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Sources: BBC, National Weather Services, Intellicast, Space Science and Engineering Center, the Met Office, Yahoo! Weather
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
TODAY’S EXTREMES
Hottest: Kgaswe Primary School, Botswana, 37°C
Coldest: James Gibbons School, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, -23.0°C
Windiest: Richard Lander School, Truro, Cornwall, UK, 81 km/h
Driest: Bavarian International School, Germany, relative humidity 27%
Wettest: Medan International School, Sumatra, Indonesia, 100 mm
TODAY’S REVIEW OF METLINK OBSERVATIONS
Have you looked at today’s weathercams? If not, click here.
Did today’s weather warnings prove accurate? To read the warnings, click here.
To view today’s observations in the database, click here.
To find out how your observations compare with the average for January, click here.
AUSTRALASIA
Once again, Jakarta International School was the first to enter an observation in the database today, followed soon after by Medan International School and Keio Girls’ High School, Japan. The weather was hot and humid in Indonesia, with a maximum temperature of 35°C at Medan and a maximum of 33°C at Jakarta. At both places, the weather was cloudy and humid this morning (95% at Jakarta at 00:00 GMT, which is 7 am Local Time). The rainfall totals were large at both schools: 32.4 mm at Jakarta, 100 mm at Medan.
At Singapore, 600 km south-east of Medan, there was no rain this morning. The weather was hot with some sunshine and a very light breeze from the north-east. The temperature at 06:30 GMT (2.30 pm Local Time) was 29°C and the cloud amount 5 oktas. Far to the north-east of Singapore and Indonesia, at Keio Girls’ High School in Japan, the weather was, as expected in middle latitudes, much cooler than in the equatorial region. The temperature at Keio at 01:10 GMT (10.10 am Local Time) was 11°C and the weather, in the words of the students, "fine". For a map showing temperatures, winds, pressures, etc over Japan at 06:00 GMT, click here. The weather was quite cool in New Delhi, too, with a minimum temperature of only 4°C, the reason for the coldness being, according to the students, "snowfall in the higher ranges"; these ranges are only 250-300 km to the north-east of Delhi. The temperature at Springdales School was 16°C at 07:17 GMT (12.47 pm Local Time). This is quite low for the time of year, but at least the day was sunny, as is usual at this time of year.
AFRICA AND ASCENSION
The weather was hot and sunny again today in Pretoria, where the maximum temperature was 33.4°C. The sky was cloudless at both 04:45 GMT (6.45 am Local Time) and 06:40 GMT, but there had been "a few drops of rain overnight", reported the students. The rain gauge yielded 0.3 mm of precipitation. The weather was hotter still at Kgaswe, Botswana, where the maximum temperature was 37°C. Here, too, there was no cloud this morning, with a cloudless sky at 07:00 GMT (9 am Local Time).
Another hot place was Ascension, which is only eight degrees south of the equator. Here, the temperature at 12:35 GMT was about the same as yesterday, being 26°C today compared with 28°C at almost the same time yesterday. Again today, there was a lot of cloud (mostly cumulus and cumulonimbus), with drizzle falling when today’s observation was made. The weather was quite windy, with a breeze of 33 km/h blowing (from the north-east).
The weather was today "a little cooler with more cloud but still very muggy" at Highbury Preparatory School, Hillcrest, KwaZulu Natal. Here, the temperature at 05:10 GMT (7.10 am Local Time) was 21°C, the same as the minimum temperature. The maximum was 28°C. Drizzle was falling from nimbostratus clouds at the Banani International School (Lusaka, Zambia) at 08:00 GMT (10 am Local Time) and the temperature was then 20°C, having been up to 28°C the previous day and down to 15°C overnight. The temperature was also above 20°C at Marondera, Zimbabwe, this morning, being 22.1°C at 06:00 GMT (8 am Local Time). Here, the range of temperature was much less than at Banani, the maximum temperature being 25.1°C and the minimum 21.3°C. A breeze of 15 km/h was blowing from the south-east and the sky was partly cloudy (4 oktas of cumulus and stratocumulus clouds).
Cyclone Dina was today close to Mauritius and Réunion and continuing to head towards Madagascar. For information about the movements and intensity of this storm (in French), click here.
EUROPE
The weather continued to be very cold over Finland today. The coldest of the MetLink locations was Vasa, where the minimum temperature was —19.2°C and the temperature at 12:21 GMT (2.21 pm Local Time) -14°C. Thermometer readings were very similar at Vörå, where the minimum temperature was -18.1°C and the temperature at 11:10 GMT (1.10 pm Local Time) —14.8°C. Jyväskylä was not much warmer (if "warmer" is quite the right word!). There, the temperature was —12.1°C at 11:00 GMT. Mikkeli was the least cold of the four MetLink schools in Finland, recording a temperature of —8.8°C at 08:00 GMT and a minimum of —9.8°C. At all four schools, conditions were rather cloudy, and snow was falling at Mikkeli, Vörå and Jyväskylä. There was snow falling at the Oslo International School in Norway, too, but there the temperature was not as low as in Finland, being +0.5°C at 11:23 GMT (12.23 pm Local Time). Conditions sounded to be very unpleasant in Oslo today, as there was not only snow, falling from an overcast of nimbostratus cloud, but also fog. Another place with a complete overcast of nimbostratus cloud today was Bor School in southern Sweden. There, at 07:15 GMT (8.15 am Local Time), slight drizzle was falling and the weather was called by the students "wet, grey, dull". They also said that the weather was mild, the temperature at 07:15 GMT being +5.4°C. For a map showing temperatures over Scandinavia at 06:00 GMT today, click here.
The weather was cool but dry at Constanta, Romania, the temperatures being +1.6°C at 06:00 GMT (8 am Local Time), +4.2°C at 10:00 GMT and +4.6°C at 13:00 GMT and +3.7°C at 16:00 GMT. Cloud amounts were small (two or three oktas) for much of the day but increased to 7 oktas at 16:00. The students thought rain may be approaching. The observations received from Bozen at 09:00 GMT (10 am Local Time) and 15:00 GMT revealed that the weather was dry and the sky partly covered by altocumulus and stratocumulus clouds. The temperature rose from +0.6°C at 09:00 GMT to +7°C at 15:00. Conditions were rather cloudy (mainly stratocumulus) but dry in Strasbourg, with pink-tinted clouds at 07:30 GMT (8.30 am Local Time). The temperature rose from +3.0°C at 07:30 GMT to 7.0°C at 12:00 GMT and 8.0°C at 16:30 GMT. The weather at the Bavarian International School in Germany was "sunny and crisp" with no wind, the temperature being 0°C at 08:05 GMT (9.05 am Local Time).
In the south-west of France, at Toulouse, the weather was very pleasant, with a temperature of 12.0°C at 11:00 GMT (noon Local Time) and only two oktas of cloud (cumulus and cirrus). Another place with very little cloud was Malta, where at 09:00 GMT (10 am Local Time) the temperature was 14°C and the wind a light breeze from the south-west. Compared with places farther north in Europe, Malta was warm, but the students considered their weather "rather cold for the time of year". In Madrid, the day began quite cool and cloudy with drizzle falling and did not improve, with drizzle still falling in the afternoon. The temperature was +3.5°C at 08:15 GMT (9.15 am Local Time) and 8°C at 14:20 GMT.
Over the British Isles today, the weather was fresher than yesterday, with showers in some places. Winds were generally from between south-west and north-west, and temperatures were in the range 8°C to 11°C around mid-day. "Cold and cloudy" was the comment from Honeybourne First School in Worcestershire. Heavy showers fell this morning at Lionel School on the Isle of Lewis. "Sunny, cold and a blustery wind" was the comment from Lawford Primary School in Essex. The weather was bright and sunny with a strong breeze at Sheffield and blustery at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire. Drizzle fell in Galway and rain fell in Ennis, County Clare. It was "dark, dull, cloudy, wet and windy" at Farr High School on the north coast of Scotland.
For a chart showing temperatures, significant weather and distributions of barometric pressure over Europe at 12:00 GMT today, click here.
NORTH AMERICA
The weather was again very cold at James Gibbons School in Alberta, Canada, where, at 16:30 GMT (9.30 am Local Time), the temperature was —23.0°C, only 4°C below the previous day’s maximum. The sky was overcast with 8 oktas of altostratus cloud and a breeze of 9 km/h was blowing. The students reported that the wind chill was —30 and commented that there was a risk of frostbite. The temperature was also below 0°C at the Frank Hall Elementary School in Illinois, where it was —4°C at 16:00 GMT (10 am Local Time) and the wind speed 44 km/h. The weather was, however, sunny with few clouds and the students considered it "unseasonably warm". There was sunshine, too, at Raleigh in North Carolina, where the temperature was higher than at Frank Hall School, being +3°C at 13:26 GMT (8.26 am Local Time). However, the students at Raleigh considered their weather "cold". In the west of the USA, at Moses Lake, Washington State, the temperature was only +1.1°C at 19:00 GMT (11 am Local Time) and the students considered their weather "much chillier". Farther south, at Reseda in California, the weather was much warmer, with a temperature of 12.1°C at 18:38 GMT (10.38 am Local Time). It was sunny, too, with only one okta of cirrus cloud. Pasadena was not as warm as yesterday, the temperature at 19:40 GMT (11.40 am Local Time) being 14°C, compared with 20°C at the same time yesterday. The sunshine of yesterday had also gone, giving way to cloudy weather which the students considered cool for their part of the world. It was sunny and cool at Fernley Intermediate School in Nevada, with a temperature of 0°C at 17:05 GMT (9.05 am Local Time), and a complete contrast in Texas, where at Katy at 14:45 GMT (8.45 am Local Time), the weather was hot, humid and breezy with cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds and a temperature of 24.7°C. At Mendenhall Middle School in California at 17:00 GMT (9 am Local Time), the temperature was 20°C and slight rain was falling. Quite a change from yesterday, when the sun was shining at Mendenhall but the temperature was much lower (only 11°C).
TODAY’S ANALYSIS
NB On the so-called ‘visible images’ from satellites, what you see is more or less what you would see with your own eyes if you were in the satellite and looking in black and white. On the so-called ‘infra-red images’, the whitest areas are the coldest and the blackest the hottest. Thus, high clouds show as white areas. Medium-level clouds and very cold land areas show as grey. For information about obtaining satellite images of the highest quality, see the Notes section below.
NOTES
You can obtain satellite images of the highest quality from the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station, Dundee University, Scotland. First, though, you must complete an on-line registration form. Registration is free and the images are free. Do not hesitate to register. The staff at Dundee welcome new users and you gain access to images of very high quality. You go first to http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/ and click on the button labelled "Register for free images". All you do then is fill in the form, press the button labelled "Create account", remember the user name and password you chose and start using the site.
From the satellite station’s home page, i.e. http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/, you click on "Home for registered users" and then choose the images you require. I suggest you begin with "Geostationary satellite images — view the whole earth". On this page, which provides links to the latest images from geostationary satellites, you select whichever image you require. If you want an image from a previous day, choose "Archive".
Images from the following satellites are available: METEOSAT (which covers Europe and Africa), Japanese GMS (which covers the western part of the Pacific, Australia and Indonesia), US GOES-EAST (which covers North and South America), US GOES-WEST (which covers the eastern Pacific) and IODC (which covers central Asia, southern Asia and the Indian Ocean).
From all of these satellites, images can be obtained in Visible and Infra-Red formats. From METEOSAT and IODC, images showing distributions of water vapour can be obtained. From METEOSAT, colour-enhanced images of Europe can be obtained.
If you wish to view images from polar-orbiting satellites covering western Europe and the eastern Atlantic from Greenland and northern Scandinavia to western Asia and North Africa, go from "Home for registered users" to AVHRR Images — latest images or, for archived images, AVHRR Images- Archive.
OTHER NOTES
A school weather site that might be of interest to you is that made available by Scalloway School, Shetland, UK.
If you require information about climate on the web, click here. If you seek climatological data, click here or here.
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