Comments on: Adjusting for the "Rural Cooling Effect"

By: Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:18:17 +0000

Interesting stuff here.

By: bernie

bernie — Thu, 31 May 2007 01:57:30 +0000

Phil, I've no idea where the ws actually is at the airport, but the google earth picture indicates a cluster of buildings and plenty of asphalt. Site pictures and immedite site history would be in order before any pronouncements on the temperature record.

By: Steve McIntyre

Steve McIntyre — Thu, 31 May 2007 00:50:37 +0000

#49. As we see more of these sites, just because a site is “rural” seems to have little to do with microsite effects and the microsite issue seems to be completely awol in Team literature. I’m sure that urban airport sites are not as screwed up as the Marysvile site. It seems that many rural sites have big microsite problems and I suspect that this is one reason why there’s not as much difference between urban and rural sites. Rural microsite screwup effects sort of match urban heat island effects. Of course there are some decent rural sites, but USHCn and the Team seem to have made no effort whatever to identify these sites and worse, they’ve made no effort to preserve sites that are decent. Lake Spaulding is rural, but the present site is a mess and the screwup occurred in the past few years, under the IPCC watch.

THe Independence site has a different pattern than some of the sites that seem to be pretty clean, and my guess is that there are some warts on it. It’s just a guess, but I’ll be interested in how it turns out.

By: Phil B.

Phil B. — Thu, 31 May 2007 00:13:39 +0000

Re #5 Steve M, I would certainly consider Independance, CA. a rural site, especially if the weather station is at the airport. The town is about 8 blocks by 8 blocks and covers about a half a mile on HWY 395, with a population of about 800. The airport is north of town. More important is that most of surrounding land is undeveloped Los Angeles DWP property that was acquired during the early 1900′s. Re #15, Steve S might be thinking of Bishop or Lone Pine which have recent development. Russ would probably do a better job, but I could take some photos and inquire, if urgent this weekend. If not urgent, I will be in that area in a month or two.

By: Steve Sadlov

Steve Sadlov — Wed, 30 May 2007 22:18:51 +0000

RE: #43 – Should it return due to growth, it will vastly exceed what was experienced mid town during the period prior to the 50s move. If it returns, it will return with big screen TVs, ubiquitous AC systems on the buildings, track/recessed lighting, PCs, gadgets, etc. Energy flux is much higher per capita than it was 50 years ago.

By: Steve Sadlov

Steve Sadlov — Wed, 30 May 2007 22:15:29 +0000

RE: #39 – Consider maximum snow depth. That’ll ruin the readings, since snow actually limits how low temperature can go within its mass.

By: Barclay E. MacDonald

Barclay E. MacDonald — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:31:30 +0000

Good for you and the folks at the nursing home Gladys! Suddenly, retirement and ageing is looking much more entertaining. I must be sure to find a “home” with high speed internet and wireless access. I only hope Anthony Watts and SteveM can keep up this lively pace.

As always, nice work gentlemen. My addiction to this blog is never satiated.

By: bernie

bernie — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:36:52 +0000

#42
UHI effects.
If the photos and comments about individual stations mean anything it is that UHI has both a micro and macro component. Clearly any encroachment of buildings, asphalt, roadways, heat sources will have a local (+) effects (so also growth (-) and removal (+) of vegetation, irrigation (-)) while at the macro level there are the less proximate but potentially large effects of the surrounding densiity of buildings, asphalt and heat sources. The micro UHI effects are important because so many of the stations in the Arctic regions are in small settlements, where even small scale development can lead to measurable UHI effects.

I assume there have been models built that include all these possible site effects. Can satellite readings be used as a source of “true” local temperature readings for areas around these sites? Does anyone have some good references on the estimation of all these site effects?

By: gladys

gladys — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:11:26 +0000

What a crock! “Trust us” say the ‘climate scientists’, yet they come up with all of this unubstantiated, and very likely manipulated data. Refuse to allow examination or replication of it.

Here at the nursing home, ‘climate scientists’ now have about the same credibility as politicians, and Jimmy Swaggart and his mates.

By: David Smith

David Smith — Wed, 30 May 2007 10:59:12 +0000

I think that Natchez MS US shows the effect of a station relocation in the late 1950s, when the station moved from the center of a small town out to an airport. About a 1C drop, which indeed needs to be adjusted from the record. But, should the city later encroach on the airport, some of the effect will return. In this case there was no return of UHI, because the town failed to grow. I'm familiar with this airport and, as best as I can recall, the station is away from vegetation, so there's no vegetation effect either. Result - no temperature trend over the last 40+ years.