Questionable Temperature Surface Station Measurements

A recent study finds approximately 96 percent of US temperature Stations used to measure climate change fail to meet what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) considers to be 'acceptable' and uncorrupted placement by its own published standards. This nation-wide study follows up widespread corruption and heat biases found at NOAA stations in 2009, and the heat-bias distortion is even worse now. The study, published by The Heartland Institute, was compiled via satellite and in-person survey visits to NOAA weather stations that contribute to the 'official' land temperature data in the United States. The research shows that 96% of these stations are corrupted by localized effects of urbanization--producing heat-trapping, or heat-accentuating objects. Placing temperature stations in such locations violates NOAA's own published standards and strongly undermines the legitimacy and the magnitude of the official consensus on long-term climate warming trends in the United states. ¹

The climate change temperature signal has been compromised by encroachment of artificial surfaces like concrete, asphalt, and heat sources like air conditioner exhausts

“With a 96 percent warm-bias in US temperature measurements, it is impossible to use any statistical methods to derive an accurate climate trend for the US," said Heartland Institute Senior Fellow Anthony Watts, the director of the study. "Data from the stations that have been corrupted by faulty placement show a rate of warming in the United states reduced by almost half compared to all stations NOAA's 'Requirements and Standards for National Weather Service Climate Observations," instructs that temperature data instruments must be 'over level terrain (earth or sod) typical of the area around the station and at last 100 feet from any extensive concrete or paved surface.' And that 'all attempts will be made to avoid areas where rough terrain or air drainage are proven to result in non-representative temperature data.' This new report shows that instruction is regularly violated. The climate change temperature signal has been compromised by encroachment of artificial surfaces like concrete, asphalt, and heat sources like air conditioner exhausts. There are virtually no data for 70 percent of the Earth's surface that is oceans. Also, there are practically no data for the 19 percent of land area that are mountains, 20 percent that are desert, 20 percent boreal forest, 20 percent grasslands, and 6 percent tropical rain forest. ² The recent report is a follow up to a March 2009 study titled "Is the US Surface Temperature Record Reliable?" which highlighted a subset of over 1,000 surveyed stations and found 89 percent of stations had heat bias issues. In April and May 2022, The Heartland Institute's team of researchers visited many of the same temperature stations as in 2009, plus many not visited before. The new survey sampled 128 NOAA stations, and found the problem of heat-bias has only gotten worse. H. Sterling Brunett says the main takeaways are three fold:

1. The government is either inept or stubbornly refusing to learn from its mistakes for political reasons, with possibly both at play.
2. The government's official temperature record can't be trusted. It reflects a clear urban heat-bias effect, not national temperature trends.
3. You can't trust the official temperature record, and with rising temperatures supposedly driving dangerous climate change, you shouldn't trust the government's projections of worsening extreme weather events. ³

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It is important to note that Watts and his fellow authors found a slight warming trend when examining temperature data from unperturbed stations, which cleaved closely to the findings of The University of Alabama-Huntsville's satellite derived temperature record. This warming trend, however is approximately HALF the claimed rate of increase promoted by many in the climate science community. The conclusion from all this is the rate of warming as measured by unperturbed surfaces stations does not represent a climate crisis.

References

1. Anthony Watts, "New surface stations report released--it's worse than we thought," wattsupwiththat.com, July 27, 2022
2. Tom Harris, "NOAA and NASA lied on temperature records," yourhoustonnews.com, January 25, 2015
3. H. Sterling Burnett, "Heartland report: NOAA uses biased temperature records," principia-scientific.com, August 2, 2022

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Cover Image: Corrupted Climate Stations