knocker

0700 UTC Not a bad morning with 7/8 Ci. NW 9kts 12.4 1013 rising Min 12.1 rain 00-06 11mm

Brains can of course be very dangerous if they choose to saunter down the wrong path. Edward Teller and Lowell Wood (Dr Evil) spring to mind. It is occasionally interesting to pop back 60 years or so and see how exceptionally brainy people considered the best approach to global problems. In 1954 the eminent geoscientist Harrison Brown wrote a book, in which he proposed solving world hungerby increasing the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere to stimulate plant growth.Brown suggested the construction of 'huge carbon-dioxide generators pouring gas into the atmosphere', and calculated that doubling the amount in the atmosphere would require the burning of at least 500 billion tonnes of coal. Brown's book was endorsed by Albert Einstein. Just as well that wasn’t implemented or we may have been sitting in the UK with the central heating going full blast. Curiously, it was one of Brown's students, Charles David Keeling, who a decade later, from his measuring station on Mauna Loa in Hawaii, first alerted the world to the rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and its implications for the warming of the world.

Hi Yorkshiresnows In that case I'm still none the wiser. Let's settle for the fact that I don't agree that it's true or even makes sense. The humidity sensors on the Vaisala sonde are pretty good and I must avoid becoming a Bulverite.

I wonder whether you could clarify this for me. Do you have a genuine reference for the statement that "water vapor measurements from radiosondes are notoriously unreliable" and the follow up regarding spurious drying? Without claiming the humidty sensor to be 100% accurate I would need some pretty impressive evidence to confirm "notoriously unreliable". The last part I'm afraid I don't understand at all. What do you mean by switches sign right at the top of the boundary layer? Personally I think the Vaisala radiosonde is a pretty impressive piece of kit and in recent years has become the internationally accepted sonde.

One is reminded of C.S.Lewis. Denialists are masters of what he termed 'bulverism', a method of argument that avoids the need to prove that someone is wrong by first assuming their claim is wrong and then explaining why the person could hold such a fallacious view.

Just a couple of additional comments. A notable consequence of the eruption was the discovery, in 1885, of noctilucent clouds. These clouds had never been observed before, which appeared after the eruption at very high altitudes. Otto Jesse and a team from the Berlin Astronomical Society observed and photographed these clouds for many years. Talking of Berlin, the event also marked the beginning of modern upper-atmospheric research and led to the instigation of the Berlin Atmospheric Research Programme.

Snow in October (I assume 2008) on the Hampshire Downs. The info. from Philip Eden is interesting. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1028533

A day is a long time in Meteorology. Temp. at Altnaharra at 0300 was 10.2!

Tulloch Bridge is -1.9 at 2100 UTC.

It was -4.2 at Tulloch Bridge. Mind the site is 237m above sea level between Glencoe and Braemar.

Nor did I. I must admit I would have opted for less ozone as being the greater contributor.

Two other factors to take into account are lower ozone levels compared to the NH and a cleaner atmosphere. According to Dr Richard McKenzie, Senior Research Scientist at NIWA, the orbit variation will give 7 percent more UV than the northern summer, and the other two 10 and 20 percent respectively.

0600 UTC 7/8 of Sc estimated 27000f. See midnight sounding if it's of any interest. The cloud layer sitting below the temperature inversion at 860mb. N. light 35k 10.6 1018.5 falling

As far as I'm aware the Met. Office maintains that the highest all-UK temp is that set at Faversham (Brogdale Research Station) with avalue of 38.5C. Burt and Eden suggest the award should go to Kew , Royal Botanic Gardens, with 38.1C. Both Burt and Eden stated that the 'screen and enclosure needed minor attention' at Faversham and others have pointed out that siting of the enclosure did not fit the Met Offices' own requirements. For example the site is (was) closely bordered to the south by a dense conifer hedge about 5m tall. Thus it is very likely that both Gravesend and Faversham did not conform to the standards that have been laid down. Whether this dispute has been settled one way or tother since 2005 I know not.

The North Yorkshire-Teesside storm occurred on the 10th August 2003. While the south-east was basking (if that’s the right word) in record breaking temps a very different scenario was unfolding in northern Britain. Thunderstorms broke out in the early morning over parts of western Britain, principally over the southern Pennines. These moved north-east to affect much of northern Britain during the next few hours. One such passed over Carlton-in-Cleveland, North Yorkshire. By 0900 massive cumulonimbus were building in the south west. The clouds approached rapidly and at 0935 a wall of rain arrived, with hail up to 20mm in diameter, propelled by a gusty, near gale-force, south-westerly. All this continued for 13 minutes, then the breeze died down, the hail ceased, and the rain became slight. In this short time, the temperature had dropped over 9ºC, from the day's maximum of 24.9ºC to the 24-hour minimum of 15.7ºC. Incredibly between 0938 and 0947 45.9 mm of rain fell. These rates recorded over 5-10 minutes are the highest reliably recorded instrumentally in the British Isles. Satellite image at 1047. Courtesy NERC Satellite Receiving Station, Dundee University, Scotland. http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/

0900 UTC 6/8 Sc with some Cu Northerly light Vis. 30k Temp 13.5 Pressure 1009.3 rising. Looks like being a nice day.

Min. temps 250600 UK and Ireland. http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/~brugge/mintemp.png Grass min. 250600 http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/~brugge/grassmin.png

I was thinking more along these lines. The ecliptic is the apparent annual path of the sun as projected onto the celestial sphere. Inclined to the celestial equator by 231/2 deg. because of the tilt of the earth’s axis of rotation , the ecliptic intersects the celestial equator at two points, called equinoxes. The northernmost point on the ecliptic is the summer solstice, and the corresponding southernmost point is the winter solstice.

That sticks out like a sore thumb except for Capel Curig. We have only had 53mm here and half of that was weds. evening. This of course doesn't represent the complete rainfall network. http://www.met.readi...rugge/CURR.html

Seasonal Climate Outlook: September-November 2010. A mild La Niña spring on the way A moderate La Niña is well-established in the tropical Pacific, and may strengthen further through the rest of 2010, says the NIWA National Climate Centre. La Niña conditions are likely to continue through the summer of 2010–11. Spring temperatures are likely to be above average across the whole country. However, short-term cold snaps typical of spring will still occur from time to time. Rainfall is likely to be near normal in most regions, averaged over the three months of spring (September, October, November). The north and east of the North Island is likely to experience normal or above normal rainfalls, according to the Centre’s latest seasonal outlook. Soil moisture levels and stream flows are likely to be near normal in all regions, on average through the spring. The National Climate Centre’s seasonal outlook states that mean sea level pressures are likely to be above normal near New Zealand, for spring as a whole. http://www.niwa.co.nz/our-science/climate/publications/all/seasonal-climate-outlook/seasonal-climate-outlook-sep-nov-2010

0700 8/8 Sc and st. Wind N 18kts Vis 20k Pressure 1007.4 rising Min 12.8 G. M. 11.0 Recent rain but now ceased.

I know this will bring great joy to many on here-the latest study from the Hadley Centre. Met office warns of regular 40C heatwaves. Britain could regularly bask in temperatures of more than 40C and endure much hotter heatwaves even if greenhouse gas emissions are brought under control, a study has found. The warmest days of summer could be more than 6C hotter by 2040, with the highest increases in eastern parts of the country, such as East Anglia. The study by the Met Office Hadley Centre found that these changes were possible even if the world fulfilled the commitment, made last December at the Copenhagen climate summit, to limit the global temperature increase to 2C. The global temperature has already increased by 0.7C since pre-industrial times and this year is on course to be either the warmest or second warmest on record. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/weather/article2737220.ece

More or less. It's when sun moves southward across the celestial equator and fall begins in the NH. If you are in the States of course. Just in case, the celestial equator divides the sky into southern and northern hemispheres, just as the earth's equator divides the earth into two hemispheres. Oops, sorry if this has already been answered.

The most concise definition that I have come across for teleconnections is: "Teleleconnections are defined as linkages over great distances of atmospheric and oceanic variables." Of mild historical interest. The first use of the term was apparently used by A. Angstroem in an article, "Teleconnections of Climate Change in Present Time", in 1935.