On Saturday, May 25, 2013 7:41:29 PM UTC+1, Graham P Davis wrote:
On Sat, 25 May 2013 17:09:31 +0100

Metman2012 wrote:



On 25/05/2013 16:40, Graham P Davis wrote:

On Sat, 25 May 2013 15:28:34 +0100

Adam Lea wrote:



On 25/05/13 10:45, Graham P Davis wrote:





Which is why I wish they'd return to the strict usage of 'cold,'

'cool,' 'rather warm,' etc., of a few decades ago.



Isn't that subjective as well?



Not at all, they were defined by temperature anomalies. Each word or

phrase was assigned to a range of anomalies.



The following is from the Radio Times, probably somewhen in the

1950s. The terms and changed before I started work in '62 but give

the general idea. Temperatures are in Fahrenheit.



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

The heat-wave sizzles on as we go to press and a reader asks us to

explain just what is meant by the descriptive terms used in BBC

weather forecasts at this time of the year. We, in turn, asked the

meteorological back-room boys for enlightenment, and they have

provided us with the following table:



Very hot - More than 20 above normal

Hot - 16-20 above normal

Very warm - 11-15 above normal

Warm - 6-10 above normal

Rather warm - 3-5 above normal

Rather cool - 3-5 below normal

Cool - 6-9 below normal

Very cool - 10-15 below normal

Cold - More than 15 below normal



Words such as 'cooler,' 'colder,' 'milder,' 'warmer' are used when a

comparison is made between the temperature conditions expected and

those recently experienced. We should add that 'normal' at the

present time varies between a maximum of approximately 70 in the

southern, and 65 in the northern, regions of the United Kingdom.

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





I've been looking in my various Forecaster's Reference books et al

for this, but couldn't find it. I think that in the 70s and 80s these

were changed, as I remember being told that you never used hot in the

winter or cold in the summer. Certainly nothing about 'bitterly cold'

etc. These are useful because we aren't very good at judging

temperatures - 12 C in the winter and we think it's warm; in the

summer we think it's cold!



As I said, I think they were changed before I joined up - had to be

because of switch to Celsius - but it may have changed again after '78

when I switched from forecasting to programming.



I've found that the above table only referred to Summer. Here is the

full Monty taken from 'Weather Map', published in 1956.



Summer

(Mid May to mid September)

Very Hot - More than 20F above normal

Hot - 16-20F above normal

Very warm - 11-15F above normal

Warm - 6-10F above normal

Rather warm - 3-5F above normal

Rather cool - 3-5F below normal

Cool - 6-9F below normal

Very cool - 10-15F below normal

Cold - More than 15F below normal



Winter

(November to mid March)

Very mild - More than 10F above normal

Mild - 3-10F above normal

Rather cold - 3-5F below normal

Cold - 6-10F below normal

Very cold - More than 10F below normal



Spring and Autumn

(Mid March to mid May; mid September to October)

Very warm - More than 12F above normal

Warm - 8-12F above normal

Rather warm - 3-7F above normal

Rather cold - 3-7F below normal

Cold - 8-15F below normal

Very cold - More than 15F below normal







--

Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks.

Free office softwa http://www.libreoffice.org/

Carlos Seixas, Sonata nº 1 - best version of this I've found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXox7vonfEg

Thanks for that Graham. Extremely interesting. I love the semantic qualifier "rather". *))