29th June: It’s been hot recently!
Last week there was a heatwave affecting continental Europe and the southern part of the UK. From Monday night (22nd/23rd June) through to the night of Thursday (25/26 June) the outside temperatures measured on my jetty stayed above 20°C (indicated by the shaded area) overnight. That is the Met Office definition of a “tropical night”. Daytime temperatures on the 24th and 25th were around 35°C.
As usual I was waking up around 3am and opening windows to get a through draught inside the house. However the low specific heat of air was amply demonstrated by its inability to cool down the inside of the house to any degree, the temperature measured in my first floor study is shown in the plot. I stayed indoors in the ground floor living room which was a bit cooler and used on of the electric fan heaters to circulate the air whilst watching far too much TV.
On Thursday 25th I had an appointment in the dermatology section at the Royal South Hampshire Hospital. Normally I would have walked there but I drove with the air conditioning on in the car. I was worried about parking but there was loads of space in the Hospital car park and the Hospital seemed quite quiet. This was curious since Southampton General declared an Emergency situation that day. There was even some air conditioning in the Hospital, although it would have been cooler if they had kept all the windows closed. People’s understanding of physics leaves a lot to be desired!
It didn’t feel that bad outside, it reminded me of Utah, and I wondered if I’d been too cautious. There had been so much talk of the heat danger to young children and old people that I think it scared me. Ironically towards the end of the heatwave I heard someone on the radio say that actually young children can regulate their temperatures OK and the main danger came from the actions of those caring for them!
Apparently the previous June temperature record was 35.6°C in Mayflower Park Southampton. On the 24th June that was beaten by Gosport (and beaten again on successive days). Nigel C. suggested it was odd that the highest values might occur on the coast. I was intrigued and looked at temperatures on the 24th around the Solent using the Davis app on my phone.
Whereas in Southampton, temperature on my jetty stayed high into the evening (around 35°C), at NCI Stone Point they peaked around 13hrs (around 30°C) with cooling after that.
At Gurnard Sailing Club the peak of about 35°C occurred about 15hrs but then with rapid cooling to values more like those observed at Stone Point, just across the Solent. Finally NCI Gosport, at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, looked to vary between land and coastal values.
This reminded me of an article I wrote for the Calshot Blog on the Sea Breeze. This showed that the Isle of Wight is large enough in area to effect the formation of the sea breeze in the Solent area. See the plot from the article reproduced below.
I can only assume that it was a sililar effect which resulted in high temperatures in Southampton in 1976, and in Gosport on the 24th.
