May 2019:
With an average temperature of 13.3°C in Bristol it
was the same as the 30 year (1981-2010) average for the city.
With rainfall at 51.1% of the average at 33.4 mm, it was the driest May
since 2010 when only 32.4 mm was recorded.
The average pressure at 09:00 GMT was 1020 mb. This is the highest for a May
since 2001 when the pressure was 1022 mb.
The low pressure of 989.5 mb at 07:30 on 8th May was the lowest May
recording since 983 mb was recorded on 22nd May 2006.
The high pressure of 1039.4 mb at 09:00 on 13th May was the highest May
recording since 1041.0 mb was recorded on 1st May 1994.
The lowest daily temperature of 3.1°C on 5th May was the lowest for the
month since 1.9°C was recorded on 15th May 2003
The highest daily maximum temperature of 22.2°C, joint with 23rd May 2015,
was the lowest maximum for May since 21.1°C was recorded on May 12th 1994.
Spring 2019 was the
8th warmest in 129 years of data. This is despite May being only an average
month with respect to the 30 year average
temperature. It was the 38th driest spring in 2019 in 138 years of data.
The
2018 Annual summary is here:
http://www.bristolweather.org/weather2018annual.htm
For the full monthly summary please go here:
http://www.bristolweather.org/weather2019may.htm
The
Meteorological site is situated in an urban housing area approximately one
mile to the south of the Centre of Bristol.
This area is in a district called Totterdown.
Statistical correlations with the Bristol
Meteorological Office site, that was
less than two miles to the North and was
situated on top of a City Centre office block, were generally good with
rainfall and barometric data particularly close.
The site of the station is approximately 34 metres above sea level with the
manual instruments mounted in a Stevenson screen. The screen is sited
centrally in a small concreted garden area. A Snowdon
rain gauge is mounted correctly in the ground but does not have the full open
space required around it. A Davis
Vantage Pro2 Plus automatic weather station (AWS) was
added in May 2005 and this is mounted 4 feet above a concrete shelter. The
wind data is gathered automatically from a Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus anemometer which is
sited 3.3 metres (10 feet) above the house top.
Manual observations are still taken at approximately 09:00 hours GMT every
day for rainfall and cloud cover. Rainfall manually recorded in the Snowdon rain gauge is entered for the previous day. The
wind data is constantly logged and automatically reset at 24:00 hours GMT
every day (in the summer BST -1 hour. The Davis rainfall tipping bucket was recalibrated in November 2005 and is now
consistently under 3% under recording (an improvement from installation in
May 2005 when 10% was more
typically the norm).
Since the arrival of the Davis
Vantage Pro2 Plus equipment in May 2005 temperatures, humidity and barometric
pressure are recorded from the new equipment. These figures will be more
accurate and will be taken at exactly 09:00 GMT (in the summer BST -1 hour)
as the data is now logged to a computer.
By default the Davis
equipment records every parameter for the 24 hour period 00:00 to 23:59 BST
or GMT. Data analysis will enable manual data extraction of temperatures and
rainfall to 09:00 GMT (adjusted in the summer). Due to the 0.2 mm (tipping
bucket) measurements of precipitation recorded by the Davis equipment the
Snowdon rain gauge will still be used due to its greater accuracy (see
above).