During summer heatwaves or severe winter cold spells, everybody wants to know if such high or low temperatures are unusual, or indeed record-breaking. Given that unseasonably warm and cold spells affect the UK most years, this interest in climatic extremes is nothing new. But creating the official list of daily temperature records for the UK was no easy task.

Mars, one of our nearest neighbours, is a fascinating, alien world. With NASA hoping for human missions to Mars in the 2030s, what kind of weather could visiting Earthlings expect?

Did you know that rainfall radar can be hoodwinked by swarms of flying ants? Over several days each summer, we witness “Flying Ant Day” when ants take to the air to mate and disperse.

How is Earth’s climate modelled and how does modelling help our understanding?’

The Armagh Observatory has reported that August 2020 was the wettest August in Armagh for 12 years. This summer has also been reported as the dullest for 33 years at the Observatory as well as the wettest for 8 years and the coolest for 5.

Iain Cameron and Blair Fyffe have just published the 24th annual report on the survival of Scottish snow patches in July’s issue of Weather.

Aeroplanes provide important information about the current state of the atmosphere, and have done since the beginning of commercial flights.

Useful weather information sites

Guidelines for observing the weather