Friday, March 12, 2010

UHI Colorado

clipped from wattsupwiththat.com

Fort Collins, Colorado is most famous for Balloon Boy, and Boulder, Colorado is most famous for Jon Benet and Ward Churchill.

Both are hotbeds of Climate Science, with familiar names like Roger Pielke (Jr. and Sr.) Walt Meier, William Gray, Kevin Trenberth and Mark Sereeze.  Both are of similar size (Boulder 91,000 and Fort Collins 130,000)  and located in very similar geographical environments along the Front Range – about 50 miles apart.  The big difference is that Fort Collins has tripled in size over the last 40 years, and Boulder has grown much more slowly.  Fort Collins population is shown in blue and Boulder in red below.

From the promotional photo on the CSU website, the Fort Collins USHCN weather station (below) seems reasonably sited.

However when you look at the Google Earth street view, you realize that it is surrounded by concrete, asphalt, nearby parking, and a building just 7.5 meters away