I wish we had a pithy term for people underplaying exceptional events (complacency-mongering?) to show off how unflappable they are, because it would be nice to use it in this case.
Temperature records being broken are, by definition, exceptional events. In this case, the UK's temperature record was broken by 1.5C, which is a huge increase.
> This was in 1911
Cherry-picking a data point. There's a very significant trend of hotter days and record breaking occurring in the past few years. One outlier in a century of data doesn't mean very much (and your source of a paragraph from an Australian newspaper in 1911 seems to get the value wrong).
The 38.7C and the 100F were also each one measurement. Also it's not just one measurement, at least 33 places broke the all time temperature record of the whole country today (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62217282)
Yes, the trend is in higher maximum temperatures on individual outlier hot days. That doesn't make it insignificant, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
I'm objecting to the sensationalism and overtly incorrect account of the temperature being 40C and the runway melting. What good does that do? "Approaching" 40C isn't 40C. Depending on who you ask, it was 38C there. I guess it's also approaching 50C, why not...
Where are you finding this trend data? It's not in any of these materials. Please share if you have it. I've seen all sorts of trends, but they always start after the last cycle, when it was very hot in '30s.
I'm not sure if you're just being disingenuous but the title says 'as temperatures in UK near 40°C', not specifically at the location of the runway, which I guess is overtly incorrect in the sense that it's an understatement, as it exceeded 40C at multiple places today.
>Heathrow Airport was the first place to break the 40C mark, hitting 40.2C at 12:50 BST but several other places also passed 40C during the afternoon, including Gringley on the Hill in Nottinghamshire and St James's Park, Kew Gardens and Northolt - all in London.
I think you missed my point. To spell it out: a modern Australian news outlet should be easily able to report accurate data. In 1911 they presumably relied on the telegraph (small "t") and human transcription, leading to a high probability of errors.
And, indeed, an error seems to have occurred in this case. The maximum recorded temperature for that year was actually 36.7 °C (98.1 °F) [0]. This was presumably due to errors in transcription, rounding errors, or (ironically) deliberate sensationalism.
Are you, perhaps, unaware that these are in different units? 38.7C is 102F. The UK switched in the 60s to centigrade[0]. I'd also be suspicious of the accuracy and method of temperature collection in 1911.. the Met Office didn't start collecting data until 1914, and of the source accuracy.. Wikipedia[1] seems to suggest 98F (36.7C) and in another town. It certainly was extremely hot that August in 1911... especially without modern conveniences.
What's your point? That this is unreliable reporting?
I'll take your word for it that the met office didn't start collecting temperature data until 1914. Countless other entities didn't either, and none of them were cited either. In what year did Wikipedia start collecting temperature data?
I imagine his point was that there is no reason to believe a disputed 100f peak temperature during the notorious 1911 heatwave makes today's 104.5f temperature advance on 2019's 101.6f peak in a country that does a lot of weather reporting unremarkable and unworthy of media coverage. Unless one was using the wrong Fahrenheit/Celsius conversion factor and somehow didn't realise the claimed 1911 temperature was smaller...
>In England 90° was exceeded on several days, the hottest being AUGUST 9th, 97° at Camden Square, London, Wokingham and Hillington, 98° at Raunds, and 100° at Greenwich (in the Glaisher screen; the value recorded in the Stevenson screen was 97°), the highest ever recorded in this country.
AFAIK Stevenson screens are now the standard, and Glaisher stands tend to record higher maximums, so the 100 isn't directly comparable.
> The UK’s highest of 38.7C was recorded in Cambridge in July 2019.
This isn't remarkable.
>the record temperature of 100 degrees was reached at Greenwich on August 9
This was in 1911, from: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/115352761/9911357