The motorist subsequently confessed to taking the photograph five days afterwards, doing so as the addition of more demerit points to his record would have led to his license being revoked. He was later fined and convicted of perjury. Sometimes the forensic climatologist is challenged for testifying for, and reporting on, weather conditions that were in actuality recorded by a third party. Forensic climatologists do not commonly give first-person testimony. This ensures that standard measuring practices and quality control procedures have been undertaken to account for instrument and observer errors or deficiencies.
Problems can still arise, however.
The National Weather Service in the U.S. retained a fireman to record temperatures in Bullhead City, Arizona. Nobody wants to suffer from extreme heat on a daily basis, especially in Arizona, a state popular for retirement with elderly people who are more prone to suffer from heat stroke. An investigation later showed that temperatures were improperly recorded by the fireman. Apparently, he placed the thermometer over barren ground instead of a standard and more representative grass surface. The hotter temperatures were attributable to the fact that dry soil gains and loses heats more quickly than a vegetated surface.