.... was 5.2°C, amongst the coldest places across Britain last night.
Not unusual for this site to be cold - for example, these are the
minima for the last few years for August:-
2003: 5.0, 2004: 6.9, 2005: 6.4, 2006: 4.6, 2007: 5.5

Haven't got any long term 'extreme' climatology, so can't put those
into context, but it reminds me that in my early days, I could never
get my mind around why this place called 'Bournemouth' would have such
low minima - often on clear, still nights being the coldest place, in
England at least (if the 'north' was cloudy/breezy). I thought that
the readings were from some municipal gardens near-by the beach: I
then found out that the 'Bournemouth' quoted was in fact Hurn airfield
(about 8 km inland / due north / of the coastline), and about as
representative of the town as Renfrew/Abbotsinch are to Glasgow City
or Rhoose to the centre of Cardiff!

Despite the relentless march of residential development (and the
growth of the industrial units on the airport site), it is still in a
largely rural setting, on the flood plain just upstream of the
confluence of the Stour and the Moors rivers. Chilled air gently
drains from the northwest (off Parley Common), pooling over the
airfield - indeed, though I haven't seen any investigations into such,
I wonder if the urban development to the south and the forestry
plantation to the east form a 'block' to the air flow, allowing
accumulation of cold air?

Here in West Moors, even further inland (~13 km), there used to be
located a significant railway junction: the Salisbury & Dorset
Junction Railway came in from the north, to meet up with the
Southampton & Dorchester Railway, the original 'main line' (before the
through route opened via Sway / Christchurch / Bournemouth / Poole /
Holes Bay curve etc.) Apparently, because of the location of the
junction, it used to be subject to frequent 'frozen points' episodes,
as cold air drained off the moorland, located to the north and east
(before the building of the Army Fuel depot & establishment of the FC
plantations).

The first train of the day (from Salisbury), would regularly have to
wait in winter on the single-line just north of the junction whilst
staff attended to the points/signal wires etc. The village was much
smaller then - on cold, still mornings (circa 5am) the
milk/post/newspaper train would wake the entire village up as the
driver tried to attract the attention of the signalman via leaning on
the whistle! Mind you, driving a rather large 'kettle on wheels' there
was plenty of hot water available to attend to matters.

All long gone now of course: the site of the junction is smothered
with bungalows!

Martin.

--
Martin Rowley
West Moors, East Dorset (UK): 17m (56ft) amsl
Lat: 50.82N Long: 01.88W
NGR: SU 082 023

"Martin Rowley" wrote in message
...
... was 5.2°C, amongst the coldest places across Britain last night. Not
unusual for this site to be cold - for example, these are the minima for
the last few years for August:-
2003: 5.0, 2004: 6.9, 2005: 6.4, 2006: 4.6, 2007: 5.5

Martin, Hurn had 4.5°C on 1 Aug 1976 -- a well-known cold night --
possibly the lowest there during the first half of the month.

It's easier to get low mins at the end of the month, of course,
and Hurn's min on 30 August 1964 was 2.5°C. Not sure
whether this is the record, and don't have time today to do
an exhaustive check.

Philip

On 15 Aug, 12:59, "Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote:
"Martin Rowley" wrote in message

... ... was 5.2°C, amongst the coldest places across Britain last night. Not
unusual for this site to be cold - for example, these are the minima for
the last few years for August:-
2003: 5.0, 2004: 6.9, 2005: 6.4, 2006: 4.6, 2007: 5.5

Martin, Hurn had 4.5°C on 1 Aug 1976 -- a well-known cold night --
possibly the lowest there during the first half of the month.

It's easier to get low mins at the end of the month, of course,
and Hurn's min on 30 August 1964 was 2.5°C. Not sure
whether this is the record, and don't have time today to do
an exhaustive check.

Philip

Min of 7.9C in Penzance last night - my record August low being 7.2C
on 29/08/98

A decidedly cool day today. Wednesday managed 18.8C in the afternoon
sunshine despite the wind. 18.9C yesterday - felt warmer in light
winds & prolonged sunshine - beaches absolutely packed.
Today struggling to get above 17C and now quite dull & breezy. With
the cloud, wind & lower temperatures, a very different feel to
yesterday.

Graham
Penzance

Martin Rowley wrote:
... was 5.2°C, amongst the coldest places across Britain last night.
Not unusual for this site to be cold - for example, these are the
minima for the last few years for August:-
2003: 5.0, 2004: 6.9, 2005: 6.4, 2006: 4.6, 2007: 5.5


RAF Marham was reporting 7c as I set out for a quick 20 miler on the
bike this morning. I was Officially Chilly in short-sleeve top, shorts
and sandals, and had to ride hard up a couple of hills near Castle Acre
to warm up properly.

It was nice to see the Sun though - and feel its warmth once it rose enough.

--
Chris
Norfolk

"Martin Rowley" wrote
... was 5.2°C, amongst the coldest places across Britain last night.
Not
unusual for this site to be cold - for example, these are the
minima for
the last few years for August:-
2003: 5.0, 2004: 6.9, 2005: 6.4, 2006: 4.6, 2007: 5.5
[and]

On 15 Aug, 12:59, "Philip Eden" wrote:

Martin, Hurn had 4.5°C on 1 Aug 1976 -- a well-known cold night --
possibly the lowest there during the first half of the month.

It's easier to get low mins at the end of the month, of course,
and Hurn's min on 30 August 1964 was 2.5°C. Not sure
whether this is the record, and don't have time today to do
an exhaustive check.

.... thanks for all that. Unfortunately, I didn't know back in 2003
(when I had access to all the data) that I would be moving to this
spot, or I would have spent a while in the MetO Library and garnered
all the data for Hurn.

Martin.


--
Martin Rowley
West Moors, East Dorset (UK): 17m (56ft) amsl
Lat: 50.82N Long: 01.88W
NGR: SU 082 023

On Aug 15, 2:30*pm, "Martin Rowley"
wrote:
"Martin Rowley" wrote
... was 5.2°C, amongst the coldest places across Britain last night.
Not
unusual for this site to be cold - for example, these are the
minima for
the last few years for August:-
2003: 5.0, 2004: 6.9, 2005: 6.4, 2006: 4.6, 2007: 5.5

[and]

On 15 Aug, 12:59, "Philip Eden" wrote:



Martin, Hurn had 4.5°C on 1 Aug 1976 -- a well-known cold night --
possibly the lowest there during the first half of the month.

It's easier to get low mins at the end of the month, of course,
and Hurn's min on 30 August 1964 was 2.5°C. Not sure
whether this is the record, and don't have time today to do
an exhaustive check.

... thanks for all that. Unfortunately, I didn't know back in 2003
(when I had access to all the data) that I would be moving to this
spot, or I would have spent a while in the MetO Library and garnered
all the data for Hurn.

Martin.

--
Martin Rowley
West Moors, East Dorset (UK): 17m (56ft) amsl
Lat: 50.82N * Long: 01.88W
NGR: SU 082 023

I am not so sure that Hurn is unusual, minimum here the last 3 Augusts
(since I had the VP2 installed) 2006 5.4C, 2007 5.7C, last night 6.4C.
Numerous No sandy soils here, just rural and low lying. I suspect
that the so called cold spots are just representative of many rural
areas. I wonder how 'cold' it could get here with snow cover and deep
dry air...

Steve.
www.rockbeareweather.co.uk

Martin Rowley wrote:
... was 5.2°C, amongst the coldest places across Britain last night.
Not unusual for this site to be cold - for example, these are the
minima for the last few years for August:-
2003: 5.0, 2004: 6.9, 2005: 6.4, 2006: 4.6, 2007: 5.5

It did surprise me when I left my flat in East Cliff at 7:15am (cycling
- in shorts and t-shirt) and it was actually cold! Luckily I was only
going as far as the station and it had warmed up enough by the time I
had the 30-minute cycle to work in Southampton.

It would be really interesting to get some comparison between the
temperatures recorded at Hurn and those actually in Bournemouth town.

Jonathan

"Jonathan Stott" wrote...
snip
It would be really interesting to get some comparison between the
temperatures recorded at Hurn and those actually in Bournemouth
town.



.... I'm sure there is a proper survey somewhere, but picking out some
lowest minima from the COL reports, where both Hurn (BOH) and Kings
Park (Bournemouth) (KPB) are available, some recent examples:-

Nov 2007 BOH -6.2 KPB -3.4 24th
Feb 2008 BOH -5.9 KPB -4.0 17th
Apr 2008 BOH -4.6 KPB -2.0 8th.

The sites are similarly classified in the old/new COL grading scheme.
It shouldn't be assumed that these differences are relevant in every
case.

The 'Bournemouth West' station (which I don't have any knowledge of,
and which is labelled a lower-grade than above), shows broadly similar
differences.

To answer Steve's point in another branch of this thread, I certainly
don't want to claim that Hurn is some latter-day Rickmansworth! His
point is a valid one; however, on *some* occasions, Hurn does seem to
stand out when the broad synoptic type is similar across Dorset and
immediately adjacent counties, as being 'somewhat' colder than might
otherwise be expected.

Martin.



--
Martin Rowley
West Moors, East Dorset (UK): 17m (56ft) amsl
Lat: 50.82N Long: 01.88W
NGR: SU 082 023

On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 at 05:31:33, Graham Easterling
wrote in uk.sci.weather :

Min of 7.9C in Penzance last night - my record August low being 7.2C
on 29/08/98

Down to 5.5C here - the coldest August night for 5 years.
--
Paul Hyett, Cheltenham (change 'invalid83261' to 'blueyonder' to email me)

"Jonathan Stott" wrote in message
...
Martin Rowley wrote:
... was 5.2°C, amongst the coldest places across Britain last night. Not
unusual for this site to be cold - for example, these are the minima for
the last few years for August:-
2003: 5.0, 2004: 6.9, 2005: 6.4, 2006: 4.6, 2007: 5.5

It did surprise me when I left my flat in East Cliff at 7:15am (cycling -
in shorts and t-shirt) and it was actually cold! Luckily I was only going
as far as the station and it had warmed up enough by the time I had the
30-minute cycle to work in Southampton.

It would be really interesting to get some comparison between the
temperatures recorded at Hurn and those actually in Bournemouth town.

Jonathan

11c minimum here last night in Springbourne, east Bournemouth about half a
mile from the coast.

Jim.