Sure-Fire Science Fair Project
In 8th grade, my son won his science fair with this easy and fun project to measure the urban heat island effect around our city. I know parents and kids alike can struggle to find a good project. This is one that not only is interesting, but helps to prove the existence of a phenomenon that many climate alarmists work hard to deny. Imagine a temperature measurement point in downtown Phoenix, which we found to be 7-10F hotter than the outlying areas just 30 miles away.
What did that thermometer read 100 years ago? How much of measured global warming is due to this effect, particularly since our airport, the typical place where temperature records are based for large cities, is right in the center of town?
Anyway, we had to kluge together some stuff to make this work, but the Weather Shop now offers a simple kit. The site suggests keeping track of position in a log vs. time, which is what we did the first time and works just fine. However, the second time through, we got fancy and also had a GPS logger.
Dr. T:
I live 30 miles east of Memphis. In the summer, the temperatures in Memphis typically are 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than at my semi-rural home. Climatologists know this, but their invented fudge-factor to correct for urban warming eliminated less than two-thirds of the bias.
November 22, 2010, 5:00 pm