In article <72om14t034mr7u8r9re7d933psab3lsaqb@4ax.com>,
Cynic wrote:
>What amazed me when looking a bit deeper is that temperature
>measurements across the US are based almost entirely on measuring
>stations situated in an urban location where it is very obviously
>going to be influenced by its artificial surroundings. e.g. right
>next to a large asphalt car park, or within a few meters of a giant
>airconditioner's condensor outlet. Supposedly the corrections to
>historic data were made to compensate for errors caused by these
>factors that supposedly have only just been realised. Except that the
>corrections have been to *increase* the recorded temperatures, when
>AFAICS the positional errors would all tend to make the thermometers
>*over* read.
All good points. Your mention of asphalt in the US brought to mind
a map I found recently on the Web, consisting solely of US roadage.
It shows the extent of land covered and reveals some interesting
geographical patterns.
http://benfry.com/allstreets/
Francis |