Boulder and Fort Collins, Colorado are very similar cities. They are college towns close to each other, at the same elevation, about the same size, and both situated up against the foothills of the Front Range.
But there are a couple of big differences. Fort Collins is growing rapidly, and its temperature station is poorly sited in a parking lot in the center of the city. As a result, Fort Collins has a serious UHI problem, and Boulder doesn’t.
Fort Collins has warmed four degrees since 1950, while Boulder has cooled. None of the standard techniques for UHI estimation would have detected this huge discrepancy, and if data from one station was filled in to replace missing data from the other one, the result would be grossly incorrect.
A very good example Steven, and we somehow just know that if they had to adjust one of them to bring them both into line that it would be Boulder adjusted up to match Ft. Collins.
I live on a small mountain far in the countryside so temperatures here are ‘real’ and not due to heat island effect. This is why I know what is actually going on.
Observing the trees and animals and when flowers bloom —this year was amazing, everything that normally comes out one at a time in spring happened nearly simultaneously. I took pictures of this, it was a 48 hour long ‘spring’ due to the unusual cold, the first warm spell was a huge release on pent up energy.
People living in the city always tell me, ‘But it isn’t that cold, is it?’ as if they have the normal temperature.
My casgora goat has not lost her coat yet and my horses are still shedding. Last year the horses started growing winter coats in July! These are pasture kept animals. I think it is not just the temperature but a shift in the SW solar radiation from the sun.
Heck I am getting a second crop of goats because my buck bred out of season (June) last year and I got a first crop of kids in November.
(Bucks go sterile in the summer in NC and come into rut about the same time as deer)
My hummingbirds finally showed up last week which is very late, they come in mid-May. One of them buzzed me when I got too close to the Japanese Irises. He was very territorial. 🙂
Steve
are you saying the data from Boulder is about to go AWOL requiring infilling from Fort Collins? The Francis Urquhart reply will suffice “You might very well think that; I couldn’t possibly comment”
Leaves the question of why Ft Collins was about 6 F lower than Boulder back in the 1950s.
If they have similar environments in similar locations, that seems an unusual difference.
Fort Collins is close to Wyoming and gets a lot of cold air which Boulder is more protected from. The rise in temperature is due almost completely to UHI effects near downtown Fort Collins.
Today, 6/8/14, has been an absolutely stunning example of: permanent drought, global warming and too much sun in the Fort. Feels like Aspen to me, expecting snow soon.
Has the Boulder data been adjusted for the residual heat from toking hippies?