On July 19, 2011, the sensor at the Moorhead Municipal airport was reporting a dew point of 88 degrees.  Many of us in the weather community did not give much credence to the reading as that sensor gives calculated dew point temperatures three to five degrees higher than Hector Int’l no matter the time of year (and it still does, no matter what the vegetation type if any, time of day, month or season).

That day out of curiosity, I drove to the Moorhead airport, took a reading using an old fashioned sling psychrometer, which was used for years to measure relative humidity and dew point based on the cooling of a thermometer by evaporative cooling.  I came up with an 83 degree reading on two tests, which was what the Fargo airport was reporting.  Yet, in the end that 88 degree reading, which surprised many of us, was used as a new state record for Minnesota.

I put that record in this context; although Roger Maris’ record of 61 homers in a season has technically been broken, it was done so by questionable means.  I think Roger Maris holds the true record and a humidity sensor that reads high consistently, in all seasons, perhaps should have as asterisk next to its record