Met Office Fake Claim Of Record Low Pressure
By Paul Homewood
Oh dear! It appears the Met Office is even less reliable than ChatGPT:
https://twitter.com/metoffice/status/1720055662888063363
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The claim of a record in Wales in November is certainly untrue, as the lowest on record is 944.8 hPa.
As for England, while it might be a record for November, it is a long way from the all time record of 933.2 hPa, set in 1886:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_atmospheric_pressure_records_in_Europe
The Newton Reigny measurement is confirmed in British Rainfall for 1886. Other stations like Meltham and Hull were also much lower than yesterday, (953.3 hPa = 28.151 inches):
There are far more weather stations around these days than during the 19thC, and no doubt, given the geographical spread in 1886, a wide swathe of the country would have experienced similarly low pressure, without it being officially recorded hour by hour.
The Met Office monthly summary highlighted just how unusually severe that storm was:
The 1865 record low in Dolgellau is confirmed by British Rainfall as well – 27.90 inches = 944.8 hPa:
It is simply not acceptable for the Met Office to go around claiming records without even bothering to check their own archives. I would not be at all surprised if the England “record” for November also proves to be fake.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Well done for calling this out . I receive more and more messages from friends complaing about “Weather” being described in hysterical terms as a climate crisis
“Why is it always a record?”
Often asked by Gamecock’s first wife, the Good One, who passed away 40 years ago.
So it’s not new. Punching up stories is what they teach in journalism school. The objective is not to inform; it is to sell papers.
‘The elements are in sad confusion’… Eleanor Anne Porden May 1822
I’ve been dying to pass on this historical account of wild weather in London 1821 to 1822. It comes in the form of a letter to Sir John Franklin, who was away in the Arctic, from his future wife, poet, Eleanor Anne Porden. As well as alluding to the last Frost Fair in 1814, and recounting tales of confectioners in 1822 seen fighting over scant skins of ice on a pond, there being only 2 frosts that year, she also suggests Franklin should bring snow home in a bottle as everyone has forgotten what it looked like. She talks, too, of the year’s mixed seasons, rapid cold to heat, terrible storms, and the Thames emptying itself. Followed by extreme flooding.
Derbyshire Record Office holds the document with transcription here: https://calmview.derbyshire.gov.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=D8760%2fF%2fFSJ%2f1%2f1%2f2&pos=324
Or you can read Porden’s chaotic weather highlights in my blogpost Apr ’22 :
“she also suggests Franklin should bring snow home in a bottle as everyone has forgotten what it looked like”
Uhh . . . they had mail delivery in the Arctic?
There was even an article today in the DT claiming that our cups of tea will be ruined because the low pressure will cause water to boil at a lower than 100C temp. I guess it’s true that the boiling point will be lowered a little by the transient low pressure, but really I don’t think anyone will notice anything different about their tea. Hysteria reigns!
Most people don’t know how to make a proper cuppa anyway!
Having lived in various cities at altitude where the air pressure is much lower and the boiling point of water significantly lower (down to around 90C) we did occasionally resort to pressure cookers to raise the boiling temperature. Here’s the relationship:
950hPa=95kPa corresponds to normal pressure about half way up a Munroe – i.e. about 1750ft – experienced by anyone who goes hill walking.
In Europe you could always try a thé at the café at the Aiguille du Midi (3842m) while admiring Mont Blanc.
https://www.chamonix.net/english/leisure/sightseeing/aiguille-du-midi
DT article about tea making.
Is this for real?
At a pressure of 958 hPa as compared to standard pressure of 1013 hPa, the boiling point of water is depressed from 212 F to 209 F. This latter temperature is still too high, according to the tea companies. They recommend 190 – 205 F for brewing black tea.
Just imagine if the present met office were in charge on 5th June 1944, we’d all be speaking German?
Nah. The Russians would have made it to the Rhine.
“In November”
I mean, seriously? This is just random.
No we wouldn’t. The war was already won by then
I really am astonished that nowhere is any mention in all the reports and discussions on current and recent weather what the myriad of Private Weather Stations (PWS) have been recording and submitting to the UK’s Met Office’s Weather Observations Website (WOW) and to the US’s Wunderground and Citizens’Weather Observers Programme (CWOP) organisations. I have one here in Herefordshire, doing just that.
On a map of the UK the picture is one of measles there are so many; similarly across the world. These weather stations are mostly modern and the measuring instrumentation have a high degree of accuracy. Each Station’s data can be viewed – I am not sure if it can be downloaded without appropriate permissions.
Even though not ‘official’ their proximity to such can easily be compared. The CWOP system actually has a facility to compare the readings of a number of weather stations over varying time periods. That I have found useful as a check on accuracy of one’s own readings, over time and recognising spacial differences.
Their use in checking on the often hysterical claims of the media (BBC especially) would be invaluable.
As an aside I have never been able to ascertain from the Met Office exactly how the WOW programme actually is being used. Just a general platonic acknowledgement that it does is the response. Openness seems to be too much bother; I will not mention anything relating to certain conspiracy views.
The MET again down grading another storm, storm ciaran ….and they record the storm highs from Jersey (not central UK)
The MO doesn’t do weather these days, it’s too politicised
Sky News forgets to mention that the ‘record’ is only one for November – although it does say so in their Met Office X/Twitter link.
‘New record low sea level pressure set in England and Wales View post’
Post: ‘The Met Office has revealed Storm Ciaran is a record breaker – setting a new low sea level pressure of 953.3 hPa (mb) in Plymouth.’
https://news.sky.com/story/storm-ciaran-latest-wind-damage-warning-as-nasty-three-day-storm-approaches-uk-12997915?postid=6701963
So readers have to drill down to the third level i.e. X/Twitter to get to the word November. Sly News indeed.