On Sun, 2 Oct 2011 15:57:46 +0100, "Martin Rowley"
wrote:

On Oct 2, 9:23 am, "Martin Rowley" wrote:
... I see from the Met Office press release he-

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/...t_weather.html

That the *previous* record for Wales is given as 26.4 C at Ruthin in
1985 (1st October).

But I have a note, taken from 'official' sources some years ago,
that
the highest October value for Wales was 26.7 C (presumably 80 F
observed, subsequently converted) on October 3rd in 1908. This was
recorded at Betws-Y-Coed (Conwy/Snowdonia) and was part of a
remarkable very warm/hot spell that also gave Scotland its October
record of 25.6 C at Elgin on the 2nd in 1908 ... both these values
are
absent from the Met Office 'extremes' data base via this link he-

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/extremes/

Does anyone know what happened to these values? Were they found
'wanting' with the passage of time, or is this a case of the
database
not 'starting' until a certain point?

... apparently there is nothing wrong with the 1908 data, at least as
far as the Welsh value is concerned. Need to bear that in mind when
reading the Met Office press release. Perhaps someone should open up
the Library at the weekend :-/

On the Met Office website Monthly Extremes page


http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/... imum_england

it says:

"These records are based mainly on digitised data from 1959.

* Highest daily maximum and lowest daily minimum temperature records
(including all records pre-1959) appear in Daily Temperature Extremes
for Britain, J.D.C. Webb and G.T. Meaden, 2000. Weather 55, 298-315

Lowest daily maximum temperature records exclude stations above
500 m AMSL

When compiling these tables, an attempt has been made to verify all
records by comparing values with neighbouring stations. A ^ symbol
denotes some reservations about the record value quoted"

Perhaps they should have a copy of "Weather - 55" handy in the press
office, or why not just update their website page from it?

--
Dave
Fareham