Category Archives: Weather

Here comes the rain again…

Posted on 14 December, 2020 by timpoulter

By: Natalie Harvey British people are well renowned for their obsession for talking about the weather. This is partly because it is a “safe” topic for conversation and partly because it is really fascinating! This is especially true in the … Continue reading →

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What Does A Probability Of Rainfall Mean?

Posted on 3 August, 2020 by danaallen

By: Tom Frame Here is a question that you may think has a simple answer – but surveys have often indicated people misinterpret it. So why is this question difficult to answer? This blog entry is about why the probability … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Rainfall, Statistics, Weather | Leave a comment

Sunshine, cracks, fly-tipping, aphids: Phew, what a May!

Posted on 5 June, 2020 by danaallen

By: Roger Brugge Those spending more time in their gardens and in local parks and woods in and around Reading due to the current lockdown situation will have noticed how the ground surface had been resembling the look and feel … Continue reading →

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30 °C days in Reading

Posted on 8 July, 2019 by danaallen

By: Roger Brugge The temperature in the Reading University Atmospheric Observatory peaked at 32.3°C on Saturday 29 June 2019. Press stories were full of pictures of people sunning themselves across parts of the United Kingdom in glorious sunshine – yet … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate change, University of Reading, Weather | Leave a comment

What do we do with weather forecasts?

Posted on 20 May, 2019 by danaallen

By: Peter Clark As I sat in the Kia Oval in Kennington having taken a day off to watch the first One Day International between England and Pakistan, I had plenty of time to appreciate the accuracy and utility of … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Predictability, Weather, Weather forecasting | Leave a comment

Rescuing the Weather

Posted on 13 May, 2019 by danaallen

By: Ed Hawkins Over the past 12 months, thousands of volunteer ‘citizen scientists’ have been helping climate scientists rescue millions of lost weather observations. Why? Figure 1: Data from Leighton Park School in Reading from February 1903. If we are to … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, data assimilation, Data processing, Historical climatology, Outreach, Weather | Leave a comment

How the Hadley Cells work

Posted on 15 October, 2018 by hjia

By Gui-Ying Yang The Hadley Cell, named after British meteorologist George Hadley who discovered this tropical atmospheric overturning circulation, is one of the basic concepts in weather and climate. Figure 1 shows the zonal mean overturning circulation in a latitude height … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate change, Climate modelling, earth observation, Equatorial waves, extratropical cyclones, Tropical convection, Troposphere, Waves, Weather, Wind | Leave a comment

Image conscious atmospheric science

Posted on 1 October, 2018 by hjia

By Giles Harrison A frequently-heard mantra in physics is “Like charges repel and unlike charges attract”. At face value this paraphrase of Coulomb’s Law seems useful for clouds too, as, quite apart from the obvious example of thunderclouds, water drops … Continue reading →

Posted in Clouds, earth observation, Measurements and instrumentation, Microphysics, Numerical modelling, University of Reading, Weather | Leave a comment

Sting jets in winter storms : how do the winds get so strong?

Posted on 20 August, 2018 by hjia

By Ambrogio Volonté Figure 1: Windstorm Tini (12 Feb 2014) passes over the British Isles bringing extreme winds. A sting jet has been identified in the storm. Image courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory The arrival of a winter storm battering … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate change, extratropical cyclones, Monsoons, Numerical modelling, sting jet, University of Reading, Weather, Weather forecasting | Leave a comment

Summer temperatures 2018 – the ‘new normal’?

Posted on 6 August, 2018 by hjia

By Professor Sir Brian Hoskins (Grantham Institute, Imperial College London and Emeritus Professor at the University of Reading department of Meteorology) and Stephen Belcher (Met Office Chief Scientist and Visiting Professor at the University of Reading department of Meteorology) Figure 1. Hyde … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate change, Greenhouse gases, Historical climatology, Weather | Leave a comment