It’s hotter than reported

[Bubblebathbefore8]

Why are the reports of high temperatures being played down?

Gosport is coastal - will be cooler than inland from there, it was 38c not far from there earlier

You could stick your head in an oven heated to 50c and be uncomfortable but not die. Don't do it obviously. But there were measurements of the temperature just above the road in India (where lots of people have to sit to sell things, or sleep) and it was well over 50degrees. So the people sitting there would also have been ensuring that temperature. Being in 50degree heat is very uncomfortable, risks heart attacks and miscarriages and shortens your lifespan in the long run. But it won't burn you up outright.

Tarmac makes everything hotter. So if the official temperature is 35 and you are walking along/by the road in the sun you will be feeling a lot hotter.

No, its not. In fact the ollaitw stop peddling nonsense.

Yes, I only learned last year that the forecast temp is the one in the shade - because they can't guarantee how reflected heat, a breeze etc will affect localised temps.

A 20c sunny day will feel a lot different to a 20c overcast day, because the latter everywhere is in the shade.

32° here in Yorkshire. Horrible upstairs, south facing sitting room not bad with tower fan on. Atm I'm in a shady spot in the garden, there's a light breeze, and it's wonderfully quiet.

It's currently 28.4 degrees in my living room.

It’s mainly because when you measure in the shade you are measuring air temperature, which is what is important.

In direct sunlight objects absorb radiation and will heat up to a greater or lesser extent depending on what material they are made of - for example metal could easily heat up to 70 C (hot enough to cause burns) but that is not reflective of the actual air temperature.

Yes I was exaggerating, apologies. And yes local air temperature above a road will be higher than elsewhere and the surface temperature hotter still. But you are still need to shade the thermometer when taking the temperature above the road, or if the road surface itself, or you will get a false reading.

This, I have a digital thermometer at the bottom of the garden logging temperatures it got to 47.1 yesterday and it is accurate

Agree! I think they use thermal imaging to map out the actual air temperature in a location. Which avoids the sun heating the glass.element.
I can well believe it gets very hot on a sunny fence though.

It’s definately toasty here. We have under floor heating that shows how hot the gubbins is under the concrete floor, in winter when its turned on it usually reads somewhere between 19-22 degrees. Last night it was reading 29.7degrees. I’m looking forward to a good thunderstorm!

It’s positively chilly where I am. A breeze and sea fret

That is just your childhood memories playing tricks on you. It is well recorded that apart from 1976 temperatures were in 70s were average or below average and record breaking temperatures are now recorded regularly.

I'm sure you very accurately measured the temperature of a digital thermometer left out in the sun. What you did not measure was the ambient air temperature, because it certainly has never been that hot in the UK.

North East England here. It's bloody roasting. They said 23c maximum. I don't know what they're on because it is absolutely boiling. I braved the shops earlier in my lunch break, and the minute you step out of one, the heat hits you like a wave.

Your car is a metal and glass box sitting in the sun all day. It’s not accurate.

There are over 200 weather stations across the UK, each of which measure:

• Air temperature at 1.25 m above the ground
• Air temperature over a grass surface or its artificial equivalent
• Air temperature over a concrete surface
• Soil temperature at 0.1 m, 0.3 m and 1.0 m below the ground level
• Relative humidity at 1.25 m above the ground
• Amount of rainfall
• Depth of lying snow
• Mean wind speed, mean wind direction and maximum gust at 10m above the ground
• Atmospheric pressure at the station level and reduced to mean sea level
• Pressure tendency and characteristic
• Visibility
• Amount of cloud
• Type of cloud identified by observer
• Height of cloud base
• Present and past weather

The measurement of almost all the elements on the list is fully automated; data are logged at the station, processed to convert the measurement to a meteorological element in standard format, and transmitted to a central collecting system based at the Met Office's headquarters at Exeter. Each station produces observations at minute intervals.

But of course mumsnetters with a £6 digital thermometer from Argos know better.

Because the sun is directly on it!

Nope, not thermal imaging (which would measure surface temperatures), they use calibrated recording thermometers in weather stations - they look like slatted white boxes on legs. I just posted a description above of what is recorded.

local air temperature above a road will be higher than elsewhere and the surface temperature hotter still. But you are still need to shade the thermometer when taking the temperature above the road, or if the road surface itself, or you will get a false reading

That's why if you look at what are effectively the regulations for providing these measurements to the likes of the Met office there's a lot to comply with.

They don't just mention the thermometers (Platinum wire, as mentioned in the link @SadiraOfTyr gave upthread) must be in shade, ventilated, 1.25 m above the surface, etc etc.

The rules also go as far (or used to) as specifying the nature of surface under the measuring station.....it's meant to be level ground, short grass, or natural earth if you're somewhere grass doesn't grow.

It's dead easy to cook a thermometer by attaching to a wall in full sunshine (I'm looking at you Wimbledon...), bolting it to a metal surface (car) or dangling it over paving but the reading is pretty meaningless for anything other than bragging rights.

My car thermometer will read a certain temperature when I get in it and then drop by a good few degrees when I've driven a short while, presumably because it's lost a lot of the heat it's built up.

When in Seville once, the thermometer in a street sign said 46 C. It was bloody hot that day, but not that hot.

It is currently 30 degrees outside where I am. My thermometer and the weather app are in agreement.

I was surprised at the Gosport temperature yesterday. I am inland West Sussex and BBC Weather said 36 degrees for my town, however the nearest coastal towns that I have been visiting regularly are routinely 5 and 6 degrees cooler than here.

My garden thermometer (on a north facing wall, in shade all day) and my car, parked in the shade, were both showing 36 degrees in north Hampshire. It feels a degree or two hotter than yesterday at 2pm.

I think we're talking at cross purposes!
I was talking about the reports on temperatures etc the BBC have done. They went round Delhi with a thermal camera and it was genuinely scary! That gives info on temperature but a different kind of information to the type the net office want (the thermometer ls in weather stations). So you can have very different sets of readings through the two methods but both are worthwhile and useful to know.

I’m assuming the calibration of official weather station equipment is superior to anyone’s kitchen thermometer or car reading.