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According to this Washington Post article the earth has just had its hottest June on record and July is set to follow suite.

Paris has set a new record temperature of 40.6C

The Cambridge university weather web page has the temperature at the scale limit of 35C

PS_RalphW wrote:Paris has set a new record temperature of 40.6C

The Cambridge university weather web page has the temperature at the scale limit of 35C

Sounds like...summer? Or late winter in Phoenix. I can imagine to folks that haven't experienced, shall I say, a full range of temperatures in the place they live, that 40C might be quite disturbing. Locally we hit 40C during the summers, and we hit -30C in winters. Throw in snowstorms on occasion dumping 1-5 - 2.0 meters of snow and you end up with folks not so disturbed by temperatures that get other folks into a tizzy.

Water parks. Do the French have water parks? A nice place to retreat to on hot days, but perhaps more of an American staple of what to do during a hot summer day.

The French do have water parks

The authorities supplement these with alternative water entertainment at times.

woodburner wrote:The French do have water parks

The authorities supplement these with alternative water entertainment at times.

The problem with the French killjoy police is that they only deploy the water cannon in winter and not summer when the car burning and electrocution of train surfers season really takes off.

Back on topic and after a few cold weeks where the temperature in Australia plunged to single figures during the night we are back into daytime maxima of 20+ deg Celsius again. Summer is just around the corner or summer is a coming in - perhaps.

PS_RalphW wrote:Paris has set a new record temperature of 40.6C

The Cambridge university weather web page has the temperature at the scale limit of 35C

Where is the Cambridge thermometer sited? It’s all very well quoting these so called “record� temperatures, but my thermometer, which is only 20 miles from Cambridge, registered a maximum of 32ºC since I last reset it months ago. It is sited in a position that has permanent shade, plenty of airflow, so it is measuring air temperatures, and does not have a direct sun exposure element.

Official thermometers are positioned in a standard screening box to avoid direct sunlight effecting the readings and are usually sited in the open to avoid buildings affecting the reading. Scientist do think of these things you know, woodburner.

I note that you said that you have reset it so how do you know that it is correct and are you fiddling your results to get the result that you want? Is this woodburnergate on global warming denial?

kenneal - lagger wrote:Official thermometers are positioned in a standard screening box to avoid direct sunlight effecting the readings and are usually sited in the open to avoid buildings affecting the reading. Scientist do think of these things you know, woodburner.

Indeed. Including when they put this wonderfully screened and away from buildings boxes in the jetwash at an airport.

Be careful who you deify KL, we put our pants on one leg at a time and make mistakes just like peak oilers. Hell, some of these fine examples of scientists are the same folks that fed you a pig in a poke on that one.

kenneal - lagger wrote:
I note that you said that you have reset it so how do you know that it is correct and are you fiddling your results to get the result that you want? Is this woodburnergate on global warming denial?

Calibrated against a mercury-in-glass thermometer. Thank you.

woodburner wrote:
Where is the Cambridge thermometer sited? It’s all very well quoting these so called “record� temperatures, but my thermometer, which is only 20 miles from Cambridge, registered a maximum of 32ºC since I last reset it months ago. It is sited in a position that has permanent shade, plenty of airflow, so it is measuring air temperatures, and does not have a direct sun exposure element.

The university thermometer is at the West Cambridge research site, about a mile outside of the city.
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/dtg/w ... ation.html

It's temperature peaked at 36.1C when cloud and a light shower passed over. I do not know where the met office thermometer is located, but I guess further east where it missed the cloud and peaked at 38.1C.

Driving home 2 hours later my car recorded 37C in overcast conditions, but there was probably a heat island effect.

Edit

The met office instrument is at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) about a mile north of the city

It will be in one of those white boxes as it is an official recording site.
As a distance of only 2 miles can result in 2C difference in temperature, I am not surprised that 20 miles away only reached 32C. Also, it was a calm day, so your thermometer may have been in a cool island.

It does indicate it is ridiculous chasing around to find the hightest thermometer reading. It may just indicate the sun was out at the time, and not reflect the temperature of the surroundings.

woodburner wrote:It does indicate it is ridiculous chasing around to find the hightest thermometer reading. It may just indicate the sun was out at the time, and not reflect the temperature of the surroundings.

It measures the air temperature, woodburner, not the radiant heat of the sun or reradiation from the ground. The sun heats the air to an extent but more so the ground which then reradiates heat into the air warming it. The white box makes it pretty much irrelevant whether the sun was out at the time or not because the ground heat will warming the air for quite a while after the sun is obscured.

Try standing next to a south facing wall in the evening after the sun has been on it all day. You will feel the heat radiation from the wall keeping you warm in the cooler night air. That radiation will be warming the air as well as the wall. Put a properly screened thermometer next to the wall and it will measure the air temperature only and not the radiation temperature.

kenneal - lagger wrote: Try standing next to a south facing wall in the evening after the sun has been on it all day. You will feel the heat radiation from the wall keeping you warm in the cooler night air. That radiation will be warming the air as well as the wall. Put a properly screened thermometer next to the wall and it will measure the air temperature only and not the radiation temperature.

Oh now this is interesting. So...during the day, the south facing wall gains temperature from the sun, potentially warming to a temperature far beyond air temperature, right?

The heat you feel radiating off it later isn't an increase in air temperature, but radiating heat? No air temperature change at all? So it is just infrared energy beaming outwards, not bothering the air in the least?

No, RGR, it will heat the air to an extent but not to the extent that you don't feel the radiant heat.

kenneal - lagger wrote:No, RGR, it will heat the air to an extent but not to the extent that you don't feel the radiant heat.

So when you say a properly screened thermometer, you are referring to a screen that will not allow the infrared emissions to effect the thermometer?