High pressure can lead to a hotter cuppa

RECORD high pressure around the UK could lead to cups of tea being a little hotter than usual.

Measurements taken at the University of Reading’s Atmospheric Observatory are showing that atmospheric pressure is unusually high; this slightly raises water’s boiling point.

Prof Giles Harrison from the Department of Meteorology said: “Water boils when the pressure from the liquid equals the external pressure, so if that external pressure is increased, the boiling point increases too.

“During a similar period of high pressure in January 2020 the boiling point was increased by about 1ºC.

“The opposite effect occurs at high altitudes where the atmospheric pressure is lower, so the boiling point of water is also lower. For example, pure water boils at 68ºC at the top of Mount Everest.

“In the UK this week, the extra national energy consumption seems likely to be very small, especially when compared with the energy demand from the associated cold weather.

“But, and this depends on where people are, it may mean our tea is just slightly hotter than usual.”

Areas of high and low pressure are caused by ascending and descending air.

Warm air rises and leads to lower pressure at the surface, while cool air falls and results in high pressure at the surface.

On Sunday, February 5, the second highest February pressure reading was recorded by Dr Stephen Burt at 1047.3 hectopascals (hPa).

The highest was recorded at 1049 hPa on February 15, 1934.

Sunday’s reading was also the fourth highest reading in the university’s entire record, which dates back to 1908.

I loved newspapers and, like almost all kids doing a paper round, I used to read some of them before delivering them through letterboxes.

My hobby was film making and taking photographs and decided that if it were possible, I wanted to be a newspaper photographer.

I always thought my dream assignment would be to photograph a Moon launch from Cape Kennedy.

By the time I entered the sixth form at school, I decide that I would travel to Florida to photograph the Apollo 17 launch, the last flight to the moon.

I wrote to NASA in Washington DC saying that I was attending the launch to write a story and do pictures for a college magazine (a slight light lie, it was actually the school magazine) and they responded by giving me press accreditation for the launch.

This only increased my desire to work as a photographer and when I returned from the States, I was given the opportunity by the local newspaper to take a job as a trainee photographer.

The only problem was that they wanted to me start straight away which meant I had to leave school a couple of days later.

The day I started work, I should have been sitting my mock A-levels, so I ended up never taking them. It turned out to be the best decision I ever made.

In the 70s and 80s, in addition to normal news jobs, I covered many more events at the Kennedy Space Centre, including the Skylab, ApolloSoyuz and Space Shuttle launches.

The pictures I took were published in 43 different countries.

Since then, having gone freelance in 1995, I have had a fantastic working life, covering so many events, meeting so many wonderful people and in some very small way, recording moments in history.

In recent years, I’ve enjoyed working for the Wokingham Today and more recently, the Reading Today newspapers and I hope to be able to continue to do that for some time to come.

This year, I hope to give a series of talks to groups that maybe interested in seeing my photographs that I took at the Kennedy Space Centre.

Throughout my career, I have photographed sporting events, from grassroots action to the Royals, not just at their home grounds but also at Wembley, among other stadiums

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