Reporter’s Diary: Don’t sweat over daily maximum temperature, the figures may not be correct

Sometimes, however, these numbers and figures recorded by the authorities and put out for public consumption are incorrect, as this reporter recently found out.

While going through the live weather updates and regular daily recorded observations in the city, this reporter found out that the figures did not match.

When enquired, officials of the regional meteorological centre said that the method of recording live weather and daily observation were different hence, they may not be the same all the time.

On being asked if the maximum temperature recorded shouldn’t be the same, the official said that while the live data was acquired using an automated method, the data for daily temperature was recorded manually at weather stations.

He further admitted that there might be some errors in the manually recorded observation and reporter should follow the automatically generated weather update as per daily recorded observation report. The official was also quick to add that such disparities in the recorded observations by the regional meteorological department are quite common.

—Shweta Tripathi, Chennai