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Steve_S
Member
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# Posted: 24 May 2016 08:02
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Good Day folks,
Recently, I've noticed that the various weather agencies (Weather Network & Environment Canada) are inaccurate when they post the previous days "observed temps".
Example: Yesterday, they had forecast that it would be 24C, of course we surpassed that temp and I noted that on my property it hit 29.5C @ 14:00 hours (in the shade no less). I have 3 thermometers, 1 Digital & 2 standard old style mercury types, so I know we hit the 29C temps. YET today I look again and they say we hit 26C "as observed" yesterday.
I've noticed that for the past month anyways, that this is consistently off... I see & feel the temps at the cabin and it is always warmer than they report as actual temps. At first I thought this was just an anomaly but as I check the numbers daily (part of planning my days efforts) this is not some anomaly as they are consistently under reporting the actual temps.
So out of curiosity & interest, I am wondering if any of you have noted a similar under reporting of temps for your area compared to your actual observations.
A wee project I suppose, check your forecasts and then pay attention to the doohickey on the wall (outside of course) and see if they are accurate with what they "observed" for the previous day. All my thermometers are located on the Shade Side so they are not being affected by direct solar radiance.
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Don_P
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# Posted: 24 May 2016 08:22
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Take your thermometer to the tracking station, I'll bet you are both right. Between the house and the job and the reporting station we can see as much as 10 degrees difference at any given time. Our elevation is higher than at work but they run colder by the river valley most of the time, little microclimates I guess. I call the far end of our county Canada, it is at least an entire zone above us.
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NorthRick
Member
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# Posted: 24 May 2016 14:00
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We are only 7 miles as the crow flies from the "official" reporting station for Anchorage, AK. We can be as much as 15 to 20F colder then what they report. Almost the same elevation too.
If fact, a weather service employee used to drive around Anchorage on cold mornings with a thermometer attached to the side view mirror of his van and record temperatures (for fun). He created a pretty neat map of temperature variations in the Anchorage bowl.
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Wendigolake
Member
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# Posted: 26 May 2016 12:27
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When I was farming in eastern Ontario, I was a reporting station for Environment Canada. All temp equipment was in a "Stevenson Screen". You have seen them, they are a box like structure with slatted sides. They are designed to not be affected by the sun light. Environment Canada would take my data and average it with other stations to get the "current temp" or the last night "low". Since I got a read out of my data, I would sometime compare it to the "average". Could be quite a difference between mine and other local stations and the average showed it.
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bobrok
Member
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# Posted: 27 May 2016 07:51 - Edited by: bobrok
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Although I find this hard to believe there is a persistent story (and accusations) locally about one of the temperature reporting locales in upstate NY purposely "de-tuning" their equipment so as to be recognized as the coldest spot in the lower 48.
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Steve_S
Member
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# Posted: 27 May 2016 09:13
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Well... more daily observations and they are consistently under what I see on the property. Sure it could be a micro-climate issue because of my location on the ridge but friends lower down in the valley & the other side of the mount all say the same thing too.
Not that it's important or an issue, just a curious observation of the fickle weather reporting.
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MtnDon
Member
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# Posted: 27 May 2016 10:24
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Where we live we have elevation from about 4000 feet to 6000 plus a 10800 mountain range on the east side. 4000 feet is the river valley. Temperatures are all over the place at the same moment in time. The official numbers come from the airport. To see even more discrepancies in weather related data try comparing the precipitation data. That is all over the map too with the airport maybe recording 0.25" while all we get at home are clouds if we are lucky.
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