3 June 2006

RECORD EVENT REPORTS FROM NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DATA

NEW PREVIOUS YEAR OF
LOCATION RECORD RECORD PREVIOUS

STATIONS SETTING (OR TIED) A NEW RECORD HIGH TEMPERATU

BULLFROG, UT 100 TIE 100 1977
FERRON, UT 91 TIE 91 1977
GREEN RIVER, UT 101 100 1946
HANKSVILLE, UT 102 TIE 102 1977
HITE RS,UT 99 98 2004
MOBRIDGE, SD 96 94 1968
VERO BEACH, FL 94 TIE 94 1985
ZION NP, UT 101 TIE 101 2004

STATIONS SETTING (OR TIED) A NEW RECORD LOW TEMPERATU

** ** ****
STATIONS SETTING (OR TIED) A NEW RECORD HIGH MINIMUM TEMPERATU

** ** ****
STATIONS SETTING (OR TIED) A NEW RECORD LOW MAXIMUM TEMPERATU

** ** ****
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Eric Swanson --- E-mail address: e_swanson(at)skybest.com :-)
--------------------------------------------------------------

This could be useful information if it was online somewhere.
Can you get it for, say, the last 100 years?
How far back do these records go?

If you could see a chart of the number stations with record highs
and record lows over the last 100 or so years (maybe normalized
by the number of stations available during each year),
them MAYBE you'd have something.

Although, I guess there is a phenomenum called "Heat Island Effect",
that says temperatures are increases where stations are,
because they are where the population is growing.

Thanks,
John

Eric Swanson wrote:
3 June 2006

RECORD EVENT REPORTS FROM NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DATA

NEW PREVIOUS YEAR OF
LOCATION RECORD RECORD PREVIOUS

STATIONS SETTING (OR TIED) A NEW RECORD HIGH TEMPERATU

BULLFROG, UT 100 TIE 100 1977
FERRON, UT 91 TIE 91 1977
GREEN RIVER, UT 101 100 1946
HANKSVILLE, UT 102 TIE 102 1977
HITE RS,UT 99 98 2004
MOBRIDGE, SD 96 94 1968
VERO BEACH, FL 94 TIE 94 1985
ZION NP, UT 101 TIE 101 2004

STATIONS SETTING (OR TIED) A NEW RECORD LOW TEMPERATU

** ** ****
STATIONS SETTING (OR TIED) A NEW RECORD HIGH MINIMUM TEMPERATU

** ** ****
STATIONS SETTING (OR TIED) A NEW RECORD LOW MAXIMUM TEMPERATU

** ** ****
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Eric Swanson --- E-mail address: e_swanson(at)skybest.com :-)
--------------------------------------------------------------

In article .com,
says...

This could be useful information if it was online somewhere.
Can you get it for, say, the last 100 years?
How far back do these records go?

If you could see a chart of the number stations with record highs
and record lows over the last 100 or so years (maybe normalized
by the number of stations available during each year),
them MAYBE you'd have something.

Although, I guess there is a phenomenum called "Heat Island Effect",
that says temperatures are increases where stations are,
because they are where the population is growing.

Thanks,
John

Eric Swanson wrote:
3 June 2006

RECORD EVENT REPORTS FROM NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DATA


Sorry, the data I found is taken from individual station reports, which
are sent into the NWS when the events occur. I occasionally pull the data
together as you found it. The NWS used to provide this information on a
daily basis, but stopped after Gee Dubyah was elected. I thnk this was part
of the notion on the part of some in Congress that we didn't need the NWS,
as the private companies could provide weather data to paying customers.
The brainy guys in Congress didn't know that the NWS was collecting the
daily (or hourly) temperatures, which the for-profit companies like The
Weather Channel and AccuWeather were passing on th their customers.

The historical data is archived at the NCDC in Ashville and has been
converted over the years to digital form. One may obtain the daily
maximum and minimum temperatures for many stations from them. The
cooperative observers number around 4000, in addition to the official
NWS stations.

Yes, there is a "Heat Island" effect, as well as station changes, such
as physical relocations, changes in time of day of reading the instruments,
and changes in instrument type(s). Many corrections have been found
necessary to adjust the time series for these changes. I recall that there
was at least one study about extremes, using the NCDC data, but,the U.S. is
still only a small part of the Earth and local trends do not portend or
prove anything beyond a shadow of a doubt.

--
Eric Swanson --- E-mail address: e_swanson(at)skybest.com :-)
--------------------------------------------------------------

Eric Swanson wrote:

Yes, there is a "Heat Island" effect, as well as station changes, such
as physical relocations, changes in time of day of reading the instruments,
and changes in instrument type(s). Many corrections have been found
necessary to adjust the time series for these changes. I recall that there
was at least one study about extremes, using the NCDC data, but,the U.S. is
still only a small part of the Earth and local trends do not portend or
prove anything beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Probably not very useful anyway.

As I was looking at some of the locations with GoogeEarth,
some of them in Utah on the date 3 Jun are
out-in-the-middle-of-no-where ...
however, the first one I GoogleEarth, had what looked like a
small airport within a half mile, which was probably where the reading
was taken.

When I look at the air strip on the airport, it looks like a very black
tar
"tarmac". It looks like it might have been just paved ...
perhaps it was ... which might account for why that one little place
is suddenly registering record temperatures. Since 1977, the last
time they put new blacktop on it, and the last time they broke the
record there.

A bunch of these records look like they are all in the same area ...
what if the county that they are in happened to have gotten
a bunch of money lately for infrastruture repair, and has been
dilligently paving away for a while ...

Then I wondered, how many weather stations are there out there in the
US?
One thousand? Ten Thousand? A million?

If there are thousands, what are the chances that a certain number
of them have glitches ever day? How would you know?

Then there is the Urban Heat Island Effect (which is apparently very
real,
as I was just reading on Wikapedia).

You can't really get around the fact that all towns and cities in the
US
are growing rapidly ... and even if they are not inside a town,
maybe they're next to a newly paved airport, etc.

In article . com, says...


Eric Swanson wrote:

Yes, there is a "Heat Island" effect, as well as station changes, such
as physical relocations, changes in time of day of reading the instruments,
and changes in instrument type(s). Many corrections have been found
necessary to adjust the time series for these changes. I recall that there
was at least one study about extremes, using the NCDC data, but,the U.S. is
still only a small part of the Earth and local trends do not portend or
prove anything beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Probably not very useful anyway.

As I was looking at some of the locations with GoogeEarth,
some of them in Utah on the date 3 Jun are
out-in-the-middle-of-no-where ...
however, the first one I GoogleEarth, had what looked like a
small airport within a half mile, which was probably where the reading
was taken.

When I look at the air strip on the airport, it looks like a very black
tar "tarmac". It looks like it might have been just paved ...
perhaps it was ... which might account for why that one little place
is suddenly registering record temperatures. Since 1977, the last
time they put new blacktop on it, and the last time they broke the
record there.

Many things are possible.

A bunch of these records look like they are all in the same area ...
what if the county that they are in happened to have gotten
a bunch of money lately for infrastruture repair, and has been
dilligently paving away for a while ...

Many things are possible.

Then I wondered, how many weather stations are there out there in the US?
One thousand? Ten Thousand? A million?

I noted that there are more than 4000 cooperative observers.
I suspect there are less than 1000 official NWS stations.

If there are thousands, what are the chances that a certain number
of them have glitches ever day? How would you know?

By doing the statistics. Isn't that part of the problem?

Then there is the Urban Heat Island Effect (which is apparently very
real, as I was just reading on Wikapedia).

As in lots of "tarmac"...

You can't really get around the fact that all towns and cities in the
US are growing rapidly ... and even if they are not inside a town,
maybe they're next to a newly paved airport, etc.

And maybe the station has just been moved to an airport somewhere out
of town. Or maybe the station was moved from a downtown office to
the new airport about 1940, as aviation took off...
Maybe that explains some of he cooling seen after 1940...

The trouble is, each station is likely to have a different time history,
so one must be very careful when generalizing. That's part of the problem
with raw data, such as that which the Idsos' keep posting.

--
Eric Swanson --- E-mail address: e_swanson(at)skybest.com :-)
--------------------------------------------------------------

wrote in message
ups.com...


Then I wondered, how many weather stations are there out there in the
US?
One thousand? Ten Thousand? A million?

If there are thousands, what are the chances that a certain number
of them have glitches ever day? How would you know?

The convenient thing about random errors is that they are random and
therefore do not effect a trend.

Then there is the Urban Heat Island Effect (which is apparently very
real, as I was just reading on Wikapedia).

http://illconsidered.blogspot.com/20...at-island.html

--
Coby Beck
(remove #\Space "coby 101 @ bigpond . com")

Coby Beck wrote:
The convenient thing about random errors is that they are random and
therefore do not effect a trend.

Only if the random factor has no moment about the trend line.
Its a corollary to Murphy's law that not all random errors are
evenly distributed. Something I found out in my first year as a
practicing Engineer.

One shouldn't rely on the "Convenient," Coby.