I confess that I was not paying full attention (having changed channel briefly
from the Kennedy programme on BBC2!) but I think I heard Mr McElwee say that
whereas Wisley had recorded 77mm or so this weekend, it had only recorded
something like 27mm. 'this summer'. Come off it! I had more than that in
both June and July. 27mm. in a summer would be a record breaker. Surely some
mistake? Perhaps he meant in a single month - what faith can the viewer have in
the forecast when past events are mis-reported? I wonder if Philip has the
data?

(By the way, Wisley now has an AWS, though when I checked their data some
months back they still had manual obs. at 0900h. daily).

Back to this weekend, and my total 00h Saturday (just before the 'main' rain
started) to 18h. today was 66mm. (in 40 hours). No significant breaks in the
rain up to 18h. - it would be interesting if anyone with an AWS or Dines
recorder in London / Surrey/ East Berks can confirm just how unbroken it was.
The intensity certainly peaked mid-afternoon with the northward passage of
those rather interesting colours on the radar display, though the white pixels
noted by Philip Eden in a previous post passed somewhat to our west.

Julian
Julian Mayes, West Molesey, Surrey.

"JJCMayes1" wrote in message


I confess that I was not paying full attention (having changed channel briefly
from the Kennedy programme on BBC2!) but I think I heard Mr McElwee say that
whereas Wisley had recorded 77mm or so this weekend, it had only recorded
something like 27mm. 'this summer'. Come off it! I had more than that in
both June and July. 27mm. in a summer would be a record breaker. Surely some
mistake? Perhaps he meant in a single month - what faith can the viewer have in
the forecast when past events are mis-reported? I wonder if Philip has the
data?


snip

I've had a look at the tape and it was a reference to summer
(i.e. June, July and August). Without the stats to hand we think this is
probably ok.

Jon.




--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

Well, we've almost certainly passed the combined total for all of August ,
September and October in the last three days, here in S.Essex.

Dave

"JJCMayes1" wrote in message
...
I confess that I was not paying full attention (having changed channel
briefly
from the Kennedy programme on BBC2!) but I think I heard Mr McElwee say
that
whereas Wisley had recorded 77mm or so this weekend, it had only recorded
something like 27mm. 'this summer'. Come off it! I had more than that
in
both June and July. 27mm. in a summer would be a record breaker. Surely
some
mistake? Perhaps he meant in a single month - what faith can the viewer
have in
the forecast when past events are mis-reported? I wonder if Philip has
the
data?

(By the way, Wisley now has an AWS, though when I checked their data some
months back they still had manual obs. at 0900h. daily).

I don't have figures for Wisley, but all the stations in the Surrey, London,
E Hants,
W Berks area seemed to have totals between 85mm and 130mm for the summer
quarter ... maybe 127mm? Maybe a total of Aug/Sep combined?

Coincidentally, I was taken to see the weather station at Wisley recently
by their lovely marketing person. They have a Campbell AWS now, as
well as the 'traditional' thermometers, raingauge and CS sun recorder, but
the site is manned during the day, including weekends, and it is true that
they still do manual obs. They are routinely besieged by local
radio/TV/newspapers when interesting weather happens, but they decline
to open the screen on request!

Philip Eden

On 23 Nov 2003 22:58:56 GMT, (JJCMayes1) wrote:

Back to this weekend, and my total 00h Saturday (just before the 'main' rain
started) to 18h. today was 66mm. (in 40 hours). No significant breaks in the
rain up to 18h. - it would be interesting if anyone with an AWS or Dines
recorder in London / Surrey/ East Berks can confirm just how unbroken it was.

I have, and I've checked, all the 15 minute 5Km rainfall radar images
from Avbrief from the 21st to the 23rd. Only 5% of the images are
missing or apparently faulty during the 48 hour period of interest.
These indicate that the longest period of continuous rain or drizzle
would probably have occurred just West of London in the general area
of Heathrow Airport. Radar echoes were shown at a spot location near
there on every image from 23:15 on the 21st to 21:00 on the 23rd, a
probable continuous period of at least 45 hours 45 minutes.

This ties in well with the METARS for EGLL Heathrow Airport, which
reported rain and/or drizzle at every half hourly observation from
21:50Z on the 21st to 20:50Z on the 23rd, inclusive; an apparently
continuous period of at least 47 hours (University of Wyoming
archives). The discrepancy with radar returns at the start is probably
because the "light drizzle" reported at Heathrow prior to 2315Z failed
to show up on the radar returns.

Many places in a broad band from the Solent area to London would have
experienced a similar period of continuous rain or drizzle and
*probably*, somewhere near Heathrow had 48 hours of continuous rain or
drizzle, given the tendency of the radar to miss light drizzle. It
certainly felt like it here, near Southampton *splosh*

--
Dave

"JJCMayes1" wrote in message
I confess that I was not paying full attention (having changed channel
briefly
from the Kennedy programme on BBC2!) but I think I heard Mr McElwee say
that
whereas Wisley had recorded 77mm or so this weekend, it had only recorded
something like 27mm. 'this summer'. Come off it! I had more than that
in
both June and July. 27mm. in a summer would be a record breaker. Surely
some
mistake? Perhaps he meant in a single month - what faith can the viewer
have in
the forecast when past events are mis-reported? I wonder if Philip has
the
data?

(By the way, Wisley now has an AWS, though when I checked their data some
months back they still had manual obs. at 0900h. daily).

Back to this weekend, and my total 00h Saturday (just before the 'main'
rain
started) to 18h. today was 66mm. (in 40 hours). No significant breaks in
the
rain up to 18h. - it would be interesting if anyone with an AWS or Dines
recorder in London / Surrey/ East Berks can confirm just how unbroken it
was.
The intensity certainly peaked mid-afternoon with the northward passage of
those rather interesting colours on the radar display, though the white
pixels
noted by Philip Eden in a previous post passed somewhat to our west.

Julian
Julian Mayes, West Molesey, Surrey.

In Weatherview at 00:50 he seemed to back down stating (correctly) some
places have had more rain in the last 2 and a half days than in the 3 months
previous to that. He did quote the Wisley 3 day total but not that it
compared to the whole of summer this time.


Joe.

"JJCMayes1" wrote in message
... - it would be
interesting if anyone with an AWS or Dines
recorder in London / Surrey/ East Berks can confirm just how unbroken it
was.


Julian.

Here at Guildford, rain was recorded from 21st 2200 through 23rd 2200z
except for 22nd 2200 and 2300 - which splits it right in two! but thats not
to say it wasnt raining..just not recordable

Phil

My final thought on this allegation of 27mm. for the 'summer' was that Peter
Gibbs may have got the figures round the wrong way. Total might have been 72mm.
for summer (i.e. less than this weekend's total - sparking the comparison) and
some so-and-so in a hurry got the figures the wrong way round (to get 27, of
course).

It is so much easier to get things wrong than to get things exactly right.....

and to answer Dave Ludlow's point, isn't Charlwood immediately NW of Gatwick?
i.e. the Gatwick replacement station

Julian Mayes, West Molesey, Surrey.

"JJCMayes1" wrote in message
...
Snip
and to answer Dave Ludlow's point, isn't Charlwood immediately NW of
Gatwick?
i.e. the Gatwick replacement station

yes,
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.c...&coordsys =gb

Jon.