
The temperatures for Traverse City are constantly higher even in the winter. It seems odd.
I will check out Brentwood CA in Contra Costa county in California. I found one station in my neighborhood. I will check it out by tomorrow, but the satellite view seems to show it on top of my neighbor’s roof. This is a great project. It is so nice to do something helpful other than just blindly pushing back on the encroaching menace.
How ironic. This is station is in my neighborhood near my home in Brentwood California. I am sure the HOA did not approve this installation. We are in a gated senior neighborhood (55+)
Here is the station location from the database
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/homr/#ncdcstnid=30112825&tab=MSHR
Here is the Google satellite view showing the station on the roof
https://www.google.com/maps/place/37%C2%B053'56.3%22N+121%C2%B043'22.8%22W/@37.8990653,-121.7230247,139m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x144b6be7bbf7415e!8m2!3d37.898965!4d-121.722988
Here is my picture from the front (attached). Most of the station is obscured by the roof but the satellite picture indicates a larger footprint.
That station isn’t on Anthony’s list, I assume you found it looking for stations close to you.
The HOMR data says it’s a CoCoRaHS station, they record only precip data. The typical station is at someone’s home. If you visit https://cocorahs.org/ViewData/StationPrecipSummary.aspx you can look up that station’s data, look for CA-CC-36. The owner is a bit lazy and doesn’t report zero precip days. That may be common in arid areas.
My station is NH-MR-63, I make a point to report zeros for all precip (including snow and snow depth) to make it very clear when I have none.
Thanks Ric, I am a complete novice concerning these stations. I just clicked on stations from the database link in Tony’s post that were near my house. I guess I should look for other station types. Any suggestions?
as long as the biases dont change over time it doesnt affect the trend this is WHY we work in anomalies
also please double check and triple check gps, because the first survey made some glorious location errors.
What’s your evidence that the biases don’t change over time? Over 90% of the housing stock has been built since 1945. Development today is enormously more evident than years ago. You Berkeley clowns who deal in immaculate anomalies really need to take 1 to 2 minutes to think.
Steven, back when we started the project in 2008, there was no good database of stations like we have today. GPS readings were neary non-existant. Finding stations was a challenge, and in some cases a near impossibility, so “glorious location errors” couldn’t be helped when NOAA didn’t even have locations right.
IF you could have done a better job back then you should have done it. All you do is complain.
It would be great if this rebooted effort would produce a USHCN or nClimDiv alternative for the US average temperature timeseries. I’m particularly interested in how you would apply adjustments for the urban heat island bias, time of observation bias, instrument/shelter change bias, station move bias, etc. and then grid and spatially average the observations.
I am just going to (belatedly) park two factoids here for Steve and Anthony to consider, both of whom I recently hosted here in Fort Lauderdale together for a mutual seafood dinner for four with Charles. So NO axes to grind at all.
BEST was a heroic effort that in my opinion came to some wrong conclusions, like on UHI. There were two fundamental BEST problems, both based on the underlying study design.
This is not to directly criticize BEST. They just set out on an impossible task. You cannot retrospectively fix a surface record that was not designed for the intended climate purpose, no matter how clever your software is. Two specific examples were provided in my published 2012 ebook chapter.
Here are the pictures for Amherst MA. Sewage treatment plant. MMTS is on a bed of railroad ballast and about 10-20 feet from a parking lot and has a decaying asphalt path leading up to it.
A buddy and me are going to do a trip to Block Island and see if we can track that one down.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Xr5hL9m8R6j3h3h8WIQJ1lUW8KvtrskC
Thanks Eric!
State College, PA. Joe Bastardi lives there, he should be able to help w/that one.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=joe%20bastardi
I’m going to grab Paris and Morrison Illinois in the next few days and Milwaukee and Racine Wisconsin late next week.
The Cheddar Headed Survey Monkey
check your email
Were you able to visit Paris? If not, I can try today.
Tony,
Have the survey data for GHCN 00426644 in Park City, Utah. Can get the Spanish Fork UT station next week if you still need it…
Hello Anthony, first a big thank you for all the work that you do to keep this log going.
Now a suggestion.
We keep on hearing about the vast amount of CO2.
Yet as it’s measured in PPM, , that is obviously not true.
What about a series of pictures.. first in colour for all the gases in the atmosphere. All to sizes.
Then next one with only the Greenhouse gases…now as H2O is the big one at 1 %, it would be a line at the bottom.
But where is CO2. ? Is it that dot ?
Just a thought.
Michael VK5ELL
I can do Lenoir NC this weekend if it is still outstanding.
I have the photos of Lenoir NC. For better or worse the Google Earth photos seem accurate for this location. But happy to send them upon Anthony’s direction.
“….State College, PA Unchanged from 2008, CRS behind Walker science building on grass…”
Home of Penn State and Michael Mann.
Mikey is probably out there every day stoking a Hibachi underneath the Stevenson Screen.
Hello Anthony. I could get photos of the station at Richardton, ND by next week. Richardton is only about 70 miles from Bismarck. If nobody is able to get the Crosby, ND station, I might be able to get that by the end of May, or beginning of June, but Crosby is 250 miles from Bismarck. P.S., I have a Flir thermal camera.
check your email
Anthony – just did some wine tasting in Paso, and took pics of the weather station at 1240 Street, Paso Robles. It looks basically like the Google Street pic. I will send once contacted.
1240 Paso Robles Street, Paso Robles – May 14, 2022
Anthony,
I got the Hot Springs, SD station,while the kids played at Evan’s Plunge, but all the photos and other data are scattered among camera, computer and a few hand written notes I took while talking to the firemen and police. The building is the onsite fire/police for the VA facility. MMTS took a while to find — lost in the trees, surrounded by equipment and on a hillside. Let me know how you’d like this packaged.
Tomorrow we head to Cody.
Anthony,
I got the Buffalo Bill dam site this morning. It is very rough terrain in there and I decided against a couple of shots on steeply sloped scree covered boulder fields. Looked tough for someone 70 even though I hike and bike a lot. But I got plenty of shots to show you what a crazy station that is. It is under the control of Bureau of Rec and they were very cooperative.
Kevin
I looked around my area in both north east Louisiana and several in Mississippi
The most suspect one is HATTIESBURG 5SW, MS 1967-12-01 to Present
31°15’17″N, 089°20’21″W. I do not have a camera but maybe someone in the Hattiesburg area does. The google street level photos from Hwy 11 appears to show the tower next to a metal building facing South.
All of the the LA and MS sites I looked at appear to be well placed.
I plan to visit the Hendersonville, NC location tomorrow (Monday, 16 May). I don’t have a thermal camera but I’ll send you the info I’m able to collect.
Are you getting it? I already posted I had it, but no sweat. I visit Hendersonville every Monday. Please respond as I have a full afternoon.
Sorry, I missed your post. I took several pictures and a video today (16 May). I do not have nor do I plan to buy a thermal camera.
Me neither so I bet we are as good as we are going to get. Thanks! Saves me the trip cross town.
Anthony can let me know where to send my photos and the video. If you have a thermal camera, I know Anthony would like your input as well. The radio station personnel were very cooperative and open to me taking pictures. It is still an active weather station. Part of the equipment is on a tower beside the building.
Got photos for Durham, NH – US Forest Service, W End Path, 271 Mast Rd, Durham, NH 03824
The photos you asked for are 4032 × 3024 pixels and 3.3 MB. Is there a smaller size you’d prefer? (If these go in a paper, I assume you’ll want this hi-res size.)
Bonuses:
This site is relocated a couple hundred feet and is much better than the 2008 site. The MMTS at the old site is still there, I have a photo that may be taken close to a 2008 shot.
I also visited the two CRN stations in NH, they’re both nearby on UNH research farms. They’re both in decent shape, issues with the snow/rain fencing are the most significant, but probably not very important. Do you want their photos?
I have 360° panoramas for each. North to north while standing north of the MMTS so it’s in the center (south) of each photo.
Hmm, I tried attaching a panoramic shot, but Pressable may have rejected it.
I have a different take on the situation. I think we need to fight fire with fire.
Is there no funding to pick several of the suspect stations and install control stations nearby that are properly sited to directly measure the effect of poorly sited stations (think of a controlled experiment)? If the project started with 20 competing control stations, how much money would be required to run a project like that for a year or two? I would be willing to donate to such an effort. If properly designed, the project might actually be able to smoke out just how much of the supposed warming trend is due to poor siting and how much is due to adjustment. Maybe even determining the anthropogenic signal would be possible with enough data points.
If nothing else, I would expect a pristine, comparison data set to garner enough potential interest to further expand the project.
In the case of the Durham NH station, recently relocated and improved, it can be compared to the pair of nearby CRN stations.
Anthony,
Where do you want me to email the Hendersonville, NC photos?
Bob Smith
check your email
The Weldon Spring MO NOAA facility shows a station on a very small grass peninsula extending into their 50′ x 80′ concrete parking lot next to the weather radar tower…
USC00238805 in operation since 6/1/1957
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datasets/GHCND/stations/GHCND:USC00238805/detail
https://www.google.com/maps/place/38%C2%B041'56.2%22N+90%C2%B040'58.3%22W/@38.6989604,-90.6829474,134m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x2eca5f56c2374415!8m2!3d38.69893!4d-90.68287
I was hiking right near there the other day at the Busch Greenway just to the south. If I had realized the station was there I would have stopped by for a look.
Hi Anthony. There are five GHCN stations in Lake, Geauga and Portage counties in NE Ohio. I have found, surveyed and photographed four of these, the fifth seems unfindable. Please advise how to send the photos and notes. Thanks for your continuing leadership on these siting issues.
Anthony:
I was passing through Ashland OR today so stopped by the sewage treatment plant listed. The facility was open and I had no problem accessing the exact location Google indicated. From all appearances however this station has been retired because nothing I saw remotely resembled the pictures you have shared. I have a few photos and a video snippet I can share if you want just to confirm. Also, I drove around the entire facility in case the station was located somewhere else within the fence line but all I saw were pumps and piping as you’d expect for a treatment plant.
Mike
Anthony,
I have the Spanish Fork, UT station site info. Just let me know how to get it to you.
check your email
I’ve got the pictures for Brookville, IN.
check your email
Anthony,
Buffalo Bill Dam site has the following issues:
I took 6 photos, and spoke with Bureau of Reclamation personnel.
Hot Springs, SD has the following issues:
Took 7 photos. Police came out to see what I was up to. They knew nothing of the weather station. It is “owned” by the fire department. I spoke to one of the firemen on duty about it.
I took photos at the highest possible resolution so the are about 5 MB each in size.
I have to submit grades tomorrow, then I plan to leave for Fort Morgan, CO and Gunnison.
Kevin
I got the station at Ft. Morgan, Colorado, this afternoon, Anthony, but ran into car troubles heading toward Gunnison. I ended up in Golden and may not make Gunnison right away — depends on what is wrong with Mr. Beetle.
You will find the Ft. Morgan station amusing when you see the photos.
Email sent to you
I found two around were I am, Malta, Idaho, one is sited in the center of 4 pivots but 3,000 feet upwind is a 52,000 head feed lot, it’s description places it in sage brush, nope, dirt and cheat grass… The second one has a car wash 30 feet from where it sits, all cement parking.
check your email
UPDATE:
I have been traveling and unable to respond in comments. Thanks to everyone who got stations. I will be in touch soon.
Anthony
I have photographed the Spooner Wisconsin site.
A dog that returns to its vomit is like a fool who reverts to his folly.
The old Biblical proverb certainly seems right for what they have done, hoping that once they change the name and closed/moved a few sites that you would be happy shut up and go away so they could carry on. Not realising that you are way more of a scientist than they are and would be keeping an eye on them as they returned to the same old same old.
Hope you all find and chech each and every one of the sites and show just how bad it is.
I’ve found the odd one or two here in the UK and live near a famous one at Heathrow airport that was used by the usual suspects to show it was the hottest ev’a ev’a a few years ago (with plane exhaust blowing over the sensor)
James Bull
This is what I’d love to see after this is all collected. An article that answers the following questions:
Do we rely on satellite or earth based station temperature data? If earth based, why, does the satellite not give them what they want, is it inaccurate?
How accurate are the temperature stations, = or – 0.0002 of a degree (F), or + or – 0.002 degree or + or – 0.02 or + or – 0.2 or + or – 2 degrees? The reason I ask this is because I thought I had read somewhere the accuracy was the last, plus or minus 2 degrees, but NOAA constantly releases “last month we had a new record temperature of” (fill in the x) x.xxxx “degrees Fahrenheit”, a new record temperature and a number to ten thousandths of a degree which I find specious. Math can give you a number to that level but the rules of accuracy (if we’re talking about plus or minus 2 degrees) make it nonsensical.
Are there more temperature recording stations in and around large cities than in rural farm and mountain areas? In other words, are we putting more emphasis on the heat island effect by including more stations in large cities and fewer in rural areas?
I’d also love to see (from those on here who gather the data) how the reporting agencies “change” the data over time and what does the unaltered data show?
I believe I’ve gained answers in bits and pieces over time by checking this site but I’d love to see a more complete article that compiles these questions that I have and (and likely) those of others as well.
The planet has been here billions of years, with mankind only having been here for the last million or so. In that time, the planet has changed climates several times.
Hominids, about 2 million. Lucy and all that from Africa.
But species Homo sapiens, about 200k. In that ‘brief’ interval planet went from ice age to Eemian interglacial to ice age to Holocene interglacial, where we now are.
Anthony, I have a couple of photos of the site in Staunton, Virginia. Still located exactly where it was when I photographed it in 2008-9. I could only get photos from perimeter fence. I’ll get permission from the city this week to get better photos.
RE: Hendersonville North Carolina (WKHP) Temperature Sensor – Site Info
Hi Anthony, I went to the Hendersonville North Carolina (WKHP) radio station on May 20th to shoot photos and get measurements. Google Earth Street view shows what is there. I have additional photos and measurements. Let me know how you would like me to get this information to you. Thanks – John
I don’t believe that the government cares if the stations have sites that read hot and they are happy they do. It makes global warming controls easier.
Report from Maui Hawaii…
With the increase of private jet traffic and the fact that the station sits on blacktop, what do you know record heat on Maui..
More than 270 record high temperatures, ties recorded in Hawaii in 2019Kahului, as a matter of fact, logged record highs and matches every month of the year, except for February and March, said Almanza.https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/12/31/hawaii-news/newswatch/more-than-270-record-high-temperatures-ties-recorded-in-hawaii-in-2019/Something to ponder 2019 record setting… What happened to 2020 and 2021.. Pandemic lock downs… less air traffic…
For fun here is the HOMR link with pictures https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/homr/#ncdcstnid=20023442&tab=LOCATIONS
scroll down a bit and click on photos of the previous station location.
The powers in charge, maybe felt guilty and moved the station November of last year 1,200 feet south to an area, with grass, however keeping it close to the start of the main runway. also close to tour helicopter operations..
No HOMR pictures of the new location. Google maps satellite view gives a view of the new station location 200 feet from the start of the main runway, 50 feet from asphalt. With hovering helicopters overhead..So many places to site the station away from flight operations, Oh heck no……
Anthony, I have photos for Ashland, OR, #350304. With thermal camera. 31MB zip file. Dropbox?
I think it is useful to get thermal images when it is cold outside, UHI is visible.
check your email
I should be able to grab Monticello, MS this weekend.
thanks
UPDATE 5/24 I am contacting people individually by email now to get photos and I have updated the list of stations in the body of the post to show what has been surveyed. If you have not heard from me, and have photos to send, use our contact form.
I can take a shot at Troy Locks/Dam, NY on my way back to NJ on Memorial Day (Monday, May 30th). Looks like the sensor is behind a fence/security, so not sure how much access I’ll have on the holiday. Probably could take a pic looking West at it if Google maps imagery is good.
I know I am a day late and a dollar short, but I did manage to get a few shots of the MMTS at Troy Locks/Dam, NY. I sent to the contact form, not sure how to submit. MMTS is located close to a brick building, walkway and parking lot, and under a large evergreen tree.
Anthony:
I should have looked at the list more closely; Orangeburg SC is no further away from me than the Tifton GA site I surveyed. Unfortunately I’m on a flight to Houston this afternoon and I won’t be returning until evening of May 30. The earliest I could get there would be June 1, which is after your cutoff date.
Let me know if you could use the survey even if it is late.
I am going to drive up to Orangeburg this afternoon, May 30th.
Perhaps a topic for further research.
The jurisdiction, for lack of a better word, for some major airport stations has been switched from the NWS to the FAA.
A few days ago the Channel 9 weather man said Tampa had a record high (91 as I rrecall) for the date, much higher than surrounding weather stations. He explained that the record high was the official high which that station provides but that the area around the station had been had been growing with building, asphalt, etc. Just a brief note. So, whoever knows how, might check Tampa’s official station.
At the rate it’s going with stations being closed and taken out of service, in a few years, there will be 1 station in the middle of a wheat filed in Kansas (or Funk & Wagnalls front porch, next to the propane space heater), and the entire record for the US will be extrapolated from that one station, using a model that will guarantee the desired slope and occasional, ever-increasing, highest-evah temperatures for the record.
This is likely too late to be of much use, but I’ll throw it out for whatever it’s worth. On July 14, Nancy and I will be driving from Azusa to Spokane. Our route takes us through St. George, UT, so that could be a piece of cake. At the north end of the trip, it looks like it would only add about 20 minutes drive time to take in Dayton, WA. That’s if John Hultquist’s connections haven’t already covered it. Panquitch UT is a possibility-I did it once already. But it’s enough extra miles, I would have to negociate it with the Missus. Not sure how that would go–I’m no Henry Kissinger… : > )
@anthony I’m on Block Island today. Went to the airport and spoke with the staff. Nothing resembling a Cotton shelter or MMTS at the Block Island airport. I looked all around the airport, on roofs, etc. The staff hadn’t seen a cotton shelter or MMTS but did point me over to the AWOS. I took pictures just in case since it’s next to the parking lot.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-0GIWmOTkMJDkymYypv8WFzLGl82UFLV
My interpretation of https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/homr/#ncdcstnid=20017275&tab=MSHR is that it changed to AWOS in 1996.
Thank you. Yeah I agree it does look like it ended in 1996 but wasn’t sure how to read any of that metadata. It’s totally messy and won’t render on mobile.
Sorry I’m late to the party, but I have some shots of Troy Locks/Dam, NY from today (May 30th). The MMTS is behind a fence/gate to the facility, but here is one looking NW from SE of the sensor (above the gate). Seems close to the brick wall of the building, walkway, and driveway. It is also very shadowed by a large evergreen tree.