Discussion of extreme diurnal ranges of air temperature in the british isles

✍ Scribed by E. L. Hawke

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 190 KB
• Volume: 59
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49705925208

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

For reasons well understood, the greatest extremes of heat and cold were normally found at the bottom of valleys. Doubtless owing to the prevalent belief that such situations were damp and unhealthy, too few valley meteorological stations had as yet been established in this country to enable us to set an approximate limit for the range of temperature that might occur in a single day. A diurnal variation over 40°F. had been registered at Greenwich Observatory only ten times since 1841, and was usually regarded as exceptional anywhere in Britain. Yet records begun four years ago in a Hertfordshire valley, characterised by a markedly “continental” climate, already included 17 instances of a daily range exceeding 40°F., with. 48°F. on March 28, 1933, as the outstanding example. It was inferred that places so circumstanced were occasionally subjected to fluctuations of temperature amounting to more than 50°F. within a few hours.