Sam Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 I live in a rural area, and have a digital thermometer housed in an instrument shelter that's mounted about five feet above the ground. Because it's in the shelter, my thermometer does not get hit by direct sunlight. The shelter is 25-30 feet away from our house in our backyard. There are some trees nearby, but it's still out in the open. The nearest NOAA observation station is about 5 miles away in a small town of a few thousand. There are many other NOAA stations within an hour or two. Anyway, here's my question: Invariably, the high temperatures for my personal weather station end up being several degrees higher than those for the nearby NOAA stations, and the lower temperatures several degrees lower. Since I'm out in the country, I can understand the latter. But why would my high temperatures be higher than those of the NOAA stations? In looking at Weather Underground, I've noticed that other nearby personal weather stations show the same trend--higher max temperatures than the NOAA stations and lower min temperatures. What exactly explains this? Thanks for any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxmeddler Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Tackling the station 1st, it sounds like your station is in a good position for measurements. The only thing I can think of is that your shelter is not getting enough ventilation. Wind should be able to enter and cool the shelter or else it will get warm in there. (See: Stevenson Screen for more details) The other thing is that maybe your local micro-climate is somehow enhanced from the surrounding areas. That is maybe your in a valley or next to an area of higher terrain and you get a down-slope with a certain wind then cold air drainage at night? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 Thanks for the helpful info, wxmeddler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Rent Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 If your station is connected to the internet, you can join the CWOP and get quality control checks, where it checks your station every day with the reports of surrounding offical and unoffical stations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted March 24, 2012 Author Share Posted March 24, 2012 If your station is connected to the internet, you can join the CWOP and get quality control checks, where it checks your station every day with the reports of surrounding offical and unoffical stations. Oh, really? Mine isn't connected to the Internet, but thanks--that's interesting to know, B-Rent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Some areas have tons... check out all the ones in NJ: http://raws.wrh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/roman/raws_ca_monitor.cgi?state=NJ&type=&rawsflag=290&timeobs=12&day1=22&month1=9&year1=2007&hour1=22&orderby=e Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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