EIC Controls

Data logging · Weather monitoring

Week in review, 19 to 23 October 2026: from the 9 km grid to your plot

The week's four pieces (water level, frost, the warmest September and dendrometers), three European signals with their sources (ECMWF's open 9 km data, AEMET's analysis of the Catalonia rainfall and drought according to the JRC) and what is coming: the end of summer time on the 25th and the MARS Bulletin on the 26th.

By EIC Controls · · 5 min read

HOBO RX3000 remote weather station starter kit for air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed and direction

Four pieces this week, from a torrential rain warning to frost, with one common question: which part of a decision can rest on data from outside (a warning, a model grid, the official station) and which part needs a measurement at your own point.

What we published

  • Monday 19. Week of 19 to 25 October: with AEMET's special warning for very heavy, persistent showers in the Spanish Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands, what to look after in a water level logger.
  • Tuesday 20. Frost in the field: five decisions for measuring the air as close as possible to the temperature of the plant tissue, which is what decides the damage.
  • Wednesday 21. Mainland Spain's warmest September since 1961: according to AEMET's advance summary, average maxima were 4.6 °C above normal and average minima 2.1 °C above; what to check in your series before comparing it with provisional figures.
  • Thursday 22. Measure the tree or the soil to decide when to irrigate?: in a Swiss apple orchard, dendrometer-driven irrigation used, compared with irrigation driven by soil moisture sensors, 38% less water in 2022 and more than 45% less in 2023, with no significant difference in yield.

Three European signals

ECMWF opens part of its 9 km data (20 October). The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts has made a subset of its 9 km data free and open; until now it was only available through a paid service agreement, and the move comes a year after the 25 km data were made free. The data are released with a two-hour delay and must be attributed to ECMWF. Why it matters: the announcement explains that at 25 km a flood peak remains diluted; at 9 km the forecast gains detail, but a grid cell is not your plot, and only your own measurement tells you how far your point departs from it. Source: ECMWF

AEMET analyses the torrential rain in Catalonia on 3 and 4 October (21 October). The analysis by Juan Jesús González-Alemán (AEMET) and Carlos Calvo-Sancho (CIDE) reports 190.8 l/m² at Barcelona-El Raval, 226.6 l/m² at Cabrils and 248 l/m² at Granollers, with the western Mediterranean at record temperatures, 2.5 °C above 1991-2020. With the HARMONIE-AROME model, the difference between simulating with the sea temperature of the episode or with the climatological one exceeds 300 mm over the area of the system; the authors note that their results do not show that a tropical cyclogenesis took place, but that they fit that hypothesis. Why it matters: the analysis checks what was simulated against the accumulations observed, and if your rain gauge recorded the episode (our week of 5 to 11 October covered the warning), it is worth keeping the record with its date and any incidents. Source: AEMET

The European Drought Observatory (Copernicus Emergency Management Service) updates its analysis (19 October). With data from late September, the analysis by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) finds that drought conditions "remained critical in most of Europe"; in the Iberian Peninsula, watch conditions persisted or reduced. The JRC warns of known issues, still under investigation, that affect the estimated soil moisture and may make the map less reliable in some regions, particularly western Russia; it expects the fix with EFAS v6.0 data in late 2026. Why it matters: it is a continental indicator, weeks behind; for an irrigation decision, what counts is what you measure in the plot. Source: JRC

Agenda for the coming days

  • Sunday 25, end of summer time. Directive 2000/84/EC (Article 3) sets it at 1.00 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time on the last Sunday in October. Before merging series, note whether each instrument logs in local time or in UTC. Source: EUR-Lex
  • Monday 26, MARS Bulletin. The JRC calendar lists that day for the next "JRC MARS Bulletin - Crop monitoring in Europe". Source: JRC

References

Sources consulted on 23 October 2026, between 06:45 and 07:00 (Madrid time).

Commercial selection by EIC Controls

Product of the week: HOBO RX3000 remote weather station starter kit. According to its datasheet, it provides site-specific air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed and direction data, with cloud access and alarm notifications by text and email: a measurement at your own point, with alarms, to set against the 9 km grid or the official station. Still to be sized: the installation point and height, the sensors your application adds (the station accepts up to 10 smart sensors, and rainfall is not among the included measurements) and communication on site (the kit includes a one-year mobile data plan).

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Instruments for this application

HOBO RX3000 Remote Weather Station Starter Kit

LI-COR (HOBO, InTemp, LI-COR) · RX3004-SYS-KIT-813

HOBO RX3000 Remote Weather Station Starter Kit

This kit provides instant access to site-specific air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed & direction data anywhere, at any time, from your desktop or mobile device and LI-COR Cloud remote monitoring software (formerly HOBOlink) annual plan.The…

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· 5 min read

Week in review, 5 to 9 October 2026: what the thermometer does not see

The week's four pieces, three of them on what the thermometer does not measure, three European signals with their sources, and what is coming: the Environment Council on 12 October, the September summaries still to be published and the end of summer time on 25 October.

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