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Contact messages Introduction (4 Dec, 2000)
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Contact messages Introduction (4 Dec, 2000)
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From: education@royal-met-soc.org.uk Subject: MetLinkInternational 2001 Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 12:29:11 -0000 We have been busy here making plans for MetLinkInternational 2001 and we thought you would like to see what we have done. This e-mail contains details. John Harris has been working away to produce interactive maps that show the locations of participating schools. To view these, go to the project's home page: http://metlink.org/ (remembering that this web address is case sensitive) and click on the images immediately below the "Click here..." buttons. There are three images, showing schools in (a) Europe, (b) the UK and Ireland and (c) the world. On these images, you will find live links to satellite and weather radar images, weather charts, weather data and webcams. If you go to: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/metlink/2001/schools2001.html you will find a list of the schools we hope are taking part, along with their school web addresses. As of this morning, 76 schools have said they plan to take part. Roger Brugge has been developing the database. To view this - but you can't enter test data just yet - visit: http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~brugge/metlink/metlink01.html In this address, the symbol before "brugge" is a tilde, NOT a hyphen. You will see that we shall not ask for barometric pressure readings this year. We have had a lot of problems over this variable, especially in respect of schools that are several hundred metres above sea level. We shall be asking you to send us information about clouds and precipitation, using the drop-down menus you will find on the ...metlink01.html page. There are links to pictures of clouds at the top of the data entry page and on the main project website, at: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/cloudwatch/chart/clouds.html and http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/cloudwatch/chart/chart.html You may be interested in the BBC's new webpages about weather observing, use of instruments and how to make your own weather instruments, to be found on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/weatherwise/diy/weatherstation.shtml I am very much looking forward to your participation in MetLink 2001. Best wishes Malcolm top
From: education@royal-met-soc.org.uk Subject: MetLinkInternational ideas Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 11:34:43 -0000 Dear MetLink participant This is a message to all of the MetLink schools that have participating children aged 11 or less. That's 23 schools. I thought you might find useful ideas, material, etc on the following websites/pages: For information on setting up and using a weather station and ideas on making simple weather instruments, visit the following of the BBC Weather Centre's sites and the links from them: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/weatherwise/diy/index.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/weatherwise/diy/weatherstation.shtml For the basics of weather, visit a BBC site that I helped develop: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/weatherwise/factfiles/index.shtml For classroom activities, visit the education pages of the UK's state meteorological service (called The Met.Office): http://www.met-office.gov.uk/education/curriculum/index.html See also: http://www.met-office.gov.uk/education/index.html You should also visit the website of Project Atmosphere Australia: http://www.schools.ash.org.au/paa/paa.htm visiting, in particular: http://www.schools.ash.org.au/paa/student_activities.htm And don't forget to visit the weather pages of the UK's Sutton on Sea County Primary School: http://www.sutton.lincs.sch.uk/pages/weather/index.htm If you want to ask me anything about the weather (I am a professional meteorologist) or tell me about other websites, I shall be very pleased to hear from you. Best wishes Malcolm Walker top
From: education@royal-met-soc.org.uk Subject: Time and Observations Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 14:32:58 -0000 Dear MetLinkInternational participants The MetLink fun will soon begin! We start exchanging data next Monday. If you haven't yet tested the database, PLEASE, PLEASE do so in the next day or two. We need to know that your password works correctly. Also, if you have not sent in details of your school, PLEASE, PLEASE do so, as I need the information when writing weather reports for you each evening. Local factors can make quite a difference to the weather. At 0830 Local Time yesterday morning, for example, at my home 160 m above sea level 11 km north-west of Reading, snow was falling heavily and the temperature was -1 degree C. The depth of snow was about 5 cm. At 0845, I found, 6 km away, in a village only 40 m above sea level, that there was no snow on the ground at all. The temperature was + 1 degree C and a mixture of rain and snow was falling. If any local factors affect your weather significantly, please provide details that I may pass on to other MetLink participants. When you enter an observation in the database, you will be asked to state the time at which you made the observation. You will be asked to state the time in UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), which is the same as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). If you are at all unsure as to how you convert Local Time to UTC/GMT, please contact me. You may find it helpful to remember that places EAST of the Greenwich Meridian are AHEAD of UTC/GMT and places WEST of the Greenwich Meridian are BEHIND UTC/GMT. In the UK, Local Time is the same as UTC/GMT. If you live in a place in eastern Asia where the time difference is eight hours, your clock reads 2000 when the time is 1200 UTC/GMT. When your clock reads 0900, the time is 0100 here in the UK, and we are then (or should be) in bed. The webcams you can link to from the MetLinkInternational website will show that it's night-time here in Europe. If you live in the eastern part of the USA, where you are five hours behind UTC/GMT, your clock reads 0700 when the time is 1200 UTC/GMT. When it's 0900 in the UK, it's 0400 in New York. The webcams will show that it's then night-time in North America. We have MetLink schools more than 100 degrees east of the Greenwich Meridian and schools over 100 degrees west of Greenwich. When it's 1200 in the UK, it's 0200 in Hawaii and 2300 the same day in Melbourne! That's all for now. Further contact messages will be sent tomorrow and later this week. Best wishes Malcolm Walker top
From: education@royal-met-soc.org.uk Subject: Use of the MetLink 2001 database Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 10:54:54 -0000 Dear MetLink participants This is MetLinkInternational Contact Message No.2, concerned with the database you will be using to send us your observations during the period 29 January to 9 February. 1. Day of the month:- The drop-down menu allows you to choose the appropriate date in the period 29 January to 9 February. 2. Time of observation:- Please enter the time in UTC/GMT. Please enter four digits without any dots. Thus, for example, 9 am is 0900, not 9.00. John Harris has added to the MetLink home page a time zone website. It's very good. It even has a link that allows you to see which part of the world has daylight at any given moment. See: http://worldtimezone.com/ and http://www.worldtimezone.com/datetime.htm (The latter webpage can be slow to load) 3. Weather data:- (a) Please do not include units. You do NOT put in degC, %, etc. Simply put numbers in the boxes that have XXX or XXX.X in them. (b) If you have no data for a weather variable, ignore its box. Do not delete the X's. (c) If you measure rainfall and none has fallen, put 0 in the box. If you do not measure rainfall, leave the box with X's in it. (d) Please use full stops, not commas for decimal points. (e) Maximum temperature cannot be less than the current temperature and minimum temperature cannot be greater than the current temperature. If you are using separate thermometers for current and max/min temperatures, please check that their readings agree. (f) Please report temperatures in degrees Celsius, not degrees Fahrenheit. (g) Please report rainfall amounts in mm, not inches. (h) When reporting wind speed, please give the average over a minute or two. If you wish to report the speed of the strongest gust, please do so in the box provided for describing the weather. (i) In the box for describing the weather, your message cannot contain more than 50 characters. (j) In Europe, the term 'sleet' means a mixture of rain and snow. If you have freezing rain or drizzle (liquid rain or drizzle that freezes when it hits the ground) or if you have frozen raindrops that bounce when they hit the ground, please say so in the message box or send me a separate e-mail. 4. If you find you have entered erroneous values in the database, please contact Roger Brugge (brugge@met.rdg.ac.uk). He will make the necessary changes to the database manually. Some of the errors that can occur are indicated by code letters after your school's name in the database. 5. If you have any queries over the database, please contact Roger Brugge. Best wishes Malcolm Walker
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Useful links on the MetLink website
From: education@royal-met-soc.org.uk Subject: The MetLinkInternational website Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 16:33:08 -0000 Dear MetLink participants This is Contact Message No.3, concerning the MetLinkInternational website, which is a meteorological education resource in its own right, as well as the project's base. To visit the site, go first to: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/MetNetEur/MetNetEur.html making sure you use capital letters for Met, Net and Eur. Three maps are provided:- one showing schools in the British Isles, another showing schools in the rest of Europe, the third showing schools worldwide. On these maps, there are live links to weather charts, satellite images, satellite movies, weather radar images, webcams, school websites and the latest weather data at a station near you. There's also, for comparison purposes, a set of links to South Pole cams, charts, data, etc. The base map for the map that shows schools worldwide was obtained from: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/comp/latest_cmoll.gif and that's the site to go to if you wish to obtain the latest of these world compilations that show land and sea temperatures and cloud patterns, updated every six hours. Another resource you should visit, if you haven't already, is 'Around the world in 80 clicks': http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/metlink/ews/80clicks/80clicks.html Go also to: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/metlink/ppt/ppt.html for PowerPoint presentations developed by John Harris, who also developed the 80 clicks resource. I know at least one school has downloaded these presentations and is using them in class. To visit the website of your own national meteorological service, go to: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/metlink/national.htm and to obtain real-time data from a weather station near you, visit: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/metlink/current.htm For plotted weather charts, visit: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/metlink/plotted.htm The home page of the MetLink project contains links to a wide range of weather websites, including the BBC's: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/weatherwise/factfiles/index.shtml and the education pages of the Met Office, United Kingdom: http://www.met-office.gov.uk/education/index.html If you are looking for primary-school weather resources, visit: http://www.education.noaa.gov/sweather.html especially http://eyewall.met.psu.edu/kidswx/kids.html That's all for now. Best wishes Malcolm Walker top
MetLink schools around the World
From: education@royal-met-soc.org.uk Subject: Another MetLink contact message Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 11:15:58 -0000 Dear MetLink friends You are, I'm sure, like me, looking forward to the observational phase of MetLinkInternational. According to my records, we have at the moment 91 participants in 30 countries. That's 22 more participants than for MetLink 2000. In MetLink 2001, we have schools in many parts of the world. In the southern (summer) hemisphere, we have the school on Ascension Island and schools in Australia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Madagascar. Near the equator, we have schools in Indonesia, Kenya and Uganda. In North Africa, we have a school in Ethiopia. In North and Central America, we have eight schools (one in Mexico, two in Canada and five in the USA). In Europe, the following countries are represented: the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the Far East, we have a school in Japan; and in the monsoon region of southern Asia, we have two schools in India. We also have a school on the tiny island of Saipan in the Marianas and a school in Hawaii. What a variety of climates! Where will the weather during MetLink 2001 be wetter, colder or windier than average? Where will it be warmer, drier or calmer than average? Weather differences from place to place are surely going to be very interesting and fascinating. Will it snow in Melbourne? Most unlikely! The temperature reached 43 degC in Melbourne one day during MetLink 2000. It's summer in Australia at this time of year. Will there be gales in Zimbabwe? Probably not. Will there be tropical cyclones in Madagascar? We sincerely hope not, though it's distinctly possible; and we also hope that the temperatures in northern Scandinavia won't be as low as they were during MetLink 1999, when, one night, the temperature dropped to -51.5 degC in northern Finland. For details of this extreme occurrence, see, on the MetLink website: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/MetNetEur/analysis99/enochill.html During the next two weeks, please ask your students to consider where in the world they would (a) most (b) least like to have been during the two weeks we exchanged observations (29 January to 9 February). Please let me know at the end of the two weeks. Please ask the students to give reasons for their choices. There's one particular MetLink location I'd like to tell you about now:- 'the Arctic Pearl', Spitsbergen, also called Svalbard see: http://www.svalbard.com/ The school at Longyearbyen is taking part in MetLink 2001. There can't be many places in the world where teachers escorting children carry guns to provide protection against polar bears! The number of humans on Spitsbergen is 2,500. The number of polar bears is 3,000! But bears are essentially marine mammals, living mostly on drifting pack ice, and the archipelago of Spitsbergen is a big place - 63,000 sq km. Bears do not often visit the city of Longyearbyen. Nevertheless, the city's residents have to be prepared. Another feature of Spitsbergen is that the sun remains below the horizon from 28 October to 14 February. During the two weeks of MetLink 2001, there will be darkness around the clock, though on clear nights moonlight and/or the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) may make the snow twinkle. In summer, there is daylight around the clock, as the sun does not set between 19 April and 23 August. However, fog can be persistent in summer (because warm air over a cold surface causes advection fog). Longyearbyen is about 1,350 km (850 miles) from the North Pole. On Spitsbergen in January and February, temperatures between -20 and -30 degC are not uncommon, and wind chill has additionally to be taken into account. The lowest temperature recorded in Longyearbyen was -46.3 degC in March 1986, the highest +21.3 degC in July 1979. How do these temperatures compare with places 1,350 km from the South Pole? Why are the climates of Spitsbergen and places only 1,350 km from the South Pole so different? This year, there will be an exciting expedition to Spitsbergen involving 36 young people from the United Kingdom. For details, visit: http://www.arcticyear.provolab.com/ If you would like to tell MetLink participants about life and the climate in your part of the world, please send me details in an e-mail. Please do write. We'd love to hear from you. Best wishes Malcolm Walker top
Candlemas Weather (2 February)
From: education@royal-met-soc.org.uk Subject: The weather on 2 February Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 10:47:56 -0000 Dear MetLink participants There is quite a lot of weather lore associated with 2 February (Friday of next week). This day is called Candlemas in the Christian calendar and Groundhog Day in North America. For information, see the following: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/climate/extremes/2001/groundhog/groundhog.html http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/metlink/daily2000/daily0202/daily0202.html From the latter webpage, follow the links to "today's MetLink weather analysis for Primary Schools" and "today's MetLink weather analysis for Secondary Schools". What weather will Candlemas/ Groundhog Day bring this year? How accurate will the Candlemas and Groundhog Day forecasts prove to be? Best wishes Malcolm Walker
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From: education@royal-met-soc.org.uk Subject: MetLinkInternational project ideas Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 18:24:03 -0000 Dear MetLink friends For MetLinkInternational in previous years, I suggested study themes. Here are the themes I suggested. I hope some will appeal to you. If you wish to comment on any of the themes and tell us about the weather and climate and life in your part of the world, please send me information in an e-mail message. If you would like to pass on your own study ideas to other MetLink participants, please send details in an e-mail message that I may forward to all participants. I look forward to hearing from you. Best regards Malcolm Walker ------ STUDY SUGGESTIONS ------>>> 1 ... THE WEATHER FORECAST How carefully do your students listen to the weather forecast? Why not tape-record the weather forecast each morning and get your students to check (a) what was actually said with what they thought was said (b) what was actually said with what the weather actually was? It might prove an interesting exercise! 2 ... CLIMATIC CONTRASTS In MetLinkInternational, there are participants in many parts of the world (about 90 participants in 30 countries in 2001). To what extent are the weather observations that we receive from participants consistent with expectations for late January and early February? Where in the world is it wetter, drier, colder, etc than normal? If it's warmer than average in some parts of the world, is it, at the same time, colder than average in others? If it's wetter than average somewhere, is it, at the same time, drier than average in another part of the world? During the next two weeks, in my daily weather reports, I shall comment on the weather in the parts of the world where we have MetLink participants. 3 ... PRECIPITATION TYPES The raindrops, snowflakes, etc that fall out of the sky are called 'precipitation'. What type of precipitation is falling at your school and at other schools in MetLinkInternational? Hail? Rain? Snow? Drizzle? If it's raining, how big are the drops? Are they large? Are they small? Are the raindrops falling as liquid water drops and freezing after they touch the ground (freezing rain)? If it's snowing, how big are the snowflakes? Is the precipitation falling from towering cumulonimbus clouds, or is it falling from a warm or occluded front? Is the precipitation tropical summer rain? It's now summer in Australia and southern Africa, remember. Is the precipitation from convective clouds in the Intertropical Convergence Zone? We have MetLink schools near the equator, remember. If you have the necessary apparatus, why not measure the acidity of the rain that falls in your area? If you need any help over interpreting the results, plase contact me. Why not, also, look at snowflakes under a microscope, or study the sizes of raindrops by means of blotting paper or some other means? Again ... if you need any guidance, you have only to contact me. 4 ... WEATHER AND TRANSPORT How does weather affect transport in your part of the world? What problems are there for the drivers of cars and trucks in parts of the world where very low temperatures occur (-30 degC and below in Canada and northern Scandinavia, for example)? What disruption to transport is there when a heavy fall of snow occurs? Are the highway authorities well prepared for clearing snow? To what extent does the preparedness of an authority depend upon the likelihood of snow falling in their area? Roads and railway lines may be blocked by trees and power lines that fall across them in conditions of freezing rain and high winds. Heavy rain causes flooding? What problems does the weather cause for transportation in your part of the world? Please let us know. Here in the UK, there are sometimes problems on the electrified railways in the south-east of England. In autumn (fall), problems occur when wet leaves make rails slippery. In winter, problems occur because of ice and snow on conductor rails. Points may freeze, too. The UK's Met Office runs a service through which forecasts and warnings of ice and snow are made and issued to the local authorities that are responsible for putting salt and grit on roads. Other weather hazards for road travellers include (a) fog (particularly radiation fog) and (b) cars aquaplaning when travelling faster than about 80 km/hr (50 miles per hour) in wet weather. 5 ... WATER SUPPLIES AND USAGE Without air, water and food, humans cannot survive. We can live without clothes or shelter in some parts of the world, but nowhere can we live without air, water and food. Where do your water supplies come from? In some places, there is drought for long periods. Where does your drinking water come from? Underground aquifers? Do you have restrictions on water consumption at any time of year? What use do you make of water, other than drinking it and using it for various industrial purposes? Do you use it to generate power? Do you use wind power? Do you use power from sea waves or tides? If so, where is such power generated, and how much power is generated? 6 ... CLIMATIC EFFECTS How does climate affect you? Do you, for example, heat your home at this time of year? For how long a period of the year do you need to heat your home? Are there any places in the MetLink world where it is never necessary to heat homes? And what design features do your homes have for coping with climate? In Canada and Scandinavia, for example, is the slope of the roof important in respect of snow accumulation? Are the roofs and walls of homes in windy places sturdier than those in places where mean wind speeds are lower? Notice here that I have used the term 'mean'. Are the drainage arrangements of roads sufficient for carrying away water quickly after very heavy falls of rain? Teachers and their students will surely be interested in the different ways weather and climate are taken into account by the designers of buildings, roads and railways in your part of the world. Do please provide information. Please send details to me in an e-mail. 7 ... WEATHER VARIATIONS WITHIN A REGION In the British Isles, many schools are participating in MetLink 2001. Using this comparatively dense network, we should be able to track the passage of fronts across the region. How long, for example, does it take a belt of rain to travel from Cornwall in the far south-west of England to Kent in the far south-east of England? Does the rain belt necessarily reach south-east England? What variations of weather occur between schools in the British Isles, and why do they occur? And what happens to weather systems that cross the British Isles by the time they reach, say, Finland? And if it's wet and windy in the British Isles, as it so often is, how different is the weather in eastern Europe or Spain? In Africa and North America, too, we have networks of MetLink schools which should reveal interesting differences of weather between the various parts of the continents. END OF SUGGESTED THEMES top
MetLink follow up From: education@royal-met-soc.org.uk Subject: MetLinkInternational Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 11:38:43 -0000 Dear MetLink friends The period of two weeks when we exchange weather observations has now finished. The so-called 'active phase' of MetLink 2001 has come to an end. I am very pleased and relieved that so few technical problems have occurred this year (the database itself didn't crash this year!). To all of you, thank you very much indeed for putting your observations in the database so promptly. If any of you have observations that you would like to appear in the database, you can still enter them, making sure, of course, that you enter them for the correct date(s) and time(s). Simply go to: http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~brugge/metlink/metlink01.html and proceed as you have done during the past two weeks. You can download an Excel file that contains all of the data by visiting: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/metlink/2001/daily2001/data.xls The link to this page is on: http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radgeog/metlink/2001/daily2001/reports.html A very important aspect of MetLinkInternational is the review, when you tell us what you thought of the project. Later this week, I shall send two questionnaires. I am VERY anxious to receive your reactions and comments. We want our project to be the very best internet-based weather project it can possibly be. We modify, improve and expand the project from year to year. In this respect, your comments are essential to us. Some of you have mid-term holidays this week or next. If you are among the lucky ones who are looking forward to a break, I trust you will enjoy it. Best wishes Malcolm Walker top
Royal Meteorological Society: Weather Club From: education@royal-met-soc.org.uk Subject: Exciting MetLink development Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 11:38:56 -0000 Dear MetLink friends The children of one school that has been taking part in MetLink 2001 wondered why they had to stop entering their weather observations in the MetLink database when the project's data exchange phase finished on 9 February. The database does not allow them to enter data after that date. In response to the children's disappointment, and after consultation with a few teachers who took part in MetLink 2001, we have created a facility for you to continue sharing weather observations with each other. AND WE HAVE DONE MORE THAN THAT. We have created a WEATHER CLUB, which includes access to the database. Here is the web address of the Weather Club: http://www.royal-met-soc.org.uk/weatherclub.html When this page loads, you will find a section entitled "Adding your data to the database". The text in this section starts with "Please click here ...". To add your data, simple click there or, if you prefer, go directly to the page where you enter observations in the database: http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~brugge/weatherclub/wcinput.html When you get to that page, you use the password that you used for MetLink 2001 to enter data. Please remember, as in MetLink, that you do NOT put C for degrees, % for relative humidity, etc. Just enter the numbers and please use a full stop for the decimal point. The database will be updated twice a day, at 1200 and 0000 UTC (i.e. midday and midnight GMT). During MetLink, I spent four hours each day (more some days) writing the daily weather reports that are such a feature of MetLink. I think you will understand that I cannot continue to do this! What I will do, however, is write a brief review every week or so in which I draw attention to features of your data. I expect this review to be no longer than two or three paragraphs and I intend its purpose to be twofold: 1.. to highlight interesting observations; 2.. to be educational. Please tell other schools about the Weather Club and the database and encourage them to enter weather data themselves. All they need to do is obtain a password, which they do by contacting Roger Brugge brugge@met.rdg.ac.uk He will ask for the full name of the school and a contact e-mail address. Anyone with access to the web can read the pages of the Weather Club's site. Only people with a password can put observations in the database. On the Weather Club site, you will find links to a range of educational material that the Royal Meteorological Society has produced in the past two years. Some of the material is useful in both primary schools (up to age 11) and secondary schools (age 11 and older). Other material is intended only for primary schools or only for secondary schools. A feature for primary schools that is already available is found on: http://www.royal-met-soc.org.uk/weatherclub/primary/polarbear.html An exercise for the eldest students in secondary schools can be found on: http://www.royal-met-soc.org.uk/weatherclub/secondary/whereonearth2.html We hope you will put your weather observations in the database whenever you wish and we hope you will find the Weather Club useful. You can enter data every day if you want to, but we are certainly not asking you to do so. Simply enter observations when you wish to. Please write to us and tell us about the weather-study activities in your school. Please send us pictures. They do not have to be sent electronically. We can scan prints here at the Royal Meteorological Society. You can establish links with other schools by using the e-mail addresses of the schools that took part in MetLink 2001 and you can link up with schools that join the Weather Club in the future. We can supply their e-mail addresses if they are willing to let others to know their addresses. The one thing we shall NOT do is publish e-mail addresses on the web. Best wishes Malcolm Walker top