Hi all,

After receiving a shed load of historic data for Raunds MetO from the
friendly folk in Archives in Exeter (thank you to Philip Eden and Nick
for pointing me in the right direction), I am in the process of
calculating 1971-2000 averages for Raunds. I have simply taken the
Raunds MetO data for 1971-1991, added my own data 1992-2000 and
calculated averages. My October mean temperature shows a 0.17C
Fall to 10.4C compared to 1961-1990 Raunds MetO averages, in line with
what I had expected. I have checked nearby MetO stations at Bedford,
Cambridge, and Church Lawford which have also shown a drop in mean
October temperature of around 0.2C from 1961-1990 to 1971-2000.
Clearly I am no scientist, but do you think the method of calculating
these averages will give reasonably accurate results for comparison
purposes? Also does a drop in October mean temperature of 0.2C from
1961-1990 to 1971-2000 seem a reasonable figure?
Any advice or guidance from you learned guys would be appreciated

Many thanks.

Ian,

Raunds, East Northants. 63m. NGR SP9972.
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Ian,

It is best to identify an overlapping period of observations and use that to
compute differences between the 2 sites.

For example:

To estimate missing temperature observations a difference method can be used. For
example, if the average daily maximum temperature at station A in
January was 0.1degC higher than that at station B over a common
observational period (in general 4 years or greater), then
0.1degC is added to the values at station B, for the years when
records were not available at station A, to give estimated values at
station A.

To estimate missing values of rainfall and sunshine, monthly values for
missing intervals can be estimated using a ratio method. For
example, if station A had 500 mm of rainfall in January over a given period
of time, and station B had 520 mm over the same periods, the
ratio A:B is 0.962. The monthly values of rainfall at station B, for
the years when values were not available at station A, are multiplied
by this ratio to give the probable values at station A.

I have used this to compute averages for many COL sites
which have subsequently turned out quite well (according to
later monthly anomalies).

I hope this helps,

Roger

Ian wrote:
Hi all,

After receiving a shed load of historic data for Raunds MetO from the
friendly folk in Archives in Exeter (thank you to Philip Eden and Nick
for pointing me in the right direction), I am in the process of
calculating 1971-2000 averages for Raunds. I have simply taken the
Raunds MetO data for 1971-1991, added my own data 1992-2000 and
calculated averages. My October mean temperature shows a 0.17C
Fall to 10.4C compared to 1961-1990 Raunds MetO averages, in line with
what I had expected. I have checked nearby MetO stations at Bedford,
Cambridge, and Church Lawford which have also shown a drop in mean
October temperature of around 0.2C from 1961-1990 to 1971-2000.
Clearly I am no scientist, but do you think the method of calculating
these averages will give reasonably accurate results for comparison
purposes? Also does a drop in October mean temperature of 0.2C from
1961-1990 to 1971-2000 seem a reasonable figure?
Any advice or guidance from you learned guys would be appreciated

Many thanks.

Ian,

Raunds, East Northants. 63m. NGR SP9972.
----------------------------------------------------------------

On 18 Oct, 12:51, Ian wrote:
.. My October mean temperature shows a 0.17C
Fall to 10.4C compared to 1961-1990 Raunds MetO averages, in line with
what I had expected. I have checked nearby MetO stations at Bedford,
Cambridge, and Church Lawford which have also shown a drop in mean
October temperature of around 0.2C from 1961-1990 to 1971-2000.
Clearly I am no scientist, but do you think the method of calculating
these averages will give reasonably accurate results for comparison
purposes? Also does a drop in October mean temperature of 0.2C from
1961-1990 to 1971-2000 seem a reasonable figure?

Seems a reasonable figure to me Ian; at Bablake in Coventry, our
October mean temperature from 1961-90 was 10.6C, with a mean of 10.3C
from 1971-2000.

Just out of interest, the 2001-2006 avearge has been 11.7C.

Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry UK
www.bablakeweather.co.uk

Also does a drop in October mean temperature of 0.2C from
1961-1990 to 1971-2000 seem a reasonable figure?

Seems a reasonable figure to me Ian; at Bablake in Coventry, our
October mean temperature from 1961-90 was 10.6C, with a mean of 10.3C
from 1971-2000.


CET means for October (Hadley data):
1961-90 10.62°C
1971-2000 10.41°C.

Difference - 0.21 degC. So your value looks reasonable ...

Stephen Burt
Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire

On 18 Oct, 21:49, wrote:

Difference - 0.21 degC. So your value looks reasonable ...

Stephen Burt
Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire

Steve, Roger B, and Steve J.

Thank you very much for your replies, I feel much more confident in my
calculated averages now. I would have liked to have used the
overlapping method suggested by Roger, but unfortunately I only have
13 months of overlapping data. A big help, thanks to you all.

Regards,

Ian, Raunds, East Northants. 63m SP9972
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