Hadley long precipitation series, report for July 2015

Occasionally I might post this result, very unlikely anything significant will change, I might though rework something

HadEWP, England and Wales precipitation since 1766, a very long series processed to z-score and less annual variation.

July 2015 was just above zero score. Other series plotted, Scotland and NI were damp, around 1 SD above zero.

All 11 plots bundled are here (PDF 11 pages, 1.6MB)

Global temperature map comparison

UAH TLT V6 beta, click for larger

This new work showcases one month available for all datasets, February 2015. The image above, lower troposphere from UAH V6 beta is merely a picture, the true work is in a PDF for local display. The intent is information, not hitting you in the face, so whilst as such green is a colour few people like that is how it has turned out. New geographic map, new colours.

Combined images, PDF (2.9MB), the cover page explains more.

I leave the reader to draw conclusions. As I get accused, understating, some surprises are inside.

A novel presentation of 177 UK meterorological sites

This is a large work where I am dismayed at having a choice forced by inaction of others between junking the work or showing known defective data which precludes much in the way of worthwhile further analysis.

Here is a 180 page document containing frequency plots for all 177 Met Office Datapoint site’s hourly data since July 2014. In addition geographic linkage is provided by location maps for each site and live links to public aerial images where known.

Document link, PDF 11.3MB

Annual report on GFS GCM performance

A mailing list I receive from UCAR brought news of an addition to the GFS forecast archive “New Dataset: NCEP GFS 0.25 Degree Global Forecast Grids Historical Archive” and links to a web page.

On browsing an excellent general interest snippet appeared

Page 16/17, performance over time for a few parameters of various GCM and with the observation on the GFS useful horizon “Increase is about one day per decade”.

Review of GFS Forecast Skills in 2013
Fanglin Yang
IMSG – Environmental Modeling Center
National Centers for Environmental Prediction

Link is on the performance review page, 2013 rev. is PDF (2.7MB)

Katesbridge exponential cooling

The night of 28th to 29th December 2014 was calm under high pressure across much of the UK after a clear sunny winter’s day. It was going to be cold.

[UPDATE: Met Office, -8.8C ]

This is a partial weather station in Northern Ireland, red trace is temperature, pink is dewpoint and green is wind. No other data.

This blog article is an addition to this one at Tallbloke’s, and providing the data.

A real world demonstration of cloud controlling radiation

The original text struck me as inappropriate so I’ve edited it. I put it down to being overtired. The original is archived if anyone wants to see it, just ask (there is a contact form), no questions asked on why.

This is a huge plot including hourly data from WMO3768 Farnborough, England, a synoptic Met Office station where I estimate the site meets WMO 2010 recommendation Class 1, although the presence of a triangular airfield runway layout surrounding the station will have some side effects.

A details view of the plot is only practical via PDF (201kB)  Very likely the PDF will open looking as above so you need to set magnification and scroll around the plot, 100% is the intended view. Some details of interest are reproduced below at a normal scale.

August 2014 radiative cooling East Anglia, Northern Ireland, South Midlands

August 2014 there was a meteorological gift of both exceptional conditions and good data. What can be learnt?

Three Met Office sites showed a signature of exponential cooling. This requires clear sky and a calm. Given somewhat limited parameter hourly data the following shows the commonality. The computed terminal conditions are shown later in this article.

Benson and Santon Downham data has been normalised to Katesbridge[3], which has the least noisy data or the three.

Achieving a close overlay requires taking earth rotation into account, dusk and dawn move relatively both by geographic location and the peculiar movement throughout the year as night length changes, these do not move together [1]. Fractional delay (less that the sample period) was used to equalize diurnal time. (see the two blog articles here)

Dusk appears to be the important factor, a surprising finding, I assume cooling is time from dusk, dawn terminates cooling.

General information, under essentially calm conditions wind drops for a period during the night then reappears just after dawn. (not shown here)

Temperature normalisation defined is for the cold period, not as accurate for Benson where the better site exposure (more open) led to more wind at times.

UK outline map and Met Office Datapoint

I’ve been busy pottering on code as a mindless intermission during house repairs, can only do so much at a time. Argue with a piece of wood or with a computer screen? 🙂

This is a bitmap copy of a map of the UK with markers showing the location of Met Office weather sites with hourly data published via their Datapoint service. Data is under OGL (Open Government Licence) which allows usage. Unfinished work, references are not yet included.

The real file is part of a large PDF (vector format) containing plots for all those stations during a 24 hour period.

Example PDF https://daedalearth.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/uk-2014-08-24-0045.pdf  (1.2MB, work in progress, more to be done)

Met Office station location assistance

I need help in locating a few Met Office meteorological sites as part of a new project part of making reality open to all. In addition any correction of errors or additional information is welcome. For anyone not aware I have past history of extensive unearthing of similar information via a surfacestations project. This is not  an easy to read post, sorry.

The UK Met Office has relatively recently started publishing moderate resolution meteorological data for a subset of all stations via a web based facility called Datapoint.

We get hourly data for 176 stations, a few wind data only, the rest a mixture of full or partial data

WARNING opening this full blog article will display a long list of data.

Luling, Texas weather station

A recent saga started by Paul Homewood over apparently excessive “homogenisation” for one of a vast number of US volunteer run weather stations led me to take a look. I’ll link Paul’s blog articles as an appendix.

The station is at Luling Foundation Farm, an agricultural station set up prior to WWII. The weather data runs from 1949.

Luling station house looking south

They have a good web site which gives a history, starting the unravelling of the situation. http://lulingfoundation.org/our-history