In message .com, Ken
Cook writes

Tony Powell wrote:
The official highest 1800-1800 total was a mere 26mm according to Ceefax
page 407 who get their totals from the MO, don't they not! Perhaps if the
many stations weren't non-operational then rainfall records would be more
accurate.

Interestingly, since the start of autumn I have unofficially been wetter
than the official wettest in the whole of the country on two occasions.

snip

Obviously, there will always be
these situations (can't have sites everywhere) but if we're going to
understand the climate, we need to get it right. Alongside my two
discrepancies, the official figures show an actual error of in excess of
16mm and possibly much more over just three days of misquoted figures this
autumn alone.

Any thoughts?

Tony

Hi, Tony

This has concerned me for some years now. The Met O is very selective
with the obs for highest / lowest etc and needs to be in many cases.
There are lots of badly sited weather stations with inaccurate
instruments whose obs are obviously wrong (and some official ones also
btw!). However, there are many accurate sites (Graham's Penzance site
is a COL grade A) and lots of Met O climate sites who publish on the
web but are not included in the Health Resort type 18Z returns. Colin
Youngs does a great job with that and when he returns will continue to
do so, I'm sure.

My sites in Copley have been known to "beat" the p.407 readings on many
occasions but I really don't know how the Met O would collate all the
hundreds of climate sites in time for publication.

Best wishes,

Ken
Copley 253metres asl, nr Barnard Castle, Teesdale, County Durham
http://copley.mysite.orange.co.uk
Best wishes


Strictly speaking, any highest/lowest wettest/driest statistics are
meaningless unless accompanied by a pointer to the list of stations from
which the statistics are derived. Perhaps the best/worst example of this
can be found in the Met Office Daily Weather Summary. In winter it
contains a chart showing spot values of snow depth. Often the chart is
merely overprinted with the slogan "NO SNOW" even when much of the high
ground in Northern England and Scotland has a complete snow cover. The
"NO SNOW" slogan actually means that there is no snow at any of the
stations used to compile the chart, which is quite another matter. The
stations used for the chart are not stated.

Norman.
(delete "thisbit" twice to e-mail)
--
Norman Lynagh Weather Consultancy
Chalfont St Giles 85m a.s.l.
England