MetLink School Weather News 1999
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Daily weather reports, summaries and synoptic charts
Week 1 (25-29 Jan 1999) Jan
25th (1) || 26th (2)
|| 27th (3) || 28th
(4) || 29th (5)
Week 2 (1-5 Feb 1999)
Feb 1st (6)
|| 2nd (7)
|| 3rd (8)
|| 4 th
(9) || 5th (10)
click here for weather data file for all
schools and csv files
On 19th January, 1999 , 45 mm of rain fell in 40mins at
Peterhouse School,
Zimbabwe
The Radley weather team asked about what problems or damage resulted
from such high intensity rain.
Here is the answer
=================================
From: Andrew Griggs
Peterhouse School,
Zimbabwe
Subject: HEAVY RAIN
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 08:19:09 +0200
In answer to your question about the rain. It comes down very heavily
and very suddenly, caused by convectional uplift making the air very
unstable. The effect is obviously to create a great deal of surface
water, as infiltration cannot keep up with the precipitation. In most
areas however, the water does infiltrate after about half an hour or
so, as the soils round here are ferallitic, very sandy and well
drained. There is some damage even round here. The weight of water
held by a large pine tree (15m) in my garden along with the saturated
soil, made it fall over on my lawn the other day, making rather a
mess, and on a more serious scale there are a lot of small low level
(due to cost) bridges around the country which get swept away by
flash floods.
The rain was related to the forecast thunder showers. Indeed there
was a fair amount of thunder and lightning associated with that
storm. It came on rather suddenly during the afternoon, probably as a
result of convection building up during the warm morning. It cleared
as quickly as it began, a typical event in this part of the
world.
Message from Dr Colin Prowse
Bedales School Petersfield,
Hants, UK
Subject: Violent storm in Petersfield, England on 26th
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 11:48:57 +0000
Greetings to all MetLink colleagues,
Just to let you know of a rather odd weather experience here
yesterday when a "Short, fierce storm was 'just like a tornado'"
according to the local paper. Trees and power lines were brought
down, roads were blocked, trees bent double, train service to London
delayed, there was ball lightning and intense thunder and a house not
more than a mile from Bedales was effectively hewn in two by a 80 kph
gust. All this was caused by a squall line producing a freak low
pressure system and the storm lasted only 10 minutes. Enjoy your
weather! Colin
Well, MetLink friends, we are having some exciting weather. Here's a
message from our friends in west Wales, or should I say "wet Wales".
I can assure everyone from my own experiences of living in Cardiff
that Wales has been VERY WET recently. However, do not let these
weather reports put you off visiting Pembrokeshire, the south-western
part of Wales. The coastal scenery is fantastic and there's plenty of
interesting things to look at, including some very old castles.
Larne and Edinburgh: what's it like in your part of the world? We've
had the classic signs of an approaching front here, with a clear blue
sky early this morning and cirrus, followed by cirrostratus and
altostratus approaching from the west. Pressure peaked around 12 noon
and is now falling. The wind has backed from WNW early this morning
to SW now (2.30 pm). Wells, Bedales and Bryanston: can you give us a
sequence of cloud and wind in your localities, please.
MESSAGE FROM PENNAR >>>>>
Greetings from Pennar Junior
School in wet and windy west Wales, and yet again our weather was
completely unpredictable, one of our teachers has a builder working
on his house, in the morning the skies were bright and it looked as
if we were in for a bright day for a change. The builder rendered the
back wall and a black cloud appeared and a squally wind arose and
washed off all the rendering! We seem unable to predict what the
weather will bring next. We hope to keep future observations to 9.30
am as agreed, our late observations were due to special assemblies
and class lessons - had we observed in the morning, the observations
would have reflected a completely different picture. There seems to
be no end to this wet and very windy weather.
Gardens and fields are completely waterlogged - we are becoming very
depressed!
Sorry for not writing and sending our data on 26/1/99 but we have had
some big thunderstorms in
Madagascar recently and
our phone lines were down yesterday due to flooding. In response to
your correspondence on the 25th: the 26mm of rain we had was due to
thunderstorms. Last night (27/1/99) we had another big storm with
56mm dropped. Precipitation usually falls here during the night or
early morning. this is very usual for this time of year.Yesterday on
the news/weather we heard there is a cyclone warning for southwest
Madagascar. This is our cyclone/rainy season. Our temps have been
normal for this time of year. Thanks for the additional sites for
southern Africa. We are having great fun looking at some of the
others you gave us.
From: "Alfred Mifsud"
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 16:39:08 +0100 28th January 1999.
Dear Metlink Friends,
These are the groups of The Cumulus, Weather Watchers and Wind Vane
writing from Malta.
These are the names we chose for
5A Achille Ferris Primary
School Msida.
On the 27th January we had an appointment at the Meteorological
Station at Luqa. Punctually at 09.30 a.m. we were at the gate. Two
soldiers for security reasons stopped us. We were welcomed by Mr.
Alex Farrugia, Assistant Met. Officer. He showed us the rain gauges
and the Stevenson's Screen where the temperature was being recorded.
At our arrival we saw a big orange balloon being launched into the
sky. This was filled with hydrogen to measure the air pressure. We
saw it disappearing in the sky. The readings are taken every three
hours. We were told that sometimes the ground temperature goes down
to p;0 at night. In Malta it is very rare that the temperature
goes below 0.
We went up in an office where there was a computer, which was
receiving the weather forecast through a satellite-MeteoSat. In fact,
on the roof, there are big satellite dishes. We then went into
another office where some Met. Officers were at work in front of
other computers. One was registering the wind force on a big map,
which is later sent to the TV stations and to our local newspapers.
The temperature, wind direction, visibility and humidity, sea
temperature and air pressure were all being measured at the same time
by different instruments.
Mr. Emidio Mifsud Met Officer explained to us in detail, what was
happening. He was ever so patient with us and at a push of a button
we made contact with other stations in Sweden, Rome, Moscow, London,
Cape Town, Africa and even Madagascar. On his computer he couldn't
receive that of Tristan Da Cunha as there are no airports. We knew
only what was happening by means of our satellite information. All
the information is given through numbers and signs so that all other
countries can read it. On the ground outside there was another
instrument, which measures the Sun's intensity. We saw the radar and
the Wind-sock near the Control Tower at the airport facing the
station.
It was very interesting and we thank all those who made this outing
so fascinating.
5A Achille Ferris Primary School Msida, Malta.
Hail in Malta
Dear MetLink friends
Here's some information about the weather in
Malta on Sunday 31
January, 1999. The Low I mentioned in my review of Day 5, when it was
over the Ionian Sea, has been close to Malta today, with a
well-marked occluded front stretching south-westwards across the heel
of Italy and Sicily.
MESSAGE FROM MALTA >>>>>
Dear Metlink Friends,
Today as yesterday I had to take the weather readings from the roof
of my home. To my great surprise, at about 09.50, a heavy hail storm
fell on parts of the island. At Sliema (where I live) I measured
about 45mm of hail, each of about 1cm sphere.
I'm not being funny but for us in Malta this is rather strange. I
thought the weather was becoming colder but my children did not
believe their eyes. They had never seen so much hail in their fifteen
years. Tonight it is going to be colder. In Malta we are not used to
this. Usually we have lovely weather. What about the others? Finland,
Tristan, Madagascar, Scotland, Spain, Reading and so on?
From:
education@royal-met-soc.org.uk
Subject: BBC publicity
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 19:41:46 -0000
Dear MetLink participants
I am very pleased to report that our friends at
Wells Cathedral School
have gained publicity on BBC Radio Bristol today. An item which
featured their teacher and students was broadcast at 0640 GMT and
repeated at 0855. Also, the involvement of the Wells Cathedral School
in MetLink was mentioned in the BBC Radio Bristol news headlines at
0830 and 1000, possibly at 0900, too.
I am hoping that BBC Wales will do a TV report on MetLink later this
week but I am not certain of this yet. I had my picture taken with
Pinewood School children
by a photographer from a local newspaper this morning.
Best regards Malcolm
Message from Mike Lewis,
Northamptonshire Grammar
School (Pitsford Hall) , UK
Date: 3 Feb, 1999
At Pitsford
Hall we have received a lot of e-mails relating to our sunshine
totals for January, 1999. The total of 29.1 hours of sunshine falls
some way short of the average and extremely short of the general
figure of 60-70 hours for the Midlands this month. In fact, whilst
one Midlands weather station enjoyed its sunniest day on the 21st Jan
1999, we remained beneath a veil of mist and fog for most of the
day!
I feel it is worth pointing out that the weather station at Pitsford
during the winter months will have a tendency to under-estimate
sunshine totals for Northamptonshire. We are unfortunate in being
located within a quarter of a mile and slightly downhill of a large
reservoir which is notorious for generating localised mist and fog
patches at this time of year. When fog is forecast for this area, we
cop it badly and it takes a long time to lift particularly on cloudy
days. Furthermore, the geology here is Lias Clay supporting clay
soils and patchy boulder clays. In short, relative humidities remain
very high and mist and fog seems to take longer to shift here than in
most other parts of the county apart from the Nene valley.
I have noticed several other weather stations throughout Northants
which have January sunshine hours well short of the BBC's claim. We
have for some time been interested in the way our local environment
effects other climatic variables and we are consequently developing a
ground enclosure with an array of soil and earth thermometers to
investigate this more fully. This additional data should tell us
whether or not we are really the dullest weather station in the
county, if not the country!
(Sunshine hours here are recorded using a Met Office MKII Campbell-
Stokes sunshine recorder. It is mounted in accordance with UKMO
requirements on a pillar high on the main school building. A complete
recording of sunshine is possible from dawn to dusk throughout the
year).
Subject:Foehn winds, Lossiemouth, Scotland
From: George Meldrum of James
Gillespie's HS, Edinburgh, Scotland
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 21:31:07 -0000
INFORMATION >>>>>
1 ... Foehn Effect The foehn effect is well known to me as I
frequently visit the town of Lossiemouth on the coast of the Moray
Firth. Yes, I note that temperatures are regularly higher in this
area as the air travelling over the mountains of the North West
Highlands descends and warms. Precipitation levels are obviously
higher on the windward side of the mountains but the temperature of
the descending air often rises above its dew point temperature and
finally arrives in the Moray Firth as a relatively warm dry wind.
Under ideal conditions, increases in temperature of up to 10 C may be
experienced between the two sides of the mountain barrier.
A particular small area in the county of Morayshire seems to benefit
from this effect more than any other. This stretches from Nairn in
the west to Buckie in the East and seems to be a distinctly coastal
anomaly. This area is much drier and generally warmer than places
even a short distance inland. Is there any special reason for this?
It may be no coincidence that two of the countries busy military
airports are in this area since good flying weather can usually be
guaranteed.
(I don't know the answer to the question posed in the penultimate
sentence but will endeavour to supply an answer. M.)