Anyone else notice the bizarre notion that this is already
London's wettest August since 1917, which underpinned
a feature on "London Tonight" tonight?

At Hampstead the month's total to date is 45mm ... still well
short of 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000, etc,etc!

Philip

"Philip Eden" wrote...
Anyone else notice the bizarre notion that this is already
London's wettest August since 1917, which underpinned
a feature on "London Tonight" tonight?

At Hampstead the month's total to date is 45mm ... still well
short of 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000, etc,etc!


.... oh dear; still, mustn't let the facts get in the way of a good
story.

Martin.


--
Martin Rowley
West Moors, East Dorset (UK): 17m (56ft) amsl
Lat: 50.82N Long: 01.88W
NGR: SU 082 023

in 35831 20080818 191540 "Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote:
Anyone else notice the bizarre notion that this is already
London's wettest August since 1917, which underpinned
a feature on "London Tonight" tonight?

At Hampstead the month's total to date is 45mm ... still well
short of 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000, etc,etc!

Philip

There's more than one way of measuring "wettest".
Like amount of time when something is falling or has just fallen.
My lawn is dry enough to mow about once every 5-6 days.

Bob Martin wrote:
in 35831 20080818 191540 "Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote:
Anyone else notice the bizarre notion that this is already
London's wettest August since 1917, which underpinned
a feature on "London Tonight" tonight?

At Hampstead the month's total to date is 45mm ... still well
short of 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000, etc,etc!

Philip

There's more than one way of measuring "wettest".
Like amount of time when something is falling or has just fallen.
My lawn is dry enough to mow about once every 5-6 days.

I've had 9 August's wetter (so far) since 1978 here at Southend-on-Sea.

--
Keith (Southend)
http://www.southendweather.net
e-mail: kreh at southendweather dot net

I'm approaching 90mm of rain this month, not too far from Copely. The
overwhelming impression this summer is of 'dullness'. I can't remember
the last sunny day we had, and it's rained every day this month, bar
one. Here in Ferryhill, Summer (June, July, August) is already wetter
than last year. Temperatures are still above long term means though.
August's high so far is only 21.3 degC on the 6th.

Dave (Ferryhill)
http://www.ferryhillweather.co.uk

Keith (Southend) wrote:
Bob Martin wrote:
in 35831 20080818 191540 "Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote:
Anyone else notice the bizarre notion that this is already
London's wettest August since 1917, which underpinned
a feature on "London Tonight" tonight?

At Hampstead the month's total to date is 45mm ... still well
short of 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000, etc,etc!

Philip

There's more than one way of measuring "wettest".
Like amount of time when something is falling or has just fallen.
My lawn is dry enough to mow about once every 5-6 days.

I've had 9 August's wetter (so far) since 1978 here at Southend-on-Sea.

--
Keith (Southend)
http://www.southendweather.net
e-mail: kreh at southendweather dot net

On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:22:08 GMT, Bob Martin wrote:

in 35831 20080818 191540 "Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote:
Anyone else notice the bizarre notion that this is already
London's wettest August since 1917, which underpinned
a feature on "London Tonight" tonight?

At Hampstead the month's total to date is 45mm ... still well
short of 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000, etc,etc!

Philip

There's more than one way of measuring "wettest".
Like amount of time when something is falling or has just fallen.
My lawn is dry enough to mow about once every 5-6 days.

Wettest must mean the most rainfall; your experience could perhaps be
better described by working out the average humidity for a month or other
period of time. If the humidity is high then wet grass takes longer to dry.

As an illustration the figure for June in St Albans was 72% and July 67%
with respective total rainfall amounts of 35mm and 79mm.



Alan Gardiner
Chiswell Green, St Albans
101m ASL
19/08/2008 10:18:49

Johnny Walker of Radio 2 fame announced this morning that it's been the
wettest August for nearly a hundred years , and the Bank Holiday weekend
would be hot ,i.e. 27c and sunny !
No that didn't come from the Daily Express but the Met Office he said.
Makes you wonder why we all bother......


RonB

..
"Alan Gardiner" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:22:08 GMT, Bob Martin wrote:

in 35831 20080818 191540 "Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom
wrote:
Anyone else notice the bizarre notion that this is already
London's wettest August since 1917, which underpinned
a feature on "London Tonight" tonight?

At Hampstead the month's total to date is 45mm ... still well
short of 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000, etc,etc!

Philip

There's more than one way of measuring "wettest".
Like amount of time when something is falling or has just fallen.
My lawn is dry enough to mow about once every 5-6 days.

Wettest must mean the most rainfall; your experience could perhaps be
better described by working out the average humidity for a month or other
period of time. If the humidity is high then wet grass takes longer to
dry.

As an illustration the figure for June in St Albans was 72% and July 67%
with respective total rainfall amounts of 35mm and 79mm.



Alan Gardiner
Chiswell Green, St Albans
101m ASL
19/08/2008 10:18:49

"Bob Martin" wrote:
in 35831 20080818 191540 "Philip Eden" wrote:

Anyone else notice the bizarre notion that this is already
London's wettest August since 1917, which underpinned
a feature on "London Tonight" tonight?

At Hampstead the month's total to date is 45mm ... still well
short of 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000, etc,etc!

There's more than one way of measuring "wettest".
Like amount of time when something is falling or has just fallen.
My lawn is dry enough to mow about once every 5-6 days.

The convention for making historical comparisons at
individual sites and over geographical areas is rainfall amount.
This is because this measurement has been made more
widely and over a longer period than any other, but it does
also approximate rather more closely to the meaning of the
word "wettest" than any of the other parameters. The likelihood
that any statistic, right or wrong, flying around yesterday did
not refer to rainfall amount is vanishingly small.

You say that there are other ways of measuring "wetness".
Indeed there are. There's rainfall duration, rainfall duration
above specific thresholds, rainfall intensity, geographical
extent of rainfall, geographical extent of rainfall above
specific thresholds, number of days with rain, number of days
with rain above specific thresholds, volume of rain over
a specific area, volume of rain over individual drainage
catchments, return periods of a variety of parameters, and
so on. I use them often.

By the way, I'm pleased to see that you are a convert
to measuring things. [Insert smiley if required]

Philip

in 35866 20080819 115414 "Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote:
"Bob Martin" wrote:
in 35831 20080818 191540 "Philip Eden" wrote:

Anyone else notice the bizarre notion that this is already
London's wettest August since 1917, which underpinned
a feature on "London Tonight" tonight?

At Hampstead the month's total to date is 45mm ... still well
short of 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000, etc,etc!

There's more than one way of measuring "wettest".
Like amount of time when something is falling or has just fallen.
My lawn is dry enough to mow about once every 5-6 days.

The convention for making historical comparisons at
individual sites and over geographical areas is rainfall amount.
This is because this measurement has been made more
widely and over a longer period than any other, but it does
also approximate rather more closely to the meaning of the
word "wettest" than any of the other parameters. The likelihood
that any statistic, right or wrong, flying around yesterday did
not refer to rainfall amount is vanishingly small.

You say that there are other ways of measuring "wetness".
Indeed there are. There's rainfall duration, rainfall duration
above specific thresholds, rainfall intensity, geographical
extent of rainfall, geographical extent of rainfall above
specific thresholds, number of days with rain, number of days
with rain above specific thresholds, volume of rain over
a specific area, volume of rain over individual drainage
catchments, return periods of a variety of parameters, and
so on. I use them often.

By the way, I'm pleased to see that you are a convert
to measuring things. [Insert smiley if required]

Philip

Haha!

As you're the one with all the figures, how many days in the last month has
rain not fallen on central southern England.

"Bob Martin" wrote...
sniplots
how many days in the last month has
rain not fallen on central southern England.

.... I'll answer with data for Hurn (and also for us nearby in West
Moors), as I regard this area as part of the BBC 'banned' CS England:
in the month of August, every climatological period 09-09Z has been
credited with some PPN, though 4 of them were 'trace' returns, and one
a single 'bucket tip' of 0.2 mm.

The total rainfall so far at Hurn = 67 mm (~ 128% of 71-00 LTA) and
total here in West Moors is 62 mm.

Last year (2007), Hurn had 44 mm .. my gauge not up and running at
that time.

The wettest August in the Hurn record (starts 1957 from Met O site),
is 131.5 mm in 1963.

Martin.

--
Martin Rowley
West Moors, East Dorset (UK): 17m (56ft) amsl
Lat: 50.82N Long: 01.88W
NGR: SU 082 023