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Who knew that the photos I posted of a Davis Weather Station showing -80 degrees and another showing -71 degrees would unleash a veritable storm of debate about the veracity of the temperature reading. Not only that, it sparked one heck of a heated argument about whether or not global warming – or climate change – is real (see comments on NPR’s site).
Even the fabulous weather geeks on Talk Weather chatted about the reading.
Now I have government types contacting me curious about the readings and wanting to see the computer data from the computer attached to the Vantage Pro 2 of said readings. That interest has resulted in a guy from NOAA coming to Tok next Friday and chatting with some folks here about the readings, the weather, and why/why not those readings may or may not be accurate.
All I can say is…
WOW!
All weather geeks welcome!
I’ll report back once the data has been analyzed and give you all the inside skinny.
Brandon Hansen
/ January 15, 2009Have you incited a weather riot?
Karen
/ January 15, 2009I have been enjoying your blog about Tok. I recently moved to Anchorage – this strange weather is bringing out the weather geek in me, it is all I blog about anymore.
I also love that you drove around the US in a RV solo – so jealous!
Michael Wiley
/ January 16, 2009We were driving home tonight and Danielle was telling me that you had registered a temp of -80. I told her “no f@#$ing way. The lowest temp ever recorded in the U.S. is -80.” While I cannot verify that the Vantage Pro 2 maintains its accuracy when temperatures get that low, I used to have one and they are amazingly accurate at typical temperature ranges.
In fact, I’m curious to hear how they would even validate the device in pre-production mode at such extreme temps.
Nevertheless, I think that I’m a believer.
Aliza Sherman
/ January 16, 2009Michael, the jury is still out about the temp reading. A guy from NOAA is stopping by the offices where the weather station is situated, will check the computer data, and will decipher it for us. Even the folks at Davis are skeptical, however, there was another Vantage Pro 2 that registered -77 around the same timeframe. But the “official”-ish monitors said -65. So who knows?!? We should know more soon, and I’ll blog about it!
G Mah
/ January 16, 2009The debate is amusing. In your short time there, even if the -80 reading was 20% off and it was “only” -65, can you actually feel a difference? Thx
dr sherman
/ January 24, 2009Heated argument about global warming. *chuckle*
Ken Woods
/ January 24, 2009So, what’d Rick have to say?
Aliza Sherman
/ January 25, 2009Lots of great stuff! I did an interview with him and cannot for the life of me figure out how to get it on WordPress.com – must be a settings thing or I heard they delete flash players for security reasons. I did upload to YouTube and they took it down for violating their new Terms of Service but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how it was in violation. I’ll post a link to it on mDialog – hope it plays for everyone!