Thermometer At Northolt Just Yards From The A40
July 1, 2023
By Paul Homewood
h/t idau
RAF Northolt is another of those weather stations which regularly appears in the list of hottest ones.
It turns out that the thermometer is not particularly close to the runway, but its location is arguably even worse, being 20m from the busy A40. Western Avenue.
Also note those trees to the east, again about 20m away, (we can judge this from the number of cars parked close by):
And this is what it looks like at ground level:
The proximity to the road and car park would mean that at best Northolt was only a Class 3 site, but the trees would mean that it could only rate as Class 4, as in the case of Porthmadog.
In other a totally unsuitable site.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Each and every one of those 6 sites listed in the SHOCK-HORROR Met Office table shown for the “big day”above is severely corrupted by UHI-type effects.
There should now be a public inquiry into the Met Office’s fraudulent and incompetent behaviour that is costing the public so very much. Heads should roll.
Don’t wait up…
You are correct, but pigs would be flying over Northolt before there would be an inquiry, or before heads were rolling.
Sheets of corrugated metal 30 or 40 feet from the Stevenson screen. I’m sure that on a very hot sunny day, they have absolutely no effect whatsoever . . . . .
It should be easy enough to find a hundred uncorrupted weather stations and then look at the trend for a hundred years or so.
—
OT
Can some of you look at this graph of sea level rise on the NASA/NOAA website:
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level
What causes the sea level to drop some times – albeit for a short time?
I recall Judith Curry mentioning geological influences on sea levels some years ago. Whether that was over the short or long term I don’t know.
Thanks.
Mention of Judith Curry in the Times/Guardian/FT just gets you shouted at. Odd times.
I was thinking that the graph might show that as carbon dioxide emissions have not dropped there must be one or more forces stronger affecting sea level.
On-shore and off-shore wind?
Or is that too easy?
Interesting – I had the met station just west of the control tower but I’m clearly wrong unless there are two on site.
Do we know if there is a class 1 weather station in the vicinity of Northolt we can compare it with?
Is it possible to get a list of all weather stations the MET office uses with an FOI request?
Firstly this list https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-synoptic-and-climate-stations
The co-ordinates they give are notoriously inaccurate so you have to study the surrounding areason google maps aerial views or bing maps. NOTE this list includes stations that have been closed for years. I have notifiedthe MetOffice 3 times that Gravesend (Broadness) closed 5 years ago but theydo not seem to get the message. There are other non-exitant ones on that list, oneof which is now under water.
Alternatively there is this site which includes private stations many of the latter being more accurate than the official ones.
https://wow.metoffice.gov.uk zoom in wherever you want.
Also the late Tim Channon did some excellent work on Tallbloke’s blog under “Surface StationsProject” https://tallbloke.wordpress.com
Regular poster on here – Catweazle 666 – is also quite an authority on locating sites
Fantastic work Ray although I’m not the person to interrogate all this, but I will study it as best I can.
A meteorological question: what are the prevailing winds in England?
Here in SE US, wind is generaly from the southwest.
If your wind is from the southwest, the air at the Northolt station will be superheated by the road. If from the northwest, there is the much larger patch of tarmac, which could even be worse, even though further away.
Westerly, GC.
Thx.
So, the highway proximity may not be a problem, but then there are plenty of buildings, highway, tarmac and runway to the west, so, regardless, the readings are junk.
Note that a wind shift to the south west would bring the adjacent highway into play. They could get a sudden 3 degree jump in temp with no apparent reason.
Heathrow is only a few miles away, and SW predominates there. See the wind rose here:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/services/transport/aviation/regulated/airfield-climate-stats#Heathrow
Winds were strongly from the South on that day. If I remember rightly the winds were very warm since there was an extremely unusual pair of blocking systems to the east and west of a weather corridor running up through France, thus keeping wind speeds high and preventing heat diffusion. The Northolt thermometer just north of the A40 would have got a full blast of the equivalent of a giant hairdryer that afternoon.
Drove up to Charlotte today to see my son and his family. My granddaughter just turned 7 months. I heard her say, “no,” and, “oh, yeah.” Mother and father say it’s not real, but I heard it.
Anywho, driving home down the interstate highway, I noticed it was 98°F on the highway near my home. When home, I checked my thermometers. 92°F.
0.3 miles west of highway, and it’s 6° cooler!
I have long believed UHI adds more than just one degree to the temperature. Now, I have empirical evidence.