Over at Tallbloke’s Talkshop, moderator Tim Channon wondered about this regularly hot station reported in the news:
An often appearing name in the BBC news as the hottest place in the country is Gravesend but the true location of the Met Office thermometer is a mystery. By chance I followed up today and discovered a new snippet of information.
From the BBC – 2003: Britain swelters in record heat
Britain has recorded its hottest day ever as the temperature soared to 38.1C (100.6F) in Gravesend, Kent.
The record has actually been broken twice today. The first place to beat the previous record of 37.1C (98.8F), set in Cheltenham in 1990, was Heathrow Airport where the temperature earlier today registered 37.9C (100.2F).
Then an even higher temperature was recorded in Kent, making today the hottest day since records began about 130 years ago in 1875.
Here’s another example: Gravesend sizzles in late September sun
It’s definitely time to get that sun screen out as Gravesend is officially one of the hottest places in the UK today.Temperatures reached 28.6C this afternoon, making it Kent’s warmest September 30 ever!
Clearly, it is a leading hot spot.
So what does the Met office say about how official weather stations should be sited? They have it right here:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/science/first-steps/observations/weather-stations
And what does the officially hottest station in the UK at Gravesend look like?
The process of discovery of this station was a long one, aided by a global discussion at Tallbloke’s Talkshop. This Bing Maps aerial view I found and posted at TB’s confirmed to me that there was in fact a Stevenson Screen there:
Source: http://binged.it/RqV8Cv
And that lead commenter “Caz” to make the discovery of the photo:
Caz says:
The Bing Link cracked it for me. It was obvious looking at the shadows that the weather station, transmitter and radar tower were sat on a level depression protected on three sides by banking ie they had their own micro climate.
I then selected Ordnance survey mapping and confirmed that this was indeed a place with a micro climate as the banks are clearly marked on the OS map. But it gave one other vital piece information, the location is Broadness Salt Marsh.
Just a few steps later and a Google of Broadness Salt Marsh and I had the picture and all the information required to see that this weather station is a dud. Note the banking, brick power building with ventilation equipment and the weather station.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Broadness_Radar_-_geograph.org.uk_-_48941.jpg
The Met Office should hang their heads in shame and also the BBC for reporting the temperatures recorded by this station. Well done chaps I hope you can get the message out to the wider world. If anyone lives in that area the site looks easily accessible.
Getting the message out to the wider world is what we do here at WUWT, happy to help.
Now here’s the interesting thing about this station, it has a trifecta of siting issues, and not just from the air conditioner and brick building. Look at the location located by Tim Channon:
That spit of land juts into the Thames. What is nearby? Channon writes:
This is east of London, is the tidal lower Thames close to the estuary. It is going to be permanently humid, including any effect from the elevation of the temperature of the Thames, heat from London.
Industrial activity is obvious as is close dense residential.
Go towards London (left) and within 5 km is the non-motorway section of the M25 London orbital “motorway”, blue on the map. This is 8 lanes all told with queues a lot of the time, is a toll road. Queen Elizabeth bridge southbound and the Dartford tunnel northbound. Both expel heat into the air, a bridge and ventilated tunnel. South side to the left of that see the bright circles? Heavy oil storage tanks, river pontoon for fuel delivery tankers. Next across is the RWE Littlebrook power station. Being oil is probably not run continuously, about 1.4GW output and has additional gas turbine generator sets. This will eject circa 2GW of waste heat, up prevailing wind. RWE web page on station, head photo is looking east toward bridge and weather station.
Next to the left is a wee and poo plant, also tends to be warm stuff. I expect the sludge is tankered into the outer estuary for disposal. (used to be the case)
Little Reach Sewage Treatment plant, run by Thames Water. Photo looking west, can see the edge of the power station.
Is that all?
Figure 3Just off the right of the previous image, north side of the river is… another power station. Top of image here is the electricity output site.
RWE Tilbury Power station, coal fired, hence the pontoon for delivery and black stuff but the RWE web page says the site is being converted. Looks like another 2 to 3GW of waste heat, east winter winds or blocking highs have this one upwind. I notice the RWE photo doesn’t want to show much.
Converting to biomass? I bet the conversion efficiency is lower than conventional fuels, therefore even more waste heat.
There are other power stations a little further away, at least two major ones to the east. (there because of the river, coal delivery)
All this sparkery, I’ve not reached the end yet.
Figure 4
So what is that? Met site is top right. Four piles at the base, is a large power grid pylon, can look bizarre from an aircraft (these are aerial photos, not satellite).
Electricity transmission is not 100% efficient, the lines get hot, are a compromise. Actual lines are aluminium with a steel core. The alignment, this is a river crossing.
Other side are several sites
I pointed out that:
It may be that the station is affected by heated water discharge from the power plant and the sewage plant into the river. Being on that spit of land it has water on three sides.
Only some water temperature measurements will tell for sure.
But another commenter pointed out:
Scute says:
Following up on Anthony’s comments, I have been digging a little, using Tim’s links. The Littlebrook power station just to the west of the QE Bridge does discharge warm water from its condenser into the Thames. The intake and outflow are the two circles in the Thames, visible in the Bing ariel view if you scroll left. The PDF document on the site that Tim linked says:
“The condensate is pumped back to the boiler for reuse and the cooling water [i.e. now warm water] is returned to the river.”
This must be several hundred megawatts at least, given the fact that it is cooling something approaching 800kg of condensate per second at full operating capacity. This would be in addition to the heat lost up the chimney during oil combustion which may or may not drift over the station in question. What is certain is that a large portion of the condenser outflow ends up bathing the station on three sides. Even if there is some convective/turbulent mixing, the mixed water will retain this heat energy quite well at or near the surface albeit as lower grade heat. Since water has a specific heat capacity four times that of air and the mass of air directly above the Thames is much less than the now-mixed surface layer, it means that the water surface can heat the air above it to the same temperature without dropping in temperature itself, or at least by a negligible amount. This amounts to a very reliable, permanently elevated heating source, one which is likely to be elevated further when the power station cranks up in the evening….I noticed that Thursdays temperature graph for Gravesend showed an anomalous rise at 6PM. I was waiting for today’s 6PM update to see if it happened again but as of starting this comment it hadn’t come through. It might warrant monitoring over the next few weeks or months- though tides will dull or enhance the effect I should think.
Speaking of tides:
tchannon says:
Scute,
Hundreds of MW, probably upper, however, oil is an unusual fuel so I suspect this is peak times only. They mention gas plant but seem to casually throw this in without detail. Presumably a similar power and the thermal efficiency is a little better.
More subtly, I mentioned this is lower reaches, the Thames is a small river with low flow: it is tidal.
For this reason any cooling outfall from the station nominally downstream will flow back upstream… and cooling upstream will stagnate in a pool of water.
Goodness knows the effect, for all I know, none.
So, I decided to have a look at that tidal issue. Again Bing aerial view is our friend:
Source: http://binged.it/NblzVn
Note the exposed dark mudflats. What sort of natural surface has the lowest albedo, and thus absorbs the greatest amount of solar radiation?
Dark and wet…like a mudflat on two sides of the station as seen in the Bing aerial view.
The new “hottest ever” record set in the UK was on August 1o, 2003.
I downloaded the tide data for the outlet of the Thames, Sheerness for that day from the UK National Oceanography center. Times are local to the station, +1 GMT.
21217) 2003/08/10 00:00:00 4.356 0.081
21218) 2003/08/10 00:15:00 4.101 0.063
21219) 2003/08/10 00:30:00 3.840 0.048
21220) 2003/08/10 00:45:00 3.581 0.038
21221) 2003/08/10 01:00:00 3.325 0.032
21222) 2003/08/10 01:15:00 3.065 0.018
21223) 2003/08/10 01:30:00 2.825 0.018
21224) 2003/08/10 01:45:00 2.592 0.015
21225) 2003/08/10 02:00:00 2.372 0.013
21226) 2003/08/10 02:15:00 2.168 0.013
21227) 2003/08/10 02:30:00 1.983 0.014
21228) 2003/08/10 02:45:00 1.824 0.022
21229) 2003/08/10 03:00:00 1.690 0.035
21230) 2003/08/10 03:15:00 1.567 0.040
21231) 2003/08/10 03:30:00 1.469 0.051
21232) 2003/08/10 03:45:00 1.385 0.057
21233) 2003/08/10 04:00:00 1.308 0.053
21234) 2003/08/10 04:15:00 1.245 0.044
21235) 2003/08/10 04:30:00 1.196 0.029
21236) 2003/08/10 04:45:00 1.173 0.016
21237) 2003/08/10 05:00:00 1.186 0.011
21238) 2003/08/10 05:15:00 1.235 0.010
21239) 2003/08/10 05:30:00 1.325 0.015
21240) 2003/08/10 05:45:00 1.458 0.028
21241) 2003/08/10 06:00:00 1.610 0.025
21242) 2003/08/10 06:15:00 1.805 0.037
21243) 2003/08/10 06:30:00 2.011 0.038
21244) 2003/08/10 06:45:00 2.228 0.037
21245) 2003/08/10 07:00:00 2.461 0.046
21246) 2003/08/10 07:15:00 2.686 0.046
21247) 2003/08/10 07:30:00 2.909 0.047
21248) 2003/08/10 07:45:00 3.134 0.053
21249) 2003/08/10 08:00:00 3.350 0.054
21250) 2003/08/10 08:15:00 3.577 0.067
21251) 2003/08/10 08:30:00 3.791 0.068
21252) 2003/08/10 08:45:00 4.011 0.075
21253) 2003/08/10 09:00:00 4.226 0.079
21254) 2003/08/10 09:15:00 4.436 0.082
21255) 2003/08/10 09:30:00 4.645 0.095
21256) 2003/08/10 09:45:00 4.842 0.110
21257) 2003/08/10 10:00:00 5.019 0.127
21258) 2003/08/10 10:15:00 5.171 0.149
21259) 2003/08/10 10:30:00 5.290 0.173
21260) 2003/08/10 10:45:00 5.365 0.196
21261) 2003/08/10 11:00:00 5.387 0.212
21262) 2003/08/10 11:15:00 5.358 0.226
21263) 2003/08/10 11:30:00 5.272 0.230
21264) 2003/08/10 11:45:00 5.125 0.218
21265) 2003/08/10 12:00:00 4.942 0.207
21266) 2003/08/10 12:15:00 4.718 0.187
21267) 2003/08/10 12:30:00 4.475 0.171
21268) 2003/08/10 12:45:00 4.213 0.153
21269) 2003/08/10 13:00:00 3.937 0.133
21270) 2003/08/10 13:15:00 3.670 0.128
21271) 2003/08/10 13:30:00 3.404 0.127
21272) 2003/08/10 13:45:00 3.140 0.126
21273) 2003/08/10 14:00:00 2.882 0.126
21274) 2003/08/10 14:15:00 2.630 0.122
21275) 2003/08/10 14:30:00 2.394 0.121
21276) 2003/08/10 14:45:00 2.172 0.116
21277) 2003/08/10 15:00:00 1.969 0.110
21278) 2003/08/10 15:15:00 1.791 0.107
21279) 2003/08/10 15:30:00 1.628 0.097
21280) 2003/08/10 15:45:00 1.508 0.109
21281) 2003/08/10 16:00:00 1.397 0.112
21282) 2003/08/10 16:15:00 1.302 0.114
21283) 2003/08/10 16:30:00 1.223 0.116
21284) 2003/08/10 16:45:00 1.156 0.113
21285) 2003/08/10 17:00:00 1.110 0.112
21286) 2003/08/10 17:15:00 1.084 0.108
21287) 2003/08/10 17:30:00 1.094 0.111
21288) 2003/08/10 17:45:00 1.141 0.116
21289) 2003/08/10 18:00:00 1.231 0.126
21290) 2003/08/10 18:15:00 1.360 0.135
21291) 2003/08/10 18:30:00 1.528 0.147
21292) 2003/08/10 18:45:00 1.720 0.151
21293) 2003/08/10 19:00:00 1.946 0.164
21294) 2003/08/10 19:15:00 2.187 0.177
21295) 2003/08/10 19:30:00 2.436 0.189
21296) 2003/08/10 19:45:00 2.684 0.197
21297) 2003/08/10 20:00:00 2.928 0.201
21298) 2003/08/10 20:15:00 3.180 0.213
21299) 2003/08/10 20:30:00 3.433 0.225
21300) 2003/08/10 20:45:00 3.685 0.235
21301) 2003/08/10 21:00:00 3.930 0.236
21302) 2003/08/10 21:15:00 4.178 0.237
21303) 2003/08/10 21:30:00 4.425 0.237
21304) 2003/08/10 21:45:00 4.670 0.238
21305) 2003/08/10 22:00:00 4.902 0.236
21306) 2003/08/10 22:15:00 5.133 0.250
21307) 2003/08/10 22:30:00 5.337 0.261
21308) 2003/08/10 22:45:00 5.507 0.273
21309) 2003/08/10 23:00:00 5.637 0.287
21310) 2003/08/10 23:15:00 5.715 0.299
21311) 2003/08/10 23:30:00 5.741 0.313
21312) 2003/08/10 23:45:00 5.695 0.310
As you can see from the data, the low tide was about 1.08 meter at 5:15PM local time.
I looked for historical data for Gravesend, which has a tide gauge according to the London Port authority, but I couldn’t find any actual data. So I had to rely on a tide prediction program. Given that Gravesend is well upstream from Sheerness. one would expect the tide to be lower, since it has an higher elevation difference, which is why the Thames flows east. I downloaded the wxtide32 program since it had a location for Tilbury dock, not too far away from Gravesend.
The tide prediction for Tilbury Dock for 8/10/2003:
Tilbury Dock, Thames Rvr
Sheerness, England - READ flaterco.com/pol.html
+ Corrections: High(+0:20 +1.50) Low(+0:20 -1.00)
Units are meters, initial timezone is CUT
August 2003 low is 0.2m, high is 6.2m, range is 6.0m.
Predicted historical low is -2.1m, high is 8.4m, range is 10.6m.
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
07-27 07-28 New 07-29 07-30 07-31 08-01 08-02
L0523 1.0 H0001 5.7 H0043 5.9 H0123 6.0 H0203 6.1 H0245 6.2 H0327 6.2
H1140 5.6 L0606 0.9 L0646 0.8 L0726 0.7 L0808 0.7 L0852 0.6 L0934 0.7
L1753 0.9 H1220 5.8 H1258 5.9 H1335 6.0 H1413 6.1 H1453 6.2 H1533 6.2
L1837 0.7 L1918 0.5 L2000 0.4 L2043 0.3 L2126 0.3 L2207 0.3
08-03 08-04 FQtr 08-05 08-06 08-07 08-08 08-09
H0409 6.1 H0452 6.0 H0537 5.8 L0014 0.7 L0111 0.8 L0221 1.0 L0344 1.0
L1014 0.8 L1054 0.9 L1136 1.0 H0629 5.6 H0735 5.4 H0856 5.4 H1010 5.6
H1614 6.1 H1656 6.0 H1743 5.9 L1228 1.1 L1333 1.2 L1452 1.2 L1622 1.0
L2248 0.4 L2328 0.5 H1840 5.7 H1959 5.5 H2129 5.6 H2241 5.8
08-10 08-11 Full 08-12 08-13 08-14 08-15 08-16
L0500 0.9 L0600 0.8 H0034 6.2 H0121 6.2 H0204 6.2 H0244 6.1 H0321 6.0
H1112 5.8 H1206 6.0 L0648 0.7 L0730 0.7 L0809 0.8 L0844 0.8 L0918 0.8
L1734 0.7 L1830 0.4 H1253 6.1 H1336 6.1 H1415 6.1 H1451 6.1 H1524 6.0
H2341 6.0 L1918 0.3 L2001 0.2 L2041 0.2 L2119 0.3 L2153 0.4
The plot for Sunday 8-10-2003:
The low tide of 0.7m was reached late in the afternoon, about 5:34PM.
Here is what an aerial view of the station and the point looks like at low tide of similar magnitude:
As you can see (if you click image for the closeup) the boatyard to the SW is completely dry. Mudflats are around the station every direction except SE.
So, depending on wind direction that day, combined with the low tide, the station may have picked up some heated air from the mud flats. Unfortunately the station does not record wind data. Given the nearby stations (such as London City) show a shift of wind direction to northerly after about 5PM local time on that date, it is quite possible though:
All news reports I read said the high temperature in Gravesend occurred in late afternoon on Sunday August 10th. The historical data available from the Met Office is rather slim. So if somebody knows where to find the exact time the high temperature was recorded, that would help solve this mystery.
One final thing, this IR map shows that area of Kent near Gravesend to be one of the warmer places around London, warmer even than the cityscape of London itself:
So to summarize the surroundings of this station:
- City UHI nearby
- Industrial area surrounding it
- River with heated water from power plant and sewage plant dumped into it nearby
- Surrounded by water on three sides
- Surrounded by low albedo (high solar absorbing) mudflats nearby with low tide near time of Tmax
- Sited at a radar station with waste heat exhaust systems clearly visible
- Sited directly next to a sidewalk
No wonder it is consistently a high temperature record breaker! On that day August 10 2003, it was warmer than Heathrow Airport where the temperature earlier registered 37.9C (100.2F).
UK residents: Feel free to add any information you can find that will help. Still looking for the high temperature time on 8-10-2003 at Gravesend.
UPDATE: I’ve located this photo also. What looked to be a sidewalk turned out to be a big chunk of concrete. Heat sink anyone?
This photo is from a Royal Meteorological Society publication, they apparently didn’t want the world to see the other nearby issues related to the radar station.
More on that publication, and how I’ve caught the Met Office in a lie, coming soon.
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From what I see, there are three towers in the fenced-in area containing the Stevenson house. One is on the roof of the building, which I assume is the radar transmitter, another taller tower is next to the building, and what appears to be a short tower is affixed to the ground right next to the Stevenson. Any ideas as what the the two ground-mounted towers are for?
The tall tower has comms antennas on the top of the mast so is likely the microwave comms to relay the radar data to the control center. The short tower isn’t clear enough in the picture and the shadow overlaps the fence shadow so no joy on seeing what antennas it might have.
John Finn says:
August 18, 2012 at 5:07 pm
One cannot assume that the intrusive factors that might affect temperature readings are constant. Some of the factors depend on decisions by managers of power generating stations and managers of waste treatment facilities. The air conditioner is clearly a wild card. There are other such factors. One must observe the surrounding area for a considerable time to determine just how spiky the influences on temperature actually are.
Actually, I think the siting looks OK. If you require a weather station to be sited far away from any human activity, then most of the UK gets excluded, and what’s the point of that? The most important thing (after siting it reasonably apart from buildings, etc, as at this site) must be that the siting remains the same over time. We should record local changes due to human activity, anything from farming to urbanisation. Climate research is more than calculating a global temperature.
The Stevenson screen stands on a grey galvanized steel structure.
Isn’t it supposed to be white washed wood?
We also get warm air from the european continent, like at the present, which hits the east coast of Kent first so that could well be another factor causing a higher temperature there than the rest of the UK.
Surely if you’re getting continuous anomalous records at a single weather station it would set an alarm bell ringing somewhere so that they would get someone to check the thing and why there would be such an anomaly? A 1st year, no a 1st DAY stats student would recognise something was amiss with such data.
@Philip Bradley,
You beat me to it with the link to the weather-banter UK forum post. I’d note that the comment at the bottom of the page is by Stephen Burt, one of the authors of the article mentioned in a quote in a comment by David Ross earlier.
He says –
The results of three separate and independent analyses clearly
demonstrate that the maximum reading of 38.5ºC obtained at Faversham
on 10 August 2003 is anomalous (approximately 2 degC too high) and
cannot be easily accounted for meteorologically, climatologically, or
statistically. The authors believe that other reasons must be sought
to explain it*, and that ‘The Faversham Maximum’ cannot be regarded as
sufficiently beyond doubt to justify its continued claim to the UK
national temperature record.”
(Note that this is relation to the Brogdale site, not Gravesend)
http://www.weather-banter.co.uk/uk-sci-weather-uk-weather/121618-brogdale.html
Rational Db8 says:
August 18, 2012 at 4:31 pm
Anthony, I wonder if you don’t have enough readers here to actually put together surface stations project for other nations? Bet there are some real doozies out there.
I recall that, say 2 – 3 years ago, there was discussion here of doing that. I posted a message that I would be happy to do my bit, if needed. My recollection is that there was another post to say it didn’t get off the ground as many weather stations are based on RAF stations and MoD (which is also the parent body of the Met(eorolgical) Office) denied access and photographing permissions for “security reasons.”
Don’t worry, the highest temperature this year was yesterday at 32C give or take.
So that means that in 9 years, temperature has dropped 6 degrees, pointing to a 60 degree drop per century.
That’s how climate science is done, isn’t it??!!
LOL
A fascinating thread that shows just how careful we have to be with temperature records. So much garbage in!
The by-the-way comment from the Met Office, “modern temperature instruments react quickly and record more extreme transitory highs, so we have no idea how to compare these recent temperatures with older highs” is also useful. If that’s the case, then if any adjustment of the temperature record is going to take place then it should be DOWN for recent temperatures. I could imagine that the whole of the supposed warming of the past 30 years is due to a gradual switchover to “modern temperature instruments” that “record more extreme transitory highs”.
I haven’t had time to read it properly yet but –
http://publications.environment-agency.gov.uk/PDF/SCHO0707BNAG-E-E.pdf
This document about UK river temperatures is interesting. See page 49 and add up the temperature totals. The Thames has risen in temperature faster than rivers in the other regions and even faster than national air temperatures over the same period. Caversham Weir is west of London. On page 43 it shows how the different stretches of the Thames have vaired but it’s hard to tell if the east of the Thames (downstream) has warmed differently than the west (upstream). It would be interesting to compare Caversham Weir with Teddington.
I see the Huff Post was blathering about the Olympic temps here…
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/08/19/uk-weather-heat-wave-continue_n_1805150.html?utm_hp_ref=uk
“Most of the UK enjoyed temperatures in the high 20s on Saturday, but at Cavendish, in Suffolk, the mercury reached a high of 32.4C (90.32F), eclipsing the previous high of 31.4C (88.5F) recorded at London’s Olympic Park on July 25.”
The weather bods at ukweatherworld were trying to locate the Olympic weather station to see why it’s reading high after John Mason highlighted a 95F Olympic temp in the Express, I think they found it… located on a black painted roof!
one comment said “…if any of us had instrumentation sited like that, our data would just not be entertained…there would be no reference to it at all and quickly dismissed…..just as any data from this site, if this is where it is coming from, should be. There really should be no reference to it from the Met Office or on any broadcast weather slot.”
Indeed!
http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/90592-express-alert-express-alert/page__st__360
Owen and tcvaughn: The third tower is the enormous power transmission tower. The shadow is seen in fig 4. This tower and its twin on the opposite side of the river near one of the power stations are much taller than usual to allow tall masted ships to pass safely underneath. Its a pretty long span too so the dip in the cables has to be allowed for.
Peter: I suppose we have to accept that transitory lows are just as extreme?
Somewhat OT, but I’ve just discovered that the UK met office measures daily minimum temperatures of concrete surfaces at many of its sites. I couldn’t find the data or any studies that use it. Rather a pity, because I believe it would have an interesting tale to tell.
http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CF8QFjAC&url=http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pdf/k/5/Fact_sheet_No._17.pdf&ei=axYwUKeWPM6jiQemq4GoAw&usg=AFQjCNFl0PR4ly9euwqtcuITf8npWPTFlA
Gunga Din says:
Not sure if this info applies but it is common for large wastewater plants to have anaerobic sludge digesters. These generate methane gas which is often burnt off to the atmosphere.
It can also be used for CHP. It’s still being burnt, but cuts the plant’s electricity and gas bills. The idea here is to extract heat from both engine cooling and exhaust for parts of the process which require the waste water to be heated.
To go off at a tangent, earlier this year Tilbury power station was the scene of a major fire fighting incident when the stored biomass ignited:
‘It could go on for days’: Fears grow over huge blaze that broke out at Europe’s biggest ‘green’ power station in Essex
“A severe fire that broke out at one of Europe’s largest green power station is now under control but there are fears that the blaze could continue to burn for days.
Around 120 firefighters have been tackling the fire at Tilbury Power Station, which erupted in a fuel storage area at 7.45am.”
Gravesend is a dud as a site, no argument there. The other place that had 100+F temp on the day was Heathrow Airport.
Heathrow Airport is the busiest airport in the world, so that record is a non-runner also.
So we are back to the previous record set in 1990 , which was Cheltenham at 99F. No issues with Cheltenham.
My first thought on seeing transmission towers close to the weather station was that the temperature sensor wiring may be acting as an antenna, and that this could be causing measurement errors. I experienced this myself one time, trying to take temp measurements in a radio station building close to the tower, using an digital temp meter whose probe was on the end of coiled wiring – when I pulled wire straight, the reading went all over the place.
“Given the size and population density of the UK about the only weather stations unaffected by UHI effect are likely to be in Scotland.”
Oh there’s plenty of Britain that remains rural. But you’d have to decide to site weather stations deliberately to be suitable for a disinterested study of climate. Fat chance!
For the Brogdale,
site has anyone got a record of any specific orchard type machinery around the place like nice big truck mounted crop foggers or truck mounted genny/lighting sets for use on dark winter evenings, or tractors and trailers for crop harvesting purposes, just sitting on the track next to the station?
kent is the most southeasterly county in the UK. This is closest to continental Europe and furthest from the moderating effect of the Atlantic. Any geographer would expect the highest UK Summer temperatures to be recorded in this region.
Recycling seems particularly fire prone. Here in Perth, the recycling warehouse for the southern half of the city, and according to reports the size of 10 football fields, burned down last month for the second time in 2 years.
@Another Gareth
I bet it smells lovely around there…
This is a brilliant and outstanding post. Well done! Night after night I watch with dismay as the BBC gives the headline “highest” temperature of the day for UK to be in London, while all around the capital the temperatures shown are typically an average of 10% lower.