Photo by Kyle Walton

You can blame the Gipper for many things, and we’ll include this on the list: he’s screwing with D.C.’s weather measurements. OK, so it’s not Ronald Reagan’s fault per se, but rather the fact that D.C.’s official weather station is located on the grounds of the airport in Arlington that bears his name.

For decades various meteorologists have argued that measuring temperatures and snowfall at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport produces skewed results, since some of the area’s highest temperatures and lowest snowfall accumulations tend to happen there. Yesterday the Capital Weather Gang discussed the issue:

Robert Leffler, a retired climatologist for the National Weather Service (NWS) and co-author of the 1981 journal article “Unrepresentative Temperatures at a First Order Meteorological Station: Washington National Airport,” has long tried to build the case for identifying a different observing site.

“[DCA temperatures] are unrepresentative of where most of your readers and the TV listening audience live, work, play, and grow their food. ” he wrote to me in an email.

He added: “How many readers live within 100 feet of the Potomac River on airport runways at sea level? None I know of.”

Leffler pointed out a number of recent days during which DCA’s temperatures were higher than 48 published NWS observing sites in the region. As one example he noted, on July 28 DCA had a high of 97 and a low of 72, whereas the 48 other sites averaged together (from eastern West Virginia to southern Maryland) had a high of 88 and low of 64.

All told, the airport’s location at a low elevation along the Potomac River—not to mention surrounded by heat-trapping asphalt—means that temperatures and snowfall may not be reflective of the rest of the area.

The National Weather Service defends the site, though, and adds that choosing another location for a weather station could be problematic for historic reasons—the Reagan station has been there for 70 years, allowing for historical weather comparisons. Move the station, lose the ability to compare weather patterns.

Still, the Capital Weather Gang posted a poll for a new location for a D.C. weather station, and currently the Naval Observatory is leading with 36 percent of the votes, followed by the National Mall. Keeping the station at DCA ranks third, though.