Your Nearest Weather Station

One of my favorite blogs, Coyote Blog, alerted me to a project taking place to locate, survey, and photograph all of the US Historical Climate Network stations in the country. Evidence from these stations is used, among other things, to examine claims of global warming, and there is evidence that some stations, like this one, are not in optimum locations for data gathering. Stations that are near an air conditioner vent, or surrounded by asphalt, are not going to give accurate readings. If the area around a station was paved in, say, 1984, the data from that station will show a warming trend that could inaccurately be credited to global warming. So the goal of this project is to catalog all of the stations, to determine what other siting errors may exist.

So I looked at the list of stations, and found that there is one in Logan. I went ahead and surveyed it. Here's my entry. Here's a picture:



This site was at least 20 feet from pavement, and at least 50 feet from buildings. The paint on the shelter (the big white box, which contains instruments) was chipped somewhat. The paint helps reflect sunlight, to keep conditions inside the box the same as those outside of it. In all, the station seems to be OK.

I would encourage you to participate in this project. Here are some locations that have stations:

• Brenham, TX
• San Antonio, TX
• Jamestown, ND
• Leitchfield, KY
• Portage, WI
• Zumbrota, MN

I, of course, would be glad to offer my assistance to your survey effort.