On 30/10/2015 09:17, Eskimo Will wrote:


Hi Len, again!

Having just read Jim's excellent response and queries in this thread,
I'm getting interested now in my own hypothesis which I'd dearly like to
test. If I gave you a list of "orographic enhancement days" (moist
SW'ly winds), would you be able to extract the Plymouth rainfall (and
wind) data for me? If we do this well it could end up as a super paper?
What do you think? Could be a lot of work for me initially though to
find the days, but that's science - hard work.

Will


Will. As I've stated elsewhere, I can't find anything before 2000, but
since then, Pitsford have kept very comprehensive records which are all
downloadable. This may or may not interest you, but they have a record
of wind, various temperatures and rainfall at 15 minute intervals from
2001 onwards. It can be found at
http://www.northantsweather.org.uk/archive/aws/ . They are .zip files
for each year, base format .csv which open in MS Excel by default. "15
minute wind records" caught my eye bearing in mind how part of this
conversation is unfolding. Being slap bang in the middle of the country,
they could be fairly indicative of the rest of the country.
(Home page at http://www.northantsweather.org.uk).

Pitsford's AWS is situated on the roof of the Pitsford Hall Grammar
School, about 5 miles north of Northampton. Ground level at the site is
about 400ft asl.

They have a page marked up "A review of 2011 and 2012 in the context of
a changing climate". It includes the following paragraph:
"However, there is every indication that not only is the timing of
rainfall changing, but also the nature of rainfall itself. When it does
rain, it is tending to rain harder and for longer. Again, this may be
the result of an increase in number of depression ‘trains’ tracking
across the UK – a product of the static position of the jet stream, but
it may also be the result of more energy in the atmosphere which points
to global warming as an ultimate cause. In Northampton, an analysis of
temperature data in 2010, suggests the county has seen an overall
increase in average temperatures of 0.1C since 1931. "

"Tending to rain harder" accounts for the severe drop in ground water
levels over the last few years, since most of that will result in
surface water run off.

Just found out Pitsford didn't start operating until 1998. That doesn't
excuse the county's other stations for not posting older records.

jim

Today, a slightly damper Northampton!