From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
Every day, the Met Office publish a list of daily extremes like the one above.
The Met Office have sent me a list of the daily high temperatures so far this year and I have analysed them for the summer months by WMO Classifications, which they supplied last year.
The results speak for themselves – overwhelmingly sourced from junk weather stations where temperatures may be inflated by as much as 2C or even more by poor siting.
Out of the five highs set at Class 1 sites, four are in the urban heat island bubble of Cambridge, so are equally meaningless from a climatological point of view.
The usual sites we are very familiar with are well represented – twelve are next to the tarmac at Heathrow. The car park in Hull appears six times, and the garden suntrap in Cavendish four times. Interestingly Cirencester, a Class 4 site, crops up nine times, which might arouse local interest.
Pershore also appears on the list nine times, in addition to two more at Pershore College. Both are junk Class 4 sites, with two degrees of uncertainty.
I hardly need to point out that there are hardly any daily highs at good quality sites. The only other Class 1 site to the urban jungle in Cambridge happens to be at Weybourne in Norfolk – readers comments welcome!
As to the three Class 2s, two were at Kew Gardens, inside the three degree urban heat island of London. The other was at Holbeach in Lincolnshire, near the Wash where I went cycling a few years ago.
I hardly need to ask why there are virtually no daily highs recorded at pristine rural stations!
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Interestingly, in Australia the only warming is seen in urban areas. In rural sites there’s none significant. Strange, that…
It’s that way in the United States, too.
Something just occurred to me watching the UK weather forecast last night.
when predicting the overnight temperatures they frequently say something to the effect “temperature in the country areas could dip down to low teens, while the cities will be somewhat warmer”
there are variations on this script and sometimes they gove actual numbers..
my point being are they not explicitly saying there is an urban heat island effect…??
You’d think that if the warming were truly global, you’d get an even distribution of new all-time highs. Isn’t that the crux of the matter? After all, if we’re only getting scorchers at these few sites, well, then we just move a few miles down the road and avoid Climageddon. Simples.
Move, or just wait until the high pressure system which is causing the warmer weather, moves away.
The UK’s mean temperature from 1 June to 31 August stands at 16.10°C, which is 1.51°C above the long-term meteorological average.
…surpassing the previous record of 15.76°C – Met Office
Those of us who can recall 1976 will be more than amused at the above claim. And these…
The five warmest UK summers on record are now:
It’s utter garbage, nay, blatant lies. It’s the MO of the… MO
“The MO of the MO”!
I like it!
It *is* their MO (Modus Operandi/Mode of Operation): Lying about the temperatures.
“It’s utter garbage, nay, blatant lies.”
I’d trust the data over your or my memory from 50 years ago – but the fact is 1976 had hotter day time temperature but cooler nights.
The warmest summers by tmax are:
It was also the sunniest Summer of record.
Top 5 sunniest summers, by hours of sunshine.
1976: 672.11995: 664.61911: 656.61989: 645.81975: 623.22025 by contrast only had 556.2 hours.
It was also the 2nd driest summer
1995: 106.0mm1976: 107.3mm1869: 126.8mm1983: 127.9mm1913: 140.1mm
It has indeed been very sunny.
But that is weather, not climate.
Warmer temperatures are expected to increase water vapour in the atmosphere and so increase cloud cover.
Guess this raises the questions:
1) Is AGW so insignificant that the weather overwhelms the effect?
2) Does a lack of cloud cover warm the seas and so cause the noticed warming, reducing the impact of AGW even further?
3) Can we now conclusively answer the question of whether clouds warm or cool the world as no clouds = warmer weather?
Any other questions raised for you?
Year to year it’s a difference in weather, but a clear increase in sunshine over a long period is climate change. When it comes to the significance of individual metrics it’s down to chickens and/or eggs.
Not sure what happened to the formatting there.
Top 5 sunniest summers, by hours of sunshine.
2025 by contrast only had 556.2 hours.
It was also the 2nd driest summer
So are most people in the UK complaining about about a warm, dry, sunny summer?
Correct. Summer 2025 mean temperature also matched 1976 in the CET, but average min was 3/4 of a degree warmer this year, average max 3/4 of a degree cooler or somesuch.
Whatever the MO issues, summers akin 1976 are manifestly now much more common.
The other issue is the focus and extent of heatwaves varies greatly, so basing your judgement for the whole of the UK on what you experienced in your location in 1976 is silly.
“summers akin 1976 are manifestly now much more common.”
We don’t know if that is actually real. It is highly probably just JUNK data.
It certainly looks like the reason is the parlous state of the MO measurements sites with a large proportion of the warmer temperature being measured at totally unfit for purpose class 3,4, and 5 site..
The cooler nights idea was what I was going to quote. But it still does not add up. Measurement error is far more probable.
You have identified where the temperature error is, though. It’s at night.
That may well be because UHI has increased and central heating has been distributed more widely.
How do we know that the measurements are wrong?
Because the physical effect on the environment shows that 1976 was hotter and drier than this year. Temperature that only affects measurement devices is the definition of a measurement error.
In 1976 we had terrible drought conditions. The government needed to put in standpipes and set up a Ministry of Drought.
2025 was nowhere close to that.
This was despite the facts that we have not invested in water infrastructure (zero new reservoirs since privatisation in 1991). And that demand has increased – population has risen by over 20%.
You are correct to identify that the issue is the measurements of night temperatures.
But you are wrong to think that the measurements reflect reality.
They don’t and so are shown to be inaccurate.
The ’76 drought was rooted in 1975 weather; the ground was bone dry deep, there was no such precursor to summer 2025 so ground moisture remained a few inches down. It’s no mystery and little to do with absolute temperatures.
That is a reasonable hypothesis. Lat year was wet.
However, it does mean that AGW is not an expected source of increasing water stress, as last year was wet and this year was dry… AGW does not cause the problems of 1976 – which was just weather.
Once again, we see that AGW is negligible compared to the adaptations required for the weather, anyway.
“In 1976 we had terrible drought conditions.”
As I said, there was very little rain and a lot of sunshine.
“This was despite the facts that we have not invested in water infrastructure (zero new reservoirs since privatisation in 1991).”
There have been quite a few new reservoirs since 1976. The largest in England was opened in 1981, and the second largest opened in 1976.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reservoirs_in_the_United_Kingdom
“You are correct to identify that the issue is the measurements of night temperatures.”
I said nothing about there being an issue with measuring night time temperatures.
1976 and 1981 are both before 1991?
Carsington Water officially opened in 1992 stores water pumped from the River Derwent. This river does a lot of the heavy lifting for Severn Trent water in the East Midlands with Ladybower, Derwent, and Howden being major storage facilities. There’s not much more that the Derwent can do to supply water.
Keilder opened in 1982 doesn’t serve a much of a purpose and is a white elephant as the industry it was supposed to supply is gone and there is no national water grid to get water to the South East.
Rutland Water, opened 1977, the other large reservoir does actually serve a purpose in supplying water to people.
There are a couple of reservoirs in Wales dating back to the 1970s. Llyn Celyn supplies Liverpool but a repeat would be politically difficult as Llyn Celyn created a lot of resentment in Wales.
Highest per capita water usage is in Scotland. There has been one non-hydro reservoir built in recent years. Megget Reservoir is the largest post-war reservoir for water supply in Scotland, built between 1976 and 1983.
So 40 years with no investment, privatisation of water was in 1989, no coincidence.
It’s funny how people clamour for new reservoirs until one is proposed in their backyard. I’m aware of four in England – two in the east and two in the south – that are likely to be constructed in the next decade or so.
They complain about reservoirs in their backyard but not so much about solar and wind “farms”?
“ but the fact is 1976 had hotter day time temperature but cooler nights.”
Which is a sign of urban warming and site contamination.
No sign of any CO2 caused warming.
It appears that AGW is not happening much if any… just AUW.
Thats not my recollection of 1976. Its the no-sleep sweltering nights I remember. This year however has had a lot of very hot days but – a few days excepted – the nights have been OK.
My tolerance of hot summers has increased dramatically if the claims of hottest ever are true. In 1976 sleeping was difficult for many nights this year not a problem at any time the same for recent summers.
Obviously, you didn’t experience it. You’d know if you had.
Trust in the MO is a leap of faith. It suits you perfectly.
“Obviously, you didn’t experience it.”
I must have imagined it then. But I don’t claim to have a perfect memory of exact temperatures happening 50 years ago, averaged over 90 days and across the entire UK.
What parts of the MO records do you think are wrong? That ’76 had the hottest day time temperatures? That it was the sunniest Summer on record, that it was one of the driest on record?
The parts that are coming from class 4/5 stations for one.
Anything adjusted using data from the class 4/5 stations for another.
Wasn’t the point of the article that he data can’t be trusted?
All looking distinctly even. Hardly any difference, and probably nowhere accurate.
I’m waiting for the Met Office to announce a new weather station – trackside at the British Grand Prix.
Put it in the pits. That way the immediate vicinity would at least be representative of the rest of the track.
This looks like lying, bordering on criminality, on the part of the MO.
ummm.. wrong graphic .. You have a sea level chart, not the one that was in Pauls’ post
I checked the post at Paul’s site and it includes a list of MET sites and their classes. Of ~400 sites listed only 49 are Class 1 or 2. More than 250 of the stations are class 4 (+/- 2C) or class 5 (+/- 5C). Seems the odds of any extreme reading coming from a junk site are quite high.
Yep, the whole MO temperature measurement system has deteriorated to such a huge extent, that it is now only useful for climate propaganda.
And the fact that it continues to get worse, instead of better, basically proves it is either BY DESIGN… or by total incompetence.
That Weybourne site is on the coast at the back of a military museum. The obvious conclusion is that a WW2 tank drove past. But that’s pure speculation.
Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory (WAO) | AMOF
The website says it can be affected by pollution from shipping.
“This can be impacted by narrow pollution plumes from shipping in the N. Sea, and potentially gas platforms.”
The mystery deepens though when you question whether this site is where thy take the weather measurement, as well as the gas measurements.
The UEA weather station is described as:
“WAO is on the North Norfolk coast (52º57’02’’N, 1º07’19’’E, 15 m asl). It is a highly secure facility accessed through the Muckleburgh Military Collection at Weybourne, North Norfolk.”
But…
52º57’02’’N, 1º07’19’’E is nowhere near the coast. It’s just west of Wymondham.
At this point I realised that the official record keeping is not clear enough for me to spend time trying to unravel.
In East Sussex last night the temperature fell to 6C, in September.
As for global temperature, it’s impossible to measure. A complete fantasy. Half the globe isn’t covered by any measuring stations. Nobody knows what the temperature is.
So far in September; your 1 day below average, 1 day just below, and 12 above, as high as a minimum of 17C.
Measured where??
Are there any single decent surface stations left in Sussex.. Odds are very much against it.
Anybody else seeing the wrong images in this article? I’m getting a plot of sea level rise.
Mentioned that above… Go to the first link to see the actual post by Paul.
What the Met is doing is criminal. All top managers should be charged and prosecuted. There are lots of people sitting in jail who have done far less damage.
If CO2 is “well mixed” and CO2 is the “climate control knob” then how is it that temperature can change so dramatically by moving a mile away?
Weybourne, Norfolk? Only thing I can think of is the occasional passing steam engine on the North Norfolk Railway…