The great storm of 1987, the floods of 2014 and even the fatal tornado of 1840 all feature in the new book by University of Reading Meteorologists Roger Brugge and Stephen Burt
To help celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Meteorology Department of the University of Reading next month, university meteorologists Roger Brugge and Stephen Burt have published a book titled “One hundred years of Reading Weather”.
Weather observations have been made at the university every day since 1901 and these have been used by the two meteorologists to tell the story of Reading’s weather over the past hundred years and more using a combination of archived logbooks and today’s sophisticated automatic weather measuring equipment.
Some of the more memorable past weather events are illustrated by photographs taken at the time.
In the book Roger and Stephen discuss the cold, snowy winters of 1947, 1963 and 2010; the searing summers of 1911, 1976, 2003 and 2006; the devastating floods of 1929, 1947 and 2000 along with the recent exceptionally wet winter of 2014; Reading’s fatal tornado of 1840; and of course the Great Storm of October 1987.
ome of the facts unearthed in the book include:
- The longest droughts occurred in the summers of 1959 and 1976, both lasting for 37 days. The latter was part of the driest 12 months in the university’s record – just 346 mm of rain fell between September 1975 and September 1976, while the summer of 1976 will long be remembered for a 14-day spell in June-July when 30 °C was reached every day.
- While the wet and muddy trenches of World War I in 1914-1916 are well known, perhaps less well known is the fact that the wettest two years in Reading began in November 1914; almost 1800 mm of rain fell over that period (three years-worth of rain in two years) leading to additional problems for the local farming community - many labourers were in the trenches at the time.
- In December 1962-January 1963 the snow depth in Reading exceeded 20 cm (8 inches) on 11 mornings (being over 30 cm/12 inches deep one morning), while in February 1929 Whiteknights Lake froze over as the temperature dropped to 12.9 °C. But the coldest nights were in December 1981-January 1982 when three mornings saw temperatures drop below -13 °C.
- Reading has seen its share of small tornadoes and whirlwinds – on 24 March 1840 Henry West lost his life as a tornado struck the Great Western Railway Station while he was working on the roof. A memorial plaque can be seen adjacent to platform 7 to this day.
- The wettest day of the year recently has been 9 August, while it’s not until early February (also the 9th) that we get the day most likely to have a covering of snow on the ground.
- Rather strangely, given the association of ‘Christmas’ with ‘White’, in Reading the Christmas period seems to coincide with a short-lived mild spell of weather.
The 200 page book includes weather commentaries by month and season fully updated to 2015, tables of highs and lows, a chronology of over 800 notable weather events in Reading by day of the year – and much more.
The result is a volume that will provide interest from nine to ninety, will answer every weather pub quiz question imaginable, and let you in on the meteorologists most closely guarded secret – which is the most reliably driest/warmest/sunniest week of the year to plan a holiday, the school fête or a summer BBQ … ?
The book is available from Waterstones in Reading, or via the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading
