Hi

As you I do a blog a bit (but the doctor says it'll be alright if I keep taking the tablets) and a blog I wrote yesterday's about the occurrence of extreme rainfall events in the UK, I presented some evidence that the number of events showed a slight increase since 1931 in England & Wales. Someone disputed this finding, saying that the values in the UKP data that I used were over too large an area, and that any of the more 'local' extreme events would be averaged out.

I was just wondering if any of you, who have been keeping rainfall data for years, have noticed an increase in the number of days when you had more than an inch of rain (and that's 2 inch if you live on Dartmoor)?

Obviously the longer the record you have the better, and in that regard I've just contacted the Met Office to see if they can help me with some daily totals for a few sites to see what they show.

I know we have the UKMO WOW site for current weather, but that doesn't help much with climate data from the past.

It does make me wonder what George James Symons, the founder of the British Rainfall Organisation would do with the amazing possibilities that the internet offer in unifying a network of rainfall observers across the country.

Bruce.

exmetman wrote in
:

Hi
..

I was just wondering if any of you, who have been keeping rainfall
data for years, have noticed an increase in the number of days when
you had more than an inch of rain (and that's 2 inch if you live on
Dartmoor)?

Obviously the longer the record you have the better, and in that
regard I've just contacted the Met Office to see if they can help me
with some daily totals for a few sites to see what they show.


Bruce.

Bruce

I have been keeping records since October 2001 with only the only data
loss ocurring in January and February 2013. In my locality it is
extremly unusual to get an inch of rain in a day and I am sure that
there results would not be statistically significant.

You might wish to revise the value down for those parts of the country
where annual rainfall is lower than the case in Devon. I had no days in
2013 where the total rainfall exceeded 1".


Alan


Alan Gardiner
Chiswell Green, St Albans
101m ASL

On Monday, 10 February 2014 20:42:26 UTC, Alan Gardiner wrote:
exmetman wrote in
:

I was just wondering if any of you, who have been keeping rainfall
data for years, have noticed an increase in the number of days when
you had more than an inch of rain (and that's 2 inch if you live on
Dartmoor)?

Obviously the longer the record you have the better, and in that
regard I've just contacted the Met Office to see if they can help me
with some daily totals for a few sites to see what they show.

I have been keeping records since October 2001 with only the only data
loss ocurring in January and February 2013. In my locality it is
extremly unusual to get an inch of rain in a day and I am sure that
there results would not be statistically significant.

You might wish to revise the value down for those parts of the country
where annual rainfall is lower than the case in Devon. I had no days in
2013 where the total rainfall exceeded 1".

Or as the Jews say when not murdering original inhabitants:
Averages smaverages!

I dare say climatologists have a model for that sort of thing. (If you have a copy, I don't want to hear it.)
It probably goes like this:

"Lalala lalala lalalalalalalala
Lalala lalala lalalalalalalala
Lalala lalala lalalalalalalala
Lalala lalala lalalalalalalala
We're all dawlish here, tra-la"

Lalala lalala lalalalalalalala
Lalala lalala lalalalalalalala
Lalala lalala lalalalalalalala
And we're all dawlish he-urgh

Lalala lalala lalalalalalalala
Lalala lalala lalalalalalalala
Lalala lalala lalalalalalalala
Lalala lalala lalalalalalalala
Because we are all... daw-lish"

Alan

If you look my blog I've done just that, but that's not using rainfall from a 'real' site but is a composite value made up from many sites in a region.. What I really would like is daily values for a site in the SW that extends back at least 40 years or more.

Its quite obvious from the lack of response that no one has a long period rainfall record or seems to know of one which is a pity.

Bruce.

"exmetman" wrote in message
...
Alan

If you look my blog I've done just that, but that's not using rainfall from
a 'real' site but is a composite value made up from many sites in a region.
What I really would like is daily values for a site in the SW that extends
back at least 40 years or more.

Its quite obvious from the lack of response that no one has a long period
rainfall record or seems to know of one which is a pity.

Bruce.

Cheer up! We aren't all watching this newsgroup ready to answer within an
hour of a post.

AFAIK, the data you want is held by BADC. Although they state that is is
only available to bona fide academics the general public can apply for
access. Provided you do not want to sell it on, I don't see why they should
refuse access. If they do, just mention the Freedom of Information Act :-)

Cheers, Alastair.

"Alastair McDonald" wrote in message
...

"exmetman" wrote in message
...
Alan

If you look my blog I've done just that, but that's not using rainfall
from a 'real' site but is a composite value made up from many sites in a
region. What I really would like is daily values for a site in the SW that
extends back at least 40 years or more.

Its quite obvious from the lack of response that no one has a long period
rainfall record or seems to know of one which is a pity.

Bruce.

Cheer up! We aren't all watching this newsgroup ready to answer within an
hour of a post.

AFAIK, the data you want is held by BADC. Although they state that is is
only available to bona fide academics the general public can apply for
access. Provided you do not want to sell it on, I don't see why they
should refuse access. If they do, just mention the Freedom of Information
Act :-)

Cheers, Alastair.

Sorry, forgot the link to the BADC rainfall data:

http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/view/badc.ner...a-00163e251233


Cheers,Alastair.

On Monday, 10 February 2014 22:42:18 UTC, Alastair wrote:

AFAIK, the data you want is held by BADC. Although they state that is is
only available to bona fide academics the general public can apply for
access. Provided you do not want to sell it on, I don't see why they should
refuse access. If they do, just mention the Freedom of Information Act :-)

BADC seems an appropriate term for them.
Badc nts!

On Monday, February 10, 2014 11:10:21 AM UTC, exmetman wrote:
Hi



As you I do a blog a bit (but the doctor says it'll be alright if I keep taking the tablets) and a blog I wrote yesterday's about the occurrence of extreme rainfall events in the UK, I presented some evidence that the number of events showed a slight increase since 1931 in England & Wales. Someone disputed this finding, saying that the values in the UKP data that I used were over too large an area, and that any of the more 'local' extreme events would be averaged out.



I was just wondering if any of you, who have been keeping rainfall data for years, have noticed an increase in the number of days when you had more than an inch of rain (and that's 2 inch if you live on Dartmoor)?



Obviously the longer the record you have the better, and in that regard I've just contacted the Met Office to see if they can help me with some daily totals for a few sites to see what they show.



I know we have the UKMO WOW site for current weather, but that doesn't help much with climate data from the past.



It does make me wonder what George James Symons, the founder of the British Rainfall Organisation would do with the amazing possibilities that the internet offer in unifying a network of rainfall observers across the country.



Bruce.

You might want to consider looking into the rainfall figures recorded in the annual publications of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association. These go back at least until the latter part of the 19th C. Some editions are available via Google Books, but for the most part you will need to need to travel to a library that hold a complete run (Exeter, Plymouth?)

D. W.

"exmetman" wrote in message
...
Alan

If you look my blog I've done just that, but that's not using rainfall from
a 'real' site but is a composite value made up from many sites in a region.
What I really would like is daily values for a site in the SW that extends
back at least 40 years or more.

Its quite obvious from the lack of response that no one has a long period
rainfall record or seems to know of one which is a pity.

Bruce.

==============

Bruce I have an ongoing project to look into climate change over Dartmoor
that will involve extracting rainfall data for Princetown from British
Rainfall going back into the 19th Century. This work has been commissioned
so I have to take my time and do it properly and will be unable to release
results until it has been published. Have you read my paper on Extreme
Rainfalls in the Twentieth Century published many years ago in
Meteorological Applications? This work has been extended by Paul Davies in
the Met Office taking it into the 21st Century. The conclusion so far is
that there has been a steep increase during the 21st Century but nothing
sig. before then. The definition of extreme takes into account orographic,
frontal and convective with the rainfall depth exceeding a threshold
according to duration. The rainfalls *very roughly* are local 1:100 year
return period for frontal and orographic and 1:10000 year return period for
convective storms. I'm not entirely convinced that your more simple approach
will be robust enough, but good luck anyway. Let me know if you would like
to see some papers, I think I have them at home in computer format.

Will
--
http://www.lyneside.demon.co.uk/Hayt...antage_Pro.htm
Will Hand (Haytor, Devon, 1017 feet asl)
---------------------------------------------

In article ,
exmetman writes:
Obviously the longer the record you have the better, and in that
regard I've just contacted the Met Office to see if they can help me
with some daily totals for a few sites to see what they show.

ISTR that daily totals for Hampstead going back at least forty years are
available from Philip Eden's site.... Just checked, and it seems the
daily totals are only online back to 2003. Ditto for Luton.

http://www.weather-uk.com/index.html

If you want to use the data (and see if any earlier data might be
available), I'd suggest emailing Philip first.
--
John Hall "He crams with cans of poisoned meat
The subjects of the King,
And when they die by thousands G.K.Chesterton:
Why, he laughs like anything." from "Song Against Grocers"