Local Forecasts, History & Records
The new Davis Vantage Vue weather station combines Davis’ legendary accuracy and rugged durability into a compact station. It’s very easy to set up and use (see the video below). The Davis Vantage Vue includes a sleek but tough outdoor sensor array and the distinctive LCD console. Its unique Weather Center function provides additional information on each weather variable being …
Wonderful Autumn colours and views across to Durham Cathedral and Castle from Wharton Park, just before Halloween
October 2019 was more akin to the typical model of what October should be in the UK. Autumn storms propelled by the Atlantic, rain and plenty of it and none of the unseasonably warm rubbish, quite the opposite in fact. If you like warm Octobers, tough luck, this wasn’t one of ‘em. October was actually a colder than average month. …
The headline says it all. September 2019 was really dry and quite pleasant for the first three weeks before the rains came back. Only 8.1mm fell in the first three weeks, as pressure remained high. Remarkable that the total for the month ended up at 81.0mm, making it a ‘wet’ month overall. That just shows how monthly statistics can completely …
After June and July gave us above average rainfall, August continued with the theme. There were brief spells of real warmth, but no real sustained anticyclonic spells. Thunderstorms were quite frequent in the disturbed weather patterns which came mainly from the Atlantic. We were on the North side of the Jet Stream for long periods. The opening week was reasonable, …
This is a post I made to the NetWeather forum in November 2014 about some of the longstanding records in the Central England Temperature Series (CET). This series goes back to 1659 and is a record of temperature in the Midlands of England. The stations the average is computed from are very rural, so Urban Heat Island effects should not …
While I was researching weather ‘top tens’, I discovered Jonathan Webb of TORRO’s top 30. He’s given his top fifteen widespread events and his top fifteen convective (more local thunderstorms events). I’ll try to contextualise the widespread events as to how they affected Durham. I’ve also colour coded them (Green = Yes, Red = No) Widespread Events (as defined by …
The weather of Durham in July 2019 was a real mixture. The first week was very pleasant and dry, with temperatures hovering around the 20-22 degC mark. It got a little warmer toward the middle of the month, as we’d expect, but also slightly more unsettled. A few days peaked at over 25 degC, namely 10th, 11th and 16th. Nothing …
The article was produced following a bizarre weather event in July 1968. The month was a very active one for thunderstorms and featured one of the greatest falls of Saharan dust in the UK in recent times. From Trevor Harley’s Weather website: July 1968 Generally dull, cool, and wet, especially in the south, but with two exceptional thundery outbreaks. The …
I don’t think I would be being too harsh on Summer 2019 if I said I thought it was slow getting started. After the first half of June, the prospects of summer were looking dire. There had already been over 100mm of rain by the time we’d reached the half way point. There had already been 5 days with more …
Noctilucent Clouds over Durham City, June 17th/18th 2019 by Mike Ridley Photography Some of you eagle-eyed skywatchers will have noticed a ghostly glow in the sky on the way back from the pub in recent days. Was it real? Was it just an illusion caused by too much Gin? No, what you saw was real and is called ‘Noctilucence’. It …
