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To: E. Pluribus Unum
I've talked about this before, but permit me to repeat...

Years ago, I lived in the Philadelphia area. This was in the 1980s. I had a series of jobs in the SE Pennsylvania region, and (since I'm a bit shy) would typically eat lunch alone. I'd leave work and drive to some deli, get a sandwich and eat in my car while listening to the radio. This means that I was often exploring out-of-the-way places to have privacy while I ate.

One place I used to park was behind one of the shopping malls on Route 1, north of Philly. It was either Oxford Valley Mall or Neshaminy Mall, I'm not sure which.

The spot where I parked was near the back of a Chinese restaurant. There was a large exhaust fan there; you know the type: covered with a huge aluminum housing, so it looks kind of like an enormous aluminum doorknob. About three feet in diameter, and it stuck out from the wall about two feet.

And right next to this fan, about four feet from it, was a tiny little fenced-in area, maybe five feet square, and inside this fence was a little equipment trailer. It had all kinds of sensors sticking out of it... an anemometer and wind-direction sensor sticking up, along with various louvered boxes that I presume contained thermometers, barometers, hygrometers, etc. It had a little yagi antenna pointing off in the distance, presumably telemetering information directly to some collection point via microwave link (this was before ubiquitous wireless internet access was available).

On the fence were "NO TRESPASSING FEDERAL PROPERTY" signs, and my recollection is that they identified the ownership agency as NOAA. There was an 800 number to call in case of an emergency.

This thing was literally in the shadow of the building. I remember thinking "who in their right mind would have located that thing within a couple of feet of a king-size restaurant exhaust fan." Another thing I remember thinking was "I wonder if someday we'll be hearing from the US Government that the world is getting hotter."

The siting of this thing was really unbelievable; you would have to see it to believe it. I had noticed other weather stations of this type. At least a couple were located in the median strip of the New Jersey Turnpike. One of these was located at a point very close to a large multi-unit gas turbine peaking power plant that was near the NJ Turnpike south of New Brunswick. I've tried to find this plant on Google Earth, but have not been able to; perhaps it has been dismantled. Some of you from that region may remember it though. It had a huge fuel tank next to it, the top of which rose and fell as fuel was withdrawn or replaced, depending on the season. It typically operated on the hottest days of the summer, and when it did it filled the air around it with a barely visible brownish-yellow cloud.

Anyway, there was one of these environmental instrument stations right near it, complete with its little antenna. In the summertime, there's almost no place more nasty than the median strip of the New Jersey Turnpike, and this one was located within a stone's throw of the peaking plant.

4 posted on 03/10/2015 6:30:47 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP for A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Steely Tom

Anthony Watts, of Watts Up With That? http://wattsupwiththat.com/

has a database documenting such egregious siting of weather stations. He’s written a paper about it and encourages people to send him pictures and locations for such examples. The Urban Heat Island effect is well known, but when it’s driven by things such as this the data gets skewed.


8 posted on 03/10/2015 6:53:46 AM PDT by centurion316
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