Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767

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Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767 Authors: , Format: Hardback First Published: Published By: Oxford University Press
string(3) "544"
Pages: 544 Language: English ISBN: 9780198834632 Categories: , , ,

The British have always been obsessed by the weather. Thomas Hornsby, who founded the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford in 1772, began weather observations at the site. They continue daily to this day, unbroken since 14 November 1813, the longest continuous series of single-site weather records in the British Isles, and one of the longest in the world. Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767 represents the first full publication of this newly-digitised record of English weather, which will appeal to interested readers and climate researchers alike. The book celebrates this unique and priceless Georgian legacy by describing and explaining how the records were (and still are) made, examines monthly and seasonal weather patterns across two centuries, and considers the context of long-term climate change. Local documentary sources and contemporary photographs bring the statistics to life, from the clouds of ‘smoak’ from the Great Fire of London in 1666 to the most recent floods. This book explores all the weather extremes, from bitter cold winters to hot, dry summers, bringing to life the painstaking measurements made over the last 250 years.

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The Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford has one of the longest unbroken weather records for any single place in the world...The history of the observatory weather records is told in remarkable detail. * Paul Simons, The Times * While the book is principally a reference to the station's long records, the numerous case studies of extreme events continually add interest...it will appeal to readers interested in the history of meteorology, to analysts looking to verify historic weather events and to climatologists conducting further analysis of the data. * Richard C. Cornes, Royal Meteorological Society * The authors have skilfully pulled together an impressive combination of historical and scientific analyses to produce this beautifully presented, enjoyable and informative volume...As well as extensive historical information, the book covers the contemporary site, its management by the Geography Department, and the weather and climate of Oxford within the regional and global context. * Karen, L. Alpin, History of Geo- and Space Sciences (HGSS) * This hugely impressive and extremely well researched book illustrated throughout, charts the history, science and people involved in running one of the longest operating meteorological observatories in the World and makes an important addition to any book collection. * Richard Griffith, Royal Meteorological Society * Probably the most detailed analysis of any one city's weather and climate ever published. Over the course of its 544 pages every imaginable weather statistic is sliced and diced into an array of permutations, all beautifully illustrated in charts, tables, maps, and photographs, many in full color (the production quality of the book is outstanding!). * Christopher C. Burt, WeatherUnderground.com * An absolute gem of a book, full of weather but also warm humanity and institutional insights, this 500-page volume is crammed with immeasurably valuable meteorological data, as you might, but it's presented so imaginatively that you're left in a reverie of memory, whether for the day you rode a bike through a Port Meadow flood or the day you chilled half to death in the Bodleian. * Richard Lofthouse, QUAD Magazine *

Author Biography

Stephen Burt retired from the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading in 2018. His career began in the Met Office in 1977, since when he has published widely on many and varied aspects of British climatology, including case studies of notable weather events such as the 'Great Storm' of October 1987, heatwaves, snowstorms and extreme rainfall events. He holds an MSc in Applied Meteorology and is a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, Chairman of the Climatological Observers Link and a member of the American Meteorological Society and the Scientific Instruments Society. He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Reading. Tim Burt retired in 2017, after 21 years as Master of Hatfield College and Professor of Geography at Durham University. Before that, he was Lecturer in Physical Geography at Oxford University and a Fellow of Keble College (1984-96) and Director of the Radcliffe Meteorological Station 1986-96. Tim has run the Durham Observatory weather station since 2000. He has published widely on the Oxford and Durham records as well as in other areas of physical geography. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and of the British Society for Geomorphology. He was awarded the Cuthbert Peek Award of the Royal Geographical Society in 1994 and the Linton Award of the British Society for Geomorphology in 2017. He is now an Emeritus Professor at Durham University, a Visiting Professor at Bristol University and a Collaborating Research Scholar at Keble College, Oxford. An undergraduate at Cambridge, Tim has an MA from Carleton University, Ottawa, and PhD and DSc from Bristol.