In large contrast to storms or flooding some weather records are happening almost unnoticed. So last Tuesday, as the little Mongolian mountain village of Tosontsengel, about 700 km west of the capital Ulaanbaatar recorded the highest sea level pressure that was ever measured. On December 18, 18:00 GMT - which is equivalent to December 19, 02:00 am local time - the meteorologists at Tosontsengel reported a sea level pressure of 1085.6 hectopascals (or mb), lying well above the previous record of 1083.8, measured on December 31, 1968 at Agata, Siberia.

However, the people of Tosontsengel might have hardly felt anything beside the extreme cold of a clear night. Tosontsengel lies at an altitude of 1723 metres above sea level and the local barometer must have displayed a surface pressure of maybe around 844 hPa. In order to make this comparable with other readings from around the globe at various altitudes this pressure will be normalized (or reduced) to sea level pressure. For example, under normal conditions a pressure of 844 hPa would be equivalent to altitudes of 1500 m above seal level or so. Far from being felt as something unusual.

Thus the 1085.6 hPa is more a virtual pressure determined by a meteorolgist with the help of some basic meteorological functions. Anyway, virtual or not, it did beat a world record that stood there for more than 30 years. Well worth a short note on a weather web site.