Determining monthly average temperatures

[RayProudfoot]

When I setup my station back in May 2009 I used the average temperatures from a local Met Office site at the former RAF base at Woodford, Cheshire. It was just 3 miles east so ideal.

Their data covered the years 1981-2010. That site closed a few years later and is now a housing estate plus a Museum housing a Vulcan Cold War bomber.

Each quarter I update this page with the average temp. You’ll see my site has a warming effect of close to 0.8°C. https://www.cheadlehulmeweather.co.uk/s ... erages.htm

I now have 15 years of records and am considering using my own records instead of those for Woodford for my NOAA records here. https://www.cheadlehulmeweather.co.uk/NOAA.php?yr=2024

What do you think? Good idea or not?

[freddie]

Standard meteorological averaging period is 30 years, so you're halfway there. No harm in using your own averages if you want to, as long as you're comfortable using a short averaging period.

Personally, I use the climate average maps available on the met office website as a first guess. Then if there are any local sites (there are none near my current site) I tweak the first guess values based on local factors such as topography and urban characteristics.

[PaulMy]

Hi Ray,
You can certainly use your 10 or 15 years of experience to compare current, but suggest you not call it NOAA reports as I believe that represents a 30-year climate normal. This is where I got moine https://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_n ... dex_e.html

Enjoy,
Paul

[RayProudfoot]

@Freddie, the problem I have is the nearest Met Office sites no longer show a mean temperature. Just average max and min. The data I collected 15 years ago is now different. I’d be guessing if I was to estimate the mean.

@PaulMy, agreed 30 years is better than 15. As I said above I don’t have a station close enough and climate can be very different around me especially if other stations are higher or nearer the coast.

I’ll leave it for now. I just wanted to put the suggestion out there and get some feedback.

[Mapantz]

Can't you add the average max and min together and divide by 2 to get the mean?

[RayProudfoot]

Can't you add the average max and min together and divide by 2 to get the mean?

I always thought it was derived by other means but looking at my Average Max, Min and Average for November they are 10.3, 5.3 and 7.9. Spot on. I’ll keep thinking about it.

The one issue is regenerating all the data for the NOAA reports. 15.5 x 12 = 186 sets of reports to go through. Eeekkk!

[PaulMy]

The one issue is regenerating all the data for the NOAA reports. 15.5 x 12 = 186 sets of reports to go through. Eeekkk!
Cheers,

CumulusMX will do them all in about 10 seconds

Enjoy,
Paul

[RayProudfoot]

CumulusMX will do them all in about 10 seconds

Enjoy,
Paul

Behave yourself!