MET OFFICE NEWS

ministers. It has also enabled familiarity with new fuel types, handling experience, and awareness of logistic constraints to inform its integration on a more permanent footing, and the findings and lessons identified are already generating significant interest across Defence to instigate similar projects in future.

Musician Cpl Hallstead-Brooks was honoured to be able to collect the award on behalf of the whole team, where coincidently fellow musicians from the Royal Air Force Salon Orchestra were providing entertainment for the evenings event!

The Biofuels project proved that even though there isn’t a refinery within the UK from which to source Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), it is still economically and environmentally advantageous to move towards routine use of blended SAF mixes in our fleets. The team conducted an in-depth investigation into the monetary and carbon cost of sourcing SAF from different suppliers in Europe from “refinery to wing-tip” and produced detailed figures that enabled a trial to be conducted. The SAF was sourced via an existing contract with World Fuels and required no changes to existing infrastructure - this is where the Project was able to prove that existing logistics streams are capable of sourcing, storing and mixing SAF blends; as refuelling procedures are identical to legacy fuels and require no additional training. The project saw 32 (TR) Sqn fly several sorties in the final days of the BAe146 fleet using SAF. Aside from proving that performance of SAF blends are identical to legacy fuel types, this had the additional benefit of ensuring the aircraft type was performing meaningful and important tasks right up to its out of service date (Mar 22).

What is our role at Northolt?

The Met Office provide weather forecasts in the form of products and briefs for a variety of customers based at RAF Northolt, detailing any important flight safety hazards caused by the weather. The topics covered can range from a heatwave effecting the runway, the clouds or the probability of a thunderstorm. The operational meteorologists will tailor each brief to the recipient and the weather that is most impactful to them.

So, what do we use to create a forecast?

There are a few numerical models that the Met Office use which run on our supercomputer, these assimilate data and predict atmospheric conditions. The operational meteorologists will compile these, forming an ensemble forecast, and consider local effects to understand the most probable weather. This year we had a record breaking high in July reaching 40?C, only 0.3°C off of the UK’s highest ever recorded temperature! Here are some monthly statistics for climate extremes in October historically and how it compares to October 2022:

Cpl Oliver Hallstead-Brooks The Met Office

at RAF Northolt

Measurement Date

Hottest Oct Max Temperature Coldest Oct Min Temperature 29°C 2011

-5.5°C 1997

Highest Oct Monthly Rainfall 172.8 mm 2000

Oct 22 Max Temperature 22.4°C 29th Oct 22 Min Temperature 1.6°C 11th Oct 22 Total Rainfall 90.2 mm 2022

Met Thought of the Day:

There are two ways that icing can occur, one is when a sub-zero aircraft strikes super-cooled water droplets, the result of this scenario is clear ice, rime ice, rain ice or packed snow. The other is occurs when water vapour sublimates to ice on a sub-zero aircraft, this can cause hoar frost. We’re based next to ops on the south side of RAF Northolt and are in from 6am until the airfield closes, so please do pop in!