Class
Article
College
College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Department
Plants, Soils, and Climate Department
Faculty Mentor
Lawrence Hipps
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
The Utah Climate Center has contributed to the Cooperative Observer Program associated with the National Weather Service since 1893. This consistent 130-year climate record of precipitation and temperature is important for studying the changing climate in Logan as well as contributing to a national network of weather data used to verify weather forecasting models. The COOP station is currently located to the Northeast of the Nutrition and Food Science building on USU’s campus. In recent years, there has been concern of bias in the data due to the proximity of the station to highly impervious surfaces including campus buildings, parking lots and gravel. For this reason, a new location was proposed for the USU COOP station at the Logan Country Club Golf Course. In order to move such a station and maintain the continuity of the climate record, an analysis must be conducted to document the spatial differences of weather variables. The change of urbanization between the two sites from 1985 to 2022 is also documented by Landsat surface temperature records. The results of this study show a minimal bias of warmer maximum temperatures at USU and greater spatial variability in the minimum temperatures, precipitation, and urbanization.
Location
Logan, UT
Start Date
4-12-2023 11:30 AM
End Date
4-12-2023 12:30 PM
Included in
Microclimate Variability Between COOP Weather Station and Proposed Site for Relocation
Logan, UT
The Utah Climate Center has contributed to the Cooperative Observer Program associated with the National Weather Service since 1893. This consistent 130-year climate record of precipitation and temperature is important for studying the changing climate in Logan as well as contributing to a national network of weather data used to verify weather forecasting models. The COOP station is currently located to the Northeast of the Nutrition and Food Science building on USU’s campus. In recent years, there has been concern of bias in the data due to the proximity of the station to highly impervious surfaces including campus buildings, parking lots and gravel. For this reason, a new location was proposed for the USU COOP station at the Logan Country Club Golf Course. In order to move such a station and maintain the continuity of the climate record, an analysis must be conducted to document the spatial differences of weather variables. The change of urbanization between the two sites from 1985 to 2022 is also documented by Landsat surface temperature records. The results of this study show a minimal bias of warmer maximum temperatures at USU and greater spatial variability in the minimum temperatures, precipitation, and urbanization.