Not quite weather but ...

 On the 15th of January 2022 a huge explosive eruption occurred at Tonga in the Pacific Ocean - about 10,000 miles away.
At about 7pm weather stations in the UK measured a sharp blip in atmospheric pressure which was the shockwave passing over several hours later.

Remarkable enough, but then about 2am on the 16th there was a further similar blip - this is thought to have been the same event having travelled even further the other way around the globe.

The explosion was heard in Alaska some 6000 miles away but it seems very unlikely a human would detect the shockwave by the  time it reached the UK.
A secondary concern could be what if the large amounts of ejected ash affect the weather.
This has happened before notably Mt St Helens and Pinutobo lowered global temperatures significantly for 2 or 3 years. Further back Krakatoa in Indonesia caused very cool summers and cold snowy winters across the Northern Hemisphere.
This does not necessarily mean bad weather or even cold weather for any location as less energy in the system might actually reduce storm activity for example.

In this case the volcano is in the southern hemisphere so would take many weeks/months for ash to reach northern latitudes. In reality it probably won't have any effect unless it goes on for a long time but ash may eventually be detectable all over the globe.

The samsung NC10 netbook

 In about 2010 I'd bought one of these on XP, at that time tablets weren't really a thing but I wanted something small to use when didn't need desktop upstairs.
Anyway it proved a bit too small on the keyboard especially so got set up with weather station duties and later security IP cams too.
It has run practically continuously ever since that's a good 12 years.

A couple of years ago it started making a squealing noise but it was probably just the fan as when stopped and blown out it was OK again.
The last couple of days it started making a worrying scratchy noise a bit like a blue bottle was stuck inside!
That seemed much more worrying and there was an odd period where it was messing up data received from the VP2 for example in August it suddenly showed 0.0C on the last day (will be corrected shortly).

Anyway I replaced my main laptop a few months ago as the older Toshiba one was having a lot of problems with keys sticking and had got very slow.
So I reset that old one (it's still quite slow!) and got everything transferred over late yesterday.
It was easier than anticipated but took quite a while - just transferring the data from the Samsung to a flashdrive took nearly two hours as it's quite slow USB2.0 and the folder is now getting on for 4GB

Most likely the laptop won't last ten years but it is quiet again and running nice and cool so far.

Lashing wind and rain from Storm Ciara squall line

This gave over 5mm in less than 5 minutes - on top of 20mm since midnight however that was the end of the serious rain. There had been a gust to 70mph shortly after midnight and this squall peaked at about 57mph

New VP2 ISS

My VP2 was bought used from ebay about 2012 and so must be at least 10 years old - the whole unit is showing it's age with grey sun damaged plastics and lichen growth hard to keep at bay.

Only the rain gauge is original so it's a bit like the warehouse man's broom in a way!
Even the main board was replaced about 5 years ago.

I noticed the main unit without console is not unduly expensive especially since VAT an be reclaimed as the unit is invaluable for the farm at times.
The replaced sensors can be kept as spares indeed the whole thing could be swapped back if an issue arises.

As noted in post below I was taken aback that the new one reads 0.5C lower which seems to be because the T/H sensor replaced last October should have had an offset applied due to revised design.
Before about 25th October readings were correct except for humidity which was why it was replaced.

VP2 Temperature offset not applied

It has come to light that the sensor I replaced late October 2019 requires a -0.5C offset due to different design - this is significant and if corrected there would have been more air frosts recorded for example.
Here's the info:
https://www.manula.com/manuals/pws/davis-kb/1/en/topic/temperature-humidity-general

The previous one was installed about 2014 and was reading correctly.
the newer design is reckoned to be more accurate.
Luckily that's only two months with *wrong* readings and there's no easy way to correct that so will let it go.

2018 timelapse

The weather station camera shots condensed into a short timelapse

Drought, heat and storms

Since early May it's been very much on the dry side, with June having only 14mm things were getting stressed by July.

Grass was turning brown rather than regrowing from hay and silage cuts, and some spring water supplies were getting precarious.
As July went on thundery spells began to feature, with 34mm on the 16th and 23mm on the 27th.
By month end the total has got close to the normal 77mm.

 Here's a (rather long) video of the dramatic lightning on the evening of the 27th.
This moved on over Teesside giving them a spectacular display too.
This storm gave about 14mm but was never especially torrential.