Update: Urban Heat Island/Surface Temperature Student Research Campaign

Hi All,

We are well into the Urban Heat Island/Surface Temperature Student Research Campaign. Data are coming into the GLOBE website from schools from around the world. To date there have been 43 schools that have uploaded data to the GLOBE website. As I am writing this, there are a total of 596 surface temperature observations taken and entered on the website from December 1 to December 14, 2016. That’s a whole lot of data.

The most observations have come in from Rick Sharpe’s students at Huntington High School in West Virginia with a total of 202. Kim Clark’s students from John Marshall High School, also in West Virginia have added another 23 so that West Virginia has a lot of data. Most schools have not seen snow however Crestwood High School measured 150 mm of snow on December 13. Interestingly, most schools in the area of their school were closed on that day due to snow. Mrs. Johhs, was your school closed that day?

Potential Error in Time

I’ve noticed on a lot of the observations that the time does not look feasible. I doubt students were out taking observations at night. Please make sure that you students check “local time” if they are truly using local time.

Another error that may be creeping in is that students may be rounding their observations. Please be sure to include one decimal place in your infrared instrument measurements.

** Webinar Wednesday **

Join us at the next webinar Wednesday, December 14, at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time. https://zoom.us/j/4197048033

Susan James from the Mohican School In The Out-of-Doors will talk about student projects that she has worked with and Jennifer Bourgeault (US Country Coordinator) will talk about research symposium at which students can present their research.

Schools that have participated so far (I put the country the schools are in and the state for the schools in the United States):

Alder Creek Community Forest, Oregon - 1

Al-Fahd Secondary School at Rejal Alma'a, Saudi Arabia - 4

Al Fisaliah Gifted School at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - 10

Ashura Secondary School at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - 8

As-Siddiq Secondary School at  Rejal Alma'a, Saudi Arabia – 12

Brazil Secondary School, Trinidad and Tobago - 3

Chartiers-Houston Jr./Sr. High School, Pennsylvania -4

Chia-Yi Girls Senior High School, Taiwan - 9

Clay High School, Ohio -3

Crestwood High School, Michigan -9

Cumberland Christian Academy, Georgia - 6

Deer Valley Elementary, Alabama - 1

Houjia Junior High School, Taiwan – 12

Huntington High School, West Virginia – 202

Ida Middle School, Michigan - 3

IES Eusebio Barreto, Spain - 12

John Marshall High School, West Virginia -23

Kg/ Tholangamuwa CC, Sri Lanka - 7

Lake High School, Ohio - 12

Lakewood Catholic Academy, Ohio -55

Main Street Intermediate School, Ohio – 20

McTigue Middle School, Ohio – 5

Moamar Bin Rashed Intermediate School, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - 2

Mohican School In The Out-of-Doors, Inc., Ohio - 8

Monroe Middle School, Michigan-1

Mountain View School, New Jersey – 1

Navarre Elementary School, Ohio – 21

New Taipei Municipal Jin-Shan High School, Taiwan – 5

III. osnovna skola Varazdin, Croatia – 4

OŠ Ivana Filipovića, Croatia – 4

OS Zadarski otoci, Croatia - 4

Peace Schools Network, Japan - 5

Rochester School, Colombia - 2

Roswell Kent Middle School, Ohio - 10

Rutgers Preparatory School, New Jersey -7

Sekundarschule, Uzwil, Switzerland - 4

Shumate Middle School, Michigan - 12

South Umpqua School District, Oregon – 4

T.F. Riggs High School, South Dakota - 1

The University Of Toledo, Ohio - 6

Thomas Edison Energy/Smart Charter School, New Jersey - 1

Wyomissing Area Jr./Sr. High School, Pennsylvania -1

Yamama Secondary School, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - 1

Here is a map of the schools.

Here is data from the OS Ivana Filipovica School in Croatia. The temperature there has been cool but hasn't changed a lot.

It is getting really cold in the central and eastern United States. The cold air is actually coming from Siberia over the North Pole. It is a cold high pressure system that formed over the snow cover there. The snow came early.