Things that make you :)

[bimble]

Friends doing well makes me smile.  Friends smashing it out the park... well, "makes me smile" is a bit of an understatement.  Some awesome shooting by Jodie and Nathan.  Nathan finally getting his first medal in his third games, Jodie seven months pregnant with her second child.

 

[ian]

11 minutes ago, bimble said:

 

No, because they're in weather stations that are designed to be able to take accurate recordings of the weather and not be affected by surroundings.  For instance a few years ago there was one record temp that had been withdrawn because someone had parked a van next to the station and left the engine idling.

 

Actually weather stations are graded according to their quality.The top grading is the 'gold standard' with high accuracy. Most of the met office's weather stations are graded in the poor to junk range.

 

The airfield ones are a case in point - their data is vital to the pilots and controllers but of limited value to anyone else.

[KeithMacdonald]

26 minutes ago, bimble said:

No, because they're in weather stations that are designed to be able to take accurate recordings of the weather and not be affected by surroundings.  For instance a few years ago there was one record temp that had been withdrawn because someone had parked a van next to the station and left the engine idling.

 

 

I'm glad you are so confident in the quality of our Met Office weather stations. Can we, therefore, assume you are fully aware of the World Meteorological Office's Class 1 to 5 ratings for these sites, and the ratings they have been given?  As a basic introduction (in reverse order, worst to best) of how the WMO rates our weather stations.

• Class 5 sites can be placed anywhere, and they come with a WMO warning of “additional estimated uncertainties added by siting up to 5°C”
• Class 4 have “uncertainties” up to 2°C
• Class 3 states 1°C uncertainty.
• Class 2 is 0.5°C uncertainty.
• Class 1 is the most accurate at 0.1°C uncertainty.

Would you like to guess what our Met Office has disclosed about it's own weather stations, and what class the "record breaking" ones are in?

 

 

 

[jcredfer]

14 minutes ago, ian said:

 

Actually weather stations are graded according to their quality.The top grading is the 'gold standard' with high accuracy. Most of the met office's weather stations are graded in the poor to junk range.

 

The airfield ones are a case in point - their data is vital to the pilots and controllers but of limited value to anyone else.

 

Yes, in one respect the quality of readings varies within the totality of the information input to the Met Office - which is then sifted and assessed to produce a forecast. 

 

Individual airfield produced data is only of use as very local item to those flying in / out of there.  However, RAF data is of a higher standard because of the need for accurate, local, contribution to the safety of their aircraft, which must be able to fly, when others hesitate to do so.  That accurate information is very useful to the overall picture, that the Met Office collects and being Gov't funded is available for the national weather forecasts, with mutual benefit.

 

 

[ian]

There are lies, damn lies, statistics and Met Office record temperatures.

 

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2024/08/20/met-office-records-hottest-day-of-the-year-at-a-weather-station-next-to-a-massive-heat-generating-electricity-sub-station/

[bimble]

52 minutes ago, ian said:

 

Actually weather stations are graded according to their quality.The top grading is the 'gold standard' with high accuracy. Most of the met office's weather stations are graded in the poor to junk range.

 

25 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

 

I'm glad you are so confident in the quality of our Met Office weather stations. Can we, therefore, assume you are fully aware of the World Meteorological Office's Class 1 to 5 ratings for these sites, and the ratings they have been given?  As a basic introduction (in reverse order, worst to best) of how the WMO rates our weather stations.

• Class 5 sites can be placed anywhere, and they come with a WMO warning of “additional estimated uncertainties added by siting up to 5°C”
• Class 4 have “uncertainties” up to 2°C
• Class 3 states 1°C uncertainty.
• Class 2 is 0.5°C uncertainty.
• Class 1 is the most accurate at 0.1°C uncertainty.

Would you like to guess what our Met Office has disclosed about it's own weather stations, and what class the "record breaking" ones are in?

 

 

I might suggest the both of you actually look at what the WMO say about the "rankings/ratings" you're going on about...

 

Quote

 The numbers should not be taken to mean that higher class stations are of low value, as there may be very good reasons for the site exposure depending on the purpose for which that station was established (specific vs general purpose, mountain stations, agricultural stations, safety reasons, …). However, we acknowledge that the use of numbers can easily lead one to suggest a ranking. This is not the purpose and should be avoided.

 

For instance, to be a 'Class 1' weather station for wind you're required to have a clear 300m radius, (hence air fields are useful) but a smaller clear radius can still give good data but wouldn't be classified as Class 1.  Just because something can have a wider error bars it doesn't actually mean it does.

[bimble]

4 minutes ago, ian said:

There are lies, damn lies, statistics and Met Office record temperatures.

 

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2024/08/20/met-office-records-hottest-day-of-the-year-at-a-weather-station-next-to-a-massive-heat-generating-electricity-sub-station/

 

Well, if that's going to be the quality of the source of your information I'm stopping there... it's like a Daily Mail comment section

[KeithMacdonald]

14 minutes ago, bimble said:

I might suggest the both of you actually look at what the WMO say about the "rankings/ratings" you're going on about...

 

Thanks, I had already. And as I'm professionally involved in auditing data, I'm well-aware of the fallacy of claiming an accuracy of 0.1 of a degree (for one instant in time) from a measuring device with a calibrated uncertainty rating of +/- 2 degrees over a longer period of time.

[PhilJ W]

7 hours ago, Hroth said:

I have a vague feeling that the Execution Dock at Wapping for pirates, smugglers, etc, worked in a similar fashion.  I may be wrong!

Ok, mostly wrong.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_Dock

but the more egregrious pirates were hung on a short rope and slowly throttled. It might have been a race between that and a rising tide to finish them off.

An ancestor of mine is believed to have been hung at Wapping in the 1460's. Unfortunately the records were destroyed in the great fire of London.

[KeithMacdonald]

7 hours ago, Hroth said:

Perhaps a more appropriate punishment for the people traffickers would be to stake them out at the low tide mark, facing out to sea, so they can see their encroaching doom?

 

This does bring to mind the symbolic penalties of various ancient Friendly Societies in Britain. One in particular was to be:

 

Quote

buried in the sand of the sea at low-water mark or a cables length from the shore, where the tide regularly ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours.

 

The symbolic penalty was for intruders who rudely entered the Friendly Society uninvited and under false pretences. There may well be some similarity with the behaviour of the people traffickers.

[The Johnster]

The ambient air temperature at airports, with surfaced runways and stand areas, is probably going to be significantly higher than the surrounding countryside on days of strong sunshine & light winds even before you take aircraft exhaust into account, though.  I suspect the same can be said of places where there is a lot of glass present as well.  Sun traps can make a big difference; there was (and for all I know still is) a notorious spot for buckling the CWR between Cadoxton and Barry Dock, where the combination of concrete sleepers, limestone ballast, and a south-facing limestone rock face where the railway was cut into the hill could produce oven-like temperatures.  I recall one day in the very hot summer of 1976, with the general temperature in the high 80s F, when the per.way people claim to have measured the air temperture at 150 F and the rail at something like 400 F.

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

An ancestor of mine is believed to have been hung

(pedant alert) I suspect you mean that your ancester is believed to have been hanged.  He may well have been hung as well, but it is unlikely that such personal information would be known to any but the local girls. 

[Hroth]

4 hours ago, The Johnster said:

 

 

Perhaps that should be a pendant alert...

 

[billbedford]

11 hours ago, bimble said:

 

Well, if that's going to be the quality of the source of your information I'm stopping there... it's like a Daily Mail comment section

 

I think you miss the point here. The problem is not how the meteorologists use the data. It's more that the Met Office PR department should be discouraged from using these low-grade sites for their "Hottest Day Eva" headlines. 

[franciswilliamwebb]

[franciswilliamwebb]

[Hroth]

1 minute ago, franciswilliamwebb said:

Cor!

 

It's got Sailors Droop!!!

 

[Sidecar Racer]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

Cor!

 

It's got Sailors Droop!!!

 

 

All that hot air from recent posts has caused wilting .    😎

[Sidecar Racer]

 

 

 

[Hroth]

20 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 

 

 

Why stop at banning farmed Haggis?  Save the wild Haggis! Make the killing and eating of Haggis illegal!!!

 

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[franciswilliamwebb]

25 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 

"Remember, every time a haggis is caged, a bagpipe falls silent" 🫡

[KeithMacdonald]

4 minutes ago, franciswilliamwebb said:

Remember, every time a haggis is caged, a bagpipe falls silent

 

😢

[kevinlms]

3 hours ago, franciswilliamwebb said:

The light in the lighthouse might be useful to lost aircraft!

[Hroth]

23 minutes ago, franciswilliamwebb said:

 

"Remember, every time a haggis is caged, a bagpipe falls silent" 🫡

 

Hurrah!!!!!!

 

I didn't notice that...

 

Lets eat Battery Haggis!!!!!

 

[The Johnster]

I can't really criticise bagpipes, after all I'm known to be into drones.  Actually I rather like bagpipes, and didgeridoos, but they must be unadulterated hell for those who don't! 

 

And I'm not averse to a Haggis on Burns' Night, or any other time, though I do prefer wild to farmed.  A Haggis with tatties & neaps I once had in an Edinburgh pub counts as one of the best meals I've ever had.