Archive charts

Robwindstorm

I just thought this might be interesting to see some eye candy charts from the past (especially as I don't know how to post them myself) .

Maybe the more technical minded people on here might indulge,from winter wonderlands, heatwaves and storms from yesteryear. The one archive chart that evades me is the 1839 January 6 to 7th night of the big wind. The archive chart shows a flabby low pressure of 975 to the North of Ireland rather than a 918. Hurricane Debbie from 1961 does not show anything significant either, so even though it shows other storms and cold snaps etc, it makes you wonder is there a flaw in some of these archive charts. I'm using various charts from weathercharts.org.

Thanks

Elmer Blooker

I have noticed flaws in these archive charts before, for example 1052hpa (a record) recorded at Valentia on Jan 20 1905 but …

… can these archive charts be taken seriously?

sryanbruen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121394854#Comment_121394854

It was on the 28th, not the 20th.

Plus keep in mind those archive charts from ages ago are relying on very limited pressure data. We had no satellites, no weather balloons etc then. NCEP reanalysis charts have a pretty low resolution.

Elmer Blooker

I see, one of my old weather books gathering dust on the shelf (The Climate of Ireland by P K Rohan) from the pre internet era states incorrectly that it was on Jan 20th.

Barometer readings would have been meticulously taken by ships, weather stations etc in those days, otherwise meteorology was obviously very primitive.

sryanbruen

The most "eye candy" chart in terms of high latitude blocking for me in Europe goes to February 1895.

A total reversal of the normal flow with easterly winds from Russia all the way to North America with blocking from Canada to Russia. This resulting in one of the most intense cold spells Ireland has had since reliable records began.

28 February 2018 gets some points too, somewhat similar but I'd argue not quite as extreme.

January 1940 is a crazy one for Arctic blocking and see that black spot over northeast Europe, that's 850hPa temperatures as low as -43C!

Elmer Blooker

I love this one, day two of a three day snowstorm in 1917 and it doesn’t even look particularly cold!

It looks like a southeasterly but in a ‘battle ground’ situation the isobars are aligned se-nw with the wind easterly. The big snowstorms of Feb 1947 and Jan 1982 also look like southeasterlies.

Robwindstorm

My god, talking about being in the freezer with some of those type winters. I suppose 2010 was something similar. It's amazing how far the jetstream sinks, into Africa. February 2018 definitely gets some exceptional points.

Robwindstorm

Just a note. On Wikipedia under the title 'legacy ' from the night of the big wind 6/7 January 1839, there is a photo of a building in Cheshire with a plaque on it stating 'this building was damaged in the great gale of January 1st 1839'. Just thought the dates don't collaborate?

Billcarson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121397644#Comment_121397644

Doesn't looking like anything stormy Jan 1st 1839.

nacho libre

That 1895 chart is crazy. How long did it take for the normal flow to resume? Let's hope we see a repeat of 1895 , 1963, 1947 or 2010 this year- I am not picky any of those years will do.

nacho libre

This must have been due to our good friend the Polar low.

http://www.irishidentity.com/extras/weather/stories/bigsnow.htm

Robwindstorm

I was just looking at the weather set up for hurricane debbie in Ireland 1961 and again the archive charts are very poor in their depiction of the storm. They just show an average autumnal windy day with a depression of 980 at it's deepest. As syran pointed out about the 1839 storm, there was no accurate information at that time, but surely in 1961 there was better available. As MT pointed out in a thread I just found a couple of years back about the 1839 storm, there is enough information available today to draw up a more accurate synoptic chart of such events. It definitely does not give much confidence in archive charts over 50 years ago.