Sedona Station Reporting

[Jim]

After quite a while, the Sedona Airport is once again being used to report Sedona weather. For years now they used Flagstaff, and it never made much sense given the elevation difference. No more!
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... it=0&lg=en

[big_load]

That explains a few things.

[chumley]

Yeah, but now they use Sedona as the reporting station for places along the Mogollon Rim too. Used to be that up on top of the rim used Flagstaff, which is a reasonable station (for temps anyway). Now Payson is also using Sedona, which is certainly better than Scottsdale, which it used to use.

Its strange really, there are many dozens of reporting stations across the state. I don't know why only a few are "official". St. Johns being used for much of the White Mountains is another mystery.

[big_load]

Now Payson is also using Sedona

I didn't know that, either. That explains a few more things.

[chumley]

Its important to note exactly what is meant by "Payson is using Sedona" etc.

There are "official" National Weather Service reporting stations that are used to report "current" readings. Most weather websites link to those official locations regardless of where you click. If you use weather.com, intellicast, cnn.com/weather, etc. and select Payson or type in Payson's zip code, the weather statistics shown (and future forecast) would actually be for Scottsdale Airport. Now that has changed to Sedona. Either way, its NOT for Payson.

Some sites will have a disclaimer in super-tiny writing that says something like "as observed at Scottsdale, AZ", but some don't. USAToday's weather page is one which actually says "observed at ... " but interestingly enough, (despite getting its data from weather.com) it still isn't using Sedona as its source for Payson!

But when you select the "Point Forecast" from the NWS website (or the weather feature on a HAZ map), the forecast is actually for that specific point, and is relatively accurate as it utilizes elevation and location data. There are some other weather sites that use unofficial weather stations for current data that may have more accurate information. But most of the big ones use the official stations.

[Jim]

I don't know how they delineate the reporting stations for geographic areas, and it often doesn't make sense. For a while Winslow was being used for Payson, they are a similar elevation at least, but they have very different weather. If nothing else, it is nice to be able to see how warm it is at the airport in Sedona, since the only other station in the area was Oak Creek.