Scientists Explain The Tools They Use To Forecast Heatwaves Royals Vs White Sox [uirKNjrLoxE]

(15 Jul 2026)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Reading, UK - 14 July 2026

1. Various drone aerials of the University of Readings Atmospheric Observatory weather station ++MUTE++

2. Various of a large 10 metre tall profile anemometer, which measures wind speed and direction

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Hannah Cloke, Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at University of Reading:

This summer we've seen a number of records broken here sunderland vs man united in Reading. In May we saw the hottest ever May temperature on record. In June we saw the hottest ever June record broken and then we have just broken the largest number of days over 30 degrees (Celsius) and that's beaten that 1976 benchmark."

4. Various cambridge south station of Cloke opening and observing temperature readings of thermometers inside Stevenson Screen - a climatological instrument which measures air temperature - with two thermometers inside. On the left is a dry bulb thermometer and on the right is a wet bulb thermometer

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Hannah Cloke, Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at University of Reading:

In this white box, it doesn't look like very much, it is called a Stevenson screen and inside there are our thermometers that we measure by hand. We have other Stevenson screens around the observatory which are doing continuous monitoring and it's got these little holes in it and that allows the air to flow through but also to shade the thermometers so that we know that they are reading an accurate temperature. We've been doing this since 1908 here at the observatory in the same way every day and that's really really important because it means that when those temperature records do get broken, we're absolutely sure that they are broken because we've been measuring the same way all of that time, 118 years at this particular site."

6. Various of dry and wet bulb thermometers inside Stevenson Screen

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hannah Cloke, Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at University of Reading:

We've got dry bulb thermometers, we've got wet bulb thermometer and the wet bulb has got like a piece of cloth wrapped around it that's wet all the time and allows the air to flow through it and that acts a bit like a body sweating really, we're looking at that evaporation as well, so that wet bulb reading. And then we look at the maximum and the minimum temperatures every day and those are really of course very key to seeing where the records have been broken."

8. Various of Cloke lifting out of ground and reading temperature using a 100cm deep soil dhs thermometer

9. Various of Cloke using the 'international' rain gauge within the observatory, which is mounted at 1m above ground level and surrounded by an Alter wind shield to mimic wind turbulence, and lifting an empty glass jar due to lack of any rainfall in recent days

10. Wide of Cloke demonstrating international rain gauge

UPSOUND (English) Hannah Cloke, Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at University of Reading:

"So this is our International Standard Rain Gauge and it's got this windshield around it and you'll find these across the world looking exactly the same, at the same height. So we have standard measurements across the whole world. The windshield's really important because when it rains it's often really windy as well so we're trying to protect the gauge from low gusts of wind so that we can actually capture the rain that's falling."

11. Various of international rain gauge

12. Various of Caleb Miller, post doctoral research fellow at University of Reading, using an evaporation test as part of observatory

21. Wide of atmospheric observatory

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