FAO Broms - temperatures

Hi Phil, our resident weather guru.

I have a question that's been bugging me.

I have two thermometers at the house, both in the shade, both read exactly the same at all times.

Now they are both reading 28 degree's today so far (12:00) - yet no matter what they read the weather reporting people always report it a LOT lower than what they are reading. For instance they are saying it is 21 degree's.

I have them both in the shade, now to me that's a false reading to start with, as we need to know what the temperature it is in the sunlight to protect ourselves properly from the sun, if I left them both in direct sunlight I am sure they would shoot up to well over 30 degree's. Now I know we need some sort of standardisation but to me it's wrong

So where do the weather reporters get their temperature from? Caves?!

Thanks

Hi - LOL resident weather guru don't know about that!!!

The met weather stations are normally enclosed in in a box called a Stevenson Enclosure which is normally slatted and obviously creates all round shade on the measuring devices. The article here explains them better then I can http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevenson_screen but basically no matter where you store your thermometers you will always get heat radiated back from the surrounding area (walls, glass and so on) the idea of the Stevenson enclosure is that there is no radiated heat from objects nearby - thats what most weather stations are setup as far away from buildings as possible.

A really good Irish website for local weather forecasts can be found here http://irelandsweather.com loads of good stuff on there as well as links to local websites for unto the minute forecasts and weather reports. When I move I will get my site up and running again.

Hope that helps

Phil