Posted on 12/08/2014 11:03:13 AM PST by Haiku Guy
I have noticed over the last few months that the temperature I get for my location from Yahoo Weather on my iPhone is running 3-4 degrees F higher than the actual temperature that I observe through my own equipment or on various thermometers around town.
For instance, right now it is 29 degrees F, the puddles are frozen, and the termometer outside my window, the radio and the bank across the street all agree that it is 29 degrees F.
But my iPhone is telling me it is 34 degrees.
If this just happened from time to time, I would chalk it up to errors or bad data. But it is very consistent. every time I check my phone. Now, every time I see a thermometer, I check my phone against it, just to see if it is consistently warmer, and it is, every single time.
What was it James Bond said, "If it happens once, it is happenstance. If it happens twice, it is coincidence. If it happens three times, it is enemy action".
So, the question is, obviously, why would Yahoo Weather do such a thing? If they can't even say when it is freezing outside, they are going to hurt their business. So what is their motivation in getting this wrong?
My guess it is all about Global Warming. They are generating a data set for every location in the country. The would be the easiest thing, if you want to look at temperature trends, to just pull up the Yahoo Weather data for year-to-year comparisons. Since nobody is allowed to talk about the weather anymore without lying about it, maybe Yahoo Weather is biasing their data upward to "prove" that Global Warming really does exist.
It is probably not Yahoo, but who they get their information from. It is well known that most “official” weather stations in the US are not correctly located, often put in heat islands like airports. So they consistently register from 5-10 degrees warmer than anywhere else.
However, other than these “official” sites, there are likely dozens of other readings in your area, *if* you can find a map of their locations. Your accurate temperature is close to the average of the temperatures about a quarter of a mile in all directions, excepting unusual places like golf courses and lakes
Yahoo 34 Weather Channel 32
The ‘official’ weather is from somewhere in town. Might be the airport. Perhaps they are sampling too close to some heat generating equipment.
I have the Weather Underground app. And Yahoo. And a couple of others. Some of them, including WU, run a few degrees warm because I live in a rather cold spot, and the local reports are drawn from small weather stations that may not be appropriately sited. For example, some reports come from small stations at schools, where they’re often placed on the roof for security reasons. Obviously a flat roof is hot. Other stations are put next to a factory’s red brick walls or an airport runway. You can see how these placements bias temperature reports upward.
I did and I got the Bill Ayers Version, thanks!!!
And what would that "outing" look like?
Agreed. PWS makes “Best Forecast” far more accurate. There’s lots of tools and information at that site.
Pay $10 a year and drop the ads. Get other features too.
wunderground.com
The weather site goes with the temp of the National Weather Service monitoring station closest to your area.
Some global warming skeptics, a few years back, discovered that the NWS monitoring stations were badly located, sitting near warm buildings, air conditioner exhausts, etc. This would skew temperature readings upwards. Report here
It looks like you've noticed the same. The "official" temp readings are skewed to show "warming".
Global Warming on Free Republic
iphone error?
My phone works
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