The Curious Case of "The warmest ever May"

[cromwell]

The proclamations of the Met Office would have you believe that the May just passed was the warmest ever.
This has led to a storm of mockery on social media, to put it mildly.

So Hercule Crommers has been on the case; what's going on?

The Daily Telegraph published a very revealing article on June the 8th.
It comes down to this; the Met Office are being very selective when it comes to evidence. They appear to be straying into climate activism and away from the strict truth.

On May 2nd the Met Office published a map showing that all four home nations had recorded their warmest May days.
Temperatures had passed 20c at Kinlochewe in Scotland, Santon Downham in England, Hawarden in Wales and Castlederg in NI.
Yet these places are all "outliers"; they don't remotely reflect the general weather.

Kinlochewe is in Wester Ross in the north-west Highlands of Scotland. It regularly breaks temperature records because of a weather phenomenon known as the Foehn effect. This occurs when wet and cold conditions on one side of a mountain cause a warm dry wind to blow down the sheltered side.
Likewise Santon Downham is warmer then the rest of the county because it sits on very sandy soil which heats up quicker than other soil types, having knock on effects on the air temperature.
Hawarden weather station in Wales is situated at Hawarden airport, picking up extra heat from the tarmac (it also sits north of the Shropshire hills and gets the Foehn effect).
Castlederg sits in a basin, a heat trap that stops colder air from mixing with it's warmer air. Once it gets warm it stays warm.

Away from these places, the average temperature on May 2nd in England was 11.9c, Scotland 12.1c, Northern Ireland 12.7c and Wales 10.7c.
The Welsh figure was lower than the 20 year average.

Then on May 11th the temperature hit nearly 26c - at Belfast airport.

In short the Met Office is cherry picking it's data.

Interestingly the warmest ever temperature recorded in England was just over 40c in July 2022 at Coningsby, Lincolnshire. The weather station at Coningsby is at RAF Coningsby, which isn't often mentioned.

If you have a case it should be strong enough to stand up on it's own; cooking the books isn't a convincing look.

[Workingman]

According to three weather sites I use the average high for Leeds in May was 16°C and the low was 7°C or pretty much bang average, but it was wet, very wet. However, it will probably have been the warmest rain we have ever had, according to the Met Office.

A few days, the 9th to 12th did get to 20°C +, but some were much cooler than average.

In short the Met Office is cherry picking it's data.

Yes, absolutely. One or two very warm days does not make it the warmest "month" on record.

June is looking likely to be one of the coolest and wettest.

[Suff]

Interestingly the warmest ever temperature recorded in England was just over 40c in July 2022 at Coningsby, Lincolnshire. The weather station at Coningsby is at RAF Coningsby, which isn't often mentioned.

That is rather interesting as that airfield is not very far away from where I am sitting right now. It was also the last service post for my father. I doubt it is often mentioned being in the back end of nowhere.

[TheOstrich]

So Hercule Crommers has been on the case; what's going on?

Very illuminating, Crommers. And there was me thinking it was just down to them using contaminated seaweed ....

[cromwell]

That is rather interesting as that airfield is not very far away from where I am sitting right now. It was also the last service post for my father. I doubt it is often mentioned being in the back end of nowhere.

Lincolnshire is one of the last undiscovered counties of England, Suff.
By which I mean that papers like the Telegraph haven't started recommending it for rich Londoners to relocate to.
Long may it stay that way.

[Suff]

That is rather interesting as that airfield is not very far away from where I am sitting right now. It was also the last service post for my father. I doubt it is often mentioned being in the back end of nowhere.

Lincolnshire is one of the last undiscovered counties of England, Suff.
By which I mean that papers like the Telegraph haven't started recommending it for rich Londoners to relocate to.
Long may it stay that way.

Absolutely. The routes.from Newark and Grantham are slower than they were in the 90's so it put off some commuters.

[Workingman]

Please do not confuse Met Office weather stations situated on airfields with the ones the airfields use - they are not the same.

According to the Met Office it has over 250 weather stations around the country and those situated on airfields have to meet international standards re openness to wind and speed, shade, buildings, the "heat island" effect, temperature, precipitation and so on. They are all linked to give a nationwide picture.

The one the airfield uses has different tech (radar and satellite) and looks at different local conditions such as wind speed / shear at different heights, incoming storms or calm, runway temperatures, cloud cover, visibility etc.

[Suff]

Yes the met office stations are separate but it provides a very convenient control with the Airfield one's don't you think. If the data the met office one's are giving matches the far more capable airfield measurements it means they are doing a good job.

[Workingman]

I suspect that the Coningsby record was from the airfield system: interesting, but not part of the Met Office data sets.

Mind you, the media did make the most of it.

[Suff]

Mind you, the media did make the most of it.

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