On 22/12/16 18:02, Brian Wakem wrote:
haaark wrote:

Rereading this week's Sunday Telegraph I came across this fascinating
snippet:

Warmest place in Europe: Mallnitz Austria 28.9C (84F) Dec 11th.

Surely a typo? Googling it reveals it's a high Alpine valley ski resort
(1191m.) Isn't it impossible for a Foehn to bring such a high temp. so
late in the year-or at any other time of year for that matter? Thoughts
please.


Possibly 29F incorrectly taken as C, converted to F (84.2), rounded down
(84) and converted back to C to 1 decimal place (28.9).

Or maybe nobody is that silly?


Reminds me of the time about fifty years ago when USA weather stations
switched from reporting DegF to DegC. We got into a terrible mix with
the two American Ice Islands T3 and Arlis-2. I think they must have
still been using F thermometers but converting to C. Sometimes.

We'd get the figures in the Ice Unit at Bracknell and log them for the
purpose of calculating degree days. Trouble was, we'd have to make an
educated guess as to whether they were reporting in C or F. With
negative temperatures, that can be a bit tricky.

Well, as you can guess, the final recorded temperatures were either
assumed to be F and converted to C when they were actually originally in
C, or they were assumed to be C and left alone when they were really in
F. My boss tasked me with going through the German DWRs but I soon
realised their figures were in just as big a mess as ours but not
necessarily the same mess. Can't remember what my boss had wanted but it
involved plotting the results and drawing a straight line through them.
I said it wouldn't work and when I showed him it hadn't he said I had to
go back through the DWRs and do it all again because I must have done it
wrong. At this point I told him I wouldn't and we had a frank and fair
exchange of views which ended with me storming out of his office and
slamming the door on him.

Never solved the problem of the corrupt temperatures but at least I had
less trouble with my boss afterwards.

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks. [Retd meteorologist/programmer]
Web-site: http://www.scarlet-jade.com/
There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would
not have enough to live upon. [Samuel Butler]