A “USCRN” weather station was established near Stovepipe Wells, California, in Death Valley in May, 2004. USCRN stands for “United States Climate Reference Network,” and Stovepipe Wells 1SW is one of 114 USCRN stations in the contiguous states. These automatic stations were established in large part to provide a more stable climate record for the United States. Most long-term weather stations (cooperative weather stations, airport stations, etc.) are located in towns and cities and places where nearby (unnatural) changes often have an influence on temperature, humidity, wind and precipitation. The USCRN stations are generally sited where little or no development and changes in the landscape are expected in the near and distant future. This allows climatologists to have higher confidence that any long-term trends in USCRN data are not contaminated or affected by human activity.
Of course, the long-lived weather stations at Greenland Ranch/Furnace Creek (1911-1961) and Death Valley/Furnace Creek (1961-present) have not been issue-free with regard to changes around the instrumentation, and its long-term temperature record is disjointed for some periods. This USCRN station near Stovepipe Wells is about 25 miles from Furnace Creek, and will work well for comparison purposes to the official Death Valley NWS/NPS station.
The first link provided above includes a nice photo of the Stovepipe Wells 1SW station. Below are my images from August 1, 2022:
There are two primary parts of the Stovepipe Wells station. There is the gray metal apparatus with the three white shields for the three separate temperature sensors. There is an anemometer very close to these shields. Perhaps 15 paces from the temperature and wind instrumentation is the little corral which surrounds two automatic rain gages. The double fence is in place to help reduce the wind flow across the rain gages (which helps to promote higher and more-accurate precipitation amounts). The wood fences might also be in place (in part) to protect the rain gages from animals and humans. Part of the fence was banged up a bit on the day of my visit. One of the automatic gages is surrounded by a conventional metal wind screen. This link has more info on such windscreens.
Note that the station is above a very barren, gravel surface, with plenty of medium-sized rocks around. This is typical ground cover for an alluvial fan in Death Valley. Though the station is pretty much due south of the Stovepipe Wells village, its official station name is “Stovepipe Wells 1SW.” The low-rise motel and lodging buildings for Stovepipe Wells village are about 1000 feet to the north of the weather station.
In the zoomed-in images, the round “wind fence” for the rain gages is easily seen. The temperature and wind instrumentation (and the solar panel) are about 40-50 feet northeast of the rain gage area. There are some pathetic-looking bushes not too far south of the station. The general exposure to the elements is excellent at this site.
The station, at +80 feet elevation, is near the north end of the alluvial fan which emanates from Mosaic Canyon. The land slopes downward somewhat gently (northward) towards Stovepipe Wells village, which has an elevation of about +5 feet. Since it is situated about 100 feet above the sandy basin bottom to its north, the station is not one to be affected by strong nighttime surface inversions. (The area near and just north of Stovepipe Wells is presumably cooler on many nights due to terrain and surface-based radiation inversions.) The gravel and rocks around the station are slow to cool at night, and help to keep low-levels very warm well after sunset. This is very typical for much of the Death Valley region during the high-sun months. Stovepipe Wells 1 SW has no nearby vegetation or water sources which might aid in some evaporational cooling. Its excellent exposure and ventilation ensures that its summer afternoon temperature measurements are never artificially enhanced or boosted a little, as is the case at the official station at Furnace Creek. It is also important to note that the Stovepipe Wells radiation shields are aspirated, again ensuring the best ambient air temperature measurements for the site.
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