Some days in Maitland are hotter than others.
The very non-compliant Maitland, SA, thermometer site #022008 | Imagery ©2019 Google, Oct 2014.
Thanks to Ken Stewart, the tour through the Great sites of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology continues.
Once again, the experts have carefully graphed, diagrammed, checked and ignored all the things that shouldn’t be within 30 meters of a thermometer. See Maitland Site Info. That fence is described as “Galvanised iron”. The ground is bitumen. The incinerator is labeled “incinerator”. And there are two tanks just out of view to the right, not to mention the tin sheds, trees, buildings and wind breaks.
In 1967 the site only had two tin sheds within a 30 meter radius, which was still not compliant, but vastly cooler than present. The incinerator is about 6 or 7 meters from the Stevenson Screen, and only appears on the maps in 2014.
As Ken says “the site is a heat sink”. It’s not an official “ACORN” star site, but records here get mentions in the media. Worse, Maitland is one of the sites used to adjust official ACORN data in Adelaide, Cape Borda, Ceduna, Kyancutta, Port Lincoln, and Snowtown.
Ken has also looked at Eudunda, Meningie, and Warooka this week. Anyone happening to be driving past Warooka post office? Please send us a shot to admire from out the back. The screen’s not visible from the street.
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If people want to send in more site photos, start at the BoM page for Climate Data Online. Type in the town, and “Find” the nearest site. On that site’s page look to the top right for a button marked “Details” to find out the lat and long. You can enter them in Google Maps as: 34.3745S, 137.6733E (for example). If you visit a site, please respect the privacy of any homeowners, don’t share street addresses or car number-plates publicly. Email me: joanne AT this site domain.
Ken Stewart blogs at Ken’s Kingdom: The Wacky World of Weather Stations! Go thank him.