It was hot today

Summer has definitely arrived. Finally. But now we see the odd thing about this time of year: Knowing what temperature it is. Is it the temperature reported by the media, usually from some weather service, or is it more accurate at people’s houses? How can we be sure either way?

The photo up top is of our weather station device, and it shows the temperature at our house this afternoon: 30.7C (87.26F). The photo below is a screen grab of the reported temperature, 24C (75.2F). There’s clearly a big difference between the two, and there are reasons for that.

In many cases, official temperatures are taken at non-representative spots, and so those temperatures may be warmer or cooler than that recorded elsewhere in the same area. It’s also true that some local spots may be hotter or cooler than others. And, it’s impossible to know without proper checking how accurate a thermometer is.

What all this means is that some variation ought to be expected. If our thermometer is off, it could account for some of the discrepancy today. But it’s also possible that it’s just significantly hotter at our house than elsewhere in the area, including wherever the reported temperature is taken.

All of which means that the likelihood is that, at least sometimes, temperatures can be higher than is official reported.

In any case, it was hot today.