Temperature Readings

Clayton Cramer points out this site on problems with temperature sensors that are being used to measures global warming.  It would seem to be lending some credence to the urban heat island theory of global warming.  I found it to be pretty amusing though.  I should qualify this with two things.

  1. It’s just anecdotal evidence
  2. I’m far from an expert on weather instrumentation and how to properly place it, so I don’t know if the things pointed out are really problems.

But it sure is pretty funny, and does show that this is definitely a government operation.  Go give it a read.

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4 thoughts on “Temperature Readings”

  1. I couldn’t find any place to post a comment at Clayton Cramer’s blog, so thought I’d post my comments here;

    Anyone with $100 or more can put up their own weather station. That doesn’t mean that it’s installed correctly nor does it mean that it’s accurate. The only ones I know of that are guaranteed to be properly sited and maintained are Automated Surface Observation Systems (ASOS), maintained by the National Weather Service, and the Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS), maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration. I personally maintain two AWOS sites here in Eastern Montana, one in Glendive and the other in Sidney. We perform routine maintenance on these facilities every 120 days, and “Certify” that they meet or exceed specifications for temperature, dew point, barometric pressure, cloud height, and visibility.

    Here is the link for systems in my area.
    http://www.crh.noaa.gov/data/obhistory/KGDV.html
    http://www.crh.noaa.gov/data/obhistory/KSDY.html

    As you can see, if you know the three letter identifier for the airport, then you can get to that particular AWOS or ASOS site.

    Gary Anthony
    Air Traffic Systems Specialist
    Billings, MT

  2. Good information. Thanks for the comment. Some of the stations pointed out here actually seem to be used by NASA to do temperature tracking. It’s good to know the NOAA is more on top of things, since they are who I typically rely on for my weather reports.

  3. The problem is that these weather stations to which I refer are part of the USHCN (Historical Climate Network) system that is used for proving global warming.

    And it doesn’t take any expertise to see that having a burning barrel five feet from a thermometer is going to have an influence.

  4. I have to agree with Mr. Cramer, the pictures I reviewed were all prime examples of “what not to do” when siting weather instruments. I’ll take some pictures of our installations to show “good” siting criteria. BTW, the FAA is the only organization that “certifies” it’s weather instruments…because of the liability issues relating to the flying public.

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