One of the very first evaluation committees has just completed its assessment of a potential record for western hemispheric 24-hour rainfall.
#Rainfall amounts past 24 hours archive
Consequently, the CCl Extreme Weather and Climate Archive includes, to the extent possible, the metadata, such as date of occurrence, site location, equipment and other factors associated with the event. In the past, without the existence of such an official designate to determine and maintain regional or world records of extreme weather events, the critical supportive documentation needed to assess the validity of a weather record event was often hard to find or simply did not exist. “Climates of the World” ( National Climatic Data Center, USA) and “Weather and Climate Extremes” ( TEC-0099 US Army Corp of Engineers).Īs the perception (or the actual occurrence) grows of more frequent extreme weather events, the goal of this database is to archive and verify extreme record events, such as the highest/lowest recorded temperatures and pressures on Earth, the strongest winds and the greatest precipitation (over different time intervals), as well as records involving the world’s most destructive storms, hurricanes and tornadoes. Many of these records are based on past existing records, e.g. The Rapporteur’s Archive of Extreme Weather and Climate Events is available and comprises the official list of world, hemispheric and continental extremes. Since weather records are often used as indicators that the Earth’s climate is changing and/or becoming more extreme, confirmation of new weather extreme records should be recognized as a high priority in the meteorology community. But, sometimes, a combination of fairly extreme meteorological conditions with minor instrumentation problems, such as calibration errors, can necessitate considerable detective work to determine whether a new world record observation was indeed valid or not. Additionally, instrumentation problems can generate a report far in excess of the meteorological conditions. For example a “fat finger” error, such as hand-digitizing 28.0☌ as 82.0☌, would create a world record observation that every quality-control system would say was invalid. The truth be told, world records are mistakenly created all the time. The committee may also consult with a wide variety of additional experts. The committee consists of the president of the Commission for Climatology, the Chair of the CCl Open Programme Area Group (OPAG) on Monitoring and Analysis of Climate Variability and Change (the Rapporteur is part of this OPAG) and a representative of the relevant Member State’s National Meteorological or Hydrometeorological Service, as well as experts in the appropriate meteorological phenomenon and observing instrumentation as required.
When a new record has been reported, the Rapporteur organizes an ad hoc extremes committee to provide an expert and unbiased recommendation as to whether the extreme in question should be added to the list. As these records amount to coveted “bragging rights” and are critical to monitoring and evaluating climate change, the Commission for Climatology decided to appoint a Rapporteur on Climate Extremes to keep an official, unbiased list. Their answers, however, do not necessarily agree.
Many people ask what were the hottest, coldest, wettest, driest observations ever recorded and, interestingly, several different self-appointed experts have responded to these questions.
These committees are created on an “as-needed” basis to assess the occurrence of specific potential world, hemispheric and regional weather extreme records, such as maximum and minimum temperatures, highest and lowest pressures and various rainfall amounts. In particular, can we determine, after a major weather or climate event has occurred, whether that event actually was a world weather record? Was it the hottest, the coldest, the wettest or the windiest? Puzzles of this type are now being actively investigated by members of special ad hoc world record weather extremes committees of WMO’s Commission for Climatology (CCl). We all appreciate a good mystery and, for those interested in weather, the elements of our atmosphere can often provide the most fascinating puzzles. In the heart of every meteorologist and climatologist beats the soul of a detective. By Randall Cerveny 1, Valentina Davydova Belitskaya 2, Pierre Bessemoulin 3, Miguel Cortez 4, Chris Landsea 5 and Thomas C.
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