learning Measuring air temp. Official Met. Observations

[Jo Farrow]

A look at the official recording of air temperature and surrounding conditions. Hourly official weather observations and the daily NCM National Climatological Message which records max and min temp, sunshine hours, rainfall and visibility

https://www.netweather.tv/weather-forecasts/news/9018-uk-temperatures-who-takes-the-official-weather-observations-and-how

Thanks to the Observers at Winterfield Weather enclosure Dunbar 

[Paul]

@knocker & @johnholmes - thought this article may be of interest  

[J10]

Very much an excellent article.

Do enthusiast weather station like the ones on WOW and Wunderground tend to be as accurate those at official sites or does it depend on actual details. 

As an example, if a site as is way out of line with other sites, I tend to ignore it as unreliable.

[Paul]

Yeah, I think a lot of home type stations can struggle with the sun affecting temperatures, things blocking the wind readings etc. 

[knocker]

14 minutes ago, Paul said:

@knocker & @johnholmes - thought this article may be of interest  

You are a wag Paul  A little cloth sock indeed.

[knocker]

1 minute ago, Paul said:

Yeah, I think a lot of home type stations can struggle with the sun affecting temperatures, things blocking the wind readings etc. 

Exposure is the major problem I would have thought and it can also, fairly obviously, adversely effect rainfall.

[Mapantz]

I was just wondering why the louvres are white inside? According to the Met Office standard, they are supposed to be black?!

Great article though.

[Jo Farrow]

10 hours ago, Mapantz said:

I was just wondering why the louvres are white inside? According to the Met Office standard, they are supposed to be black?!

Great article though.

Some chat here about inside colour, 

 

[johnholmes]

On 10/07/2018 at 10:04, Paul said:

@knocker & @johnholmes - thought this article may be of interest  

Hi Paul

Will make time to read this, possibly not for a week or so. Just back from visiting French friends and back to Geneva for a short walking holiday Friday 6am!!

And thanks to Jo, there is also, if memory serves me correctly, an article on this subject on the Met O site. All the things mentioned do make a difference. I remember when as S Met O and being asked to check out prospective weather sites at several amateur stations the problems being so rigorous caused to a few folk who wanted to be official stations.

[Singularity]

Great read, thanks for sharing.

It's funny really, how our official measurements are of conditions that most of us don't experience very often, but of course the point of it is to capture the weather in its 'rawest' form with the least possible modification by humans (excepting the large-scale effects of added CO2 etc).

This does mean, though, that there's some value to those unofficial readings from a 'what most of us experience' perspective, provided they're not taken in direct sunlight. Hence I find sites that display those to be of some use when gauging what to expect when heading away from home for a day trip.

[Bobafet]

Super read and very informative, I recommend everyone to have a look at this article - top stuff!

[Jo Farrow]

Met Office Climate - The icing days index is a count of days for which the daily maximum temperature is below 0oC, rather than weather extremes - air frost days that are days with a daily minimum temperature below 0oC.

 this index is also a count of days.