Anomalies

October 2023 – Mean temperature Anomalies

Another very warm month across the Arctic. Warm in S Europe & NENE North East America, but rather cold across Central N America and Scandinavia.
North-south temperature gradient very evident across 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..

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Anomalies, Temperature

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The rather cold summer of 2023 in Iceland

One country in Europe that’s bucked the trend of a warm summer in 2023 was Iceland. I’ve noticed this in the monthly anomaly charts for mean temperature that I produce, so I decided to spruce up my chart grid viewer to see if I was right in my assumption, and as you can see in this chart of weekly mean anomalies I was. What caused it is may have been persistent high pressure across the Greenland ice cap to the northwest of Iceland, and a shift southward of the Icelandic low, which in turn allowed more days of northerly or north-westerly flows and hence the lower than average temperatures.

It’s not easy to verify these findings because even the Icelandic Met OfficeUKMO 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 site offers no real clues to how they categorised this summer’s temperatures. If you’re by any chance reading this in Iceland, please let me know how you found it😉

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Anomalies, Iceland, Software, Temperature

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September 2023 – When anomaly charts hide the real picture

I was watching the Deep Dive video produced by 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, and presented so well by Alex Deakin about the weather in September 2023 on Youtube as you do. He showed two anomaly charts for MSLPMSLP Mean sea level pressure is the pressure at sea level, or, when measured at a given elevation on land, the station pressure reduced to sea level assuming an isothermal layer at the station temperature., one for the first half of September and the other for the second half that showed how anomaly charts for the whole month can sometimes be misleading. In this case it was how the remarkable warm spell in the first half of the month contrasted with the more mobile second half. The resulting anomaly chart for the whole of the September cancelled out the anticyclonic SE’ly in the first half that brought all the high temperatures.

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Anomalies, MSLP, September, Temperature

September 2023 – When anomaly charts hide the real picture Read More »

July 2023 – Mean Pressure & anomalies

As always the mean pressure chart can reveal a lot about the weather, and in July 2023 it showed why it was so wet and changeable, with near average temperatures across the British Isles. It’s also apparent from it why Iceland was so cold due to the squeeze in the pressure gradient between higher than average pressure across Greenland, and lower than average pressure across NW Europe, resulting in a persistent and strong N or NENE North East flow of air across the island. It’s not so revealing about the causes of the heatwave across North Africa, which happened in a very slack pressure field in a ridge of high pressure that extended eastward into the Mediterranean from the Azores high.

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Anomalies, July, MSLP

July 2023 – Mean Pressure & anomalies Read More »

May 2023: Mean pressure and anomalies

An unusually anticyclonic month across 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. and the most anticyclonic since 1996 I later discovered

Zoomed in retrospective for the whole of spring. As you can see May didn’t start on an anticyclonic note.

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Anomalies, May, Pressure

May 2023: Mean pressure and anomalies Read More »

April 2023: Mean pressure and anomalies

A band of higher than average pressure persisted across Greenland and northern Scandinavia for much of the month. Pressure was 12 hPahPa A Hectopascal is the SI unit of pressure and identical to the Millibar lower than average in the central Atlantic. The resulting pressure pattern left IONAIONA Islands Of North Atlantic. Yes I know there's an island called Iona, but this is so I don't have to use the term 'British Isles' when referring to the whole of Ireland and the UK. in a col like area in the monthly mean pressure chart. The barograph for central Iceland show this is the second spell of significantly above average pressure so far this year there.

Anomalies, Pressure

April 2023: Mean pressure and anomalies Read More »

March 2023 – Mean temperature

The north-south temperature gradient in anomalies continued into March across 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.. It’s slightly ominous that +4°C anomalies are evident again across Morocco and a number of times the SSWSSW A sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) is an event in which polar stratospheric temperatures rise by as much as 50 °C in the course of a few days. The warming is preceded by a slowing then reversal of the westerly winds in the stratospheric polar vortex. SSWs occur about six times per decade in the northern hemisphere, and about once every 20-30 years in the southern hemisphere.’ly flow during the month pumped warm air across Iberia and into the south of France. This seems to have been a recurring theme in recent years and could provide the method of delivery for hot air in what could be another record breaking hot summer across central Europe.

Anomalies, March, Temperature

March 2023 – Mean temperature Read More »

March 2023 – Mean Pressure

No need to look very far for reasons why March was so wet across the south of 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.. Anomalies of -19 hPahPa A Hectopascal is the SI unit of pressure and identical to the Millibar in the southern mid-Atlantic and +18 hPa over Greenland pushed the omnipresent Icelandic low much further south than usual and with it the SW’ly conveyor. That kept much of the colder air north of 60° north and the very mild air south of 50° north, leaving the UK in a kind of mish mash between them.

Anomalies, March, Pressure

March 2023 – Mean Pressure Read More »

December 2022 – MSLP anomalies

A massively large positive MSLPMSLP Mean sea level pressure is the pressure at sea level, or, when measured at a given elevation on land, the station pressure reduced to sea level assuming an isothermal layer at the station temperature. anomaly over Greenland (+24 hPahPa A Hectopascal is the SI unit of pressure and identical to the Millibar) in December, combined with lower than average pressure to the west of Corunna in the Atlantic (-10 hPa), produced and odd looking trough of low pressure aligned SW-NENE North East to the west of 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. in the mean pressure chart for the month. It’s one of those months, split into two diametrically opposed weather types NE-CNECNE Cyclonic Northeasterly-CSW-CW, that tend to cancel each out over the month, to produce a rather misleading mean MSLP chart.

Anomalies, Pressure

December 2022 – MSLP anomalies Read More »

December 2022 temperatures

The effect of the cold wave on temperature anomalies across north America can be clearly seen, in what was apart from that a fairly mild month across there. There are no vestiges left of the cold spell in the first half of the month across 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., although to be fair this reanalysis data is on a sparse 2.5° x 2.5° grid, but it is noticeable that the familiar N-S cold gradient has returned once again.

Anomalies, Global Temperatures

December 2022 temperatures Read More »

A distinctly nippy IONA

Sunday, 11 December 2022 – 12 UTCUTC Coordinated Universal Time or UTC is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean solar time (such as UT1) at 0° longitude (at the IERS Reference Meridian as the currently used prime meridian) and is not adjusted for daylight saving time. It is effectively a successor to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). temperature anomalies

Dear Diary
Another very cold day across all parts of IONAIONA Islands Of North Atlantic. Yes I know there's an island called Iona, but this is so I don't have to use the term 'British Isles' when referring to the whole of Ireland and the UK. this Sunday, exceptionally so across parts of the south with anomalies as low as -10°C this lunchtime, as this cold spell continues. Many areas will see an ice day today with temperatures remaining sub-zero this afternoon. Finally, the northern Highlands of Scotland, have lost that persistent and tenacious east northeast wind of the last week that has been funneling a feed of milder winds into the Moray Firth. No doubt it’s just taking a breather and will be back later in the week.

Anomalies, Cold, Frost, Scotland

A distinctly nippy IONA Read More »

The Moray Firth hot spot

Hi Diary
The Moray Firth hot-spot is alive and kicking this morning! After dipping to -1°C by midnight, temperatures in StrathpefferStrathpeffer Strathpeffer (Scottish Gaelic: Srath Pheofhair) is a village and spa town in Easter Ross, Highland, Scotland, with a population of 1,469. are close to 3°C by 8 am, after a moderate easterly wind picked up at 4 am and blew milder air into the ‘funnel’ that is the Moray Firth.
The rumours of a giant alien spaceship crashing into the Firth over 8,000 years ago and causing a massive Tsunami could well be true, and last night they must have fired up the engines.
The spread of anomalies across the country this morning is quite impressive across IONAIONA Islands Of North Atlantic. Yes I know there's an island called Iona, but this is so I don't have to use the term 'British Isles' when referring to the whole of Ireland and the UK. once again, from -12°C across the south, to +1°C across the NENE North East of Scotland. There’s a good covering of snow on the braes of Ben Wyvis above 200 M, but it’s just sleet or wet snow down in the strath, and very reminiscent of the last few winters in this part of the world.

Anomalies, Snow, Strathpeffer, Temperature

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November 2022 – Temperature anomalies

Dear Diary,
That warm plume from Algeria to Scandinavia which we’ve seen so much of this year is evident once again in this months anomalies. Central Saharan Africa was colder than average again, I’m certain that there’s some kind of tie in with temperatures in this region and Atlantic tropical cyclones. The Baffin Sea was exceptionally cold thanks to the NW flow that dominated up there for much of the month. And guess what, much of Greenland and the Greenland sea was exceptionally mild once again.

Anomalies, Global Temperatures

November 2022 – Temperature anomalies Read More »

Temperature Anomalies 12 UTC 2 Dec 2022

Dear Diary,
The lowest anomalies at lunchtime, 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. at least, where in the foggy areas across Wales, central and southwest England. Anomalies across Scandinavia were close to average, but it was much colder further across Germany, Poland, Belgium and the low countries.

Anomalies, Temperature

Temperature Anomalies 12 UTC 2 Dec 2022 Read More »

November 2022 – Temperature

Dear Diary,
Yet another mild month across IONAIONA Islands Of North Atlantic. Yes I know there's an island called Iona, but this is so I don't have to use the term 'British Isles' when referring to the whole of Ireland and the UK.. The highest mean anomalies were in the Northern Isles followed by those in the SE of England, colder further west but still above average. Anomalies across the north of Scotland depressed due to the frosts during the last 10 days.

A couple of remarkably warm days on the 11th and 12th of the month.

Anomalies, Temperature

November 2022 – Temperature Read More »

Surprising North American anomalies

A rather surprising chart of temperature anomalies for North American for the first 20 days of November 2022. Well it was at least for me. The cold air and mountains of snow at Buffalo gave me the impression that the whole of November had been very cold but not so. For the first two weeks of November eastern America was extremely mild with anomalies as high as +8°C. The third week saw the opposite conditions and it was much colder, which reduced the magnitude of the warm high that you can see in the anomaly chart close to New York (+4°C). It’s just how climate is with extremes of temperature cancelling each other out within the space of a year or less.

Anomalies, N America, Temperature

Surprising North American anomalies Read More »

Latest November temperature anomalies

We might think we’ve had a very mild November so far but it’s been exceptionally mild across southern Scandinavia with anomalies for the first two weeks +6.9°C above the 1991-2020 LTALTA Long Term Average. This is usually defined as a 30 year period by the WMO.. The central Atlantic remains slightly colder than average despite the above average SSTSST Sea Surface Temperatures.

Anomalies, Temperature

Latest November temperature anomalies Read More »

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