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"... Critics reproach Jones for not taking one factor, in particular, sufficiently into account: the growth of urban areas. Stations that used to be rural are now in cities. And because it is always warmer in cities than outside, the temperatures measured at these stations are bound to rise."

This is certainly true in my case.

We had an official US government weather center planted in a nearby field not too far away from our semi-rural home. It looks like a small cinder block concrete bunker surrounded by a high chain link fence topped with razor wire and signs reading 'US GOVERNMENT PROPERTY -- RESTRICTED AREA' and so forth, and you could see the antennae and the little wind gauge spinner going round and round.

I used to connect directly to it using the WeatherBug gadget in my Windows Sidebar. I'd search for it by ZIP code, find it 0.1 miles away, and get instant weather data that was better than looking out my own window. It was great.

One day it went offline and never returned. One day I drove over to the field to see if there was anything visibly wrong with the data collecting station. It's still there, but no longer sending any data. Now the nearest US Government weather station that WeatherBug can find is the one at the international airport 10 miles up the road in the middle of the city. Now my local weather readings are always 5 degrees higher and it's snowing like nuts outside my window in the winter when the airport weather station is reporting 'Rain Showers with possible Snowstorms'. I'll be shoveling a foot of fresh snow off my driveway right about the time the airport weather station is predicting 'Snow Expected Later In Evening'.

A few months go by and I read in the local paper how the US Government shut down the little weather station by my house because they reasoned that it was too often getting entirely coated with wet snow throughout the winter.