Fylingdales WMO03281 – Probably the most ridiculous climate averages station possible.

54.35873 -0.67166  Met Office CIMO Assessed Class 5 Archived temperature records from 1/1/1984

Fylingdales is one of the last few Class 5 sites I have yet to review. It is unquestionably one of the worst. If a picture paints a thousand words, the above image should be enough to damn this site forever. Perhaps Nettlecombe with its minibuses or Portland with its cars, or Banff with its overflow car park etc, etc, should push this one close but Fylingdales takes the award for cars parked around screens that you are not allowed to see…..ever.

I am not sure which is the most iconic image of Fylingdales, the now defunct “Golfballs” set eerily on the horizon and just visible from the A169 from Pickering to Whitby or the modern day truncated pyramid like structure that replaced them.

Either way this is very much a public restricted area and there is understandably no street view imagery available. I certainly would not recommend walking around the area taking photographs even if they are only of the weather station. However, unlike many other countries, the UK does not usually obliterate aerial images of secure areas so there are many historical images available online.

Again like Spadeadam it is difficult to justify the location on any other grounds than ease of taking readings for the observer. A more recent image (including more site development) indicates how short a walk it was from the buildings or the car parks. Surely with again such a large open area available the screen could have been much better sited.

Ultimately the station is atrociously sited and reflected in its assessment as “Class 5 (additional estimated uncertainty added by siting up to 5 °C)“. So why on earth would anyone consider this highly restricted area ( you cannot even have a Smart Meter fitted or on your electricity or gas supply in the surrounding areas) moorland artificial micro-climate representative climate averages station?

Does the Met Office really believe that the area has any similarities or correlations with the seaside resorts at Bridlington and Scarborough with the climate of the North Yorkshire Moors when they produce a Factsheet specifically stating how such divergent areas cannot? Even the RAF base at Loftus is close to the coast. Is it really feasible to be comparing the scant vegetation and bleak upper moorland of Fylingdales with the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service (ADAS) crop research fields at High Mowthorpe?

I think it is reasonable to suggest that Fylingdales stands out as very different from its near neighbours, particularly its nearest at Scarborough. Whilst Fylingdales has demonstrated (according to the Met Office) a 60 year warming trend from 1961 to 2020 in daily average maximum temperature of 1.22°C, Scarborough only managed 0.9°C. For average daily minimums the former was 0.72°C whilst seaside Scarborough only managed a paltry 0.45°C. If this differential “warming” continues much longer they may well have to move all those ice cream parlours from Scarborough sea front up to high Moors. Or is it just possibly a case of very poorly sited weather stations and creative accounting coming up with different numbers depending on how bad both actually are?

I can confidently say that Fylingdales, golf balls or pyramids will not be featuring in any future historic temperature reconstruction.

Codicil: This is my 400th post since restarting the Surface Stations Project . Only another 55 or so stations to go. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with it so far. Probably only another 200+ plus posts to go to finally get a serious temperature reconstruction up and running!