[Barrera]

> The runway also “melted” at the RAF Brize Norton, military air base in Oxfordshire, west of London, on Monday as the UK struggled to cope with the weather.

That word "melted" seems unjustified. CNBC reports:

> The RAF didn’t specify why it suspended flights, but a spokesperson said “the runway has not melted” as early media reports indicated.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/18/london-flights-suspended-aft...

[ibejoeb]

Totally unjustified, sensational nonsense.

> 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

[chimprich]

> Totally unjustified, sensational nonsense.

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).

[ibejoeb]

Sorry you can't think of a name to call me.

This is as much cherry-picking as the linked article is. It's one measurement.

> source of a paragraph from an Australian newspaper

The link is an Australian paper, too.

[ubercow13]

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)

[ibejoeb]

Right. A temperature measurement on one day is a temperature measurement on one, regardless if its 1911 or 2022.

[ubercow13]

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.

[chimprich]

> The link is an Australian paper, too.

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.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_weather_records

[gnabgib]

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.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_King... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1911_in_the_United_Kingdom

[ibejoeb]

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?

[notahacker]

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...

[snthd]

https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/digitalFile_1f3ce836-7...

>Monthly Weather Report 1911

Last page (140):

>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.

[spread_love]

You mean it wasn't liquified?!

> "following today’s high temperatures, a surface defect was identified on the runway" https://twitter.com/LDNLutonAirport/status/15490520549365719...

> "high surface temperatures caused a small section to lift" https://twitter.com/LDNLutonAirport/status/15490713790095114...