But, Julian,
what do you make of the boundaries used between different colours?
These are, presumably, rounded figures which approximate to quint boundaries
.... is this cartographically acceptable these days, is it a whim of the
compilers who perhaps don't give a damn what is and
is not normal practice, or is it, ahem, best described otherwise
in private? Or am I plain out of date?

Philip Eden

Perish the thought! I agree that a bit of human intervention to align the
boundaries between the categories to whole numbers would make the maps much
easier to interpret. There is one specific problem; because roughly equal areas
fall into each 'bin' or category, it is impossible to tell which locations have
the extreme values for any chosen variable. For example, the deep red shading
on the temperature maps always extends across a wide area; which area is
warmest. Which mountain top is (assumed to be ) coldest? Which locations are
driest in any given month? As the key specifies the extreme value in each case,
it would be nice to know (MO - just place a cross on the maps to indicate, if
you cannot change the boundaries). .

I suspect that someone in the climate division ( Nat. Climate Information
Centre) might be following this dialogue...?

I still think that the maps represent an advance for climatology on the web
because of the amount of detail they show - such a novelty on climate sites.

Julian Mayes, West Molesey, Surrey.