Sardinia Temperature Record Set In Middle of Undergrowth, And Yards From Road
By Paul Homewood
You will recall how the media gleefully announced a new July record temperature for Europe this week, even though it had not even been validated by the WMO.
As Italian expert, Robin Monotti, pointed out immediately, the weather station at Jerzu was not an officially recognised climate station.
Excellent detective work by Tim Daw has revealed the actual location of the Jerzu station, and as I surmised it is poorly sited and maintained.
There are three weather stations in and around Jerzu, but the one in question is Jerzu RU, indicated below – note the 48.2C reading on 23rd:
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Google maps place it here:
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And zooming in:
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As can be seen, the equipment is within a few yards of the road. Worse still, the whole compound is overgrown with bush.
Recall what the WMO say about the siting of thermometers:
https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=11612
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Clearly Jerzu fails Class 3 on two counts:
1) Its proximity to the road
2) Vegetation >25cm.
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At best, it can only be classified as Class 4 (out of total of 5 Classes); this means that temperatures could be artificially inflated by as much as 2C because of poor siting.
This obviously precludes any possibility of the “record” Jerzu being officially recognised, or at least it would with any reputable scientific organisation, which the WMO most certainly is not.
But, of course, the fake record claim has already gone round the world, which has always been the objective of our corrupt media.
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It is worth pointing out that there are three other stations listed by the Italian agency. The max temperatures of these were 42.10C, 46.57C and 47.21C. (If you click on the link, and then click on the coloured logo, it brings up the daily table. All of these are well below the 48.2C at Jerzu RU, even though they are only a few miles apart:
There are many hundreds of weather stations like this in countries like Italy – poorly sited, poorly maintained and with no official long term data. Jerzu is a classic example – was there a thermometer there prior to the installation of this automatic one? It seems highly unlikely, as who would have trudged out in the heat to read it every day?
And with this proliferation of stations, there are bound to be some in particularly hot spots, just waiting for a record to be claimed.
For any climatological record temperature to be validated, the site should not only be properly sited and maintained; but there should also be at least 100 years of data, to ensure we are comparing like with like.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
I’d like to think, that like honourable and professional golfers who would never miscount their shots, that there would be equally professional (though not, it seems, honourable) meteorologists who would baulk at publishing questionable temperature readings. Even worse, there are those who would report such dodgy readings without a conscience. Perhaps any professional bodies to which they are affiliated should be prepared to withdraw their support – like Doctors.
‘As Italian expert, Robin Monotti, pointed out immediately, the weather station at Jerzu was not an officially recognised climate station.’
‘There are many hundreds of weather stations like this in countries like Italy’
K. What does a ‘climate station’ measure? Climate is not measurable.
They have used the same ~7° drawing in 1.D.4 for 20° as is used in 1.D.3.
Other than that . . .
Put a match to that roadside vegetation and the 25 cm-veg rule would be taken care of.
This seems to be a different location to the one Ray Sanders identified, which was next to the football pitch and the road past it at a junction on the outskirts of Jerzu itself. Which is correct?
The answer will come out in the fullness of time. Remember this is Italy – a country which one province once claimed EU grants for an area of olive groves that was bigger than the total province area!
The attributions of data to particular sites is is currently being investigated. Easier to claim a record at a site in the middle of nowhere rather than one that can easily be checked by locals. I will make a point of letting everyone know the outcome.
However, as Robin Monotti and Paul point out and is clearly evident, none of these sites meet WMO standards any way and do not represent genuine shade temperatures.
Paul,
The record 47deg C for Palermo was recorded at the historic observatory rooftop weatherstation (records going back to 1791).
The observatory website is very helpful and gives details of the equipment and pictures of set up on the roof. Note the adjacent air conditioning condensers. It is likely the sensor is just measuring the air plume exhaust temperature from the air conditioning condensers. In any event the air conditioning condensers weren’t there in 1791.
The observatory website is very proud of the weather stations WMO centennial designation.
I have tried to communicate with the UK media meteorological professionals but they seem to fall silent when shown how daft they have become.
https://edu.inaf.it/approfondimenti/scoperte/le-stazioni-meteorologiche-dellosservatorio-di-palermo/
I reckon the meteorological establishment will just double down on this and say the records are OK.
Nothing bolsters climate scientist credentials like a record. High. Record lows are ignored.
All involved in certification WANT it to be a record. And that is NOT science.
Ask me how I know. SC state climatologist Hope Mizzell pushed hard for a state record in 2012. The station was no better than this Sardinia site.
Note that in the so called “reality check” on the BBC news website which purports to show that those questioning the temperatures being quoted by the MSM are conspiracy theorists and nutters, that this Sardinian site is totally above board and even supported by the Italian meteorological service.
The current vegetation growth might be different to Google Street view.
Somebody might have cut it all back, likely to have to happen to access the equipment.
Or it might be worse as its summer.
Especially if you have a environmental policy of “no mow May” for roadsides and public spaces.
In our rural idyll this turned into “jungle June” some of the small narrow lanes disappeared!
I found three official sites nearest to Jerzu.
Observations for DECIMOMANNU IT-AFB, Italy (LIED)
Location: 39.35N 8.97E 28 meters
2355Z 23 Jul 2023 to 2355Z 24 Jul 2023
STN TIME ALTM TMP DEW RH DIR SPD VIS CLOUDS Weather
DD/HHMM hPa C C % deg m/s km
==== ======= ====== === === === === === ==== ======= ============
LIED 24/2355 1006.0 28 17 51 110 3 10.0
LIED 24/2255 1007.0 29 19 55 60 1 10.0
LIED 24/2155 1007.0 30 18 49 60 1 10.0
LIED 24/2055 1007.0 31 9 26 60 1 10.0
LIED 24/1955 1007.0 35 15 30 40 1 10.0
LIED 24/1855 1007.0 37 0 10 310 3 10.0
LIED 24/1755 1007.0 40 3 10 240 4 10.0
LIED 24/1555 1008.0 44 6 10 240 6 10.0
LIED 24/1455 1008.0 47 8 10 220 6 10.0
LIED 24/1355 1008.0 47 8 10 220 7 10.0
LIED 24/1255 1009.0 46 7 10 220 5 10.0
LIED 24/1155 1010.0 45 8 11 210 5 10.0
LIED 24/0955 1011.0 42 19 27 140 4 10.0
LIED 24/0855 1011.0 39 20 33 120 4 10.0
LIED 24/0755 1011.0 35 22 47 150 3 10.0
LIED 24/0655 1011.0 29 26 84 100 2 10.0
LIED 24/0555 1011.0 24 23 94 70 1 4.0 FEW004 FG
LIED 24/0455 1011.0 23 22 94 310 3 7.0 FEW002 FG
LIED 24/0355 1012.0 24 23 94 360 1 0.1 BKN001 FG
LIED 24/0255 1012.0 24 23 94 10 1 7.0 SCT010
LIED 24/0155 1013.0 26 25 94 20 1 10.0
LIED 23/2355 1013.0 27 26 94 110 3 10.0
This Italian Air Force Base at Decimomannu (ICAO – LIED) showed 2 hourly readings of 47 Deg C at 1355Z and 1455Z, so inconceivable a 48.2 Deg C was achieved.
I see this is the right station. I think that the streetview is slightly misleading. The site appears to be in the corner of a vineyard field.
https://goo.gl/maps/kN1QrXkN8EbozbXi6
There is a slight embankment down to the road, with seasonal vegetation. The hedge to the South appears to be in a ditch with olive trees beyond at a lower level. The road is about 13m from the Stevenson screen. The old screen (visible in 2010 streetview) was marginally less well sited, though this would perhaps have done better being toward the NE corner of the enclosure, which appears to be grassed although the field is bare earth in between the vineyard rows..
Re Rhodes fires ….. confirmation that these are exacerbated by regulations that prevent people from clearing brush and the government doing any forest maintenance
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/29/greece-rhodes-wildfires-residents-blame-tree-chopping-rules/
so pretty much the same causation/contribution as has been proven in Australia and USA –
https://news.sky.com/story/majority-in-fires-in-greece-were-started-by-human-hand-official-says-12929728
Arson in the main.
However note how they still twist themselves in knots trying to blame “Climate Change”
a brilliant new Bob Moran cartoon that summarises what we all think of the BBC’s views of global warming
https://preview.redd.it/jfrglfi5czeb1.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=5f2a375bb397126590a8919c8ffc9ea39c0576c5
see here for more about Bob https://twitter.com/bobscartoons
Whenever there are record temperatures in an area the highest one is going to be a station which for some reason is inclined to give higher readings than others around – it could be vegetation, airport or just a slightly miscalibrated thermometer. So the sceptical community is almost always going to find that the record was at a station which is less than perfect. The deeper question is were temperatures as a whole for that area higher than they have been before.
“The deeper question…”
Still – not much deeper.
There is a folk-tale about Truth and Falsehood. Falsehood blinds and cripples Truth, and leaves it in the wilderness. While there, spirits give to Truth magical food and water which restore his sight and his vigour. When Truth later confronts Falsehood again he discovers that Falsehood is now weak and starving. From compassion, he gives to Falsehood a little of the nourishment that revived Truth. But it kills Falsehood.
A pretty tale, but modern Falsehood seems very fat and hearty inded.
No, only when such records are substantially higher than surrounding readings.
In real science, outliers that are significantly different from the bulk of the data are examined to see if there are reasons why they should be discarded. Because science is sceptical a d only fools base general observations on single extraordinary data points.
I don’t understand – what happens “only when such records are substantially higher than the surrounding readings”?
A lot of effort has gone into producing the ‘evidence’ against recognising the record temperature, and it was interesting to try and come to an unbiased conclusion.
The first evidence was the distance from the road. Rather then being ‘within a few yards of the road’, the temperature recorder appears to be a good 10m from the road, and hence is acceptable as a class 3 site.
The second evidence regarding ground cover I find not proven. Certainly the vegetation surrounding the site is scrub, but there is no evidence for the ground cover within the fenced perimeter of the site. I would doubt whether there is high scrub within the perimeter, but on the other hand one cannot know if the area is within the 25cm. height limit.
The WMO suggest this limit as it can affect the measured temperatures. However, this works in both directions. Not as suggested that it would only inflate the temperature. My experience is that longer grass cover would have more of a cooling effect than a warming one.
Here are a few of the measurement I took using an I/R gun on a July day last year, with air temperatures of 28C and sunny periods: values in degrees C.
Poor grass 40
long grass 35
lush grass 30
shaded grass 26
bare soil 55
In other words, the more dense the ground cover, the lower the emitted temperature. If the Jerzu site was regularly trimmed, then the tendency would be towards bare ground during the summer months without rainfall.
I also took a look at the neighbouring sites for the day before and after. Temperatures were considerably lower, but what stands out is that one of the sites (Jerzu C RA.), was actually hotter than the one we are doubting (Jerzu RU) for the day before. I would call that typical, as each site has its own characteristics, as well as questioning the supposition that our questioned site has problems with over-estimating the local temperatures.
What are you trying to prove? That a single site measuring a temperature in an area less that 1m2 proves global warming? Or that a single site at a single moment is pretty much utterly irrelevant to any attempt to measure long term global trends?
I mentioned nothing about global warming, or long term trends. So why do you mention them? My post was simply to show that the arguments that Paul used are false. It amazes me that someone who is normally a stickler for detail provided such a cr*p argument.
It doesn’t meet the Sagan standard, Mr Weldon.
As the record has not as yet been assessed, how do you know? If it does not, then it certainly will not be because it is too close to the road. For the ground cover we will have to wait and see. And for the temperature recorder to be checked, etc.
Who knows?
Not familiar with the Sagan standard? You could have looked it up before your non sequitur reply.
You make assumptions that are not correct. Try taking a look yourself at the definition:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagan_standard
Our disagreement would appear to hinge on the interpretation, which as you can now see is very varied.
My interpretation is more in line with the null hypothesis, which is why this blog is so addictive. However, as the definition suggests, one needs to think critically, and that defines the comments I made in my original post.
Being critical does not include making false statements, and that is why I have criticised Paul’s post. We know that the media and politicians are not capable of keeping to the facts, but I had hoped that this site would not copy their bias.
The other point worth mentioning about the Sagan standard is the
definition of ‘extraordinary claims’. I would consider our case of possible record temperature does not fit into this category: it was certainly an unusual event, but entirely natural. Analogy to a tsunami – an unusual but natural event but not (in my opinion) subject to the ‘Sagan standard’.
The problem isn’t the site, it’s the claim. One momentary temperature at one single site doesn’t give “Europe its hottest day on record.” It gives a small area a possible record. If you homogenised or averaged temperatures across Europe on that day, I very much doubt if it was a record. Lots of places were very far from average, let alone record temperatures.
I was only referring to the site, and glad you agree with me.
Going back to the turn of the milleneum I was regularly commuting between my old home in Bavaria and new one in Latvia. When one area had good weather, the other was always bad. So I am aware of the way Europe gets divided between warm and cool areas. Like the UK, we have also had temperatures at or below average, so far this spring/summer.
coincidentally, we had an incident with the weather a couple of weeks back in many ways similar to what I guess happened in the med. Temperatures rose 5C during the period of about an hour, only to fall back within another hour as the area of warm air moved through. Whereas our temperature recorder registers changes every few minutes, I wonder how our old mercury thermometer would have registered such a short term fluctuation?
Meanwhile, totally ignored by the lying legacy media, is the record setting cold in parts of Russia and the recent snowfall in the Alps. No, Alpine snow is not unknown in July, but if what we are told is true, surely it should not be happening?
Off topic. The British Geological Survey produces some great vids, one of which was ‘suggested’. The link below is from a 2020 BGS entitled, ‘Lithium Pegmatites – an African story’. While it’s well worth watching in full, the first eight minutes are, err what is this ‘World Bank Group’ ?
There is one positive comment about Italy. It has one of the largest number of signatories to the Clintel “World Climate Declaration.” I have hopes of them having an impact on Italy and if so it will have a wider impact (i.e. on neighbours).
Location of the thermometer is indeed of the utmost importance. Also for minimum temperatures.
In the Netherlands, there is a group of people who call themselves the “vrieskoujagers”. In English “freezing cold hunters”. In summer, they tried to measure freezing temperatures outside. Dutch summers have an average temperature of about 18C. Average min. temperature is about 13C. Freezing temperatures in summer have never been recorded by official weather stations.
However, by placing the thermometers at well selected places (dunes) when the weather conditions are right (no wind, no clouds, …), they measured -0.5C last year summer.
https://www.weer.nl/nieuws/2022/vrieskoujagers-hebben-beet-vorst-in-de-duinpannen-tijdens-de-hondsdagen
(sorry, in Dutch)
Of course, no MSM picked it up and no one was crying “ice age cometh soon”.
The temperature measuremnet at Jerzu RU was 48.2°C
at the same time Jerzu C.Ra Genne Cresia had only 46.6°C.
With this Paul Homewood triggers doubts about the Jerzu RU measuremnets.
With a laps rate of approx. 1K / 100m the 46.6 °C at 297m above sea level is supporting the jerzu rU reading of 48.2°C at 47m a.s.l.
Not the siting of agricultural meteo station Jerzu RU is poor. The arguments and sloppy examination of the google street view pics by Paul Homewood are poor.