Clear skies and fair weather on course for today. The forecasted high temperature for Las Cruces is 64F with westerly winds 11 mph today. A low wind PM event occurred tonight at the SPCY station with peak hourly PM2.5 reaching 30 µg/m3 at 8 pm.
The AQI forecast shows moderate air quality over Dona Ana county due to ozone. An AQI of 52 is expected in this region. As of 1 pm ozone concentrations are 40 ppb in SPCY and 42 ppb in Las Cruces and not enough to trigger moderate levels at the one hour averaging period.
The low temperatures in Alaska are still amazing me. I mentioned the Jim River DOT station (JMTA2) near Prospect Creek, Alaska. The low temperature dipped to -79F before the station stopped communicating on Saturday. The dewpoint temperature reported by the station was -91.6F (38% RH) at the time. Since the trend at the time of the failure was going down in temperature, folks are wondering if the US record low temperature was broken at this station on Saturday. Recall that the current record of -80F was taken near this station back in 1971. I'm curious on how accurate the sensors are for these kind of extreme temperatures. The following two photos were taken by Dr. Uma Bhatt at the University of AK in Fairbanks showing the ice fog that blankets the area.
This afternoon the Fairbanks NWS forecast office has posted that the Jim River DOT station should not be considered for any records since the sensors are not rated for such low temperatures. The statement is given below.
NOAK49 PAFG 302352 PNSAFG AKZ219-222-311200- PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FAIRBANKS AK 252 PM AKST MON JAN 30 2012 ...CLARIFICATION OF TEMPERATURES FROM JIM RIVER DOT CAMP... TEMPERATURES THIS PAST WEEKEND AT THE ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION JIM RIVER MAINTENANCE CAMP AT MILE 138 DALTON HIGHWAY...STATION JMTA2...HAVE BEEN REPORTED AS LOW AS 79 BELOW. THE TEMPERATURES ARE NOT CORRECT. THE WEATHER STATION IN USE AT THE JIM RIVER DOT CAMP IS A PERSONAL WEATHER STATION THAT IS NOT RATED FOR TEMPERATURE COLDER THAN 40 BELOW. THE UNREALISTICALLY LOW TEMPERATURES ARE BELIEVED TO BE A FUNCTION OF THE BATTERY FAILING AT VERY LOW TEMPERATURES. THERE ARE NO OFFICIAL...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STANDARD... TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS AT JIM RIVER DOT CAMP. $$ RT/JL JAN 12
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