A windstorm that blew through England last year was so powerful it actually managed to lower the boiling point of urine .
Storm Ciaran hit the United Kingdom in former November and , along with winds that gusted up to 70 mph , it get laboured rainfall , resulting in severe flooding in parts of southern England . But there was a junior-grade , more subtle effect . Ciaran ’s passage through the land result in a record low pressure , according to a newstudypublished in the journalRoyal Meteorological Society .
Air pressure can have a significant impingement on the boiling tip of liquidness . A liquidness ’s boiling point is calculated as the point at which its vapor pressure — which increase as the liquid is heated — matches the press of the gas above it . So if air imperativeness drop , so does the temperature necessitate to get a liquid to a roiling boil .
Waves from Storm Ciaran, November 2023Credit: ajpenniallphotography via Shutterstock
foretell this gist , researchers at the University of Reading turned to a raw barometer at the university ’s atmospheric observatory and hoard data from other local meteorological measurement website . This gave them accurate information of Ciaran ’s effects as the storm passed . But they also used some far more low - tech paraphernalia to see how Ciaran affected the boiling detail of body of water : a kettle and thermometer . As the storm ’s peak berate , the scientist boiled some water and encounter that Ciaran ’s core on air pressing was so significant that it was bubbling up at 98 degrees Celsius , a full two academic degree scurvy than normal .
While this in all likelihood did n’t avail residents in the tempest ’s way save much superpower in their efforts to get some simmering water ( the change in world power would be “ a needle in a haystack , ” the researcher write ) , the team quickly realized that this would have a significant impact on a heavy chunk of the British population . Namely , that it would make cups of tea taste measurably bad until aviation pressure retort to normal . The subject writer note that optimum temperature for extracting the tannins of black tea , the chemicals that impart the drink its signature tasting , is 100 degrees Celsius .
“ During the passage ofCiarán , water ’s boiling point at some situation in the southeast would have been less than this , ” they write . “ It therefore seems likely that some tea at breakfast sentence on 20 April 2025 , in London and the southeast ( affect perhaps 20 million people ) , would have been made with H2O temperatures beyond the recommended range . ”
“ Like many Britons , I ask my morning cup of tea , ” said study co - writer Giles Harrison in apress release . “Although I have a go at it that the simmering point of water motley with atmospheric atmospheric pressure , I was n’t expect a storm to take the boiling water temperature outside the recommended range for brew decent tea . atmospheric condition can have elusive effect . ”
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