Is The U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?

Climate Science ^ | May 4,2009 | Anthony Watts

[kathsua]

nthony Watts, author of the weblog Watts Up With That, has completed an outstanding, clearly written report that documents a major problem with the use of the United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN)to assess multi-decadal surface temperature trends. The report is

Watts, A. 2009: Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable? 28 pages, March 2009 The Heartland Institute.

The Executive Summary reads

“Global warming is one of the most serious issues of our times. Some experts claim the rise in temperature during the past century was “unprecedented” and proof that immediate action to reduce human greenhouse gas emissions must begin. Other experts say the warming was very modest and the case for action has yet to be made.

The reliability of data used to document temperature trends is of great importance in this debate. We can’t know for sure if global warming is a problem if we can’t trust the data.

The official record of temperatures in the continental United States comes from a network of 1,221 climate-monitoring stations overseen by the National Weather Service, a department of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Until now, no one had ever conducted a comprehensive review of the quality of the measurement environment of those stations.

During the past few years I recruited a team of more than 650 volunteers to visually inspect and photographically document more than 860 of these temperature stations. We were shocked by what we found.

We found stations located next to the exhaust fans of air conditioning units, surrounded by asphalt parking lots and roads, on blistering-hot rooftops, and near sidewalks and buildings that absorb and radiate heat. We found 68 stations located at wastewater treatment plants, where the process of waste digestion causes temperatures to be higher than in surrounding areas.

In fact, we found that 89 percent of the stations – nearly 9 of every 10 – fail to meet the National Weather Service’s own siting requirements that stations must be 30 meters (about 100 feet) or more away from an artificial heating or radiating/reflecting heat source.

In other words, 9 of every 10 stations are likely reporting higher or rising temperatures because they are badly sited.

It gets worse. We observed that changes in the technology of temperature stations over time also has caused them to report a false warming trend. We found major gaps in the data record that were filled in with data from nearby sites, a practice that propagates and compounds errors. We found that adjustments to the data by both NOAA and another government agency, NASA, cause recent temperatures to look even higher.

The conclusion is inescapable: The U.S. temperature record is unreliable.

The errors in the record exceed by a wide margin the purported rise in temperature of 0.7º C (about 1.2º F) during the twentieth century. Consequently, this record should not be cited as evidence of any trend in temperature that may have occurred across the U.S. during the past century. Since the U.S. record is thought to be “the best in the world,” it follows that the global database is likely similarly compromised and unreliable.

This report presents actual photos of more than 100 temperature stations in the U.S., many of them demonstrating vividly the siting issues we found to be rampant in the network. Photographs of all 865 stations that have been surveyed so far can be found at www.surfacestations.org, where station photos can be browsed by state or searched for by name.”

[kathsua]

I didn't see this in the list so I guess no one has posted it yet. Sounds like the weather service is a typical poorly run federal agency like the post office and Amtrak.

We used to have people called journalists who would have made headlines out of a story like this, but most of them are just propagandists for the liberals so they have to ignore such exposes.

[Wooly]

It does not matter where the weather stations are located. There is enough firm data, as supplied by UN sanctioned scientists, Al gore, Apple Users, and dope smokers to confirm that man-made global climate change is happening. What is not confirmed in the latest data set is will we see heating, cooling, rain, snow, hail, clouds, thunder, or fog. But rest assured which ever happens over the next twelve months, computer models confirm that it will be related to activities concentrated in the United States.
Of course the next problem we must resolve is “Deep Crust Cooling” which models have shown contribute to earthquakes around the world. Yes that is correct earthquakes are caused by man! Recent studies, done on apple computers while smoking dope and listening to Obama speeches on I-Pods, reveal that oil acts like a heat transfer agent and lubricant for the earths plates. The depletion of this oil through drilling has led to uneven plate temperatures and a lack of lubrication which results in the plates building up pressure that is then released in the form of an earthquake.
The use of oil as a fuel will be the next great crisis for the world.
And if Man-made Climate Change and Deep Crust Cooling are not scary enough, recently researchers, while smoking dope, talking on their I-Phones and watching their pets have noticed that the level in their pet's water bowl drops at a rate greater than the pet drinks. When controlled experiments were conducted by placing the bowl in glass enclosure, it was found that recovered condensation dis not equal the amount of water level lost in the bowl. UN researchers have named this the Water Depletion Cycle which means that sometime in the next 100 years the Earth will completely UN out of water unless we stop large scale corporate farm greed, vote democrat , and use Apple Products.

[Ditto]

We found that adjustments to the data by both NOAA and another government agency, NASA, cause recent temperatures to look even higher.

Jim Hansen's 'Magical, Mystery Algorithms" that show temp increases regardless of input.

The guy is totally obsessed with saving the planet even if he has to make up the data to prove he is the savior.

[steelyourfaith]

Two major problems with the Computer Climate Models:

• (1.) The basic temperature data has been corrupted by placement of a multitude of the temperature sampling units where they are subject to artificially increased readings consistently above the natural ambient air temperature.

• (2.) Climate is currently too complex for human comprehension. Humans have only a primitive notion of all the factors that impact climate and how the inter-relate.

Yet, despite the above (as well as data to suggest a current ten year cooling cycle) we are expected to surrender our freedom and prosperity to greedy Big Government and their government-grant-funded-prostitute-scientists who generate the garbage-in/garbage-out computer climate models.

 

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