Sunday 28 August 2011

Met Office WOW

The Met Office started a new feature in June where anyone with a Private Weather Station (PWS) can upload live data to their servers.

Initially there were some teething problems but most things seem to work OK now.
The interface is similar in some ways to the Wunderground Wundermap.

Here is the WOW homepage.
www.wow.metoffice.gov.uk and Westerdale is at http://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/latestobservationservlet?siteID=990721.



Friday 26 August 2011

August rain storms


August is often a surprisingly rainy month - the heat of summer is still around, adding more energy to the weather sytems.
At this time of year it's not unusual for the UK to be affected by Atlantic storms which started off as Hurricanes or Tropical storms and have a great deal of moisture in their system.
For example August 2006 was very wet with 208mm recorded at Westerdale.

2011 seems to be following the plan, with unsettled periods giving 116mm at the time of writing (26th).
Today Whitby has had an exceptionally wet day for it's relatively sheltered location with more than 50mm since 8am.
http://classic.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=INORTHYO14
Here at Westerdale it seems to be petering out just short of 28mm today.

The chart below shows some quite cold air flowing down into the North Atlantic, while to the east hot and humid air heads north towards the Baltic.
The UK is covered in a rather flabby area of Low Pressure which given the contrasting air masses nearby is a perfect breeding ground for heavy precipitation.