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PITSFORD HALL WEATHER STATION NORTHAMPTON, UNITED KINGDOM SPECIAL WEATHER REPORT 5 February Heavy and persistent rain turns parts of Delapre Park in Northampton into a lake as the county again faces the risk of flooding. The Environment Agency has issued flood watch and flood warnings for the River Nene and its tributaries and the River Avon after several hours of rain. By 0900hrs on the 5th, more than 80% of the normal rainfall for February had been recorded at Pitsford Hall. Four consecutive days of rainfall lasting 23.9 hours has so far produced 30.3mm. A river gauge at Lilbourne on the River Avon was measuring 1.35 metres at 0530hrs this morning, although levels were falling. An image attached to the above report is available online via: http://www14.brinkster.com/brixworth/weather/Images/delapre.gif NOTE: Special Weather Reports are released by Pitsford Hall weather station when there is significant weather to report over and above that normally contained in the Daily Weather Reports. Recipients are restricted to the media. On this occasion it is being sent to MetLinkInternational as participants may be monitoring the flooding across southern Britain. One of my favourite weather links is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/weather.ram Useful for MetLink participants...a BBC forecast whenever they want it! Regards Mike ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pitsford Hall weather station Tel. 01604 880306 Pitsford Fax. 01604 882212 Northampton E-mail office@northantsweather.org.uk NN6 9AX http://www.northantsweather.org.uk Location: 52º 18' N 0º 53' W Altitude: 115m AMSL Local Forecast and Readings: (07967) 438314
Weather report for primary schools for Tuesday 6 February 2001
THE HEADLINES TODAY
Wet and windy in the British Isles. A rainbow near Reading. More snow in Scotland. Slightly warmer in Scandinavia. Mediterranean sunshine. Wet in Jakarta. Dull in Zimbabwe. Cloudy on Ascension Island. Warming up in Australia.
THE WEATHER IN THE METLINK WORLD TODAY
Today was breezy in many parts of the British Isles after a wet and windy night. South-westerly winds brought mild weather to England, Wales, southern Scotland and southern Ireland today. At MetLink schools in the southern half of England, temperatures rose above 10°C today. In the north of Scotland, winds continued to blow from an easterly point and the weather remained cold. The windiest MetLink schools in the British Isles today were St Theresa’s in Cashel (Ireland) and All Saints’ at Whiteparish near Salisbury (southern England). Both reported 67 km/h. Snow was again a problem in northern Scotland and on the Shetland Isles today. Many schools remained closed and thousands of people had no electricity when the weight of snow brought down power lines. Two trains became stuck in snow drifts several metres deep between Inverness and Wick. For a BBC report on the snowy weather in Scotland, click here.
The weather on Spitsbergen today was a little cooler than of late, with the temperature at Longyearbyen School —4.4°C this morning. The weather in Finland and Sweden was a little warmer today than it has been in recent days, but it was still very cold: -14.3°C at Vörå this morning, -13.0°C at Jyväskylä, -11°C at Mikkeli and —5.0°C at Värnamo. There was snowfall at all of these places today. Another place in the MetLink world where the temperature was well below 0°C today was James Gibbons School in Edmonton, Canada, where the temperature was —10°C this morning. The sky was overcast there, but no snow was reported.
In the warm parts of the MetLink world, there was drizzle and dull weather at the MetLink schools in Zimbabwe and heavy rain in Jakarta, Indonesia. Rain also fell in Madagascar and Zambia, but not especially heavily for this time of year. The students of the American School Antananarivo measured only 5 mm this morning and the students of Banani International School in Lusaka measured only 1 mm. The weather was dull on Ascension Island and fairly cloudy at Leilehua on Hawaii, but no rain fell at either place.
The weather in Nairobi was fair but clouds were building and the students felt that thunderstorms would occur tonight. There was no sign of rain at the MetLink schools in India and Ethiopia or at either of the MetLink schools in South Africa, where skies were cloudless and the weather warm. "Sunny, warm and dry" said the students of the International Community School at Addis Ababa. "Clear and sunny day with mild breeze", said the students of Springdales School in New Delhi. "Another perfect day but 30°C expected later", said the students of Micklefield School, Cape Town. The students of Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne (Australia) expect a hot week and reported that a temperature of 40°C is forecast for Thursday. Today, the temperature was 26°C and rising!
There was drizzle in Madrid this morning and a large amount of cirrus cloud over Tarragona, but the sun shone over central and eastern parts of the Mediterranean today. The MetLink participants in northern Italy both reported considerable amounts of cloud today but no precipitation. Neither in Spain nor in northern Italy was the weather particularly cold today, with temperatures in the range 7° to 10°C in northern Italy, about 10°C in Madrid and 15.0°C in Tarragona. At Versoix in Switzerland, the weather was cloudy but quite warm, with a temperature of 15°C at lunchtime. In Strasbourg, the temperature reached 15°C this afternoon and the MetLink participant there considered the weather very pleasant for the time of year. In Romania, too, the weather was quite mild, though a little cloudy. The temperature at Constanta was 11.9°C this afternoon.
Once again, there was very pleasant weather in Pasadena, California, where the temperature was 18.4°C at 2026 UTC (1226 Local Time) and the sky almost clear of cloud, there being just one okta of cirrus. At Moses Lake, though, in Washington State, the temperature at 1800 UTC (1000 Local Time) was just below freezing point (-0.7°C) and the wind speed was 24 km/h. Thus, as the students noted, there was a considerable wind-chill factor. The weather was cold in Illinois, too, at Divernon Middle School, where the temperature this morning was +2°C. However, the sky was almost cloudless, so the weather probably did not seem too bad. In Ohio, though, at the Forest Hill Parkway Academy, snow was falling and the temperature was close to 0°C. That is the kind of weather northern Scotland has been experiencing lately!
Has anyone seen a rainbow recently? The author of this report, the Education Officer of the Royal Meteorological Society, saw a superb double rainbow five kilometres north-west of Reading (UK) at 1655 UTC today. There were showers of rain in the area and the sun was very low in the sky. Do you know how rainbows are formed? Do you know why red is on the outside of a primary rainbow, violet on the inside?
If you see any optical phenomena, please tell us.
NOTES
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.
To read news stories sent in by MetLink schools, click here. For pictures of MetLink activities, click here.
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.
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 Tuesday 6 February 2001
PLEASE READ THIS REPORT FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN CONJUNCTION WITH TODAY’S REPORT FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS
ANALYSIS OF TODAY’S WEATHER IN THE METLINK WORLD
EUROPE
At 0000 UTC today, a Low of 954 mb was centred at 51°N 15°W, with gale-force south-westerly winds on its southern and eastern flanks and strong easterly winds on its northern side. Another centre of low pressure (966 mb) was situated at 49°N 28°W. Between the two, there was a col with a pressure of 970 mb. Winds over England, Wales and southern Ireland were from the south-west, while winds over Scotland and the northern half of Ireland were from the south-east. For a UK Met Office chart showing fronts and isobars, click here.
The two depressions moved as pair. By 1200 UTC, the Low of 954 mb had moved north-eastwards to 56°N 10°W and filled a little to 958 mb. In the same period of twelve hours, the Low of 966 mb moved eastwards to 49°N 21°W and also filled a little, its central pressure increasing to 974 mb. At 1200 UTC, fresh to strong south-westerly winds covered southern Scotland and the whole of England, Wales and Ireland, while winds over northern Scotland remained easterly (i.e. from the east). To the west of the two Lows, a broad north-easterly flow carried cold (polar maritime) air from high latitudes to about 45°N 30-40°W. As satellite images show (click here and here), cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds were present almost all of the way from Iceland to the Azores. Convection was widespread in the lower troposphere. The cold air was warmed from below as it flowed southwards, thus becoming unstable.
The warm and occluded fronts of the Low near Ireland moved north-eastwards over the British Isles, bringing rain and strong winds to many places in the British Isles overnight and further snow to central and northern parts of Scotland, as well as to the MetLink school in southern Sweden. With the arrival of south-westerly winds, a thaw of the snow that fell yesterday began in the north of England and the southern half of Scotland. Where winds were easterly, cold weather and snow continued to cause problems. The cold front of the Low near Ireland moved eastwards into France and Iberia during the day, bringing with it cloud and rain to the MetLink schools in The Netherlands and north-west Germany.
As it was yesterday, so it was today: pressure was high over northern parts of North Africa, with the highest pressure today, 1029 mb, over the central Mediterranean not far to the east of Malta. Between this region of high pressure and the depressions near the British Isles, winds were from the south or south-west. Thus, a broad south-westerly flow was found today over almost all parts of southern and central Europe. Near the Black Sea, where there was a weak Low of 1014 mb at 1200 UTC today, winds were very light.
Pressure remained high today over central Asia and was also high (1032 mb) over Greenland. To the north-east of Iceland, there was a Low, which was centred on the Greenwich Meridian near 63°N at 0000 UTC and at 67°N 1°W at 1200 UTC. This depression deepened during the day, from 993 mb at 0000 UTC to 985 mb at 1200 UTC. Over Scandinavia, winds were generally from the east or south-east, carrying bitterly cold air from eastern Europe and western Russia. A front from the depression over the Norwegian Sea lay close to southern Spitsbergen. Over the Fram Strait, which lies between Spitsbergen and Greenland, winds blew from the south-west. Over Spitsbergen itself, they were from the south-east.
AFRICA AND ASCENSION
Today’s satellite images show that skies were clear over most of North Africa. Only over West Africa was there any significant amount of cloud, and that was high (cirrus-type) cloud. Elsewhere over North Africa, the only clouds to be seen on satellite images were scattered patches of high cloud or altocumulus. At this time of year, descending air in the Hadley Cell keeps the weather dry over almost the whole of North Africa. At the MetLink school in Ethiopia, there was no cloud today. The ITCZ was patchy and indistinct over the Atlantic Ocean, but its influence may have extended as far south as Ascension Island, where skies were cloudy again today.
Scattered cumulonimbus activity was present over the parts of central and southern Africa that are currently experiencing their rainy season, but nowhere was there any widespread or really heavy precipitation. The MetLink school on Madagascar recorded only 5 mm of rainfall and the MetLink school in Zambia only 1 mm. There was dull weather with drizzle at both of the MetLink schools in Zimbabwe. Satellite images show that the skies over southern Africa south of about 25°S were generally clear of cloud and the observations received from the MetLink schools in South Africa confirm this. Pressure was high today to the west, south and south-east of South Africa, with depressions and their fronts confined to latitudes polewards of 40°S.
To obtain the latest South African Weather Bureau chart showing fronts and isobars over southern Africa and the Southern Ocean, click here.
AUSTRALASIA
Satellite images show that cumulonimbus activity occurred again today over northern parts of Australia. They show, too, that the ITCZ existed as a broad band of cumulus and cumulonimbus activity extending from about 70°E to about 160°E. Pressure was low (999 mb) over Western Australia near Port Hedland and also (998 mb) to the south-west of Australia’s Cape Leeuwin. An anticyclone (1028 mb) centred just to the east of Tasmania was the dominant influence over south-east Australia. To obtain the latest chart of isobars and fronts over Australia, click here.
Again today, like yesterday, there was a northerly wind at Keio Girls’ High School in Tokyo. This was consistent with Tokyo being situated on the eastern side of a ridge of high pressure that extended eastwards from a High of 1051 mb over central Asia. The polar front lay farther to the south of Japan today than yesterday. To obtain a weather chart that includes Japan, click here. To obtain a chart containing Japan’s plotted weather observations, click here.
Satellite images of southern Asia show that skies were clear over almost the whole of India. The only significant amounts of cloud were patches of medium-level clouds in the southernmost part of India. This is the season of the North-East Monsoon in southern Asia. The effectiveness of the Himalayas at preventing cold air from reaching India can clearly be seen on infra-red satellite images at this time of year (for today’s 1200 UTC image, click here). On an infra-red image: the darker the image, the hotter the radiating surface; the whiter the image the colder the surface. During the day, the Indian sub-continent is dark (because its surface is heated by the sun). The Tibetan Plateau is, at the same time, grey (where there is no cloud), as, too, are central and eastern parts of Asia. The air near the ground is very cold north of the Himalayas at this time of year.
NORTH AMERICA AND HAWAII
At 0000 UTC today, there was a Low of 994 mb over the Atlantic Ocean just off New York and another of 1008 mb over the Great Lakes. A High of 1035 mb was centred near 44°N 140°W (to the west of Washington State). Today’s infra-red satellite image for 1800 UTC (the middle of the day in North America) shows that skies were generally clear of cloud over the southern states of the USA. The cloud and cold weather of Canada and the northern parts of the USA is shown by the grey and white shades on this image. The cloud bands associated with the fronts of the Low centred near New York can be seen clearly over western parts of the Atlantic. The scattered cumulonimbus clouds over tropical parts of South America also show up clearly as bright white patches. The patches are white because the tops of the clouds are very cold (less than —60°C). On an infra-red image, cold objects appear white, whereas hot objects appear dark.
There was a trough of low pressure close to Hawaii today, but the cold front that brought cool weather recently has now dissipated. As today’s 1800 UTC satellite image shows, large patches of cloud were associated with the trough.
To obtain a recent weather chart from Environment Canada, click here and then choose the chart you require. For charts of North America made available by a German source, click here.
NOTES
Did you know that hourly measurements of wind, temperature, pressure and sea conditions recorded by the sensors of the automatic weather stations that are aboard data buoys on the North Sea and eastern North Atlantic are available on the web? To obtain the latest observations, click here. When the page has loaded, click on the yellow diamonds to obtain data for individual buoys. Please note that temperatures are by default given in degrees Fahrenheit, pressure in inches and winds in knots. For metric data, choose, on the page containing the data for the buoy you selected, ‘metric’ on the ‘Unit of measure’ drop-down menu and ‘Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)’ on the ‘Time Zone’ drop-down menu. Then press ‘Select’.
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.
For upper-air soundings made at stations in Europe, click here. For upper-air soundings made at stations in the USA, click here. For soundings from other regions, scroll down either the Europe page or the USA page and follow the appropriate links. Each sounding is provided in tabular form or as a Postscript file or as a GIF image.
To read news stories sent in by MetLink schools, click here. For pictures of MetLink activities, click here.
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.
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.
