Some Errors in the NCDC U.S.A. State Weather Extreme Records Data: Part 2
Some Errors in the NCDC U.S.A. State Weather Extreme Records Data: Part 2
This week I’m looking at some more errors or omissions concerning the NCDC list of all-time state record temperatures. Below is a brief recap of my introduction I made in my previous blog concerning this subject.
Last year the National Climate Data Center (NCDC) created a new web site that neatly summarizes various state weather records: specifically what the extreme values for hottest and coldest temperatures, maximum 24-hour precipitation and 24-hour snowfall, and maximum recorded snow depth for each individual state are. This may be viewed at the NCDC web site.
The interactive map they provide and the consolidation of these records into a single user-friendly web site is a big improvement over the way they previously displayed this information (which was by listing separate tables and maps for each of the values in question). The NCDC also updated and revised the figures through the year 2009 using their collection of COOP station forms maintained in the NOAA database. These may be viewed here at the NOAA/NCDC/IPS site.
NOTE: Unfortunately, at the moment the NCDC seems to be only providing post-1992 COOP forms on the above site. They do, however, acknowledge the problem and promise to have all the older forms up “as quickly as possible”.
Cases of Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, South Carolina, Wyoming, and Oregon.
MASSACHUSETTS RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE
The NCDC claims that -35°F at Chester, MA on Jan. 12, 1981 is the lowest official temperature measured in the state (along with two other earlier similar readings at other locations). In fact, Chester also recorded -40°F on Jan. 22, 1984 as can clearly be seen on the COOP form reproduced below. Furthermore, this -40°F is confirmed in the authoritative book New England Weather and Climate (p. 77) by Prof. Gregory A. Zielinski and Prof. Barry D. Keim, University of New Hampshire Press, 2003.
The COOP form for Chester, Massachusetts displaying the record low of -40°F on January 22, 1984.
VERMONT RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE
The NCDC lists a reading of 107°F at Vernon, VT on July 7, 1912 as the hottest temperature on record for the state. This is an erroneous figure. No other site in New England recorded over 101° on this day (at Nashua, New Hampshire). The Climatological Data, US. Dept. of Agriculture publication for July 1912 reports no temperature in the state of Vermont exceeded 96° during the month:
Data for Vermont during July 1912. The highest reported temperatures for the month are in the 7th column over from the left and report a maximum temperature of just 96°F versus the 107°F reported on the NCDC site.
The actual record high for the state is 105° also reported from Vernon but a year earlier on July 4, 1911. The July 1911 heat wave also set the state records for New Hampshire with a 106°F reading at Nashua and Maine when 105°F was reported at North Bridgeton. So we see corroborating temperatures in the region for Vernon’s record temperature in 1911 but not in 1912.
CONNECTICUT RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE
NCDC has a reading of -32F at Coventry on Jan. 22, 1961 and at Falls Village on Feb. 16, 1943 as the state low temperatures. However, a reading of -37°F was recorded at the Norfolk Valley station on Feb. 16, 1943 according to a report by Connecticut State Climatologist Joseph J. Brumbach:
Relevant pages from ‘The Climate of Connecticut’ that determine the state record low temperature to be -37°F at Norfolk Valley station.
SOUTH CAROLINA RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE
A temperature of -19°F at Caesar’s Head, SC on Jan. 21, 1985 stands as South Carolina’s coldest reading according to the NCDC site. However, the COOP form for Hogback Mountain, SC clearly shows a low of -22°F on this same morning.
The COOP form for Hogback Mountain, South Carolina displaying a record low temperature of -22°F for the state.
WYOMING RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE
For many years there has been confusion surrounding the actual location of the Riverside Ranger Station that recorded a temperature of -66°F on Feb. 9, 1933. This figure has long been erroneously reported as the coldest temperature ever measured in Wyoming (See NCDC site for instance). The problem is that this (no longer existing) ranger station was actually located in the Montana section of Yellowstone National Park. It was situated where the town of West Yellowstone, Montana now resides.
The reason for this confusion originates from the fact that the Climatological Data by Sections USWB report for February 1933 includes Yellowstone National Park in its Wyoming section even though portions of the park, including the site of Riverside R.S., are in Montana and Idaho. If one looks at the station I.D. number (248857) on the Western Regional Climate Center’s station summaries lists we see that the site was established in 1924 (when the ranger station was established) and then continues at the same location in later years as “West Yellowstone, Montana”.
Also, I have personally visited this area and investigated the location of the ranger station and can confirm that the site was in Montana when it was built in 1924 (by only 200 yards!). The actual record low for the state of Wyoming is -63°F at Moran on that same night of Feb. 9, 1933.
This map from 1929 shows the exact location of the Riverside Ranger Station. It is just sandwiched between the border of the national park (the large green border) and the border between Wyoming and Montana (the small dashed border). The name of the ranger station is not given, it just says "ranger station" but this is, in fact, the Riverside Ranger Station (named 'Riverside') because it is by the Madison River. One can understand the confusion of the location so far as being in Wyoming or Montana.
Data set for West Yellowstone, Montana (aka the Riverside Ranger Station) showing the ‘record’ low of -66°F. From the climate summaries of the Western Regional Climate Center.
OREGON RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE
The record high for the state of Oregon has long been accepted as 119°F at Pendleton on Aug. 10, 1898. The NCDC site also mentions a similar reading at Prineville on July 29, 1898). First off, the Prineville reading can be dismissed immediately as unbelievable. Prineville is located in the center of the state near Redmond and Bend at an altitude of 2,860’. It is not a particularly warm location and its hottest temperature in modern records is just 107°F. There were many suspicious temperatures from Prineville during the summer of 1898.
The Pendleton reading is more difficult to dismiss. Pendleton is located on a river plain about 30 miles south of the Columbia River. This valley is the hottest area in the state with 100°F+ temperatures common every summer. An undisputed temperature of 117°F has been measured at nearby Umatilla, Oregon on July 27, 1939. The problem with the Pendleton reading is that it was an estimated not measured reading and it would seem that estimated temperatures should probably not be considered official, especially for something as significant as a state weather record.
According to the newspaper East Oregonian a report on Aug. 11, 1898 stated “…the government thermometer is only calculated to 115°, so that the 4° indicated above that had to be measured (estimated) by an observer.” This story is recounted in The Oregon Weather Book: A State of Extremes (p.64) by George H. Taylor and Raymond R. Hatton, Oregon State University Press, 1999.
Next week I will look at some errors from the ‘official’ precipitation (including snowfall) state records.
KUDOS: Maximiliano Herrera, Howard Rainford, and Trent McCotter.
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Updated: 06:19 GMT le 27 Mars 2011
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Some Errors in the NCDC U.S.A. State Weather Extreme Records Data: Part 1
Some Errors in the NCDC U.S.A. State Weather Extreme Records Data: Part 1
Last year the National Climate Data Center (NCDC) created a new web site that neatly summarizes various state weather records: specifically what the extreme values for hottest and coldest temperatures, maximum 24-hour precipitation and 24-hour snowfall, and maximum recorded snow depth for each individual state are. This may be viewed at the NCDC web site.
The interactive map they provide and the consolidation of these records into a single user-friendly web site is a big improvement over the way they previously displayed this information (which was by listing separate tables and maps for each of the values in question). The NCDC also updated and revised the figures through the year 2009 using their collection of COOP station forms maintained in the NOAA database. These may be viewed here at the IPS web site.
Over the next few weeks I will post a series of blogs concerning mistakes, some obvious and others more subjective, that I and others have discovered in the course of fact-checking these records.
Some Errors with the Official State Records: Case of Hawaii
For some reason the extreme weather records for the state of Hawaii are fraught with errors. Both the ‘official’ record high temperature of 100° at Pahala, Big Island on April 27, 1931 AND the official low temperature of 12° at Mauna Kea Observatory on May 17, 1979 are obviously wrong.
HAWAII RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE
Unfortunately, the COOP forms for Pahala have been digitized and the original form no longer appears on the IPS site mentioned above. However, the digitized version of the form is available for viewing at the excellent Utah State University Climate Center’s ‘Climate Database’ (see at the USU Climate Center's web site.)
Looking at the Pahala dataset for April 1931 we see that the maximum temperature for April 27 is, in fact, missing and represented with the figures “9999”, meaning missing data. For some reason this has been interpreted by the NCDC to mean 100°!
The digitized version of the Pahala, Hawaii COOP form for April 1931. Reproduced from the Utah State University Climate Center database.
We can see that the day before April 27th the maximum temperature was just 82°F and the day after just 80°F. Furthermore, the observation time temperature (likely made at 7a.m. local time) was a fairly normal 70° on April 27th. It is amazing that this bogus 100°F reading from Hawaii has been on the record books for some 80 years already!
So just what is the real record high temperature for the state of Hawaii? Unfortunately, this is very difficult to determine. No 99°F reading has ever been made but there have been six (6) different occasions that 98°F has been reported:
At Waianae, Oahu in July 1915
At Mahukona, Big Island on an undetermined date prior to 1941
At Kaanapali, Maui on an undetermined date prior to 1941
At Puunene, Maui on Aug. 19, 1951
At Puunene, Maui (again) on July 14, 1957
At Sea Mountain, Big Island on Sept. 1990
After extensive research and investigating the COOP forms (where available) for the above sites, it would seem the least suspicious figure from the above list is Puunene. The two 98°F readings from here were made at a small airport about 4 miles southeast of Kuhului on Maui. The inland and low elevation setting make this location a reasonable candidate for hot weather in the otherwise temperate Hawaiian Isles.
COOP form for Puunene, Maui for August 1951, one of the two months that the station reported 98°F temperatures.
Interestingly, this means that Hawaii is now the ‘coolest’ state in the Union so far as record high temperatures are concerned. Even Alaska has recorded a 100°F reading (at Fort Yukon on June 27, 1915).
HAWAII RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE
The coldest temperatures on record for Hawaii are, of course, reported from the several mountaintop observatories in the state. Mauna Kea Observatory located near the summit of said mountain at 13,796’ has had a potted history of weather observations. I say potted because for some reason the COOP forms from this site have been stamped as “unreliable” for several years (1976-1978) of observations during the 1970s. This includes the month of January 1976 when a 9°F reading was made on January 12th of that month and a 12°F reading on Feb. 22, 1977. The ‘official’ low of 12°F on May 17th, 1979 is obviously an error when one looks at the COOP form for that month:
COOP form for the Mauna Kea Observatory in May 1979. A new minimum thermometer was installed on the 5th of the month.
One can see the observer has circled the 12°F reading and replaced it with a 21°F note and question mark (see above). Furthermore, the low temperatures on both the day before and after May 17th were just 23°F lending further doubt to the 12°F reading.
The summit of Mauna Kea in the winter of 1971 with snow down to about 11,000’ (3,350m). Photo by Dale P. Cruikshank.
So what might be the actual lowest temperature for Hawaii? A 14°F reading from the summit station at Haleakala, Maui (elevation 10,023’) on Jan. 2, 1961 is the 2nd coldest reading from the state. This, however, is also unbelievable since the low temperature from the previous and following days was just 34°. Twenty-degree swings in minimum temperatures from one day to the next are highly improbable in tropical environments like Hawaii. This leaves a 15°F reading from Mauna Kea Observatory on Jan. 5, 1975 as the mostly likely reliably measured temperature in the state on record.
Next week I will look at some other glaring errors from the ‘official’ records in some other states.
KUDOS: Maximiliano Herrera, Howard Rainford, and Trent McCotter.
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Updated: 19:20 GMT le 19 Mars 2011
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February 2011 Global Weather Extremes Summary
February 2011 Global Weather Extremes Summary
Extreme weather highlights for this past February include more extraordinary snowfalls in the U.S.A. (along with some record low temperatures) and more torrential rains and floods in Australia and South America.
NORTH AMERICA
The month opened with a humongous blizzard paralyzing the Midwest of the United States. Chicago reported its third greatest snowfall on record with 20.2” measured at O’Hare Airport on February 1-2. Tulsa, Oklahoma’s 14.0” accumulation was the greatest on record for that city.
A pedestrian leaps across the Lakeshore Drive median divide in Chicago as the February 2 blizzard buries trapped automobiles on the city road.
Record cold temperatures plunged southward following the storm resulting in Santa Fe, New Mexico tying its all-time coldest temperature with -18°F on February 3 and Ruidoso broke its all-time record low with -27°F (old record -26° in 1951 and 1971). Readings as low as -36°F were reported from other sites in the state (Angle Fire and Eagle Nest).
A chart of the extraordinary cold temperatures reported from New Mexico on February 3.
Laredo, Texas never rose above 30° on February 3 (coldest maximum temperature since a 29°F high on January 30, 1951) and, ironically, the city reached a high of 103° on February 27, tying the hottest February temperature on record for the site and only one degree short of the hottest temperature ever recorded in the USA for any location in the country for February (104° at Fort Ringgold, Texas in February 1904). However, the data from the official airport site in Laredo is suspect according to Laredo-based weatherman Richard Berler. Richard suspects the actual reading was just 101°F accounting for a +2°F bias at the airport site.
Record cold air poured south of the border into Mexico on February 3-5 with snow measurable snow reported at even low elevations around the city of Monterrey. The thermometer at the university in Chihuahua reported a low of 0°F.
A Mexican television report covers the unusual snowfall in the city of Chihuahua.
Another blizzard pummeled Oklahoma and Arkansas just a week later when an Oklahoma state record for a 24-hour snowfall was reached at Spaville when 27.0” accumulated on February 8-9. The Arkansas state record for such fell shy just 1/2” with 24.5” measured at Siloam Springs. Following the storm, Oklahoma broke its record for the coldest temperature on record for the state when a -31°F reading was measured at Nowata on February 10.
An unprecedented warm up occurred the following week in Oklahoma with temperatures rising into the 80°s. Some locations reported a 100°F+ rise in temperature within the span of 6 days.
SOUTH AMERICA
Heavy rains in Bolivia resulted in a large landslide near the city of La Paz on February 17 destroying over 300 homes. Although there were no fatalities involved in the landslide, 44 deaths were reported from other parts of the country due to severe flooding.
EUROPE
I have received no reports of notable extreme weather events in Europe for the month.
AFRICA
Cyclone Bingiza made landfall in northern Madagascar on February 14 with winds of 85 to 105 knots (155-195 kph). Fourteen people were reported killed and some 6000 homes destroyed.
The temperature rose to 44.0°C (111.2°F) at Abu Na’ma, Sudan on February 26. This was the hottest temperature recorded in the Northern Hemisphere during the month.
ASIA
At perennially cold Omyakon, Siberia (Russia) the temperature fell to a low of -59.1°C (-74.4°F) on February 21. This was the coldest temperature for the month in the Northern Hemisphere during the month.
Tremendous snowfalls affected the Korean peninsula during the month with an astonishing accumulation of 110cm (43.3”) reported on February 12 at Donghae, South Korea.
Record snowfall buries Donghae, South Korea under 43” of snow on February 12.
AUSTRALIA
Torrential rains continued to plague Australia during February. It was the wettest February on record for the state of South Australia and second wettest for the country as a whole. Darwin recorded its single-wettest day on record when 367.6mm (14.50”) fell on February 16. Severe thunderstorms in the Melbourne area on February 4-5 caused flash floods when up to 147.4mm (5.80”) fell in a short period of time (as recorded at Mildura on the 5th).
Cyclone Yasi struck northern Queensland on February 2 with winds gusting as high as 180mph. It was the most powerful tropical storm to make landfall in the state since 1918. Fortunately, there were few fatalities or injuries thanks to timely forecasts.
The highest temperature reported for the month was 45.0°C (113.0°F) at Port Augusta on February 2. This was the hottest reading in the world for the month. Sydney endured its warmest night on record when the temperature dropped to only 27.6°C (81.7°F) on February 6. The city also recorded its longest stretch of consecutive 30°C+ (86°F) days between January 31-February 6 (inclusive). This seven-day stretch exceeds the previous record of five such days reported on several occasions in the past. Perth also broke its record for consecutive 30°C+ days with 27 such from February 6-March 4 (old record was 25 set in 1988).
ANTARCTICA
The coldest temperature in the Southern Hemisphere and world during February was -80.3°F (-62.4°C) at Dome A station in Antarctica on February 28th.
KUDOS Thanks to Maximiliano Herrera for temperature data, Blair Trewin for Australian records, and Richard Berler for Laredo, Texas information.
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Updated: 05:51 GMT le 06 mai 2011
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