RATHER than admit that temperature dropped to a record low -10.4 degree Celsius on the morning of Sunday 2nd July at Goulburn, the Bureau of Meteorology has come-up with yet another even more absurd story.
Responding to a letter from Josh Frydenberg, the Minister for Environment and Energy, Andrew Johnson, CEO and Director of Meteorology, has claimed the weather station malfunctioned. Previously the Bureau claimed that they had placed new limits on how cold it could get at Goulburn.
This is a contrived story, easily disproven with the following evidence.
We know that the Goulburn AWS recorded -10.4 on the morning of Sunday 2nd July from a screen shot taken from the observation page at the Bureau's website:
The observation sheet shows a minimum of -10.4, this temperature is recorded every second and downloaded every minute. The lowest value recorded normally becomes the minimum for the day. Contrary to previous policy, on 2nd July, this value was rounded to -10.0, which became the minimum for that day.
Subsequently, the Bureau sent an email confirming:
"The correct minimum temperature for Goulburn on 2 July, 2017 is -10.4 recorded at 6.30am at Goulburn Airport AWS… The Bureau’s quality control system, designed to filter out spurious low or high values was set at -10 minimum for Goulburn which is why the record automatically adjusted."
In short, after initially recording -10.0 in the CDO dataset, this was changed to -10.4 three days later following a blog post ( Bureau Erases Goulburn Record Minimum), an outcry on Facebook, and enquires from prominent journalists.
By 28th July when the above letter was sent to the Minister, the correct value of -10.4 had been showing in the CDO dataset for some 23 days.
This is a screenshot from the CDO database taken today, 30th July 2017. Contrary to the letter from the Bureau to the Minister it shows -10.4 as having been recorded on 2nd July 2017.
Yet in the letter from the Bureau's Johnson to Minister Frydenberg it is claimed that:
“the AWS at Goulburn stopped recording when the temperature fell below -10°C.”
This is demonstrably false.
The Bureau has mislead the Minister - yet again.
Sorry Dave, Just noticed your comment above from 3 days ago.
HAL 9000 is misbehaving yet again and appears to have mangled my previous link. Hopefully this one works https://tinyurl.com/ybuo63wl. It is just a direct link to the Tmax recent observations for Goulburn on the BOM site.
Phil casts doubt on the record temperature at Goulburn because Canberra AWS, Nerriga and Taralga did not record their maximum July temperatures on the same day .
The closest station to the Goulburn AWS is Goulburn TAFE ,that also recorded a temperature 0.4C above its previous record,. A range of other stations within 100Km also recorded records for July for instance Moss Vale AWS (1.9C above previous record) , Nowra Ran Air Station AWS (1.3C), Ulladulla AWS(1C) , Albion Park (1.9C) , Kiama (2.4C),. Others further away such as Bathurst AWS (2.9C) Orange Airport AWS (0.5C) and even Sydney (0.6 C).
Sydney’s increase beyond the previous record was the largest jump ever . The previous largest jump being 0.4 C back in 1990.
I think the above makes it clear that despite Phil's selective use of stations , it is more than likely that the Goulburn AWS July 30 maximum temperature was indeed a record.
As for other records for Goulburn, then Phil can use FOI (http://www.bom.gov.au/foi/) to request them.
Sorry, link and download audio for above ABC radio comments
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/climate-science-research-needs-an-overhaul-academy-of-science/8769378
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2017/08/bst_20170803_0636.mp3
On ABC radio RN Breakfast this morning.
Comment on climate monitoring and data collection from "Professorial Fellow at the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne Dr. Graeme Pearman".
Listen from 6:12 to hear allegations about data tampering
On data collection:
From 7:20 ".....data different from you expect, the first thing you do is reject it....."
Not quite scientific method ??
Thought you may like to hear this.
Notice how MikeR tries, and fails, to deceive regarding the issue.
And then is smug and snarky about it.
Perhaps he is competing for a photo next to the "Irony" definition.
In reply to MikeR: The issue is not the quantum of the action but the machinations that lay behind it. As is pointed out two quite separate explanations of what happened with the Goulburn data have been offered. The first was that extremes outside specified ranges are withheld until they can be checked. The second is that there is a major problem with the equipment.
Also were the full daily temperature record at Goulburn, which stretches back into the 1880s, to be made publically available I am certain that neither the missing -10.4C nor the 19.4C that occurred on the 30th would qualify as any type of records. Unfortunately, despite Goulburn having been the location of a full meteorological office for a number of years all we can currently see are the recent AWS records. In those nearby offices that do have long term records of hottest July days Nerriga recorded 20.2 in 1975 and 19.8 this year. Taralga recorded 19.3 in 1975 and 18.0 this year. Canberra Airport recorded 19.7 in 1975 and 17.9 this year.
So Andrew will "action" an investigation lead by someone from the BoM's leadership team. Our little Rotary club has to have our books audited by an external auditor so why not audit the BoM using an external auditor? I guess Andrew read that article that states you should only conduct a review/investigation if you know the outcome in advance. This bloke is crooked and in the same league as his predecessor, Phil Jones. Josh is just a goose and totally out of his depth.
Miker
The link does not work!
Mark M,
I think the definition of irony might cover the timing of Jennifer's post above.
This was the same day Goulburn AWS recorded it's highest ever July Temperature of 19.4 C.
This beat the previous record by 0.8C which happens to be twice the 0.4C you guys are fulminating about.
For details see https://tinyurl.com/ybuo63w .
I do like however Bob Fernely-Jones suggestion for a Four Corners investigation into these matters.
It would make a change from the trivialities it has been investigating lately, such as the massive theft of water from the Murray Darling Basin.
Dr Andrew Johnson's letter of reply to the Minister leaves many questions to be answered regarding the integrity and correctness of of their data collection.
We the public have every right to expect full openness and honesty from the BOM.
In my view this has not been happening and these recent incidents only confirm this.
They (the BOM) have been caught out yet again. The Minister should set up an independent enquiry immediately.
Thanks Jennifer for the good work once again.
Regards GeoffW Sydney
******
Thanks Geoffrey Williams, for taking the time to comment.
This thread is now closed.
Jennifer. 8th August 2017