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Weather report for primary schools for Friday 2 February 2001
THE HEADLINES
TODAY
Heat wave in Spitsbergen. Hot in Melbourne. Sunny in Spain. Wintry in Ontario. Minus seventeen in Illinois. Minus twenty in Finland. Chilly in Japan. Wet in Malta and Madagascar. Confusion for groundhogs?
NB: There is a lot of important information in the notes at the end of this report.
THE WEATHER IN
THE METLINK WORLD TODAY
There was a remarkable occurrence today. Spitsbergen was the warmest place in Norway. At 78°N, only 1,350 km from the North Pole, the temperature remained above freezing point all day. When the students of Longyearbyen School made their observation this morning, the temperature was +1.3°C, which was a great deal higher than on the mainland of Norway, where, from North Cape (Nordkapp) to the southernmost tip of Norway, temperatures remained below 0°C all day. A south-westerly wind was responsible for Spitsbergen’s mild weather, for it brought maritime air that had travelled across the Norwegian Sea (which has a surface temperature of about 4°C near Spitsbergen at this time of year). The wind was strong, 67 km/h, when the students made their observation.
Bitterly cold winds from the east and north-east blew across Finland, Sweden and Norway today. At Mikkeli this morning, the temperature was —20°C, having fallen to —22°C overnight. At Jyväskylä, the temperature was about the same, -19.0°C, having fallen to —20.6°C overnight. At Vörå, the temperature was —16.5°C when the students made their observation, having fallen to —21.2°C overnight. At all three places, the sun shone and the students did not seem to mind the cold. "A fine, sunny winter day", said the students of Vörå. At Bor School in southern Sweden, the temperature was —13.1°C at 0730 UTC (0830 Local Time), having fallen to —14.9°C overnight. Here, though, the sky was not cloudless, and light snow was falling. There were, however, breaks in the cloud that allowed aircraft contrails to be seen.
Across the North Sea in the British Isles, fronts brought rain and drizzle to most parts and fog to some. Temperatures in the east of England were about 5°C this morning, 7° or 8°C by early afternoon. Farther west, temperatures were a little higher, being 8°C on the Isle of Bute (Scotland) at 0900 UTC, 8°C at Truro (Cornwall) at 1000 UTC and 10°C at Cashel (Ireland) at 1045 UTC. The highest rainfall amounts that were measured at MetLink places in the British Isles were 11 mm at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, 11 mm at Alleyne’s High School in Staffordshire and 7.7 mm at Pitsford Hall Weather Station, Northamptonshire. Winds blew from a westerly point across the British Isles today.
At the MetLink school in The Netherlands (CSG Anna Maria van Schurman, Franeker), the weather does not appear to have been very pleasant today. The temperature at mid-day was —0.8°C, the sky was overcast and snow was falling. At Geilenkirchen, too, the temperature was just below 0°C, with the sky overcast and snow falling. The story was much the same at Constanta in Romania, where the temperature was +2.7°C and snow was falling. At Prague, Udine and Bozen, however, the weather appears to have been quite pleasant today. Though temperatures were only a few degrees above 0°C, the sun was shining and winds were very light. At the MetLink school in Switzerland (Collège du Léman, Versoix), on the other side of the Alps from Bozen and Udine, the weather was cloudy and the air a little warmer than in northern Italy, the temperature at Versoix being 8°C at 1150 UTC. At Strasbourg (France), the temperature was only just above 0°C all day and cloud increased during the day, giving scattered snow flurries in the afternoon.
Malta’s weather sounds to have been very unpleasant today, the MetLink school’s report speaking of strong winds and very heavy rainfall. When we think of the Mediterranean, we tend to think of summer holidays in the sunshine, but the Mediterranean’s weather can be quite inclement in winter, and so it is at the moment over central and eastern parts of the Mediterranean. The temperature this morning at the Carmela Sammut Primary School on Malta quite high, 14°C, but a strong north-westerly wind was blowing (68 km/h) and heavy rain was falling. In Spain, by way of contrast, there was a lot of sunshine, though temperatures were not very high (5°C in Madrid, 10°C in Tarragona). In Portugal, at Escola Secundária Gabriel Pereira, there was, in the words of the students, a "beautiful day".
There was plenty of sunshine today at Hilton College (South Africa), where the sky was cloudless at 0900 UTC. The weather seems to have been glorious there today, for the wind was almost calm and the temperature was in the upper twenties Celsius. This weather must have made a pleasant change from the wet weather Hilton has had of late. Indeed, the change appeared to have been quite recent, for a large amount of rain (52.8 mm) was measured at Hilton College this morning. There was also plenty of sunshine in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, but not so much in Zambia and Zimbabwe, where it is the wet season at this time of year. The students of Peterhouse reported that rain was falling when they made their observation (at 0830 Local Time). Rain does not fall every day during the wet season, however, and some wet seasons are wetter than others. The students of the MetLink school at Bulawayo today reported "little chance of rain". In contrast, the American School at Antanarivo on Madagascar was the wettest place in the MetLink world today, with 75.6 mm of rainfall measured. Rain was measured at Cape Town’s Micklefield School, too. There, after the recent sunny weather, the day was cloudy and light rain was falling when the students made their observation (at 0820 UTC). The weather was hot and sunny at Two Boats School on Ascension Island today, with a temperature of 26°C, three oktas of cumulus cloud and a breeze from the north-west.
In Australia, at Trinity Grammar School (Melbourne), the weather was very hot today, with small amounts of cirrus and cirrocumulus clouds reported and a temperature of 31°C when the students made their observation (at 0100 UTC, 1200 Local Time). Some air-conditioning appears to have been necessary in the staff room, for the temperature there was reportedly 33°C! Trinity was the warmest place in the MetLink world today, with Leilehua High School on the Hawaiian island of Oahu not far behind. There, the temperature was 26.0°C at 2300 UTC (1300 Local Time) and the students commented that this was "warm for this day". Oahu’s weather appears to have been gorgeous today, with a few cumulus and cirrus clouds and a light easterly trade wind. Across the Pacific Ocean in Indonesia, the weather was, in the words of the students of the Jakarta International School, "more hazy than usual". The temperature was 23.9°C when the observation was made (at 0100 UTC, 0800 Local Time), and the relative humidity was 82%. In India, at Springdales School, New Delhi, the temperature was 28.0°C at 0700 UTC (1230 Local Time). The humidity was low (only 50%) and the cloud amount very small (only one okta).
In Japan, the weather was still quite cold. At Keio Girls’ High School, the temperature was 7.5°C at 0000 UTC (0900 Local Time) and the students commented that the weather was cold and windy. The wind was from the north and its speed was 33 km/h (Force 5). The weather was very much colder in Illinois. Indeed, it was almost as cold there as in Finland. The temperature at Divernon Middle School was —17°C at 1345 UTC (0745 Local Time) and the wind-chill effect was considerable, for the wind speed was 33 km/h. There was very little cloud (only two oktas of stratocumulus and cumulus). The weather was wintry at St John’s — Kilmarnock School, at Breslau, near Toronto, with a temperature of —7.0°C at 1405 UTC (0905 Local Time) and snow falling fairly heavily. As if this were not enough, there was a northerly wind of 44 km/h. The weather was better in Edmonton (Alberta), where the weather was reported to be "mild, clear and dry". A light southerly wind was blowing and the temperature was —3°C at 1600 UTC (0900 Local Time).
At Forest Hill Parkway Academy (Cleveland , Ohio), the weather was quite windy and cold, with light snow falling. The temperature was —4°C when the school’s morning observation was made, -5.6°C when the afternoon observation was made. The wind was quite strong (24 km/h) and the students mentioned wind chill in their weather comments. In the west of the USA, at Peninsula Elementary School, Moses Lake, Washington State, the weather was sunny but chilly, with a temperature of +4.4°C. There, the wind was a very light north-easterly, and the cloud amount only two oktas. The sun shone at Pasadena, California, close to Los Angeles. There, the temperature was 18.7°C at 1930 UTC (1130 Local Time) and the weather was reported to be "hazy".
Across North America today, there has been a wide variety of cloud conditions. What have the groundhogs made of all this? Do they believe the winter has finished? In the British Isles, most places were cloudy today. The Candlemas weather lore suggests that the winter has come to an end. "If Candlemas Day (2 February) bring clouds and rain, winter is gone and won’t come again". How accurate will this lore prove to be this year? Only time will tell! For information about Groundhog Day and Candlemas weather lore, click here.
Where would you have liked to be today? If you had been able to fly away to the place of your choice, where would you have gone, and why? Have you taken John Harris’s webcam tour of the world? If not, click here. Have you taken his radar tour of the world? If not, click here.
NOTES
One of the primary schools that is taking part in MetLink 2001 is the Sutton-on-Sea Community Primary School in Lincolnshire, UK. This school has an excellent weather website. To go to it, click here.
There is material for teachers and pupils in primary schools on the Education pages of the United Kingdom’s Met Office. To go to the Education home page, click here. To go to the Curriculum Learning Centre, click here.
There is a great deal of material suitable for primary schools on the website of the BBC Weather Centre. For the basics of weather, things to do, weather games, stunning weather photographs and much more, visit the Weatherwise, Fact Files, Do-it-yourself (DIY) Weather and Weather Games pages. The Education Officer of the Royal Meteorological Society helped develop these pages.
For a wealth of information about the weather, including the current weather in the USA, visit the website of USA TODAY.
At Adventdalen on Spitsbergen, 4 km from Longyearbyen, there is an automatic weather station that provides readings of temperature, wind speed, wind direction and barometric pressure. The webpage that shows these readings is updated every five minutes.
To obtain climatic data for hundreds of places around the world, visit the Worldclimate.com and Washington Post websites. From these sites, you can obtain average temperatures, extreme temperatures, rainfall amounts, average humidities, average wind speeds, and much more. Thus, you can find out if the weather during MetLink is warmer, colder, wetter, windier than average.
Do you want to find climatic statistics? If so, visit the Royal Meteorological Society’s Climate on the web site.
Do you want to find weather charts, satellite images or current weather data? If so, visit the Royal Meteorological Society’s Weather on the Web site.
Weather report for secondary schools for Friday 2 February 2001
Heat wave in Spitsbergen. Hot in Melbourne. Sunny in Spain. Wintry in Ontario. Minus seventeen in Illinois. Minus twenty in Finland. Chilly in Japan. Wet in Malta and Madagascar. Confusion for groundhogs?
NB: There is a lot of important information in the notes at the end of this report.
THE WEATHER IN
THE METLINK WORLD TODAY
There was a remarkable occurrence today. Spitsbergen was the warmest place in Norway. At 78°N, only 1,350 km from the North Pole, the temperature remained above freezing point all day. When the students of Longyearbyen School made their observation this morning, the temperature was +1.3°C, which was a great deal higher than on the mainland of Norway, where, from North Cape (Nordkapp) to the southernmost tip of Norway, temperatures remained below 0°C all day. A south-westerly wind was responsible for Spitsbergen’s mild weather, for it brought maritime air that had travelled across the Norwegian Sea (which has a surface temperature of about 4°C near Spitsbergen at this time of year). The wind was strong, 67 km/h, when the students made their observation.
At 0600 UTC today, a High of 1049 mb was centred over North Cape and pressure was low to the north-west of Spitsbergen. The isobars were quite close together over Spitsbergen and the northern part of the Norwegian Sea, hence the strong wind at Longyearbyen. Bitterly cold winds from the east and north-east blew across Finland, Sweden and Norway. At Mikkeli this morning, the temperature was —20°C, having fallen to —22°C overnight. At Jyväskylä, the temperature was about the same, -19.0°C, having fallen to —20.6°C overnight. At Vörå, the temperature was —16.5°C when the students made their observation, having fallen to —21.2°C overnight. At all three places, the sun shone and the students did not seem to mind the cold. "A fine, sunny winter day", said the students of Vörå.
At Bor School in southern Sweden, the temperature was —13.1°C at 0730 UTC (0830 Local Time), having fallen to —14.9°C overnight. Here, though, the sky was not cloudless, and light snow was falling. There were, however, breaks in the cloud that allowed aircraft contrails to be seen. A weak cold front from a Low of 998 mb centred near 52°N 35°E brought snow to many places in southern Sweden. To obtain a weather chart for Europe and the eastern North Atlantic for 0000 UTC on 2 February, click here.
Across the North Sea in the British Isles, weak fronts brought rain and drizzle to most parts and fog to some. These fronts were associated with a shallow depression (1006 mb) that was centred between the Faeroe Islands and the Western Isles of Scotland. Fronts associated with a very vigorous Low (of 959 mb) centred south-west of Iceland lay to the west of Ireland. Temperatures in the east of England were about 5°C this morning, 7° or 8°C by early afternoon. Farther west, temperatures were a little higher, being 8°C on the Isle of Bute (Scotland) at 0900 UTC, 8°C at Truro (Cornwall) at 1000 UTC and 10°C at Cashel (Ireland) at 1045 UTC. The highest rainfall amounts that were measured at MetLink places in the British Isles were 11 mm at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, 11 mm at Alleyne’s High School in Staffordshire and 7.7 mm at Pitsford Hall Weather Station, Northamptonshire. Winds blew from a westerly point across the British Isles today.
At the MetLink school in The Netherlands (CSG Anna Maria van Schurman, Franeker), the weather does not appear to have been very pleasant today. The temperature at mid-day was —0.8°C, the sky was overcast and snow was falling. At Geilenkirchen, too, the temperature was just below 0°C, with the sky overcast and snow falling. The story was much the same at Constanta in Romania, where the temperature was +2.7°C and snow was falling. At Prague, Udine and Bozen, however, the weather appears to have been quite pleasant today. Though temperatures were only a few degrees above 0°C, the sun was shining and winds were very light. Pressure was low (1001 mb) over the Ionian Sea (between Greece and southern Italy) and a weak warm front ran from southern Italy to the Black Sea.
At the MetLink school in Switzerland (Collège du Léman, Versoix), on the other side of the Alps from Bozen and Udine, the weather was cloudy and the air a little warmer than in northern Italy, the temperature at Versoix being 8°C at 1150 UTC. At Strasbourg (France), the temperature was only just above 0°C all day and cloud increased during the day, giving scattered snow flurries in the afternoon. A ridge of high pressure over south-eastern France this morning declined progressively during the day.
Malta’s weather sounds to have been very unpleasant today, the MetLink school’s report speaking of strong winds and very heavy rainfall. When we think of the Mediterranean, we tend to think of summer holidays in the sunshine, but the Mediterranean’s weather can be quite inclement in winter, and so it is at the moment over central and eastern parts of the Mediterranean. The temperature this morning at the Carmela Sammut Primary School on Malta quite high, 14°C, but a strong north-westerly wind was blowing (68 km/h) and heavy rain was falling. In Spain, by way of contrast, there was a lot of sunshine, though temperatures were not very high (5°C in Madrid, 10°C in Tarragona). In Portugal, at Escola Secundária Gabriel Pereira, there was, in the words of the students, a "beautiful day". Pressure was high (1028 mb) over northern Portugal, in a ridge of high pressure extending from a High located over the North Atlantic to the south-west of Iberia.
There was plenty of sunshine today at Hilton College (South Africa), where the sky was cloudless at 0900 UTC. The weather seems to have been glorious there today, for the wind was almost calm and the temperature was in the upper twenties Celsius. This weather must have made a pleasant change from the wet weather Hilton has had of late. Indeed, the change appeared to have been quite recent, for a large amount of rain (52.8 mm) was measured at Hilton College this morning. The 0600 UTC weather chart issued by the South African Weather Bureau showed small depressions near Durban and over the Mozambique Channel, with a shallow ridge of high pressure affecting Hilton. The fine weather at Hilton may, therefore, be short-lived. The weather was hot and sunny at Two Boats School on Ascension Island today, with a temperature of 26°C, three oktas of cumulus cloud and a breeze from the north-west.
Satellite images show that there was also plenty of sunshine in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia but not in Zambia and Zimbabwe, where it is the wet season at this time of year. The students of Peterhouse reported that rain was falling when they made their observation (at 0830 Local Time). Rain does not fall every day during the wet season, however, and some wet seasons are wetter than others. The students of the MetLink school at Bulawayo today reported "little chance of rain". In contrast, the American School at Antanarivo on Madagascar was the wettest place in the MetLink world today, with 75.6 mm of rainfall measured. Rain was measured at Cape Town’s Micklefield School, too. There, after the recent sunny weather, the day was cloudy and light rain was falling when the students made their observation (at 0820 UTC). The rain was associated with a cold front that extended from a deep Low (960 mb) centred near 55°S 25°E.
In Australia, at Trinity Grammar School (Melbourne), the weather was very hot today, with small amounts of cirrus and cirrocumulus clouds reported and a temperature of 31°C when the students made their observation (at 0100 UTC, 1200 Local Time). Some air-conditioning appears to have been necessary in the staff room, for the temperature there was reportedly 33°C! Pressure was high (1028 mb) to the west of New Zealand and a cold front from a depression situated far to the south of Tasmania extended as far as Adelaide.
Trinity was the warmest place in the MetLink world today, with Leilehua High School on the Hawaiian island of Oahu not far behind. There, the temperature was 26.0°C at 2300 UTC (1300 Local Time) and the students commented that this was "warm for this day". Oahu’s weather appears to have been gorgeous today, with a few cumulus and cirrus clouds and a light easterly trade wind. Across the Pacific Ocean in Indonesia, the weather was, in the words of the students of the Jakarta International School, "more hazy than usual". The temperature was 23.9°C when the observation was made (at 0100 UTC, 0800 Local Time), and the relative humidity was 82%. In India, at Springdales School, New Delhi, the temperature was 28.0°C at 0700 UTC (1230 Local Time). The humidity was low (only 50%) and the cloud amount very small (only one okta).
In Japan, the weather was still quite cold. At Keio Girls’ High School, the temperature was 7.5°C at 0000 UTC (0900 Local Time) and the students commented that the weather was cold and windy. The wind was from the north and its speed was 33 km/h (Force 5). The weather was very much colder in Illinois. Indeed, it was almost as cold there as in Finland. The temperature at Divernon Middle School was —17°C at 1345 UTC (0745 Local Time) and the wind-chill effect was considerable, for the wind speed was 33 km/h. There was very little cloud (only two oktas of stratocumulus and cumulus). The weather was wintry at St John’s — Kilmarnock School, at Breslau, near Toronto, with a temperature of —7.0°C at 1405 UTC (0905 Local Time) and snow falling fairly heavily. As if this were not enough, there was a northerly wind of 44 km/h. The weather was better in Edmonton (Alberta), where the weather was reported to be "mild, clear and dry". A light southerly wind was blowing and the temperature was —3°C at 1600 UTC (0900 Local Time).
At Forest Hill Parkway Academy (Cleveland , Ohio), the weather was quite windy and cold, with light snow falling. The temperature was —4°C when the school’s morning observation was made, -5.6°C when the afternoon observation was made. The wind was quite strong (24 km/h) and the students mentioned wind chill in their weather comments. In the west of the USA, at Peninsula Elementary School, Moses Lake, Washington State, the weather was sunny but chilly, with a temperature of +4.4°C. There, the wind was a very light north-easterly, and the cloud amount only two oktas. The sun shone at Pasadena, California, close to Los Angeles. There, the temperature was 18.7°C at 1930 UTC (1130 Local Time) and the weather was reported to be "hazy".
Across North America today, there has been a wide variety of cloud conditions. What have the groundhogs made of all this? Do they believe the winter has finished? In the British Isles, most places were cloudy today. The Candlemas weather lore suggests that the winter has come to an end. "If Candlemas Day (2 February) bring clouds and rain, winter is gone and won’t come again". How accurate will this lore prove to be this year? Only time will tell! For information about Groundhog Day and Candlemas weather lore, click here.
Where would you have liked to be today? If you had been able to fly away to the place of your choice, where would you have gone, and why? Have you taken John Harris’s webcam tour of the world? If not, click here. Have you taken his radar tour of the world? If not, click here.
NOTES
One of the secondary schools that is taking part in MetLink 2001 is Northamptonshire Grammar School, UK. This school has an excellent weather website. To go to it, click here. Another school with an excellent website is King’s School, Worcester, UK. To visit the site, click here.
There is material for teachers and pupils in secondary schools on the Education pages of the United Kingdom’s Met Office. To go to the Education home page, click here. To go to the Curriculum Learning Centre, click here.
For satellite images of superb quality, click here and follow the links for the images you wish to see. From this website, maintained by the United Kingdom’s Met Office, you can obtain satellite images covering Europe, Africa, The Americas and Asia/Australasia.
There is a great deal of material suitable for secondary schools on the website of the BBC Weather Centre. For the basics of weather, things to do, stunning weather photographs and much more, visit the Weatherwise, Fact Files and Do-it-yourself (DIY) Weather pages. The Education Officer of the Royal Meteorological Society helped develop these pages.
For a wealth of information about the weather, including the current weather in the USA, visit the website of USA TODAY.
At Adventdalen on Spitsbergen, 4 km from Longyearbyen, there is an automatic weather station that provides readings of temperature, wind speed, wind direction and barometric pressure. The webpage that shows these readings is updated every five minutes.
For upper-air soundings made at stations in Europe, click here. For soundings from other regions, scroll down the Europe page and follow the appropriate links. Each sounding is provided in tabular form or as a Postscript file or as a GIF image.
To obtain climatic data for hundreds of places around the world, visit the Worldclimate.com and Washington Post websites. From these sites, you can obtain average temperatures, extreme temperatures, rainfall amounts, average humidities, average wind speeds, and much more. Thus, you can find out if the weather during MetLink is warmer, colder, wetter, windier than average.
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that Anders Celsius was born 300 years ago? The man who was an astronomer but is chiefly remembered for the centigrade scale of temperature that bears his name was born at Uppsala in Sweden on 27 November 1701. He proposed his temperature scale in 1742, in a memoir read before the Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Do you want to find climatic statistics? If so, visit the Royal Meteorological Society’s Climate on the web site.
Do you want to find weather charts, satellite images or current weather data? If so, visit the Royal Meteorological Society’s Weather on the Web site.
