Why are records always "SMASHED!!!"

[FenceFurniture]

Yet another absurd claim on a record being set exceeded broken no dammit, it was SMASHED!!!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-...roken/10745220

Yep, Adelaide's record temp for the hottest day was smashed to smithereens today by.....wait for it.....waaait.....
a whole whopping 0.1°

And then, they have the hide to go on and say
"Adelaide's previous maximum temperature of 46.1C was set in 1939, just above the original 45C Thursday forecast."
So, 1.1° above is "just above" but 0.1° is a record smasher.

It doesn't seem to matter by what miserable little margin any new record is set, it's always a SMASH!


(for the moment )

[Kuffy]

A single day of 46.1° will leave me feeling pretty smashed too. Luckily it's a lovely 39° here in Melbourne, with 19% humidity. The garage is a potato chip factory at the moment

[FenceFurniture]

A single day of 46.1° will leave me feeling pretty smashed too.

So what on earth would happen to you if it rose dramatically by 0.1° to 46.2? (the new smash hit in Adelaide)

[Kuffy]

Well I'm not too sure, but the big bold letters have me a little frightened

[Simplicity]

Yet another absurd claim on a record being set exceeded broken no dammit, it was SMASHED!!!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-...roken/10745220

Yep, Adelaide's record temp for the hottest day was smashed to smithereens today by.....wait for it.....waaait.....
a whole whopping 0.1°

And then, they have the hide to go on and say
"Adelaide's previous maximum temperature of 46.1C was set in 1939, just above the original 45C Thursday forecast."
So, 1.1° above is "just above" but 0.1° is a record smasher.

It doesn't seem to matter by what miserable little margin any new record is set, it's always a SMASH!


(for the moment )

Brett
It’s all relative if you spent your days working in 0.000 degrees that’s huge.

If your like me, and a little whimsy, anything over 23 degrees is just bloody hot .

It’s your perspective (or perspiration)that matters

Cheers Matt,

[BobL]

Yet another absurd claim on a record being set exceeded broken no dammit, it was SMASHED!!!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-...roken/10745220

Yep, Adelaide's record temp for the hottest day was smashed to smithereens today by.....wait for it.....waaait.....
a whole whopping 0.1°

And then, they have the hide to go on and say
"Adelaide's previous maximum temperature of 46.1C was set in 1939, just above the original 45C Thursday forecast."
So, 1.1° above is "just above" but 0.1° is a record smasher.

It doesn't seem to matter by what miserable little margin any new record is set, it's always a SMASH!

I agree complete bollocks. Back in 1939 the temperature could probably only be measured reliably to within 0.1ºC anyway and even today there has to be some sort of tolerance place on a measurement - where they measured in the exact same place? because the measurement sites typically change over time.

At best I would say the temperatures are "approximately equivalent"

[FenceFurniture]

where they measured in the exact same place?

Nope, and I just happen to have the answer to that. There is a YUGE difference in where they were taken. In '39 it was 0.1mm to the left of the current spot.
(tempting to use bold and size 3 for the "YUGE" but I think Kuffy's had enough trauma for one day)

[Sir Stinkalot]

Well as somebody in Adelaide who has just ridden home from work .... it’s hot!

[rwbuild]

I put "smashed" in the same category as the real estate term " a large 1/4 acre block".... as opposed to a small 1/4 acre block.......
as Jululia Gillard said, its all hyperbowl .....

[FenceFurniture]

Ha! Did she really say that? As a Solicitor, nay, as a Prime Minister, she should have known way better than that...

So not a gently sloping block? (aka Billy Goat Country)

[crowie]

It's all a media ploy to get you to watch [or read] the story and the advertisement [or ratings for the ABC], thus revenue

The media, yes, even the ABC is all about ratings and revenue;

the truth and the story are more than often fantasy.

On this hot weather story, in 1939 temperature would have been measured in Fahrenheit,

but I often wonder on the correctness of early record keeping plus what happened before recording keeping,

though that doesn't help this story's sensationalism....

Sorry folks, but I have long since given up on trusting the media and its manipulative ways...

[FenceFurniture]

Yeah I get your thrust Peter, and I agree with you, but in this case it didn't say "xxxshed" (can't bring myself to say it) until the body of the story, so in other words it wasn't click bait as a heading on the main page. Just some dippy "journo" regurgitating what they have always read.

As for advert revenue - they get nowt out of me. I don't see any adverts anywhere and I don't feel even a little bit deprived.

[Cal]

All I know is that riding around on a postie bike delivering mail today in the Adelaide Hills, it was flaming hot! Record smashing or not, I hope we don’t see too many days past 40 for a while.
Here are a few times of day that I snapped of the phone.
5:30 am as I got to work.

3:10 pm as I got home

9:00 pm no chance in temp due until midnight, not sure by how much.

[ian]

I agree complete bollocks. Back in 1939 the temperature could probably only be measured reliably to within 0.1ºC anyway and even today there has to be some sort of tolerance place on a measurement - where they measured in the exact same place? because the measurement sites typically change over time.

bloody physicists 46.1 +/- 0.05 is the same as 46.2 +/- 0.05.

reminds me of the joke told by [pure] mathematicians "I know there's an answer to 2 + 3 =, I just don't know what it is!"

[ian]

But Brett
you are overlooking tow very big variables

In 1939, the temperature would have been recorded in degrees Fahrenheit, possibly to a precision of 0.5 degrees, possibly not.
That temperature would have been written by hand into a ledger of some sort.

Later that hand written number has been
1. converted into degrees Celsius -- and because 1 degree Celsius = 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit the reported value will have been "rounded" to 0.1. Note that if the original Fahrenheit temperature was recorded with a precision of +/- 0.5 degrees, then the conversion to centigrade should have a precision of about +/- 0.2 degrees.

2. digitised -- meaning we have no assurance that reported value is the same as the recorded value.


so all in all a reported 0.1 degree higher temperature today could actually be a lower temp than that recorded in 1939.