Moans, ramps and banter

[Mapantz]

I recorded 304 hours of sunshine in May 2020. That's very close to what I have recorded so far this year.

[B87]

 CryoraptorA303 The absolute maximum recordable sunshine in London in July with no horizon obstruction is about 445 hours. Any obstruction at all and that number will be lowered.

[B87]

 Mapantz As of today, we have just equalled our March total after 24 days of April, which takes our annual total to 334 hours. May 2020 alone saw 330.

 

 danm They do, but only on the maps. They should have the actual values available without having to FoI request them.

[TwisterGirl81]

 B87 that figure would get your sunshine stats back on the right track though to not see a wisp of cloud somewhere in this country for a whole month would take a small miracle though I’m surprised it hasn’t happened or that the sunshine monthly record has stood for over a century, crazy, must be one of the oldest records yet to fall? I thought this country was slowly meant to be getting sunnier 

Edited April 24 by TwisterGirl81

[raz.org.rain]

 Addicks Fan 1981 that warm April kills the 2007 analogue for me. 

[richie3846]

 TwisterGirl81 'though to not see a wisp of cloud somewhere in this country for a whole DAY would take a small miracle'

I've just corrected your typo

[Mapantz]

In other news; I have three hedgehogs in my garden right now. One large, two small.. ish.

[TwisterGirl81]

 Mapantz aww hope you leave some treats for them

[raz.org.rain]

Random and unrelated fact, but temperatures often drop to near freezing in the middle of the desert at night.

[B87]

 raz.org.rain Not in summer though. Most deserts will still be 25-30c overnight. They can often get frost in winter.

Las Vegas has a record low of -13c, which is the same as Heathrow.

Albuquerque has colder average minimums that London from October until early April, (including an average January low of -3.1c which is colder than any part of the UK) and a record low of -27c.

On the other hand, some desert climates are always warm, eg Djibouti has an average low of 21c in January and 31c in July.

Edited April 24 by B87

[danm]

55 minutes ago, B87 said:

They do, but only on the maps. They should have the actual values available without having to FoI request them.

They really should release the actual figures. The raw numbers that are displayed on their own website plus others like meteociel and weather online are wrong and misleading. Still don’t understand why they don’t, considering they show the actual ranges on the anomaly maps. 

Edited April 24 by danm

[Alderc 2.0]

 TwisterGirl81 in May 2020 Bournemouth had 353 of sun. 

Edited April 25 by Alderc 2.0

[Alderc 2.0]

 B87 Vegas and Albuquerque have a lot of altitude though to help, Vegas is nearly 800metres, Albuquerque just over a mile up. 
 

 

[sunny_vale]

 B87 looks like a big problem is even the months with surplus sun also had surplus rainfall, and the big 2 (July and August) were both low on sun and high on rain. There’s been no real respite even in the supposedly better months we had. And yeah this year is somehow worse so far because we haven’t even had February to help (completely misplaced dry month anyway)!

I’m usually such an optimist so seeing that backs up my currently opposing sentiments hahaha

[SunSean]

 sunny_vale My optimism for the year was extinguished once we got another late season SSW. Those things are the deathknell for Spring & guarantee endless gloom. To think people were saying, "oh it won't be that bad this time!" or "we could be on the good side of the SSW!" well guys, it was even worse than last years SSW lol. Hope this isn't gonna be an every year thing now otherwise Spring is a thing of the past! I'm normally fairly optimistic & I was back in January but yeah, this is the worst period of weather I've ever lived through, can't lie!

[richie3846]

 danm I've saved a screenshot shot of B87's calculation table for future reference. Very useful. I'm thinking a lot of the ongoing discussions about sunshine over the years, may have been unintentionally misleading and pessimistic because of this discrepancy. I'd say this topic needs bringing to the forefront from time to time, to remind people of the adjustments, and to check their sources of information for raw or adjusted data, where that is possible. 

[SunSean]

 richie3846 As I said in the sunshine thread, that calculation won't work for Brize Norton or other stations. Every station, annoyingly has their own percentage of under-reporting.

Some of the absolute worst stations for recording sunshine way under- Herstmonceux, Wakefield, Almondbury etc

Poor under reporting of sunshine- Heathrow, Charlwood etc

A touch under actual value- Shoeburyness, Leconfield etc

Close to normal- Manston, Brize Norton, Tibenham etc

[marky810]

So anything mild now appears to have been pushed back until early next week at best.

5/6c overnight isn't a problem but when it only rises to 7/8c during the day it feels just as cold.

On a different note, just watched the met-office online forecast (for the first time) and apparently -3 in England in late April is 'nothing unusual'.

[danm]

41 minutes ago, richie3846 said:

I've saved a screenshot shot of B87's calculation table for future reference. Very useful. I'm thinking a lot of the ongoing discussions about sunshine over the years, may have been unintentionally misleading and pessimistic because of this discrepancy. I'd say this topic needs bringing to the forefront from time to time, to remind people of the adjustments, and to check their sources of information for raw or adjusted data, where that is possible. 

Yes exactly, I just don’t understand why the Met Office only publish the raw figures but not the corrected ones. Without that calculation you can never really know the exact actual sunshine hours for a particular location, unless you look at the anomaly maps which give a percentage range. 

[*Stormforce~beka*]

Walked out with Sophie and she was excited. Look mummy pure blue sky. That's how rare it is here ... Even my child notices!

[danm]

Well a proper sunny morning! Shame it won’t last though…

[Derecho]

 danm Meanwhile here it is drizzly and only 6C 

[danm]

 Derecho I'm sure that's coming our way. Forecast is for some rain later.

[Alderc 2.0]

Another clear blue start to 100% overcast by 10am. Worst climate ever! 

[Stabilo19]

 B87 why do raw sunshine values need to be corrected?

Edited April 25 by Stabilo19