Weather FAQs

A caution about wind speed

The wind anemometer is mounted above the roof of the Lookout at approximately 12m above Ordnance Datum but there are buildings and rising ground to the west.

Caution - Any winds off the land between 198 (The Ness) and 038 (The Yacht Club) degrees are likely to show as more gusty and less strong than would be experienced offshore or in the harbour entrance. The Lookout is fully exposed to the East and winds from that direction should be recorded accurately.

Windchill and Humidex

Both of these are calculated figures intended to show how hot or cold it actually feels to a human being. Windchill is calculated from the ambient temperature and windspeed. Humidex is calculated from the ambient temperature and the humidity.

Windchill is meaningless above about 15°C. Similarly the humidex result is pretty meaningless below 15°C. Either windchill or humidex is shown depending on the ambient temperature.

The formulae and a calculator can be found at www.physlink.com/reference/weather.cfm.

Feels Like

We sometimes show the 'feels like' temperature on our displays and it also appears on the Met Office forecast displays. It is said that the algorithm to calculate this is secret and patented.

The Met Office has a blog about this at Met Office Blog

The Weatherstation

Our weather station is a Davis Vantage Pro 2. The Davis instruction manual recommends siting the sensors at least 30m away from any road or blacktop which might radiate heat with the main sensors 1.5 metres above the ground level. The recommendation for the anemometer is 10m above ground level. Such ideals are unachievable at the Lookout! The main sensors are located just over 4 metres above the ground but right next to the road. The anemometer is located about 7 metres above road level.

Installation date: The weather station itself was installed in early May 2014 but not put live on the website until 26th August 2014. Weather records and rainfall amounts for the month are therefore incomplete.

There is another gap in the records in May/June 2015 due to the film about Teigmmouth Electron.

For historic weather records in Teignmouth see Ant Veal's Teignmouth Weather Station.

Ant Veal's Great Weather site is a really useful source of all things meteorological.