I have been collecting hourly SYNOPSYNOP SYNOP (surface synoptic observations) is a numerical code (called FM-12 by WMO) used for reporting weather observations made by manned and automated weather stations. SYNOP reports are typically mad hourly and consist of groups of numbers (and slashes where data is not available) describing general weather information, such as the temperature, barometric pressure and visibility at a weather station. observations for many years now from across the world. I must have many tens of millions of observations dating right back to 1973. So I thought it might be interesting to look at some of these hourly observations in more detail.
I have always thought a 24 hour moving average of temperature for somewhere, gives a much better view of the temperature data than just the daily extremes. So the comparison graph between summer 24 hour average temperatures at Heathrow airport and Coningsby for 2022, shows that although Coningsby is now infamous as being the warmest place in the UKUK The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland., with a maximum temperature of 40.3°C, it’s not when you calculate a 24 hour average. Furthermore. analysis of the number of hours above the UKMOUKMO The Meteorological Office is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy heatwave threshold at Heathrow of 133 hours, far surpasses that at Coningsby of 97 hours, even though the threshold at Heathrow is 28°C and only 27°C at Coningsby. So, not unsurprisingly, I can safely conclude that Heathrow was still the hottest spot in the UK despite what happened on the 19th of July.