[Flatlander]

This is an experiment to show where in the UK (subject to having SYNOP reports available from Ogimet) best represented the weather across the UK on a particular day.

I have used 4 readily available parameters to determine this:
Rainfall amount
Maximum temperature
Minimum temperature
Windspeed

I have ignored pressure as this isn't something that humans notice much, and I have ignored sunshine hours, as although it is certainly useful in this context, it is not widely available.

The "typical" weather is determined from a Geometric Median of the 4 parameters. The list of stations closest to that median is then generated. I will keep a record of "scores" as per BDG's Boggy Britain thread, but I won't publish these every time, as this is meant to be a daily summary.

The median is a better description of the "typical" weather than the mean, which can be skewed by single values. Eg - if it rains only in Lerwick, then 99% of the stations will record less than the mean, but the median will be 0.0mm as long as at least 50% of stations record no rain. The Geometric Median is an extension of the median to n dimensions.

The values will have to be generated by script as the computation is far too difficult by hand, so there are unlikely to be many comments, but feel free to add them yourself.

I will start by weighting each parameter equally, although there is an argument for weighting windspeed lower than the other readings.

This post has been edited by Tim Prosser: 08 September 2011 - 23:31

[Flatlander]

Deleted as rainfall didn't seem to be correct

This post has been edited by Tim Prosser: 08 September 2011 - 23:59

[Flatlander]

Deleted as the rainfall didn't seem to be correct - it doesn't get reported until later

This post has been edited by Tim Prosser: 09 September 2011 - 00:11

[Ian Williams]

Sorry Tim, Had a few too many glasses of Vimto, lol, reading between the lines is this a table to find who has the most average weather, re- max/mins/rain and wind? St Mary`s will win if so, depending on how long you run the trial that is

I am however very intrigued for more info

[Flatlander]

Ian Williams, on 08 September 2011 - 23:48, said:

Sorry Tim, Had a few too many glasses of Vimto, lol, reading between the lines is this a table to find who has the most average weather, re- max/mins/rain and wind? St Mary`s will win if so, depending on how long you run the trial that is

I am however very intrigued for more info

Not quite the most average weather, but the most representative of the UK on each day. I doubt it will be St Mary's as the minimums will be too high and it will be a bit windy. But we'll see...

[Flatlander]

Data for Wed, 07 Sep 2011

Overall Median: 1.6mm rain, 16.2C max, 11.1C min, 25.3km/h wind

1: Cottesmore (United Kingdom) {0.2mm, 16.1C, 11.2C, 28.3km/h}
2: Wattisham (United Kingdom) {0.6mm, 16.5C, 11.1C, 28.8km/h}
3: Church Fenton (United Kingdom) {0.8mm, 16.6C, 11.4C, 25.6km/h}
4: Boscombe Down (United Kingdom) {0.2mm, 16.4C, 11.3C, 22.2km/h}
5: Cardinham (United Kingdom) {0.2mm, 15.8C, 11.3C, 24.9km/h}
6: Farnborough (United Kingdom) {0.4mm, 16.5C, 11.2C, 19.9km/h}
7: Kenley (United Kingdom) {0.8mm, 15.9C, 10.6C, 21.9km/h}
8: Odiham (United Kingdom) {0.2mm, 16.7C, 11.1C, 27.0km/h}
9: Andrewsfield (United Kingdom) {0.2mm, 16.4C, 10.6C, 29.3km/h}
10: Bedford (United Kingdom) {0.2mm, 16.7C, 11.1C, 21.5km/h}

Median rainfall: 0.8mm
Median maximum temperature: 16.1C
Median minimum temperature: 11.1C
Median mean windspeed: 25.3km/h

Most Extreme: Tulloch Bridge (United Kingdom) {22.0mm, 12.8C, 8.4C, 12.4km/h}

[Ian Williams]

OK i see, is this going to be a daily thing or will you comprise a table involving the most places that have average daily weather? or is it like the median of Andy Mayhews daily extremes? Either way, brilliant idea. When using Ogimet are you using 00Z to 00Z data i.e for yesterday 00Z 24hrs before 9th September?

As so

[Flatlander]

Data for Thu, 08 Sep 2011

Overall Median: 1.1mm rain, 18.0C max, 11.0C min, 18.1km/h wind

1: Wattisham (United Kingdom) {0.6mm, 18.2C, 11.5C, 21.6km/h}
2: Leeming (United Kingdom) {0.2mm, 18.2C, 10.9C, 15.7km/h}
3: Kenley (United Kingdom) {0.4mm, 18.6C, 11.5C, 17.0km/h}
4: Dishforth (United Kingdom) {0.0mm, 18.5C, 11.6C, 16.3km/h}
5: Boulmer (United Kingdom) {0.6mm, 18.2C, 10.0C, 14.5km/h}
6: Little Rissington (United Kingdom) {0.4mm, 18.8C, 11.0C, 22.7km/h}
7: Linton-On-Ouse (United Kingdom) {0.0mm, 18.6C, 11.6C, 17.0km/h}
8: Andrewsfield (United Kingdom) {0.4mm, 18.4C, 11.9C, 22.2km/h}
9: Woodford (United Kingdom) {0.4mm, 18.6C, 10.2C, 13.3km/h}
10: Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (United Kingdom) {1.2mm, 17.1C, 10.7C, 12.1km/h}

Median rainfall: 0.4mm
Median maximum temperature: 17.6C
Median minimum temperature: 11.1C
Median mean windspeed: 18.0km/h

Most Extreme: Capel Curig (United Kingdom) {11.0mm, 16.1C, 10.4C, 31.6km/h}

[Flatlander]

Ian Williams, on 09 September 2011 - 00:13, said:

OK i see, is this going to be a daily thing or will you comprise a table involving the most places that have average daily weather? or is it like the median of Andy Mayhews daily extremes? Either way, brilliant idea. When using Ogimet are you using 00Z to 00Z data i.e for yesterday 00Z 24hrs before 9th September?

As so

ScreenShot650.gif

Yes, exactly that. I've used Ogimet 00Z to 00Z before 09/09/11 to generate yesterday's (ie Thursday's) results.

I'll run it every day like Andy's daily extremes, so it will just be a bit more information that will tell you whether you were in the top half or the bottom half of the UK (whichever way you want to look at it). If you look at the example above, if you live in Wattisham you can't complain about the weather yesterday, because you were 'better' than 50% of the UK and 'worse' than the other 50%. If you live in Capel Curig, you can complain, because you were, overall, wetter, colder, and windier than everywhere else.

I will keep a table like Boggy Britain, but I won't publish it every day as it wasn't really the point.

This post has been edited by Tim Prosser: 09 September 2011 - 00:40

[Ian Williams]

Nice one Tim, impressed, one more Q? The extreme : is that the most pants? if so why not do the best extreme? just a suggestion

[Flatlander]

Ian Williams, on 09 September 2011 - 00:54, said:

Nice one Tim, impressed, one more Q? The extreme : is that the most pants? if so why not do the best extreme? just a suggestion

It just happened that yesterday's extreme was the most pants, though I agree it would make more sense to have a most pants (coldest, wettest, windiest) and a least pants (warmest, driest, calmest). At the moment the most extreme is just the farthest from the median. I think the "most extreme" is always likely to be the wettest because of the way rainfall totals are distributed, but there is nothing to say it couldn't be wet and warm. I'll have a go at adding a most and least pants (although of course some might prefer snow to rain!).

[Dave K]

Interesting concept though what is typical if 50% of the stations has snow and other 50% doesn't

Seems that my own site weather was fairly typical yesterday then: 0.3mm, Tmax 18.7 °C, Tmin 12.4 °C but site is too sheltered for wind comparison.

[Flatlander]

Data for Fri, 09 Sep 2011

Overall Median: 1.2mm rain, 19.7C max, 12.6C min, 15.0km/h wind

Most representative locations:
1: Leek Thorncliffe (Staffordshire) {0.8mm, 20.0C, 11.8C, 16.1km/h}
2: Walney Island (Cumbria) {1.2mm, 18.4C, 12.0C, 15.9km/h}
3: Woodford (Cheshire) {0.4mm, 21.0C, 12.5C, 16.2km/h}
4: Leeming (North Yorkshire) {0.0mm, 19.5C, 12.3C, 13.6km/h}
5: Crosby (Merseyside) {0.6mm, 19.3C, 14.0C, 14.7km/h}
6: Shobdon (Herefordshire) {0.2mm, 19.8C, 11.7C, 13.7km/h}
7: Glenanne (Armagh) {1.0mm, 20.5C, 11.5C, 17.3km/h}
8: Bala (Gwynedd) {1.0mm, 18.8C, 13.4C, 12.0km/h}
9: Blackpool Airport (Lancashire) {0.6mm, 19.3C, 12.7C, 18.8km/h}
10: Kenley (Greater London) {0.6mm, 20.0C, 14.0C, 13.1km/h}

Median rainfall: 1.0mm
Median maximum temperature: 19.5C
Median minimum temperature: 12.5C
Median mean windspeed: 14.8km/h

Most Extreme: Skye/Lusa (Highland) {9.0mm, 15.5C, 9.5C, 6.7km/h}
Warmest, Driest, Calmest: Bournemouth Airport (Dorset) {0.2mm, 22.6C, 16.6C, 13.1km/h}
Coldest, Wettest, Windiest: Kirkwall Airport (Orkney) {7.0mm, 12.9C, 7.2C, 13.8km/h}

[Flatlander]

Looks to be working. I'll set this to post at 6am every day...

Could do with the thread title changing though - should really be "Yesterday's typical weather"

Interesting spread of locations yesterday - my guess is that a lot of sites were very similar.

This post has been edited by Tim Prosser: 10 September 2011 - 08:55

[Flatlander]

Data for Sat, 10 Sep 2011

Overall Median: 2.0mm rain, 20.8C max, 13.8C min, 23.4km/h wind

Most representative locations:
1: Kenley (Greater London) {1.2mm, 21.3C, 14.5C, 20.0km/h}
2: Yeovilton (Somerset) {2.0mm, 20.0C, 15.0C, 24.6km/h}
3: Lyneham (Wiltshire) {0.2mm, 19.9C, 14.4C, 22.1km/h}
4: Filton (Gloucestershire) {0.8mm, 21.3C, 15.1C, 22.6km/h}
5: Ballykelly (Londonderry) {0.4mm, 21.2C, 13.3C, 27.3km/h}
6: Castlederg (Tyrone) {1.4mm, 20.3C, 12.9C, 19.1km/h}
7: Benson (Oxfordshire) {0.2mm, 21.3C, 14.9C, 22.1km/h}
8: Shobdon (Herefordshire) {3.4mm, 21.4C, 13.6C, 18.9km/h}
9: Middle Wallop (Hampshire) {0.8mm, 21.1C, 15.2C, 21.5km/h}
10: St Angelo (Fermanagh) {2.4mm, 19.4C, 12.7C, 24.8km/h}

Median rainfall: 1.4mm
Median maximum temperature: 20.3C
Median minimum temperature: 13.7C
Median mean windspeed: 23.2km/h

Most Extreme: Baltasound (Shetland) {9.0mm, 13.1C, 5.8C, 22.7km/h}
Warmest, Driest, Calmest: Shoeburyness (Essex) {1.4mm, 24.6C, 16.1C, 18.7km/h}
Coldest, Wettest, Windiest: Baltasound (Shetland) {9.0mm, 13.1C, 5.8C, 22.7km/h}

[Flatlander]

I notice the median is above 20C so at least 50% of the UK was above this figure yesterday. Not sure we'll see that again for a while...

[Flatlander]

Data for Sun, 11 Sep 2011

Overall Median: 3.0mm rain, 17.6C max, 12.4C min, 27.3km/h wind

Most representative locations:
1: Woodford (Cheshire) {2.4mm, 18.4C, 12.2C, 25.2km/h}
2: Leeming (North Yorkshire) {0.0mm, 18.0C, 12.1C, 26.1km/h}
3: Edinburgh Gogarbank (City of Edinburgh) {0.8mm, 16.6C, 12.5C, 25.8km/h}
4: Chivenor (Devon) {1.6mm, 18.3C, 13.2C, 28.6km/h}
5: Boulmer (Northumberland) {0.0mm, 17.0C, 11.8C, 26.3km/h}
6: Linton-On-Ouse (North Yorkshire) {0.0mm, 18.4C, 13.0C, 27.9km/h}
7: Filton (Gloucestershire) {0.8mm, 18.8C, 12.9C, 25.5km/h}
8: Culdrose (Cornwall) {1.0mm, 17.7C, 13.4C, 30.5km/h}
9: Blackpool Airport (Lancashire) {4.2mm, 16.4C, 12.9C, 32.6km/h}
10: Leuchars (Fife) {0.2mm, 17.5C, 11.5C, 27.5km/h}

Median rainfall: 2.0mm
Median maximum temperature: 17.6C
Median minimum temperature: 12.4C
Median mean windspeed: 27.0km/h

Most Extreme: Eskdalemuir (Dumfries and Galloway) {24.6mm, 12.9C, 11.6C, 30.9km/h}
Warmest, Driest, Calmest: Shoeburyness (Essex) {0.0mm, 21.5C, 15.8C, 25.2km/h}
Coldest, Wettest, Windiest: Eskdalemuir (Dumfries and Galloway) {24.6mm, 12.9C, 11.6C, 30.9km/h}

[Flatlander]

Data for Mon, 12 Sep 2011

Overall Median: 6.2mm rain, 18.9C max, 13.6C min, 36.9km/h wind

Most representative locations:
1: Boscombe Down (Wiltshire) {6.1mm, 19.1C, 13.5C, 36.7km/h}
2: Yeovilton (Somerset) {6.4mm, 19.7C, 13.8C, 32.0km/h}
3: Camborne (Cornwall) {6.6mm, 17.4C, 13.8C, 35.8km/h}
4: Shawbury (Shropshire) {6.8mm, 19.3C, 13.1C, 42.2km/h}
5: Odiham (Hampshire) {6.2mm, 19.7C, 14.8C, 38.9km/h}
6: Brize Norton (Oxfordshire) {6.1mm, 19.2C, 14.4C, 26.3km/h}
7: Benson (Oxfordshire) {5.7mm, 20.5C, 14.6C, 33.7km/h}
8: Linton-On-Ouse (North Yorkshire) {5.2mm, 19.8C, 12.6C, 37.0km/h}
9: Larkhill (Wiltshire) {6.0mm, 18.7C, 14.6C, 25.8km/h}
10: Waddington (Lincolnshire) {5.1mm, 20.6C, 12.9C, 40.7km/h}

Median rainfall: 6.3mm
Median maximum temperature: 18.9C
Median minimum temperature: 13.4C
Median mean windspeed: 36.9km/h

Most Extreme: Fair Isle (Shetland) {7.2mm, 12.3C, 11.1C, 22.1km/h}
Warmest, Driest, Calmest: Wattisham (Suffolk) {5.0mm, 22.9C, 14.5C, 37.5km/h}
Coldest, Wettest, Windiest: Spadeadam (Cumbria) {7.5mm, 14.6C, 10.5C, 47.1km/h}

[Flatlander]

^The previous post was incorrect due to a technical error

"Middle Britain": Results for Mon, 12 Sep 2011

Median rainfall	2.2mm
Median maximum temperature	17.6C
Median minimum temperature	12.3C
Median mean windspeed	36.1km/h

Overall median

Rainfall (mm)	Maximum Temperature [C]	Minimum Temperature [C]	Mean Windspeed (km/h)
3.4	18.1	12.4	36.4

Most representative locations:

Position	Location	Rainfall (mm)	Maximum Temperature [C]	Minimum Temperature [C]	Mean Windspeed (km/h)
1	Little Rissington (Gloucestershire)	3.6	17.8	12.3	40.8
2	Woodford (Cheshire)	2.2	18.9	12.2	34.6
3	Lyneham (Wiltshire)	1.8	17.8	12.0	32.3
4	Dishforth (North Yorkshire)	2.2	19.0	12.2	39.8
5	Edinburgh Gogarbank (City of Edinburgh)	3.8	17.0	12.1	32.3
6	Boscombe Down (Wiltshire)	1.0	19.1	12.7	33.6
7	Topcliffe (North Yorkshire)	1.0	18.7	12.3	42.5
8	Rosehearty (Aberdeenshire)	4.2	18.6	12.2	28.9
9	Cardinham (Cornwall)	3.2	16.9	12.0	31.2
10	Leeming (North Yorkshire)	1.0	18.1	12.2	44.9

Extremes:

Criteria	Location	Rainfall (mm)	Maximum Temperature [C]	Minimum Temperature [C]	Mean Windspeed (km/h)
Most warm, dry and calm	Shoeburyness (Essex)	0.2	22.5	14.6	32.5
Most cold, wet and windy	Eskdalemuir (Dumfries and Galloway)	35.2	14.7	10.5	34.2

This post has been edited by Tim Prosser: 13 September 2011 - 09:02

[Ian Williams]

Nice work and layout Tim, Seems Shoeburyness is the place to be the last couple of days