UK AIP Aerodrome Entry Decode

[greengage22]

In the 'Aerodromes' section of the UK AIP, for most of the fairly major airports, there is an entry at the start of each airport listing:"Elevation and Reference Temperature".

What's "Reference Temperature"? For instance, Leeds and Bradford has an elevation of about 680 feet and a Ref Temp of 19 degrees Celsius. I can't relate that to anything sensible.

And, by the way, I have tried looking in the AIP for a key or explanation, but I can't find one. I don't know whether I've missed it, or whether there isn't one.

I suppose I could always write to the CAA and ask them, but does anyone know?

[Another St Ivian]

Hah, so I am not the only one left wondering.
I myself posed this question some months back after a number of Pilots and 2 Met persons couldn't answer it. Please let me know if you have any luck working this one out.

A.S.I

[inbalance]

We need the reference temperature for preplanning purpose.
The aircraft take off performance changes with the temperature and we like to know what temperature to expect at our destination.
In our Maps there are ref. temperatures for every airport and for every month.
So we can calculate the max possible take off weight for a given airport at a given month.

[Another St Ivian]

However, inbalance, they only give one temperature and that appears to be neither the lowest, highest or mean value for temperature.

A.S.I

[Mark 1]

The ICAO definition is something like - The monthly average of the daily maximum temperature for the hottest month of the year.

I think the subject has been covered before here if you search the archives.