Prague Clementinum – the oldest meteorological measuring station in the Czech Republic

If you take a walk around the Old Town in Prague, you must visit Clementinum, especially its observatory. In 1752 the first regular meteorological measurement was initiated there and it has been continuing until now. 33 years of chosen weather characteristic measurement (temperature and air pressure) are unfortunately incomplete, because they were often done by estimation. So the year 1775 is considered as the beginning of comprehensive succession. “Mannheim clocks” functioned as regular temperature measurement, according to which weather behaviour was noted always at 7 am,7 pm and 9 pm. By the way, that is why an average temperature is nowadys counted as sum of temperatures of these hours – temperature at 9 pm is included twice and then divided by four.

Weather station Clementinum is the oldest weather observation considered unique in the whole Central Europe. Now, speaking of climate changes, they have proofs it happens, from more than 250-year old measurement successions. When we look at records of extreme temperatures since 1775, the conclusions are alarming. Since the year 2000 to 2006, 50 records in total were surpassed – the highest noticed temperatures till now.

In Clementinum there are two meteorological boxes – slat and iron-plate. The slat box measures temperature and air moisture on the first floor of north side of south annex. The iron-plate box is on the roof flat at east annex where a technical library is located. The amount of rainfalls and duration of sunshine is being noted every day by the help of an apparatus called heliograph.

In conclusion there are some chosen Clementinum’s characteristics: Clemntinum is situated in altitude 191 metres. The highest temperature which has ever been measured is +37,8 °C on 27th July 1983, the lowest temperature – 27,6 °C on 1st March 1785. The average temperature since 1971 to 2000 was 10,4 °C, what is 0,4 °C more than in 1961-1990. The average precipitation amount in 1971-2000 was 456,5 mm, so in comparison with years 1961-1990 it is about 13,2 mm more.

Information about whole Clementinum

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