how is that used alongside new data to compare how the climate is changing? great question. when we look at the records, these are from durham 0bservatory in 1890 and it can be quite difficult to read but they were very systematic. when we think about observations, we think about how they are used for weather forecasting, but the forecast we generate in the met office, there is observations coming in from a huge array of sources and it s important to understand the climate and if we want to understand the future climate, first we need to understand the climate now and we need to understand the climate in the past. we have all the standardised observations just like the 40.3 from coningsby but how is that feeding into the models to create a bigger picture? we calculate values across all of the uk and if we calculate an average, that provides us with a uk statistic.
farmer angel martin arjona, hailed as a hero as he used his bulldozer to dig a trench to stop a fire from spreading. although he escaped the flames alive, he suffered severe burns and tragically died from his injuries in october. figures show the number of excess deaths reported during the heatwaves in spain, france, germany and the uk numbered more than 20,000. raf coningsby is home to front line combat ready squadrons protecting uk airspace whatever the weather, so it s crucial they get the most accurate forecast. so here we are in the met office forecast office. it s 20 years since i ve been in this particular room. it has changed a little bit. in the chair where i used to once sit is our forecaster today, alice. you were here on that day back injuly when we saw the temperature of 40.3 celsius recorded here in coningsby. what was it like to see that here? it was something that was never
thank you so much. 2022 has brought more shocking scenes of flash floods and landslides. here on the italian island of ischia in november, during the nigh, mud surges towards the sea taking everything with it after several days of intense downpours. in october on the greek island of crete, cars were swept into the sea by a powerful flood that locals say caught them by surprise, also at night, after a day of rain. brazil endured rounds of severe storms that caused deadly flash flooding. this is the aftermath of a landslide that swept onto a motorway in early december and here in petropolis in february, over 200 people died in a catastrophic mudslide that followed several hours of torrential rain. still to come on weather world, the science behind the storm surge, as hurricane ian wreaks havoc in florida. welcome back to raf coningsby. this base has a special place in my heart, because it is where i started forecasting and it is of course the place where the highest uk
expected in the uk. and here at coningsby it was even more incredible and remarkable because our previous max temperature was nowhere near, i think we beat it by about 5.5 degrees on that day, so it was extreme for the uk as a whole and even more extreme for the local area. at what point did you realise that coningsby was going to be the hottest place ever recorded in the uk? it has to go through quite vigorous quality control before we actually officially get the record, so obviously by the evening, we were pretty sure no one was going to beat us, beat that 40.3 record, but we actually were not officially holding the uk record until a few days later when they came and did the quality control on the obvs equipment outside. as a forecaster, i did not think i would see 40 celsius this soon here in the uk. do you think we will see that again anytime soon? we know it is possible to reach that, so it definitely can happen
and then we also make our own products and show them those as well. more to come from coningsby later when i will talking to pilots of aircraft new and old about how heat and severe weather can affect operations here. that new record of 40.3 celsius at coningsby is a significant moment in weather history. but every temperature reading, every weather observation plays its part in our understanding of how our climate is changing and that is why i have come here, to the met office s national meteorological archive in exeter. it is home to daily uk weather reports from 1860 to the present day, among a vast collection of data that make up one of the most comprehensive collections on meteorology in the world. i am joined now by mike kendon, a climate information scientist here at the met office, and mike, we are amongst this huge collection of historical weather data. looking at some of these oldest weather observations, thinking particularly about temperature, how is that used