In this issue of Weather

This month in Weather … …we concentrate on observations. There has been considerable study of the urban heat island since the 1960s, but now that we have this mesoscale knowledge, focus is beginning to move to the microscale elements that make up the mesoscale climate of a city. On p. 129, Tobias Thornes looks at the variation of temperature wind speed and humidity in Birmingham's main railway station in ‘Variations of temperature, wind speed and humidity within Birmingham New Street Station during hot weather’. A detailed series of observations was obtained in hot weather at eight locations within this large station. Their relationship, related to that of the mesoscale climate of the UK's second‐largest city makes interesting reading. Have you ever wondered about the development of radar as a weather‐observing tool? Well, a fascinating history of its early years is given in ‘Fundamental advances in radar meteorology in the United Kingdom, 1940‐1965’ by early weather‐radar researcher Richard Probert‐Jones on p. 111. Winds follow climatological trends to varying degrees and Nicholas Cook presents a new graphical format for the display of these trends of speed and direction through the 24‐hour day and seasonally in ‘Visualising seasonal‐diurnal trends in wind observations’ on p. 117. In the past 25 years, the effect of man's use of fossil fuels has been uppermost in the minds of us all. But how do we know that readings are unaffected by local changes, instrument differences and effects? Although many stations will not be affected, the World Meteorological Organization and the International Oceanographic Commission are establishing certain weather stations across the globe as part of the Global Climate Reference Network, in which the stations will be maintained in their current location and configuration to ensure that global change is monitored. This is all described in detail in Ian Strangeways’ paper on p. 124.