And the reason for that is a jet stream that’s been taking a massive holiday for instead of crossing the Atlantic as it usually does, it’s been taking (perhaps a well earned rest) in Iceland and Greenland for the last few weeks and giving Iceland especially the worst summer they have had in a long while, however today, the jet stream is back in working order and is about to deliver a punch to the United Kingdom
That is one of the strongest summer storms ever to form in the Atlantic that people can remember and once formed it’s heading due east so that by 4.00am tomorrow morning the centre of the storm will be over the Western Isles and winds of over 50mph will be battering the western shores of Ireland, and if anyone thinks that this is just a one hit wonder then think again as on Friday a slightly weaker storm slams into Wales and the South West as a reminder that we are an island nation.
Thanks for your post Harry. I just love the weather maps your government produces. Such clearly drawn and labelled isobars! And great collaboration between the surface map and the radar overlay! I shared your post with a friend of mine over in Norway, esp. since I believe your map does show a bit of the Scandanavian coast. I am trying to get him to join us here, but that seems so difficult as all my “recruiting” efforts to get more on Weather Together have not been very successful. Keep posting those great maps, Harry and keep us updated on the weather “across the pond”. Thanks!
That might surprise you to know this but that is NOT an official UK weather authority map. That is a map produced by the WXcharts.eu website and is actually several number of times better than anything the Met Office can produce and incidentally, their maps of Norway are way better than anything that Norway can produce either.
I shall certainly try my best which is why I have bought in recent weeks a digital / analogue max / min thermometer, a rain guage and a anemometer in order to make my own observations when we move home on Monday to the village of Llanrhystud (52° 18′ 21.8″ North, 4° 8′ 35.77″ West at an altitude of 20m ASL) however this does have one small drawback and that is I have no idea what the internet signal is like. I am hoping to find out before Monday, but in case I don’t, I will e-mail Nathan my new postal address before I move, so that he can send me a letter and we can keep in touch that way)
Thanks Harry for your great reply update. Good luck in your move to Llanrhystud (what language is that BTW?) and I hope I can help you set up your weather records. I am working with Nathan on that. Amazing about the source of the maps not being from the government! I will have to tell my Norwegian friend about that website!! He may not know about it. Good luck with your future internet signal, hope it comes in for you! Stay in touch here on WT if at all possible. Thanks so much!
Llanrhystud is written in the Welsh language and translates as “Church of” (llan) “St. Rhystud” who was the Bishop of Carleon-on-Usk in Monmouthshire and an immigrant from Letavia. The house that we are moving to has the most perfect north facing wall, a garden (with lots of open spaces) for the rain guage and having bought a wind guage as well, I am all set up
Thanks for the explanation on the Welsh name of your new town. Will you be placing your new thermometer behind your north facing wall? Even though it is north-facing, the thermometer still needs to be sheltered in some sort of radiation shield. I assume your rain gauge will be giving you readings in metric units. Here is a link to start with on recording your daily observations http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/weatherproj/Introductory_Activity_Lessons/lesson3collecting_weather_data/
Good luck with your move! I hope you can continue to report your progress with a good internet connection. Cheerio, Kevin
Thank you very much for that Kevin, I will translate that into a spreadsheet so I can do as much as I can in my weakened internet circumstances. This is the thermometer that I have bought https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-garden-digital-thermometer/p/0298564 and as you can see it has a shade above it (and it will be placed on a north facing fence), the rain guage is placed in a location that is in the open and away from trees and the wind guage will be taken at arm’s height.
The BBC have a recommendation of recording the maximum and minimum temperatures as well as the day’s rainfall at 0600 every morning (which is a little unlikely for me) so I will try for 0900 each morning starting on July 1st
So good to hear from you Harry, I presume at your new location. The thermometer looks really nice – nice digital readout at the bottom, otherwise the unit looks much like the old Taylor max min (sixes) thermometer many of my fellow local observers and I used many years ago. It had mercury in the tubes and you reset the max min with a magnet. We didn’t have any sort of digital readout on it back then. I will try and dig up a picture of it and share it with you.
Morning rain gauge reading daily will suit most hydrologic needs most likely. It will be interesting to compare your readings with nearby “official” observing locations in a few months or so.
Good luck with your new station and look forward to seeing your observations from it coming soon I hope. Thanks for posting the information and stay in touch!
Thanks,
Kevin
The thermometer is going to be hung in an alleyway that the house has (which is in shade 24/7) and therefore will record the actual temperature, however I cannot remember what height it needs to be. As I have said the rain guage in a place where nothing can drip into it and the wind guage (which needs a new battery already) will be hand held at the time of the recording of the temperatures.
Although I said that I thought 0600 was a little unlikely, thanks to the thinness of the curtains in the bedrooms, I woke up at 0530 on the day after we moved and therefore seem to have now defaulted from a 0700 – 0800 wake up / 2230 – 2330 bedtime to a 0500 – 0600 wake up and a 2200 – 2230 bedtime, whether that will be the case in July (or indeed the winter months) I cannot say.
Hi Harry! Here is the text from the following link, in case you can’t open it for reasons you found a few days ago… I can vouch for this source, I know the founder and head of “Weatherworks” very well – Mike Mogil of Naples FL, but who used to live up here in this part of Maryland.
https://www.weatherworksinc.com/temperature-measurement
Air temperature is the most widely measured quantity in the atmosphere according to the National Weather Service. People plan their lives around the temperature, from picking out their clothes to planning daily activities. With temperature being so important, I think it’s necessary to understand how to properly measure it. I think you would be surprised at how many people, including professional meteorologists, don’t quite follow the general guidelines laid out by the National Weather Service.
The following directions apply to all types of thermometers, from classic mercury thermometers to new-age digital temperature sensors.
1. Place the thermometer 5 feet above the ground (+/- 1 ft.). A thermometer too low will pick up excess heat from the ground and a thermometer too high will likely have too cool of a temperature due to natural cooling aloft. 5 ft. is just right.
2. The thermometer must be placed in the shade. If you put your thermometer in full sunlight, direct radiation from the sun is going to result in a temperature higher than what it should be.
3. Have good air flow for your thermometer. This keeps air circulating around the thermometer, maintaining a balance with the surrounding environment. Therefore, it is important to make sure there are no obstructions blocking your thermometer such as trees or buildings. The more open, the better.
4. Place the thermometer over a grassy or dirt surface. Concrete and pavement attract much more heat than grass. That is why cities are often warmer compared to suburbs. It is recommended to keep the thermometer at least 100 ft. from any paved or concrete surfaces to prevent an erroneously high temperature measurement.
5. Keep the thermometer covered. When precipitation falls, you do not want your thermometer to get wet as that could permanently damage it. A Stevenson screen is a great place to store thermometers and other instruments as they provide cover as well as adequate ventilation. If you can’t get one, a simple solar radiation shield is adequate.
And that’s it. Now you are all temperature measuring experts so let’s get out there and start taking some readings!
Kevin back again with a closing comment – sounds like you have your time schedule for daily thermometer reading. Good luck!
Thank you very much for that. I will admit I am surprised that the instruction drilled into us as children “Always face a thermometer on a north facing surface” has been dumped, presumably of course if you have a Stevenson screen that doesn’t really come into it.
As you know my broadband at the moment doesn’t like pictures so I can’t show you where my thermometer is being located, but I can try and give you an indication. Next to our house, is an alleyway, that is surrounded by walls on both sides and a door onto a south facing street. This means that throughout the whole day no sun fills that alleyway at all, and it is there that I have placed the thermometer (case in point, today’s maximum according to it was 17.1°C (comparable to the 18°C recorded by the internet in Aberaeron) despite being on the ground (as I cannot find a hook or a nail to hang it on five feet off the ground)
Hi Harry! It is still preferred to have your thermometer in a shield facing north, but the most important thing to have it sheltered, even when it stays in full shade, as radiation still comes down on the unsheltered thermometer.
I don’t know how much, if any, you can see of this web page, but this is the link to the Taylor “sixes” style thermometer I was telling you about, with a magnet reset. It is being sold out of company “katom” which is located in the U.S.
https://www.katom.com/383-5458.html
I have been discussing your new station with my friend Ray Muller, who has an intense interest and knowledge of personal weather stations and really most all things weather. He was curious to know the details of exactly what kind of rain gauge and anemometer you have now – perhaps a website source for the particular instruments you have recently purchased if you can’t provide pictures. Ray has email but cannot access Weather Together. Do you have an email address you could send me? Ray might like to drop you an email if possible to express his opinions and information about your current weather station setup. BTW, right now I am watching a horse race from over in England, with the Queen in attendance- the Royal Ascot, the Group One Diamond Jubilee Stakes from the Ascot Racecourse in Ascot, England. Looks like a fine pleasant comfortable day at the racetrack today.
Thanks,
Kevin