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Weather report for primary schools for Wednesday 31 January 2001
THE HEADLINES TODAY
Terri moves inland. Ski-weather in Finland. Sunny in Switzerland. Rose-tinted clouds in Strasbourg. Dull and damp in the British Isles. Thundery in Madagascar. Perfect in Kenya and Uganda. Dull on Ascension Island.
THE WEATHER IN THE METLINK WORLD TODAY
The cyclone that was threatening the north-west of Australia yesterday moved inland today and weakened. At 1200 UTC today, Cyclone Terri was centred about 100 km south of Port Hedland and moving slowly southwards, bringing much-needed rain to the places it reached. On the other side of Australia, at Trinity Grammar School, Melbourne, skies were largely clear of cloud. There, the weather was very pleasant, with a light south-westerly wind and a temperature of a little over 20°C. The ocean is not far to the south-west of Melbourne, so in summer (this time of year) the air is comparatively cool when it comes from that direction. When the wind blows from the north, the weather in Melbourne is much hotter, as Trinity’s observation on Monday showed. The maximum temperature recorded on Monday morning, 38°C, occurred on Sunday (28th). On Monday morning, following a change of wind direction, the temperature was much lower. For the actual figure, visit the MetLink database.
The effect of wind direction could also be seen today in the temperature at Longyearbyen School on Svalbard. A southerly wind brought comparatively warm air from over the Norwegian Sea, the consequence being that the temperature was as high as -4.4°C when the students made their observation. In the latitude of Longyearbyen, almost 80°N, -4°C is a high temperature at the end of January. A thin layer of stratocumulus cloud served as a blanket to stop the temperature falling. The weather was colder in Finland than on Svalbard today, even though Finland is much farther south than Svalbard. In Finland, the winds were from the north, the consequence being that Jyväskylä had a temperature of -9.4°C, Mikkeli a temperature of -8°C and Vörå a temperature of -5.2°C. At all three places, there was sunshine, and the students at Jyväskylä reported "fine ski-weather"! The weather at Värnamo (Sweden) was "cold and misty", with a temperature of -1.5°C at 0700 UTC (0800 Local Time). The coldest weather in the world at the moment is in central Asia, particularly Mongolia, where on several days recently temperatures have fallen below -50°C. The weather was also very cold in northern Canada today: -40°C just to the north-west of Hudson Bay. At the South Pole, in contrast, the temperature today was a relatively warm -31.3°C! For information about the weather at the South Pole, click here.
In the British Isles, the weather was again dull, damp and chilly today, though the cloud was not very thick and gave no more than drizzle in most places. The weather reports from MetLink schools show that temperatures this morning were in the range 3 to 5°C in eastern parts of the British Isles, a few degrees higher in western parts. Here are some of today’s comments on the weather in the British Isles: "cold, miserable, overcast, grey" (Chelmsford County High School, Essex); "very overcast, dull" (St Theresa’s School, Cashel, Ireland); "cloudy, cold, damp" (Isaac Newton Primary School, Lincolnshire); "another dull day" (Radley College, Oxfordshire); "dull and damp" (Pinewood School, Oxfordshire/Wiltshire border); "cold, chilly" (Lawford Primary School, Essex); "cloudy and damp" (The BBC Weather Centre, London).
The weather was also cloudy and damp in The Netherlands and, for part of the day, at the MetLink school in Geilenkirchen (Germany). It was rather unsettled over much of eastern Europe, with light snow in Prague and overcast conditions in Romania. In Spain, however, skies were largely free of cloud, and the MetLink school in Tarragona recorded a temperature of 15°C. The early morning brought rose-tinted clouds to Strasbourg, but these soon cleared and the rest of the day was sunny. The weather was sunny but gusty at the MetLink school in Switzerland. On the other side of the Alps, in northern Italy, there was a beautiful sunny day at Bozen and a day of broken cloud at Udine.
The weather was cold and damp with an overcast sky at the MetLink school near Toronto (St John’s-Kilmarnock, Breslau). There, the students measured 7.4 mm of precipitation and a temperature of 0°C. At Edmonton (James Gibbons School), there was a thin cloud cover and a temperature of -3°C when the students made their observation (at 1600 UTC, 0900 Local Time). Farther south, at the MetLink schools in the USA, temperatures were higher: +2.8°C at Moses Lake at 1800 UTC (1000 Local Time); two or three degrees above freezing at Cleveland, Ohio (Forest Hill Parkway Academy) around mid-day Local Time; 15.8°C at Pasadena Community Education Center (California) at 1300 Local Time (2100 UTC). The weather was not very nice in Ohio, though, the reports from Forest Hill Parkway Academy speaking of rainy, windy conditions. At the MetLink school in Mexico (the American School, Puerto Vallarta), the weather was described as "beautiful". There was a breeze from the south-west, only one okta of cloud and a temperature of 25°C. Very nice!
At the MetLink school in Tokyo, the weather was cool but fine, with a temperature of 7.5°C at 0900 Local Time. Two thousand kilometres to the south, at the Marianas High School on Saipan, the weather was very different, with three oktas of cumulus cloud, light north-easterly trade winds and a temperature close to 30°C. Several thousand kilometres to the east of Saipan, at Leilehua High School (Hawaii), the cloud amount was also three oktas, the cloud type was also cumulus (trade-wind cumulus) and the wind speed was also 9 km/h. Only the temperature and relative humidity were different: 26.0°C and 63% at Leilehua, 29.7°C and 78% at Saipan. At Jakarta (Indonesia), six degrees south of the equator, there was a breeze of 33 km/h and a temperature of 24.5°C at the beginning of the school day. At another school not far to the south of the equator, Two Boats School on Ascension Island (South Atlantic Ocean), the weather was dull today, with stratus and altostratus cloud and a threat of rain.
The weather was hot and thundery today at Antananarivo (Madagascar). The temperature was 27.0°C at 0920 UTC and slight rain was falling. Thunderstorms are always made up of cumulonimbus clouds, and the cloud report from Antananarivo accordingly included cumulus and cumulonimbus. The MetLink schools in Zambia and Zimbabwe today experienced temperatures a little below average, though temperatures between 20° and 25°C would be very acceptable to the MetLink participants who live in the parts of Europe, Asia and North America that are currently chilly!
At both of the MetLink schools near the equator in eastern Africa (in Kampala and Nairobi), the weather today was described as "beautiful". It was sunny in Ethiopia, too, but the students of the International Community School in Addis Ababa commented that the weather was "quite cold". The maximum temperature recorded at the school was 20°C. There was again air pollution in Bombay and New Delhi, with smoke mentioned in almost all of the hourly weather reports from Palam (New Delhi) and Santa Cruz (Bombay) Airports.
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.
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 Wednesday 31 January 2001
THE HEADLINES TODAY
Terri moves inland. Ski-weather in Finland. Alpine föhn. Dull and damp in the British Isles. Thundery in Madagascar. Perfect in Kenya and Uganda. Dull on Ascension Island.
THE WEATHER IN THE METLINK WORLD TODAY
The cyclone that was threatening the north-west of Australia yesterday moved inland today and weakened. At 1200 UTC today, Cyclone Terri was centred about 100 km south of Port Hedland and moving slowly southwards, bringing much-needed rain to the places it reached. For a satellite view of the weather over Australia at 0600 UTC on 31 January, click here. On the other side of Australia, at Trinity Grammar School, Melbourne, skies were largely clear of cloud. There, the weather was very pleasant, with a light south-westerly wind and a temperature of a little over 20°C. The ocean is not far to the south-west of Melbourne, so in summer (this time of year) the air is comparatively cool when it comes from that direction. When the wind blows from the north, the weather in Melbourne is much hotter, as Trinity’s observation on Monday showed. The maximum temperature recorded on Monday morning, 38°C, occurred on Sunday (28th). On Monday morning, following a change of wind direction, the temperature was much lower. For the actual figure, visit the MetLink database.
The effect of wind direction could also be seen today in the temperature at Longyearbyen School on Svalbard. A southerly wind brought comparatively warm air from over the Norwegian Sea, the consequence being that the temperature was as high as -4.4°C when the students made their observation. The southerly wind was associated with a Low of 1011 mb over north-east Greenland and a High of 1040 mb to the east of Svalbard. In the latitude of Longyearbyen, almost 80°N, -4°C is a high temperature at the end of January. A thin layer of stratocumulus cloud served as a blanket to stop the temperature falling.
The weather was colder in Finland than on Svalbard today, even though Finland is much farther south than Svalbard. In Finland, the winds were from the north, between a Low of 1014 mb centred at 60°N 40°E (western Russia) and a High of 1029 mb centred at 61°N 9°E (southern Norway). The consequence was that Jyväskylä had a temperature of -9.4°C, Mikkeli a temperature of -8°C and Vörå a temperature of -5.2°C. At all three places, there was sunshine, and the students at Jyväskylä reported "fine ski-weather"! The weather at Värnamo (Sweden) was "cold and misty", with no wind and a temperature of -1.5°C at 0700 UTC (0800 Local Time). The coldest weather in the world at the moment is in central Asia, particularly Mongolia, where on several days recently temperatures have fallen below -50°C. The weather was also very cold in northern Canada today: -40°C just to the north-west of Hudson Bay. At the South Pole, in contrast, the temperature today was a relatively warm -31.3°C! For information about the weather at the South Pole, click here.
In the British Isles, the weather was again dull, damp and chilly today, though the cloud was not very thick and gave no more than drizzle in most places. The cause of the cloud was a weak slow-moving occluded front lying from the Western Isles of Scotland through the Midlands of England to central France. For a weather chart, click here. The weather reports from MetLink schools show that temperatures this morning were in the range 3 to 5°C in eastern parts of the British Isles, a few degrees higher in western parts. Here are some of today’s comments on the weather in the British Isles: "cold, miserable, overcast, grey" (Chelmsford County High School, Essex); "very overcast, dull" (St Theresa’s School, Cashel, Ireland); "dull, cold and wet" (William Lovell school, Lincolnshire); "another dull day" (Radley College, Oxfordshire); "dull and damp" (Pinewood School, Oxfordshire/Wiltshire border); "cold, chilly" (Lawford Primary School, Essex); "cloudy and damp" (The BBC Weather Centre, London).
The weather was also cloudy and damp in The Netherlands and, for part of the day, at the MetLink school in Geilenkirchen (Germany). It was rather unsettled over much of eastern Europe, with light snow in Prague and overcast conditions in Romania. A complex area of low pressure extended from southern Italy to the Black Sea and fronts brought cloud and precipitation to the whole region. For a weather chart, click here. In Spain, skies were largely free of cloud, and the MetLink school in Tarragona recorded a temperature of 15°C. The early morning brought rose-tinted clouds to Strasbourg, but these soon cleared and the rest of the day was sunny. The weather was sunny but gusty at the MetLink school in Switzerland. On the other side of the Alps, in northern Italy, there was a beautiful sunny day at Bozen and a day of broken cloud at Udine. At Bozen, on the southern side of the Alps, the föhn effect occurred. Winds were from the north and altocumulus lenticularis clouds were observed.
An area of low pressure across the Great Lakes and north-east of the USA brought cold, damp weather with an overcast sky to the MetLink school near Toronto (St John’s-Kilmarnock, Breslau). There, the students measured 7.4 mm of precipitation and a temperature of 0°C. At Edmonton (James Gibbons School), which was influenced by a ridge of high pressure, there was, when the students made their observation (at 1600 UTC, 0900 Local Time), a light north-westerly wind, a thin cloud cover and a temperature of -3°C. Farther south, at the MetLink schools in the USA, temperatures were higher: +2.8°C at Moses Lake at 1800 UTC (1000 Local Time); two or three degrees above freezing at Cleveland, Ohio (Forest Hill Parkway Academy) around mid-day Local Time; 15.8°C at Pasadena Community Education Center (California) at 1300 Local Time (2100 UTC). The weather was not very nice in Ohio, though, the reports from Forest Hill Parkway Academy speaking of rainy, windy conditions. Pressure was high in western parts of the USA, but Illinois was affected by the same area of low pressure that brought rain to Breslau. At the MetLink school in Mexico (the American School, Puerto Vallarta), the weather was described as "beautiful". There was a breeze from the south-west, only one okta of cloud and a temperature of 25°C. Very nice!
At the MetLink school in Tokyo, the weather was cool but fine, with a temperature of 7.5°C at 0900 Local Time. Two thousand kilometres to the south, at the Marianas High School on Saipan, the weather was very different, with three oktas of cumulus cloud, light north-easterly trade winds and a temperature close to 30°C. Several thousand kilometres to the east of Saipan, at Leilehua High School (Hawaii), the cloud amount was also three oktas, the cloud type was also cumulus (trade-wind cumulus) and the wind speed was also 9 km/h. Only the temperature and relative humidity were different: 26.0°C and 63% at Leilehua, 29.7°C and 78% at Saipan. At Jakarta (Indonesia), six degrees south of the equator, there was a breeze of 33 km/h and a temperature of 24.5°C at the beginning of the school day. At another school not far to the south of the equator, Two Boats School on Ascension Island (South Atlantic Ocean), the weather was dull today, with stratus and altostratus cloud and a threat of rain.
The weather was hot and thundery today at Antananarivo (Madagascar). The temperature was 27.0°C at 0920 UTC and slight rain was falling. Thunderstorms are always made up of cumulonimbus clouds, and the cloud report from Antananarivo accordingly included cumulus and cumulonimbus. The MetLink schools in Zambia and Zimbabwe today experienced temperatures a little below average, though temperatures between 20° and 25°C would be very acceptable to the MetLink participants who live in the parts of Europe, Asia and North America that are currently chilly! The satellite images of Africa and the South Atlantic show clearly that the ITCZ lay over central southern Africa today and that skies were largely clear of cloud over eastern parts of central and North Africa.
At both of the MetLink schools near the equator in eastern Africa (in Kampala and Nairobi), the weather today was described as "beautiful". It was sunny in Ethiopia, too, but the students of the International Community School in Addis Ababa commented that the weather was "quite cold". The maximum temperature recorded at the school was 20°C. There was again air pollution in Bombay and New Delhi, with smoke mentioned in almost all of the hourly weather reports from Palam (New Delhi) and Santa Cruz (Bombay) Airports.
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.
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.
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.
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.
