Sorry for the snark, it just feels like the same discussion about comparing dew points of a PWS in a wooded area. The data is real, the dew is 75F on DIT’s yard when it’s 68F at the open airport field. Both are real but for different reasons.
Humans have altered the landscape too, it’s hard to separate out what degree of warming may be from pavement, vs emissions vs other anthropological reasons.
I guess you could remove all sites that are within 30 miles of a given population number… then compare all the sites in rural areas to see what happens in the means?