Weather Information

We take daily readings of the previous 24 hours’ weather which we send to the Met Office on a monthly basis. This information, along with that from several hundred other observers, is used by the Met Office to assess the long-term climatology of the British Isles.

These readings include maximum and minimum temperatures in centigrade and also humidity calculated from wet and dry bulb thermometers. The four thermometers used are contained within a box called a Stevenson screen; this has louvres on all four sides, a solid top and a slatted base which are all designed to allow air to flow through the box but protect the instruments from the weather and direct or reflected sunshine. The other readings we take are rainfall in millimetres and grass minimum temperature.

As well as these we also make visual observations of cloud cover; wind speed and direction; present weather; and visibility.

Below are a few recent readings:

Jan 07 Feb07 Mar07 Apr07 May07 Jun07

Maximum 10.4 8.8 13.4 15.5 21.9 25.7

Minimum -7.1 -6.9 -6.1 -2.8 0.1 4.6

Rainfall (mm) 41.7 57.4 103.1 49.1 81.5 34.0

Jul 07 Aug 07 Sept 07 Oct 07 Nov 07 Dec 07

Maximum 21.3 22.5 21.6 18.0 16.0 12.8

Minimum 5.0 5.1 2.3 -2.6 -2.0 -9.1

Rainfall (mm) 127.3 75.0 41.3 28.6 55.3 76.5

Jan 08 Feb 08 Mar 08 Apr 08 May 08 Jun 08

Maximum 11.9 11.6 12.5 14.4 23.5 21.7