Friday, January 11, 2008

Automatic weather station

An automatic weather station, which could predict weather changes, has been installed at the TVS Agriculture Sciences Research Institute, about 120 km from Madurai.

The station, built at a cost of Rs 5 lakh, is capable of predicting 23 parameters of weather changes, an official of the institute said on January 2.

The station, run by solar power, would collect data every 10 minutes. It would include wind direction, solar radiation, air temperature, humidity, soil temperature and rainfall registered at the station, which would be sent to ICRISAT.

At first, the report would help farmers of Nanguneri taluk and Radhapuram, as it could forecast weather for a 6 km radius.

The service would be available to farmers in the two taluks shortly. It would be extended to the entire Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Thoothukudi districts later, the offiical said. (Agencies)

Oregon scientific - Weather Hub


A stylish and versatile weather product. Simple to use and easy to set up, the Weather Hub is an ideal weather accessory to any home, office or dorm. At a quick glance, know the indoor temperature and what the 12 to 24-hour weather forecasts will be. Besides the traditional desktop display and wall mount options, a magnet mount has been included for additional set-up convenience on metallic surfaces.

WEATHER:
Displays 12 to 24-hour weather forecasts with graphical icons (Sunny, Partially Cloudy, Cloudy, Rainy)

BAROMETRIC PRESSURE:

TEMPERATURE:
Displays indoor temperature in C° / F ° (user selectable)
Temperature measuring range: 23°F to +122°F (-5°C to +50°C)
Temperature resolution: 0.2°F (0.1°C)

HUMIDITY:

MISC:
Desk top display, wall, and magnet mount options
Low battery indicator

Winter storm sweeping northern tip of South-Asia

Here are some numbers. But first, the town is Kushka (also spelled Gushgy), which is set in Turkmenistan near the three-way border with Iran and Afghanistan. The big winter storm and cold has left a mark: 19 inches (one-half meter) of snow having water equivalent of 1.7 inches, or 43 mm. For Monday and Tuesday, respective highs of 9 and 11 degrees F (-11.5 and -12.6 degrees C); between them, a low of -8 degrees F (-22.1 degrees C). Normal January daily range is 52 F/11 C to 29 F/-2 C. Normal water equivalent of 1.1 inches (28 mm). Lowest temperature on record is -15 degrees F, or -26 deg C. This storm has, indeed, left its mark.

Elsewhere, I found -20 degrees F (-29 C) at Buzaubay, Uzbekistan; -16 F (-26.8 C) at Yerbent, Turkmenistan; -18 F (-27.6 C) at the notoriously cold Erzurum, Turkey; and at least 16 degrees below zero F (-27 C) at Shahr-e Kord (Zagros Mountains), Iran.

Chennai's lowest temperature

The lowest temperature in chennai in the past 10 years was 62 degrees Fahrenheit i.e. about 16.7 degrees Centigrade. This was recorded on 27th January 1999.

The link I have provided in the source will give you the recorded temperature by days for any day/month or week and you can review the temperatures over December, January and February months over the last 10 years and figure out the coldest days in Chennai.

In addition, in the last 10 years, 64 deg F was recorded on the following days: (with the Max temp in parenthesis)

30 Jan 1999 - 64 (89)
31 Jan 1999 - 64 (87)
20 Feb 2004- 64 (87)
14 Feb 2005- 64 (94)
19 Jan 2006 - 64 (87)
15 Feb 2006- 64 (90)

In addition, you will find that there was this recorded temperature of 41 deg F on Dec 19, 1999 (at 10 am) and also 37.4 deg F on 4 Feb 2004 (at 2 am). Interestingly, within an hour of these records, the temperature was above 70 deg F. Therefore, it is very likely that these were human errors while creating the webpage. I believe the above to be true based on the following, which records that in the NOrth, you do not get temp below 10.2 since 70's!

Elsewhere, you find the following, which is authentic record from weather related sites about Tamil Nadu, and yuo can infer from this, some truth about Chennai (madras):

In Tamil Nadu January is the coldest month when the daily minimum temperature for the state as a whole is 21C varing from about 16C in the north to about 24C in the south. The lowest temperature ever recorded at an individual station in the plain is 10.2C. at Tirupattur on 15th December 1974 which is 5.9C lower than the normal of the coldest month. In the ghat areas Uthagamandalam registered the lowest minimum temperature of -2.1C on 7th January 1976 which is 7.3C lower than the normal of the coldest month.

Finally, some sites state the lowest temp recorded in Chennai as being 15.8, which although authentic (mentioned in many sites and books about Chennai), but possibly not in the last ten years as the temp never went below 62 deg F in the last 10 years (but for those two dates, which i believe are human errors in recording in the internet page!).

btw, 15.8 deg C means 60.44 deg Fahrenheit - almost 1.56 degree F lower than the recorded 62 in the last 10 years

Snow in IRAQ !!!

It may actually not be so rare, at least in this higher west of Iraq. But it did snow Wednesday night into Thursday at a military base along the highway to Jordan. A little snow was also observed in KSA at Badanah and Arar, and in Syria at Hamah and Tadmur. It could be that the area of at least light snow spread widely between these rather far-flung sites which, on the atlas at my fingertips, lie mostly within an area labeled `Syrian Desert`. I believe this is at least roughly equivalent to `Ash Shams`.

Almost constant low temperature

Almost Every day for the past week or so... the low temperature recorded was around 21.1 to 21.8

Going by the latest INFRARED pic... now only u can see clear south & south-east asia.
This is a sign that the North-East current has subsided. So that's it for the 2007-08 season.