Rostherne No 2 WMO 03351 – Class 1……. UNSATISFACTORY!

53.36013 -2.38195 Met Office Assessed CIMO Class1 Installed 31/10/2012

******MET OFFICE OWN STANDARD ASSESSMENT at end AUGUST 2024 – UNSATISFACTORY. *********

A new site installed only 12 years ago, it also had another “trial” site simultaneously located nearby to verify accuracy of readings. Situated in open countryside, the M56 is a near neighbour but not uncomfortably so and neither are the local farm buildings. This is what it looks like from google “street view.” N.B. this is a World Meteorological Organisation international reporting site hence its WMO demarcation.

So what’s the problem if indeed there is one?

This site often records the regional daily high temperature as it did below

Some months ago, through Freedom of Information request, I obtained from the Met Office their list of weather stations by the World Meteorological Organisations’s standard. It clearly showed Rostherne as CIMO Class 1 as below alongside the Met Office flagship station Rothamsted.

An issue with the Met Office is that they unilaterally claim their own unique assessment of weather station’s quality as being the all important parameter to use for data recording purposes in the temperature record and not the international ISO/WMO standard 19289:2014(E). So I asked the Met Office for the list of their climate reporting stations by their own standards in lieu of WMO standards.

The Met Office classify stations variously Excellent, Good , Satisfactory and Unsatisfactory. They also claim they will only verify records and data from those stations identified as satisfactory or better thus “unsatisfactory” units are discounted…..or are they?

Rostherne is officially classed as “UNSATISFACTORY” at present and yet is still recording data to the temperature record even down to highlighting “Daily Extremes” as highlighted above.

For those who may think this is slightly at odds with the Met Office claims of accuracy, below is their current rating for the Welsh Record holding Hawarden Airport.

Is this Welsh record acceptable if their recording station can now be regarded as “Unsatisfactory”? It seems unlikely positional issues have significantly changed over the last two years since the “record” was set.

I have no idea what the current problem with Rostherne is (nor Hawarden Airport) but clearly the Met Office is not being seen to follow even its own stipulations let alone internationally agreed commitments.

I have contacted the Met Office again to clarify the causes for these Unsatisfactory ratings – if I get a response I will advise later.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2024/09/15/rostherne-no-2-wmo-03351-class-1-unsatisfactory/