1995      paper by    Warwick S. Hughes,  Comment on D.E. Parker, "Effects of Changing Exposure of   Thermometers at Land Stations." International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 15,  pp. 231-234.

Background to this paper from 1991-92.


In 1991 when I began to research Australian long term temperature data,  the warmth of the late 19C was very obvious. 












This was in great contrast to city trends, more information and some setting re these two graphics is at http://www.warwickhughes.com/cru86/
Scroll down to, 
[2]  Tasman Institute 1991 review of the Australian component of temperature records used in the 1986 Jones et al Southern Hemisphere paper

Research into the history of the use of the Stevenson Screen in Australia
In 1991-92 when I asked Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) people about the late 19C warmth, I was told that this was due to older style open thermometer stands  being used before the BoM took over weather recording for the Commonwealth in 1907 (now they say the BoM was formed in 1908), when the Stevenson Screen was introduced across Australia.
This lead me in 1991 to researching in the BoM library to see what documentary evidence there was for this and I was unable to confirm the BoM version of history.   I did find some proceedings of late 19C Intercolonial Conferences held in 1879, 1881 and 1888.  It was clear that the scientists running the meteorological observatories for the various Colonies (that now make up Australia),  were all aware of the Stevenson Screen and there was much evidence of its use, or the use of a similar local variant.  I wrote a draft report - "The Introduction of the Stevenson Screen, and phasing out of Open Thermometer Stands, in Australian Meteorology" - summarising evidence from the Intercolonial Conferences proceedings and circulated it to the BoM.    I can not locate that draft report now but I have  the BoM reply 25 May 1992. 
I also circulated my draft to an independent expert at the University of Melbourne, Professor R. W. Home, Professor of  History & Philosphy of Science.  I was aware that Professor Home had referred to the Intercolonial Conferences in a publication and by  good luck a letter from him has survived in my "files".   In 1992  I put my draft to one side knowing there was no possibility of publishing against BoM opposition. 
Early in 1994 I noticed the landmark global paper summing up the state of knowledge re thermometer exposures, 1994 D.E. Parker, "Effects of Changing Exposure of   Thermometers at Land Stations.   " International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 14,  pp. 1-31.   After reading this I thought that the section dealing with Australia could do with expanding in view of the several references in the Proceedings of the  Intercolonial Conferences.  This lead to my 4 page Comment in the International Journal of Climatology ref'd at the top of this page pdf linked below, which was based on my now lost 1992 draft report.  Now the pdf is linked below - the scanned pages are redundant.

1995      paper by    Warwick S. Hughes,  Comment on D.E. Parker, "Effects of Changing Exposure of   Thermometers at Land Stations." International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 15,  pp. 231-234.  Four scanned pages ~100Kb each

Page 231	Comments by WSH
page 232
page 233
page 234
Reply by D.E. Parker.  He says that, "Precise information about individual station's histories is nonetheless, more useful than circumstantial  evidence, such as that gleaned by Hughes..."	DEP's reply creates the impression that  useful information re station histories exists.  The reality is that this is seldom the case, particularly for century old records that are at issue.  See the Gabo Island document below.
Gabo Island  entry in the Victorian Regional Office Instrument Register, sent to me by the BoM  ~1992 as an example of documentation supporting their view.   To see the notation re Stevenson Screen look for my SS annotation on the left, then look across to the right.   Text detail Gabo Is is offshore in far eastern  Victoria, just south of Cape Howe.	Note that this "register" of a few meager lines of script covers a timespan of ~90 years and for a start there are no entries between 1859 and the 1890's.  It is not clear if the entry Stevenson Screen (SS) July 1901 refers to a replacement or a new SS.  If this is the best documentation the BoM could offer, then there is indeed very little to be gleaned from station histories about changes in century old thermometer enclosures.  Which is a view I formed in 1991-92 while searching in the BoM library.
1996   Nicholls, N., R. Tapp, K. Burrows, and D. Richards.  Historical thermometer exposures in Australia. Int. J. Climatology, 16, 705-710.
A pdf of the above can be downloaded	BoM swatting me down. But note on page 709 they conclude - Over the year, the mean temperatures were about 0.2 degrees C warmer in the Glaisher stand, relative to the Stevenson screen.  - So it would seem that any questionable pre-1910 Australian data could be used after all in "global warming" studies, with this minor adjustment.  I could be happy with that.
1997    Warwick S. Hughes.   Comment on, "Historical Thermometer Exposures in Australia." by N. Nichols et al.    International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 17,  pp. 197-199.
A pdf of the above can be downloaded	I look at the data from the long running (61 yrs) Adelaide Stevenson Screen - Glaisher Stand comparison and find flaws.

Note added Jan 2013 - In the early and mid 1990's I searched high and low for century old  photographs of weather instrument sites and only found the 1890 photo from Darwin included in my 1995 paper.  All of the above took place well over a decade ago but since 2000 many collections of old photographs are being made available online from various State and Commonwealth archives and libraries.
Some of these photographs I have grouped together at my blog page - Late 19th Century photographic evidence of the Stevenson Screen in Australian meteorology -
Hopefully more 19th Century photographs will emerge from collections into online archives in the future.