Tuesday, March 30, 2010

More Dodgy Post Offices

A couple of posts ago, we looked at a collection of six very dodgy stations - mostly located in or around post offices or sites near the centre of towns.

In today's post, we look a further selection of five equally dodgy stations - they are:
  1. 010592 - Lake Grace PO (WA) - [data] [graph]
  2. 017031 - Marree (SA) - [data] [graph]
  3. 029004 - Burketown PO (QLD) - [data] [graph]
  4. 030045 - Richmond PO (QLD) - [data] [graph]
  5. 046037 - Tibooburra PO (NSW) - [data] [graph]
010592 - Lake Grace Post Office

This station is listed in the BoM RCS Listing as "Lake Grace Post Office", but in the detailed station record as "Lake Grace Comparison". At any rate, the BoM "official" photograph for this site speaks for itself:
















Here we can see that the station is located next to a well maintained railway line, and partially in the shade of a large tree.

017031 - Marree

Again, this station is listed in the RCS Listing as "Marree", but in the detailed station record as "Marree Comparison". Like the station above, the "official" photograph speaks for itself.














Hard to know from the photograph if this is an active station, or just parked here with the rest of the junk.

029004 - Burketown PO

I can only conclude that they sent the 'Airport Photographer' to capture this image. It shows the station sitting in what looks like a wide open space, complete with shady trees:














Until we look at the location with Googe Earth, that is:


















And then we see that it is at the intersection of two streets, and across the road from a large paved area. If only the photographer had stood at the other end!

030045 - Richmond PO

Again, the "official" image shows a wide open, rural space - even with a bit of shade.














Google Earth - a completely different aspect:


















Not quite the perspective you get from the first image.

046037 - Tibooburra PO

The pick of the bunch - but then I guess it would be hard to dress up this shot.


Again, you have to remind yourself that this is a "high-quality" station, collecting reliable data about the "State of the Climate".

Summary:
The two "Dodgy Post Offices" posts detail eleven stations (out of a total of 103 RCS stations) that have, shall we say, less than optimal placement. On rudimentary examination of the "official" BoM photographs and Google Earth, none of them appears to meet CRN1 specifications. And yet the BoM and CSIRO feel comfortable in making the assertion that "all of Australia has experienced warming over the past 50 years". Extraordinary.

1 comment:

  1. As a computer "illiterate", this is the site I've been looking for! Firstly, a request. Could you kindly provide the [data], [graph] links on all the sites you do (e.g airports)?
    Does BoM have mean raw temperature graphs, as I've noticed the ones linked are for mean maximums. Makes it all look a lot warmer I'll admit and perhaps that's why they do it!
    Irrespective of siting, Richmond PO does seem to have good records and it appears that global warming has given it a miss !

    Mean annual max of 33.2 at 1893 start;
    Mean annual max of 32.9 in 2009;
    Highest mean monthly temps record years:-
    Jan 1942: Feb 1983: Mar 1915: Apr 1914:
    May 1923: Jun 1996: Jul 1915: Aug 2009:
    Sep 1915: Oct 1907: Nov 1915: Dec 1901.

    Overall it has a remarkably steady trend line.

    CO2 does seem to work in mysterious and very selective ways !
    Keep up the good work, it's very much appreciated.

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