Hottest Ever? Really?

A reminder of just how rubbish the Met Office’s temperature datasets have become

Last week was even hotter than the summer of 1976, or at least that is what the Met Office keeps telling us. Is that really the case though?

It has certainly been extremely hot the last few days. We have been inundated with daily claims of new temperature records being set, forecasts that temperatures could even get close to 40°C (they did not) and the obligatory red heat warnings informing us we might die if we step outside our front doors.

But where is the evidence that this heatwave was even worse than in 1976? Most people who remember the 1970s would probably say the Met Office is gaslighting us.

In 1976, temperatures hit 35.9°C in Cheltenham on July 3rd. The Met Office reckons that this temperature was exceeded last week.

Top of the list is Santon Downham, which they say recorded 37.3°C on Friday, a new record for June. Santon Downham in Norfolk is, however, one of the most poorly sited weather stations in the country, even by the Met Office’s abysmal standards. It is a Class 5 site, the worst category, which the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says can add up to 5°C of artificial warming because of siting issues. In other words, the temperature at Santon Downham might have been as low as 32.3°C if it had been properly sited.