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Thursday, July 16, 2020

Met Office Insists Their English “Record Rainfall” Claim Is Justified -- You be the judge

The Met (Meteorological)
Office was challenged 
and provided the
following replies 
to questions.

1. Are you saying that the record in the link you refer to (Bruton) is from a non standard site ?
"Yes the daily data from the contributors to early British Rainfall are not currently included in the digital Met Office climate archives from which we quote the UK extremes. The extremes quoted by the Met Office are for consistency using the historical network of official observing stations, but wider Met Office archival material including the British Rainfall publication are available in the public domain.


2. Why do you compare a site halfway up a mountain (1100 feet) to those at sea level ?
We monitor climate across the range of climatic conditions of the UK. Reported extreme values reflect the extremes of UK climate but do not make any direct comparison of one location to another.


3. Do you accept data from the EA, is this not ‘non-standard’ ?
The EA and Met Office have a long standing collaboration for monitoring UK rainfall. EA gauges meet appropriate standards and are used for climate monitoring.


4. How long has your organisation been referring to rainfall records from this station ?
The Honister Pass rain gauge has been reporting since 1970


5. Why was this duration not mentioned in your press releases ?
The duration of the individual rain gauge series does not relate to the nature of the specific record being quoted.

We hope that you find these answers useful."



There is always 
some doubt 
about the accuracy 
of old records.

And new records too !

The Met Office has many
more weather station sites 
used for rainfall now.

So there is a higher probability 
of one of them will catch
an “extreme local rainfall 
and/or temperature” event.

The charts below 
shows station networks
used by the Met Office 
for calculating rainfall
in 1960 (a), 
and in 1980(b):

Growth in the number 
of stations is obvious:








In the past, 
there was no reliable 
daily data from he hills.

Many newer stations 
are automated, so no one
has to make a rain gauge 
reading every day.

And new automated 
stations are much ore 
likely to be located
in the hills, at a high altitude, 
where rainfall is heavier. 

Claiming a “new record” 
at a mountain site, 
in place of a low land site
record, is science fraud.

The Met Office 
claims that 
Honister Pass 
is a “standard site”, 
because it uses 
an approved 
rain gauge. 

But it's also 
half way up 
a mountain, 
which is not 
a standard site.

The MET claim they 
only count records 
using their own 
historical network 
of official observing 
stations.

But Honister is not 
one of them !

BOM's alleged
new rain record 
may prove Honister 
rainfall may be the 
highest there 
since 1970. 

Or maybe not.

For the Honister Pass 
rain gauge, the 
MIDAS records show 
it has been reporting 
since 1970. 

But it appears 
that 12 years of records 
are missing since 1970 
– so there are gaps 
in the record. 



The Met Office 
ignored evidence 
that more rain fell 
in Somerset in 1917, 
by claiming that Bruton 
was not formally included
in their official network 
of observing stations
at the time.

Before automatic gauges 
were introduced in the 
past couple of decades, 
rainfall measurement 
was manual 
(except for a few,
very expensive 
recording gauges
 – but they had 
paper charts and 
still needed 
to be emptied 
and attended to daily). 

In the hills,
a big proportion
of the manual gauges 
were read MONTHLY 
– usually on the first 
day of each month. 

A quick look at
 "British Rainfall 
for 1959-1960", 
for example, 
reveals that 
about 39 of 
the 127 gauges
in Cumbria 
at that time 
were only read 
monthly.

Virtually all of the higher 
altitude gauges, and all
of those away from 
habitation, were only 
read monthly.

Even the daily gauges
were only read once a day 
at 9am.

Because of the newer
automatic stations
BOM can measure 
the rainfall
minute by minute,
leading to new records.

BOM can also make a ‘day’ 
any 24 hours they choose.

The standard reference 
time for rainfall quantities
falling in a day had been 
taken by reading the gauge 
at 0900 GMT, with the value 
being recorded against 
the previous day. 

With rainfall 
now recorded 
using automatic 
gauges and 
reported to BOM
electronically,
it's possible 
to calculate 
rainfall totals 
over any span 
of hours, or 
even minutes,
that results in
the highest 
rainfall numbers !



The BOM explains 
none of this 
when declaring 
a new rainfall (or 
temperature) record.

UK's BOM 
are dishonest.

That's politics.

This blog prefers honesty
about the past climate,
and no wild guessing
about the future climate.

That's real science.


And never forget, 
the climate will get
warmer in the future
 ... unless it gets cooler !