Above is a map of accumulated rainfall on the 21 February from 0000 to 0900 UTCUTCCoordinated 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). and estimated from weather radar. Is it evidence of rainfall bunching as mentioned in the recent Deep Dive given by Alex Deakin? Maybe. Here’s the link to the paper “Rainfall enhancement downwind of hills due to standing waves on the melting-level and the extreme rainfall of December 2015 in the Lake District of northwest England” (link).
Not so much an item as a Twitter dump of stories, charts, graphs and images from tweets I wrote concerning Storm Babet. Not sorted out too well chronologically either. I’ll try to do better next time. Maybe I’ll stick with the blog and just upload links to Twitter from now on?
20 Oct 2023 12 UTCUTCCoordinated 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). Temperatures & Anomalies Rather cold in the NENENorth East, much milder further south. Not a single mention of temperatures for today on the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the national broadcaster of the United Kingdom, based at Broadcasting House in London. It is the world's oldest national broadcaster, and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, employing over 22,000 staff in total, of whom approximately 19,000 are in public-sector broadcasting. too caught up on listing the number of flood warnings21 Oct 2023 08 UTC Surface analysis Something like that20 Oct 2023 13 UTC Surface analysis19 Oct 2023 11 UTC Surface analysis18-20 Oct 2023 Anemograph Inverbervie is a notoriously windy place, but the E’ly gale that’s been running there for the last 31 hours must rank as one of the windiest spells the AWSAWSAutomatic Weather Station there has ever recorded18-20 Oct 2023 48 hr totals Estimated rainfall totals from weather radar I’ve used the lower colours to make things a bit clearer over the wider UKUKThe 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..20 Oct 2023 14 UTC A surprisingly dry and bright day with sunny intervals here in StrathpefferStrathpefferStrathpeffer (Scottish Gaelic: Srath Pheofhair) is a village and spa town in Easter Ross, Highland, Scotland, with a population of 1,469. after yesterday’s afternoon rain, although it feels cold in the strong easterly wind.21 Oct 2023 Flooding on the A834 Strathpeffer to Dingwall road close to Castle Leod21 Oct 2023 00-16 UTC Estimated accumulations from weather radar The heavy rain has finally stopped after almost 13 hours. Quite remarkable accuracy with estimate of 43.1 mm for Strathpeffer, Vantage Pro reports 43.4 mm Goodbye BabetOctober 2023 Strathpeffer Three large rainfall events 6-8 Oct the storm that never was 87.6 mm 48hr 19 Oct storm Babet 32.6 mm in 16 hr 21 Oct 29.2 mm in 9 hr so far 192.4 mmStrathpeffer totals 00-00 rather than the 09-09 totals from Dingwall, nevertheless still much wetter 5 miles further westThe average for October here is 102mm, so we are already close to 200% with still another 9 days to go15-22 Oct 2023 Inverbervie Anemograph19-22 Oct 2023 Mean Speed Average hourly [kts] A 33 kt mean speed is not bad going for 72 hours at Inverbervie.18-20 Oct 2023 CairngormCairn GormCairn Gorm (Scottish Gaelic: An Càrn Gorm) is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. It is part of the Cairngorms range and wider Grampian Mountains. With a summit elevation of 1,245 m (4,085 ft) above sea level, Cairn Gorm is classed as a Munro and is the seventh-highest mountain in the British Isles. Last 48 hrs The wind has moderated slightly this morning but still blowing force 12 from SE’E. Temperatures now sub-zero and wind chill close to -12°C so it’s either white or has a very icy glaze up there at the moment21 Oct 2023 14 UTC Glenshee Snow above 2500 ft today now clearing from southeast.19 Oct 2023 20 UTC Amazing rain shadow cast by Cairngorms persists across Nairn & Forres. Kinloss 0.4 mm [06-18] Lossiemouth 0.8 mm [06-18]19-20 Oct 2023 02 UTC Estimates from radar Had to change to high colour range contouring Purple pixels indicating wettest areas have seen >175mm in last 20 hrs across E Scotland, and close to the city of Aberdeen itself. 32.4mm in 14 hrs in Strathpeffer19 Oct 2023 06-20 UTC Rainfall totals from weather radar estimates More white pixels appearing across E Grampians indicating totals of >80mm since 06 UTC. Ben Wyvis has some too as well. 17.4 mm since 13 UTC here in Strathpeffer in heavy rain.19 Oct 2023 1510 UTC Here’s a pseudo hyetograph for a spot close to the Bridge of Dee gleaned from 5 minute weather radar imagery. Estimates of 41.6 mm so far today.
I hadn’t realised how many hourly rainfall reports were available in the SYNOPSYNOPSYNOP (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. reports I download from OGIMET, so I finally decided to write an additional dedicated viewer to my SYNOP application to view them with. The viewer consists of the usual interlinked data grid to view each hourly total, a map to plot those hourly values on, and a chart in the form of a hyetograph for the selected station. I’ve added the ability to produce an animated GIF of the map as it steps through each selected hour. I’ll add an animation when I get a suitable weather situation. I haven’t checked to see how closely the hourly totals match up to the 6, 12, and 24 hourly reported values but you would think if the AWSAWSAutomatic Weather Station software was doing its job right they should be the same. The only trouble is hourly values of one mm or more are in whole numbers. The next logical step would be to add hourly data from the EAEAThe Environment Agency is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enhancement of the environment in England., SEPASEPAThe Scottish Environment Protection Agency is Scotland's principal environmental regulator, protecting and improving Scotland's environment. and whatever the Welsh versions called, I do have separate applications for the EA and the SEPA but it might be quite a task to meld three into one.
A very wet weekend across Scotland with many reports of flooding on both the road and rail network. It never picked up much news coverage nationally or in Scotland itself. That’s not surprising because most local news is done by posting stories, and particular images and videos, on social media these days. The idea of having reporters on the ground to chase up and write about stories like this have almost gone. What amazes me that is we would rather close the railways down for the weekend rather than fix the problem. What remains of our railway network is a vital infrastructure and should not be prone to flooding like this. I don’t believe that in the 21st century that we can’t invest and install adequate drainage to prevent the ever increasing number of events like this from happening.
There was upwards of 200 mm on the high ground in the wettest places as you can see in these estimates from weather radar. I think we ended up with ~87 mm in around 48 hours here in StrathpefferStrathpefferStrathpeffer (Scottish Gaelic: Srath Pheofhair) is a village and spa town in Easter Ross, Highland, Scotland, with a population of 1,469.. Although the ground was temporarily saturated and did flood for a while, it wasn’t long before the ground absorbed it, because up until now this year has been much drier than average. It all came in stark contrast to the sunny skies and very warm weather further south across England, Wales and Ireland, with temperatures of 26°C or higher, whilst in Scotland, sub-zero temperatures and snow was reported on the highest of the Cairngorms. Finally this event, even though it didn’t have any strong winds associated with it, should have been declared a named storm. Why it wasn’t defies any logic, especially when two amber warnings were issued for it. Most of the public will have already forgotten about storm Agnes, but memories of this heavy rain and flooding might stick around a bit longer.
Another Meteo FranceMeteo FranceMétéo-France is the official service of meteorology and climatology in France. named storm, Patricia, the center of which ran fairly and squarely across the UKUKThe 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. during Wednesday. Gusts of 40 to 50 knots are good going for early August across northern France, and I notice one as high as 56 knots at Meaulte to the NENENorth East of Paris. The main feature wasn’t the wind across the UK so much but the heavy rain, particularly across the North and East of Yorkshire.
After bringing storm force winds overnight to the Netherlands here’s a loop of satellite images showing Storm Poly, as it’s now been called by DWD, exiting stage right. So NMI don’t name it even though it brought storm force winds and gusts of 80 knots but the DWD do? What a crazy system. It could only happen in Europe. It’s been reported that the next name on the DWD list is going to be Storm Roly.
Courtesy of anomaly charts for the UKUKThe 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. from the UKMOUKMOThe 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, here are the warmest and coldest May’s since 1910 across Scotland. Not a huge variation in temperature, ranging from the warmest in 2018 of 2.32°C above to 2.18°C below the 1961-1990 LTALTALong Term Average. This is usually defined as a 30 year period by the WMO. in 1923. The yellow box at the bottom right-hand corner is the predominant Lamb Weather type for the month. The wettest May in Scotland since 1910 was in 2011 when over 223% of the average rain for the month fell. The driest May was in 1984 when just over 27% of the average fell.
Dear Diary, A number of wet spots across IONAIONAIslands 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., but the wettest of them was Valentia with 348 mm of rain. The north of Scotland had quite a dry month in contrast to parts of Aberdeenshire which were very wet. The above average rain across the south should have finally but paid to the dry spell. The 32 mm at Wick should be treated with some caution as I only received 71% of their observations.
It has been a very windy day, here are some of the strongest gusts recorded 💨
There is still a warning in place for Wales, with further strong winds this evening ⚠️ pic.twitter.com/mZorMXjyPu
— Met OfficeUKMOThe 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 (@metoffice) November 24, 2022
It’s certainly been, and still is across the west of Wales, a very windy day with coastal gales and some strong gusts on the cold front, but nothing very exceptional for a late November day. There were gale or severe gale force winds and comparable gusts for several consecutive days last week in the Northern Isles without any warning at all. You know the Met Office are trying to justify their warning when they roll out gusts from non-standard exposure, cliff top sites like Berry Head and the NeedlesNeedlesA non-standard WMO class 3 anemograph site, stuck on top of a near 300 foot limestone cliff, on the Isle of Wight. Old battery. What tickles me is the UKMOUKMOThe 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 are loathed to mention wind speeds from mountain sites such as CairngormCairn GormCairn Gorm (Scottish Gaelic: An Càrn Gorm) is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. It is part of the Cairngorms range and wider Grampian Mountains. With a summit elevation of 1,245 m (4,085 ft) above sea level, Cairn Gorm is classed as a Munro and is the seventh-highest mountain in the British Isles. but have no qualms at all using readings made atop a 300 foot chalk cliff.
As for today’s rainfall totals [06-18] nothing that excessive either, even if most of it was on the front itself. The warning mentioned 10 to 15 mm in 1 to 2 hours and 20 to 25 mm in a few places, both too excessive. There was just 0.2 mm here in the NENENorth East of Scotland. If the UKMO can take a hard line with the issuing of warnings in Scotland why can’t they do the same for everywhere else? It seems we’re fast becoming a Nanny State even with regard to weather.
There may well have been a mini-tornado in Wales this morning, but the highest guts from the stations in the SYNOPSYNOPSYNOP (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. network are rather underwhelming, and none of them higher than the 76 mph gust at the Mumbles yesterday when there was no yellow warning in force. Line convection on a cold front like we’ve seen today is not an uncommon occurrence across IONAIONAIslands 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. at any time of the year, but does that mean from now on we’ll see the Met OfficeUKMOThe 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 issue a combined Yellow warning for heavy rain and strong winds each time that they do?
I make the wettest place in Aberdeenshire, using estimates from weather radar, the bridge of Dee with 143.6 mm of rain since the start of Wednesday (16 November) till now. That’s the wettest residential site but there are some deep purple pixles and a couple of white ones indication totals above 225 mm. Here’s a league table of wettest residential places, and as you can see there are other sites outwith Aberdeenshire.
Here are some of the wettest places in the SYNOPSYNOPSYNOP (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. reports this meteorological Autumn so far. They may not have seen as much rainfall as the likes of Capel Curig or Tulloch Bridge, but their POAPOAPercentage Of Average put them in the top ten wettest places in the whole of IONAIONAIslands 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.. Despite the local flooding in places, I reckon this wet Autumn has got to be looked upon as a good thing to replenish rivers and aquifers, but as you can see from the accumulations plotted in the map not all places have been as wet as these particular four sites. With a couple of weeks still left to go this could end up as one of the wettest Autumns on record.
A band of heavy rain is lying NW-SE just to the west of the Lincolnshire Wolds early this afternoon. Here’s a pseudo hyetograph for Market Rasen for the last 24 hours.
The 365 day regional moving average in the UKPUKPUKP is a gridded datasets of UK regional precipitation. series from the UKMOUKMOThe 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 has picked up considerably across the southeast, southwest and central England since the last week in October. If we are lucky and go on at this rate we could see the hose-pipe across many parts of England and Wales being lifted for Christmas. In the other regions, apart from Northern Ireland, things still seem content to oscillate between 83% and 97% of the 1981-2010 LTALTALong Term Average. This is usually defined as a 30 year period by the WMO..
