Seavington:Hurcott Farm DCNN 8674 – Sitting on the fence.

50.94126 -2.86126 Met Office Assessed CIMO Class 5 & Satisfactory Installed 1/1/1984 Temperature records from 2008.

Although most Met Office official weather stations are situated in a compound with variable levels of security fencing, many are not usually because they are in restricted access areas or private property. Seavington:Hurcottt Farm is one such non-fenced site of undefined area adjacent to a domestic property. Originally just a rain gauge site it has been recording temperature only since 2008. This addition of screens to former rain only sites is a common recent 21st century phenomenon.

From this satellite image the screen is evidently in a poor location with variable agriculture alongside, prone to heavy shading and close to other buildings but really all that is trivial compared to this…..

That white box perched just above the far end of the fence, in front of the bushes is an official Met Office Stevenson Screen. Perhaps a better view from an older image offers an even more interesting perspective.

Going into close up shows the Rain Gauge and solid wall under the fence with concrete steps up to the gate presumably through which the observer accesses the screen to take readings. Exactly from where was the screen height above ground level measured? Consider this claim from the Met Office….

“The Met Office also uses a rigorous quality-control process to ensure that the measurements taken by their weather stations are robust, reliable, and feasible. They also adhere to international World Meteorological Organization standards.”

I have no issue with the likely amateur meteorologists taking the readings. I have major concerns with the Met Office inspectorate who seem to consider this ridiculous site somehow acceptable. Simply categorising this station as the lowest possible CIMO Class 5 (with potential inaccuracy due to siting of 5°C) is surely not an adequate excuse to use any site regardless of how badly sited it is. The Met Office claim that by their own standards this site is “Satisfactory” which rather indicates how absurdly lenient their standards must be. A keen amateur meteorologist recently advised me that private weather stations are expected to meet vastly superior standards than the Met Office applies to its own Screens.

I would be most interested in the views of any meteorologists (past or present) on this form of siting “standards”. For my part I cannot “sit on the fence”….this site is Junk and one for the gallery of horrors.