Barkston Heath Airfield – NO Identifier number. Met Office making up a weather stations data? You certainly cannot see it.

I would firstly like to thank both Talkshop good friend, Dave Ward, for his extensive efforts in helping me locate this weather station and also a reader (who prefers to retain anonymity) for alerting me to the situation. Barkston Heath Airfield is a well known location but its weather station is somewhat of a mystery.

About six weeks ago a Talkshop reader contacted me after noting that the Met Office Daily Extremes bulletin included readings for “Barkston Heath Airfield” similar to the above which appeared for yesterday. This should not be unusual apart from the fact the reader could not find the station on my list of sites by CIMO classification. They also could not find it on the Met office’s list of currently operating synoptic and climate weather stations and asked what I knew of the site.

The first thing I found was that I could not find it either…….and that was very unusual indeed. Whilst I set about investigating, I asked my reader if they could ask the Met Office for site details on my behalf, to which they readily agreed.

The first thing I noticed was that, although this site does appear “in” the Archives as a site there are no archived readings at all, nor does it have any regular climate recording identifiers. All that is indicated is as below:

This is similar to the situation I noted at Plymouth:Kinterbury Point where a “non approved” site’s data had drifted into the public record, however, notably then the Met Office had conceded it should not have been included and deleted its data from future daily extremes highlighting. I expected a similar response with a purely site specific aviation site (Barkston Heath Airfield comes under the auspices of RAF Cranwell and is a training site) being potentially “inadvertently” included in the climate record. The reader’s response(s) from the Met Office were very surprising.

Firstly the reader forwarded me not one, but two, identically worded responses from TWO separately named Met office staff at two different times. This rather suggested a “pro-forma” response to inquirers of quite an alarming nature now being the standard Met office response.

“Hello XXXXXX, 

Thank you for taking the time tot get in touch.

So that we are not confusing any datasets, please can you confirm the full URL of the page/dataset you are accessing, and/or include a screenshot highlighting this.

It would also be helpful to know why this data is being used.

We look forward to hearing back from you.

Kind regards,

Marc

Weather Desk”

Both a “Marc” and a “Thomas” sent exactly the same reply at two different times. My reader was quite shocked to get the response “It would also be helpful to know why this data is being used ” having only asked why the site was not included in the official listings and what its site rating was. Their response to the Met Office expressed their concern at such a rather impertinent “inquisition” they had received.

“I have to say I am rather confused by the TWO replies I have received, one from a “Thomas” and one from a  “Marc” in that they are identically worded. It would seem you have a “proforma” reply which I find very strange indeed given the nature of my inquiry. All I am trying to ascertain is whether or not Barkston Heath Airfield weather station is genuinely a climate reporting station or not. It appeared, as I said, on your Daily Climate extremes listing but does not appear on your list here

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-synoptic-and-climate-stations

Furthermore when I checked the archives it does not appear to be recording any temperature data.

https://utils.ceda.ac.uk/cgi-bin/midas_stations/station_details.cgi.py?id=3906&db=midas_stations

All I would like to know is if it is now a fully equipped reporting site and if so since when and what its current WMO CIMO assessment is.

I am further baffled by the line “It would also be helpful to know why this data is being used.” Is that some form of metaphysical question? I am asking as part of my own research but is that really so incredibly relevant? It should hardly be a state secret!“

The Met Office response was extremely slow in coming but eventually claimed the following.

“Good afternoon XXXXXX

Thank you for your email concerning Barkston Heath Airfield, questions and answers below.

Q: The Daily Climate Extremes Listing  for 3/9/2025 shows Barkston Heath Airfield recording the daily low for the East Midlands region. Is this correct as this site does not appear on your regular station listings and does not show any readings in the MIDAS file.

A: Barkston is an MOD site, so it not listed on our list of stations here: Synoptic and climate stations – Met Office, however is used when gathering climate extreme measurements.

Q: If it is a new site can you advise of its CIMO rating please

A: Barkston Heath is an existing site and was inspected by the Regional Network Officer on 21/08/2024 and given a CIMO 1 rating for Temperature and Wind.

Kind regards,

Stephen

Weather Desk

This response is quite amazing to say the least. Claiming Barkston Heath is not listed because it is an MOD site is frankly ridiculous. Over 140 Met Office sites are MOD bases that are recorded in the CEDA archives, most obviously neighbouring Cranwell. The response then claims despite no public records being retained that it is used when gathering “climate extreme measurements”. Consider the implications of that………The Met Office collects data to contribute to the climate records BUT the public is not allowed to see it recorded anywhere. N.B. the current Met office meme of “extremes” is used to derive daily “means” using an absurd averaging system effectively determined solely by such “extremes” that we are not allowed to verify.

The second response is even stranger “Barkston Heath is an existing site and was inspected by the Regional Network Officer on 21/08/2024 and given a CIMO 1 rating for Temperature and Wind.“

Both myself and others have, under very recent Freedom of Information requests, obtained up to date lists of sites by CIMO classification – none of them include Barkston Heath which also, by their own admission, does not appear on their list of climate stations.

Why is the Met office even assessing the site for CIMO regulations if it has no intention of archiving its data? Was it even really assessed or was it just another of those “Human Errors” like Hastings and Edenbridge where every site is Class 1 unless marked down.

None of the above made any sense at all which became somewhat similar to my search for visual representation of the site. I have become adept at locating Met Office sites especially at airfields where the enclosures tend to rather “stick out like a sore thumb” when you know what to look for. I personally drew a complete blank in locating any form of conventional site. Luckily I know a man who is very familiar with aviation sites and not too far away to have a good look on my behalf.

WGS84 coordinates are supplied by the Met office in the archives as “52.96107, -0.56913” plus in addition UK grid References of “Easting: 496210 Northing: 341370” but google aerial and street view images could not identify the site. Dave Ward took time out to travel to the site, binoculars and camera in hand – N.B. this is a military site so not always the most advisable practise to “scout around” too much!

Ultimately Dave’s on site research ruled out my suggested possible location leaving only his experienced eye to identify this below seen first in wide scale.

And below in close up from an historic image.

This site clearly has no enclosure and, if it really is the somewhat secretive site, appears very non standard for aviation sites. If this is the site, on tape measure grounds it would certainly be Class 1 but then again why wouldn’t the Met Office not proclaim such a site? Neighbouring Cranwell and Conningsby are much more secure establishments yet their data is open to public scrutiny. Why would Barkston be such a secret?

I suggest the likely scenario is one of non standard equipment in a non standard setting (similar to Gosport :Fleetlands with its equally covert data) intended solely for specific aviation purposes that is also handily available to produce “numbers” to fulfill a predetermined function. How is the data for all those long term non existent sites made up (such as Lowestoft) if no “official” climate reporting sites exists nearby?

Now if that seems a bit of a conspiracy theory consider this – in the past the Met Office always denoted the Plymouth site as “Plymouth:Mountbatten” yet recently the “Mountbatten” suffix is no longer included and thus it now appears as below.

Go back to my Plymouth:Kinterbury Point report ….is this all really “Administrative error”? Or are the Met Office simply now using anywhere that suits them…..QUOTE “when gathering climate extreme measurements.“

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2025/10/15/barkston-heath-airfield-no-identifier-number-met-office-making-up-a-weather-stations-data-you-certainly-cannot-see-it/