The University's Botanic Garden wasn't the only place in Cambridge to record the highest ever UK temperature on Wednesday 25th July. The weather station on the roof of this department did so too.
Lekan Popoola - a Postdoctoral Research Associate in our Atmospheric Chemistry Research Group - explains: "We have a weather station here in Chemistry and it too recorded a peak temperature on 25th July of 38.7 degree C. This is consistent with the temperature recorded in the Botanic Garden."
After checking the Botanic Garden measurements, the Met Office subsequently confirmed this was the highest temperature officially recorded in the UK.
Lekan is one of the Atmospheric Chemistry researchers working to measure air quality and its impact on human health. And he points out that it wasn't only temperatures that hit new heights on that day. "There were also unusually high levels of ozone." Ozone is a pollutant that damages human tissues when inhaled and there are World Health Organisation and European Union guidelines on limiting it. It is created by the reaction between nitrogen dioxide (often produced by traffic), sunlight and volatile organic compounds emitted naturally by plants and anthropogenic sources like vehicles.
Lekan adds: "Our meteorological, air quality and greenhouse gas station has been in operation for close to five years. We recorded ozone levels between 9 am and midnight on that day that were well above the 8-hour standard limit of 100 micrograms per cubic metre of air. They peaked, during the day, at almost twice that limit."
We'll be posting more information about July's temperature and ozone level spikes in our website news soon.