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20-30 miles between weather stations isn't a great distance by US standards. Weather stations even within the city of Chicago are 10 miles apart from each other. Go out into the country and they are many miles apart...
I would imagine that the highest temperature in 2003 was recorded around London right? Kew Gardens was the highest of the multitude of stations in and around London. Saying that a temperature 1.5C higher than the highest recorded temperature is pure speculation. That would be like me saying that there might have been a temperature 1.5C higher somewhere in Northeast Illinois/northwest Indiana than the 116F/46.7C recorded within 50 miles of Chicago back in 1936. I would never make such a claim...
Kent or Surry (Outside of London) usually sees the record braking temps. Kent recorded 38.5. But it's poss that around the Kent area a place without a met office station may have reached 39 or (perhaps with a push) 40. It's also worth mentioning that it's believed that Britain had reached above 40 prior to records. Possible periods that hit 40 are between 900-1000ad, 1540, 1666 and sometime in the 19th century. 1540 is a particular interesting one as it's believed to be so bad that even state of the art climate models can't simulate such severity of heat: Extreme Weather – Megadrought of 1540 much worse than 2003 | the WeatherAction News Blog
I reckon temps went well above 40 degrees in the UK during the summer of 1540.
So I don't really think 40 is really an over-exaggeration for the UK. But maybe it is a little for 2003...
I am not sure of the accuracy of this site.. it says the average wind speed at 7pm was above 40km/h..
Also not sure which site this was for, as this site only reached 37.3C that day, but according to this, it was very dry during the day, and more humid in the evening.. not sure how accurate that is, I seem to remember it feeling pretty stuffy from my memory
Here's the only news broadcast I can find about the European Heatwave of 2003. Temps broke 37.9c, think temps reached higher than that the next day or something(??):
I reckon somewhere in the UK has definitely reached 40C before, just not in the current period with reliable measuring equipment. Back in Roman times and in medieval times, Europe was just as warm if not warmer than it is today, so it probably could have happened at some point since then
Here's the only news broadcast I can find about the European Heatwave of 2003. Temps broke 37.9c, think temps reached higher than that the next day or something(??):
Ya buddy, 27C is only "a fraction cooler" than 35C.
TBH that what I thought...
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