With a maximum temperature of 13.5°C, yesterday was our mildest
December day for seven years (13.6°C in 2000), though strangely the
warmest part of the day was at night! So it is no surprise to find
that last night was the mildest December night in Coventry since 1986
(12.6°C).

Our warmest December day remains 18.9C in 1899!

Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry UK
www.bablakeweather.co.uk

On 5 Dec, 08:30, Steve J wrote:
With a maximum temperature of 13.5°C, yesterday was our mildest
December day for seven years (13.6°C in 2000),

With a daytime maximum temperature of 14.6°C on Thursday, yesterday
was the mildest December day in our region since 1994 (14.9°C). With
records for Coventry dating back to 1892, only eight December days
have been warmer than Thursday, with seven of these warmest days in
the December ranking having been recorded before World War Two - so
much for recent Global Warming!




Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry UK
www.bablakeweather.co.uk

"Steve J" wrote:

With a maximum temperature of 13.5°C, yesterday was our mildest
December day for seven years (13.6°C in 2000), though strangely the
warmest part of the day was at night! So it is no surprise to find
that last night was the mildest December night in Coventry since 1986
(12.6°C).

Our warmest December day remains 18.9C in 1899!

That looks like an error Steve ... the national record for December
is only 18.3°C, and that was strongly f?hn assisted in northwest
Scotland!

All the Midlands sites in the Monthly Weather Report for Dec 1899
have maxes of 54-56°F.

Philip

On 7 Dec, 12:57, "Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote:

That looks like an error Steve ... the national record for December
is only 18.3°C, and that was strongly f?hn assisted in northwest
Scotland!

All the Midlands sites in the Monthly Weather Report for Dec 1899
have maxes of 54-56°F.

Yes Philip, you may be right; in fact, I had already put a question
mark next to the daily maximum temperature of 66F for the 5th on a
photocopy of the original hand scripted weather log.

There is another reading of 18.3C (65F) as a maximum for the.7th
December 1900 - this too is under scrutiny - what do you think?

It's strange because in both months these appear to be the only
obviously anomalous readings - wonder what was going on?

I'm afraid I am unable to ask the observer of the day to verify the
readings:-)

I haven't got back that far yet looking in detail of such data;
there's just so much to go through!

If we ignore December maxima in 1899 & 1900, our warmest December day
is 16.4C in 1915.


Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry UK
www.bablakeweather.co.uk

In article
,
Steve J writes:
On 7 Dec, 12:57, "Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote:

That looks like an error Steve ... the national record for December
is only 18.3°C, and that was strongly f?hn assisted in northwest
Scotland!

All the Midlands sites in the Monthly Weather Report for Dec 1899
have maxes of 54-56°F.

Yes Philip, you may be right; in fact, I had already put a question
mark next to the daily maximum temperature of 66F for the 5th on a
photocopy of the original hand scripted weather log.

There is another reading of 18.3C (65F) as a maximum for the.7th
December 1900 - this too is under scrutiny - what do you think?

It's strange because in both months these appear to be the only
obviously anomalous readings - wonder what was going on?
snip

My guess, and that's all it is, would be that the 66 was a misreading or
misrecording of 56, and the 65 probably a transposition of 56.
--
John Hall
"Honest criticism is hard to take,
particularly from a relative, a friend,
an acquaintance, or a stranger." Franklin P Jones

"Steve J" wrote :
On 7 Dec, 12:57, "Philip Eden" wrote:

That looks like an error Steve ... the national record for December
is only 18.3°C, and that was strongly f?hn assisted in northwest
Scotland!

All the Midlands sites in the Monthly Weather Report for Dec 1899
have maxes of 54-56°F.

Yes Philip, you may be right; in fact, I had already put a question
mark next to the daily maximum temperature of 66F for the 5th on a
photocopy of the original hand scripted weather log.

There is another reading of 18.3C (65F) as a maximum for the.7th
December 1900 - this too is under scrutiny - what do you think?

The monthly highs in the Midlands range from 55°F at Edgbaston
to 59°F at Cirencester ... none of them on the 7th, which suggests
another reading or transcription error.

If we ignore December maxima in 1899 & 1900, our warmest December day
is 16.4C in 1915.

This one's intriguing (16.4 isn't the equivalent of a whole number
fahrenheit)
but Coventry was appearing in the MWR by this time, and it is given as
56°F. If this is your station, Steve, then the observation has been
quality controlled.

I'd certainly agree with John about the kind of errors that do crop up.
Having leafed through thousands of pages of original observations,
5deg and 10deg errors and transpositions are the most common, but
I've also seen 6 for 0 and vice versa, 5 for 2 and v.v., and 7 for 1
and v.v. More difficult are the 1deg errors on Celsius thermometers
(an error I occasionally make) - for example reading 17.3 as 18.3.

Philip

In uk.sci.weather on Fri, 7 Dec 2007, Philip Eden
wrote :

There is another reading of 18.3C (65F) as a maximum for the.7th
December 1900 - this too is under scrutiny - what do you think?

The monthly highs in the Midlands range from 55°F at Edgbaston
to 59°F at Cirencester ... none of them on the 7th, which suggests
another reading or transcription error.

57F in Cheltenham on 21/12/1900.
--
Paul Hyett, Cheltenham (change 'invalid83261' to 'blueyonder' to email me)

On 7 Dec, 19:00, "Philip Eden" wrote with reference to Coventry's
maximum temperature of 16.4C on 22/12/1915:

This one's intriguing (16.4 isn't the equivalent of a whole number
fahrenheit)
but Coventry was appearing in the MWR by this time, and it is given as
56°F. If this is your station, Steve, then the observation has been
quality controlled.

Again, clearly written in the log by hand, it records 61.5F as the
maximum, with 47F as the dry bulb at 0900hr; however, I don't think
our record was in the MWR then, so will go by that as a mis-reading
thanks Philip = however, we also have a 57.5F on the 14th!

What did you get in Cheltenham, Paul?

Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry UK
www.bablakeweather.co.uk

In uk.sci.weather on Sun, 9 Dec 2007, Steve J
wrote :
On 7 Dec, 19:00, "Philip Eden" wrote with reference to Coventry's
maximum temperature of 16.4C on 22/12/1915:

This one's intriguing (16.4 isn't the equivalent of a whole number
fahrenheit)
but Coventry was appearing in the MWR by this time, and it is given as
56°F. If this is your station, Steve, then the observation has been
quality controlled.

Again, clearly written in the log by hand, it records 61.5F as the
maximum, with 47F as the dry bulb at 0900hr; however, I don't think
our record was in the MWR then, so will go by that as a mis-reading
thanks Philip = however, we also have a 57.5F on the 14th!

What did you get in Cheltenham, Paul?

See my own reply to Philip's post.
--
Paul Hyett, Cheltenham (change 'invalid83261' to 'blueyonder' to email me)

"Steve J" wrote :
On 7 Dec, 19:00, "Philip Eden" wrote with reference to Coventry's
maximum temperature of 16.4C on 22/12/1915:

This one's intriguing (16.4 isn't the equivalent of a whole number
fahrenheit)
but Coventry was appearing in the MWR by this time, and it is given as
56°F. If this is your station, Steve, then the observation has been
quality controlled.

Again, clearly written in the log by hand, it records 61.5F as the
maximum, with 47F as the dry bulb at 0900hr; however, I don't think
our record was in the MWR then, so will go by that as a mis-reading
thanks Philip = however, we also have a 57.5F on the 14th!

Steve, it appears most likely that you have an observer problem
during that era, although if you want to investigate it seriously
you would also have to be aware of possible changes in site/exposure,
screen type, and instrumentation. The first step would be to compare
monthly mean max and min with adjacent stations to identify
systematic differences, see if there are any non-systematic differences,
and then determine whether the differences in extreme max and
extreme min (I say these, because they are available in publications)
are within limits of tolerance. This may, of course, open a whole
can of worms.

Philip