Gene,
welcome to my world. I chase these kind of problems for a living.
I will assure you, the complexity factor is a way way more higher, orders of magnitude higher.
like it works perfectly in the lab but not in the airplane. WTF???
or won't work in the afternoon.
or take an 20 port ethernet switch everything work fine except when a particular computer is plugged into port 8 but it works in all of the other ports and everything else works in all of the other ports.
turns out it was the computer grounds... and a design bug.
a cascade of bad decisions and an AC outlet of 80VAC.

 

Outside the now decommissioned Naval Air Station Adak Alaska aviation weather station, there was a rock on a chain suspended from a wooden tripod. It was the weather rock. It had a sign for deciphering the weather:

Examples of the instructions commonly provided for "reading" a weather rock include:

• If the rock is wet, it's raining.
• If the rock is swinging, the wind is blowing.
• If the rock casts a shadow, the sun is shining.
• If the rock does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy.
• If the rock is difficult to see, it is foggy.
• If the rock is white, it is snowing.
• If the rock is coated with ice, there is a frost.
• If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost.
• If the rock is bouncing, there is an earthquake.
• If the rock is under water, there is a flood.
• If the rock is warm, it is sunny.
• If the rock is missing, there was a tornado.
• If the rock is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane.
• If the rock can be felt but not seen, it is night time.
• If the rock has white splats on it, there is bird activity near the airport.
• If there are two rocks, stop drinking, you are drunk.

"Please do not disturb the weather rock, it is a finely tuned instrument!"


The sign on the building used to say

"U.S. Naval Station. Adak Alaska"
"Birthplace of the winds" but the winds tore part of the sign off!

 

I always wondered why there is such a distinct "tree line." Whether it's elevation or latitude?

 

Both actually. As latitude changes, the high and lows do too, generally speaking. As altitude increases, so does oxygen, colder temperatures and in the case of orographic lifting (wind pushing and rising against a geologic mass) you get less moisture until the trees become stunted and cannot exist in any real way.

The Aleutians (Adak) are unusual because of the Japanese current brings warmer water up north and swings it by Alaska itself. This significantly energizes the eco system teaming with life and generates frequent weather changes. Frequent weather changes can be 3-5 frontal passages in only one day. The swings in weather are notorious for pilots. You can go from sunny to zero/zero to windy to sunny again all within hours. You can never have enough standby fuel!