Deleted

[Deleted User]

SAC2334 said:

[Deleted User] said:

SAC2334 said:

cymruchris said:

Deleted_User said:

I take it that there are individuals from my ignore list turning this into something to do with conspiracies!!! I think I have stalkers. LOL

Well I'm not a stalker. I don't even use ignore lists. Feel free to add me to yours though if you're building up a collection. Your post came over as implying that they might have been giving out duff info.

I don't think either of your thermometers are actually broken though, if they are both showing the same temperature, and I'd be inclined to trust them more than a generalised weather forecast that covers a wide area. If they are showing temperatures at which you'd normally take action to protect something, then take the steps needed to do so. Better safe than sorry as the old adage goes. 

Met Office and the rest of the world use a standardized thermometer reading inside an enclosure called a Stevensons Screen. They have to be away from all vertical walls and shady areas and sun traps . Unless a home owner has the space to locate their measuring equipment well away from the house it won t be reliable .
Last summer I hung a mercury thermometer in my back garden  from a washing line as a test and it went to nearly 50 c whereas 12 miles away the UK record was broken temporarily at 40 c at Doncaster airport  . I think in the end it went a little bit further to 40.1 c at Heathrow . You have to trust the Met Office ..no one else.They are not "generalised weather forecasts "

Well they are generalised when presented, for precisely the reasons you state.

Their measurements are accurate and standardised, but the forecast of "it'll be 3 degrees in Leeds" is general - and therefore not accurate outside the standard conditions.

And I think that was Scarter's original point - they've noticed that the 'usual' offset between the standard and their local conditions was not holding true at this time and wanted to know why.

Leeds is a large area. One can get a much more accurate local forecast on the main Met Office excellent new website if you enter your postcode in the find a forecast section

Yeah, their most local specific forecast is a couple of miles away.  It will be accurate there no doubt, but perhaps not in my village the other side of the hill.

Not that it really makes a huge amount of difference to me though - it's not likely that it'll be out by 15 degrees 😄

Spoonie_Turtle

easy said:

Deleted_User said:

We have a couple of outdoor thermometers - both in our polytunnel. They've always matched up well with forecasted temps - obviously showing higher temps when the sun is shining.

This past few days our thermometers are reading MUCH lower than BBC and Met are forecasting.  Forecasts are for -3 overnight but we're getting closer to -6. Currently forecasters are showing 1 degree but our thermometers are showing it's STILL -4.2 (despite the sun shining).

I have to say - observations suggest to me that our thermometers are right.

Are forecasters getting it wrong for others? Normally when they get it wrong they adjust as the weather snap continues. But not this time. Trying to establish if I need new thermometers outside. But funny that both (different types) should break.

What part of the country are you in, and what temps outside do you have at say 11am?

I've noticed that the BBC have started saying  "these are city temperatures,  it's likely to be colder in rural areas"  now and then in the late bulletin over the last couple of weeks.  
Could that account for the difference?

We've always known that where we are can be a few degrees colder than the temps used by weather reports.

Driving from the nearest town to home drops the temperature according to the car's thermometer by at least 2 degrees when it's in single digits ℃, and it can often be more than that when it's below freezing.

[I don't know what our current temps actually are; I am mildly interested but not enough to bundle up in yet further layers to put a thermometer out and check it.  I'm certainly not going out to the car to check either, I can't even walk that far half the time.]

SAC2334 said:
One can get a much more accurate local forecast on the main Met Office excellent new website if you enter your postcode in the find a forecast section

I've just done that, excited to see something more accurate … but then using the location feature it turns out all the nearest locations are local towns.  Relatively rural and relatively small towns, but still places that are always warmer than us. 

Using the postcode was even less useful, giving us a location 11 miles away.  Considering the distances spanned by the first part of a postcode, I was surprised that's all they use instead of the full postcode.

EssexHebridean

This morning there was a 2°C difference between where I live, and the gym I use a mile and a half away from home. We are at the top of a hill - the gym is at the bottom, near the river, and that resulted in it being warmer there, than here.

mmmmikey

My outdoor temperature sensor is housed in an enclosure like this and attached to the post of a bird table in the middle of the garden:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017ILZF6C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Not as good as a pukka Stevenson screen but much cheaper and gives temperature readings that are consistently within a degree or so of the two nearest Met Office weather stations which are both about 5 miles away.

Ally_E.

Have you compared to your local weather station? BBC predicted yesterday -3C in my area, but local weather station read -4.5C. I trust the weather station. 

Apodemus

Deleted_User said:

We have a couple of outdoor thermometers - both in our polytunnel. 

The whole purpose of a polytunnel is to create a microclimate.  In spring it will remain warmer than the outdoor temperature overnight and prevent the plants getting frosted.  But during the depths of winter it won't warm as much during the day as it does outside and it is not surprising for it to remain below freezing.  You really cannot compare polytunnel figures with met office ones.

For anyone interested in getting very local data, Weathercloud (https://weathercloud.net/) is quite good.  It lists hundreds of weather stations across the country and while the amateur ones can be variable in accuracy, you can normally cross-reference among a few local ones to get a reasonable picture.

Ally_E.

I use https://www.wunderground.com/ as it has the functionality to view past data, so I do a download each month and correlate it with my gas usage. It's free and no need to register to use it.