Public Information Statement
Answering a couple of questions I'm often asked...
(Statement
issued by Keno at 6:10 am on Nov 1, 2019)
Please let me answer another 2 questions that I've been asked a few times in the past. First: Why when the temperature hits zero degrees, it is sometimes shown in the record books as just "0" and other times as "-0"?
The answer is actually a simple one, the record books round off the temperature to a whole number, while the NWS keeps counts on how many times a year any one area may drop below zero. A reading of +0.1 to +0.4°, gets rounded off to "0" degrees in the record books, while readings of -0.1 to -0.4° also get rounded off to the same zero degree reading, other than in this case shows up as "-0°" in the records, showing that the temp actually did fall below zero on that day (barely). Yesterday here in town, it didn't, as the actual low reading on the official NWS thermometer was +0.4 degrees, so officially we didn't go below zero last night, at least not here in Chalet 1, where our station is located, although at least 2 other readings around town did see slightly colder below zero readings than here, and that is of course a normal occurrence.
Do note that a plus sign before any readings above zero are not show in the record books, while a negative sign always is, since most temps recorded year-round are always above zero. Now if the U.S. recorded and displayed the temperatures going by the Celsius/centigrade scale, that won't be the case at all, as below zero temps recorded using this scale are common in the winter months for most northern U.S. areas, as 32 degrees Fahrenheit, is the same as zero degrees on the Celsius scale, and anything below that is shown as being below zero with the negative sign.
Another question asked often is" Is it Celsius or centigrade? It's officially "Celsius" today, but at first was called "centigrade" years ago. The scale used for this format, is based on 0° for the freezing point of water and 100° for the boiling point of water. Invented in 1742 by the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius, it was named the "centigrade scale" because of the 100-degree interval between the defined points. However, it became "Celsius" in 1948 because centigrade, meaning 100 degrees, also was a unit of measurement in the French and Spanish languages. So the scale was renamed "Celsius", after Swedish astronomer who invented the centigrade scale, and had named it the "centigrade scale".
Hope that helped!
Snowfall Probabilities
(from the NWS)
Drought Conditions continue to be severe for the greater Crestone area
