Tag: Thermometer

I Love You. I Hate Your Thermometer

It’s not that I mind getting the home observations. It’s that I don’t want to disappoint you but saying you’re wrong.

We hit 103&#176 at Hartford, Windsor Locks (Bradley Airport) and Bridgeport on Friday. That’s a crazy number. It ties the all time Bridgeport record while breaking the record at Windsor Locks.

103&#176 should be enough to keep everyone happy. It is not!

Any day of extremes finds me inundated with extra extreme readings from viewers!

One Facebook friend posted her 110&#176 from a beachside town near New Haven. I’m guessing she read 12-15 degrees hotter than the actual temperature at the time.

I don’t mean to pick on that one person. Like I said, “inundated.”

She wasn’t exaggerating. That’s what her thermometer said. It was wrong!

This becomes a real problem because the last thing I want to do is diss people. On the other hand my info has got to be reasonably accurate to be useful.

On TV we show “air temperature.” That means the thermometer has to be affected only by air and not its surroundings. “Official” readings are taken away from buildings and over grassy surfaces. The thermometer is in a white louvered housing so sunlight is reflected away and ambient air passes through.

It’s not that I mind getting the home observations. It’s that I don’t want to disappoint you by saying you’re wrong.

How Can It Get Colder Than Zero?

The problem is people regularly think 20&#176F is twice as warm as 10&#176F! Everything we’re taught about math says it should be, but it’s not.

When I went to sleep last night it was 4&#176. We ended up bottoming out at around -4&#176. It was extremely cold, though the numbers are misleading or at least overstate the case.

Sit down. I hate to tell you this. There’s really little scientific significance to 0&#176 Fahrenheit! It was just a very cold temperature which could be produced reasonably consistently with the tools available 400 years ago. It is not where temperature stops!

From Wikipedia: According to an article Fahrenheit wrote in 1724, he based his scale on two reference points of temperature. The zero point is determined by placing the thermometer in brine: he used a mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride, a salt. This is a frigorific mixture which automatically stabilizes its temperature at 0 °F.

The second point, 100 degrees, was the level of the liquid in the thermometer when held in the mouth or under the armpit of his wife.

The problem is people regularly think 20&#176F is twice as warm as 10&#176F! Everything we’re taught about math says it should be, but it’s not.

There is an absolute point where the downward scale of temperature stops. It’s called “absolute zero” and it corresponds to -459.67&#176 Fahrenheit, -273.15&#176 Centigrade or 0&#176 Kelvin. At that temperature all molecular motion ceases!

Absolute zero doesn’t naturally exist though scientists have managed to approach it. They’ve never reached it. It’s possible they never will.

Last night we weren’t even close!