Sutton Bonington Addendum – Appallingly bad data recording with multiple known huge errors archived. {Part 1}

Above is a reconstructed daily comparison of temperature readings from the official Met Office Sutton Bonington Historic Station which has been operational for over 100 years. This is a typical extract showing comparative readings from the same site at the same time but using different instruments and different archiving procedures. All the readings have been subject to Met Office “Quality Control” both before and after archiving. Each days readings should be the same……..but they most certainly are not by a very long way.

Met Office data is recorded to the nearest tenth of a degree – the above demonstrates differences of an order of magnitude whilst some (such at other locations as recently proven at Dalwhinnie in my 500th report) display a staggering two orders of magnitude variance. This long and numerically detailed report uncovers very grave concerns about the way Met Office data collection has changed over the years and how the use of this data is just another of the suite of options available to those who potentially wish to “game the system.”

Firstly, for those who want to check my data (perfectly reasonable) here are the archived numbers for the headline to work from. I will be supplying lots more in this post. The days attribution protocol applied by the Met Office are quoted in the 500th post reference above. Column “I” shows maximums, column “J” minimums respectively. These readings are extracted from the period from 1/12/1999 to 31/3/2000 when the Sutton Bonington station was being converted from manual observations taken once daily at 09:00 GMT by Liquid in Glass thermometers to automatic readings taken by Platinum Resistance thermometers and archived at 09:00 and 21:00.

With this site now being a centenarian I was considering whether or not its readings could plausibly be used in reconstruction of a new long term historic temperature record. From my previous report I was aware of a site relocation that has resulted in such a significantly different identified climatology to result in the Met office renumbering (but not renaming) it from 14/11/2005 from DCNN4201 to DCNN4202. An open acknowledgement that readings would not be historically comparable throughout the recent time series.

Relocation in the past was often caused by automation requiring a mains electricity supply and datacomms over a landline. Modern less power hungry equipment and mobile internet now allows automation solely by solar panel, battery pack and cellphone – not so just 20 years ago. Looking at the data from the previous site I noticed it had already been automated at its prior location with a 4 month transfer period of comparative readings from manual and auto systems. Although this stopped me from using the data from 2000 onwards at this stage, I still judged the prior 75 years may be useful.

I opted to quickly check the comparative changeover period – my initial findings were very poor warranting an in depth examination.

It is important to note that every single number in this report is readily verifiable and all comes from just one source – the Met Office. I will supply copies of all original source pages for anyone to check. Additionally I must stress this is a very time consuming process as it requires manually checking each individual reading, something I have had to do by hand to ensure accuracy and “eyeball” every single reading as well as then running the numbers through AI to confirm I had not made any mistakes. Below is an example of my scribblings and annotations of which there are very many pages!

Firsrtly to “deep dive” below is the full reconstructed comparison for December 1999. NOTE: AI extracted these numbers direct from the CEDA file and not my manual notes, I cross checked both to ensure we were singing from the “same hymn sheet.”

Sutton Bonington: December 1999

Date	DLY max	AWS max	Max diff.	DLY min	AWS min	Min diff.	DLY mean	AWS mean
1 Dec	10.2	10.3	+0.1	7.7	7.7	0.0	8.95	9.00
2 Dec	12.8	12.7	−0.1	4.0	4.0	0.0	8.40	8.35
3 Dec	12.0	12.6	+0.6	4.5	4.9	+0.4	8.25	8.75
4 Dec	5.5	5.8	+0.3	1.4	1.3	−0.1	3.45	3.55
5 Dec	10.7	10.5	−0.2	0.0	−0.4	−0.4	5.35	5.05
6 Dec	12.4	12.3	−0.1	2.0	0.5	−1.5	7.20	6.40
7 Dec	8.7	8.6	−0.1	6.9	6.8	−0.1	7.80	7.70
8 Dec	10.6	10.6	0.0	4.4	4.4	0.0	7.50	7.50
9 Dec	7.4	7.4	0.0	4.5	4.3	−0.2	5.95	5.85
10 Dec	10.9	10.8	−0.1	4.8	4.8	0.0	7.85	7.80
11 Dec	10.5	10.6	+0.1	3.5	3.5	0.0	7.00	7.05
12 Dec	6.9	6.9	0.0	5.6	5.6	0.0	6.25	6.25
13 Dec	4.4	4.3	−0.1	2.3	2.1	−0.2	3.35	3.20
14 Dec	3.1	—	—	0.4	0.2	−0.2	1.75	—
15 Dec	3.6	3.8	+0.2	0.7	—	—	2.15	—
16 Dec	11.1	10.7	−0.4	0.3	0.1	−0.2	5.70	5.40
17 Dec	11.8	11.9	+0.1	3.1	2.2	−0.9	7.45	7.05
18 Dec	1.7	2.1	+0.4	−3.8	−3.1	+0.7	−1.05	−0.50
19 Dec	1.9	2.3	+0.4	−3.3	−3.3	0.0	−0.70	−0.50
20 Dec	2.1	2.0	−0.1	−6.7	−6.7	0.0	−2.30	−2.35
21 Dec	5.4	5.2	−0.2	−5.1	−5.4	−0.3	0.15	−0.10
22 Dec	11.6	11.6	0.0	1.6	1.4	−0.2	6.60	6.50
23 Dec	9.3	9.4	+0.1	3.9	5.1	+1.2	6.60	7.25
24 Dec	12.7	12.7	0.0	5.6	5.4	−0.2	9.15	9.05
25 Dec	5.8	5.7	−0.1	3.8	3.7	−0.1	4.80	4.70
26 Dec	6.3	6.3	0.0	2.7	2.6	−0.1	4.50	4.45
27 Dec	4.3	4.2	−0.1	1.5	1.3	−0.2	2.90	2.75
28 Dec	4.7	5.0	+0.3	−0.3	−0.8	−0.5	2.20	2.10
29 Dec	5.6	5.8	+0.2	−0.8	−1.1	−0.3	2.40	2.35
30 Dec	5.9	5.7	−0.2	0.5	0.1	−0.4	3.20	2.90
31 Dec	8.9	8.8	−0.1	2.0	1.9	−0.1	5.45	5.35

Complete DLY3208 monthly averages

All 31 calendar days are available.

DLY statistic	Sum	Days	December average
Daily maximum	238.8 °C	31	7.70 °C
Daily minimum	57.7 °C	31	1.86 °C
Daily mean	148.25 °C	31	4.78 °C

Available AWS monthly averages

The source data lack the observations needed for the 14 December AWS maximum and 15 December AWS minimum.

AWS statistic	Sum	Available days	Average
Daily maximum	236.6 °C	30	7.89 °C
Daily minimum	53.1 °C	30	1.77 °C
Daily mean	142.85 °C	29	4.93 °C

The AWS figures above are not all based on the same number of days, so the derived mean cannot safely be calculated merely as
$(7.89+1.77)/2$

. The reported 4.93 °C is the average of the 29 dates having both an AWS maximum and minimum.

Strict like-for-like comparison

Statistic	Comparable dates	DLY average	AWS average	AWS − DLY
Maximum	30	7.86 °C	7.89 °C	+0.03 °C
Minimum	30	1.90 °C	1.77 °C	−0.13 °C
Daily mean	29	4.98 °C	4.93 °C	−0.05 °C

Although the monthly averages are close, six individual comparisons exceed 0.4 °C: one maximum and five minima. Values exactly equal to ±0.4 °C are not included under the requested strict threshold.

A significant point to note, that initially may not seem especially relevant, are those differing means for the month. In being an “Historic” station the Met office publishes what I believed to be the site’s sole monthly readings without homogenisation or infilling. The Met Office specifically notes omissions and estimations will be marked.

The readings for December 1999, January, February and March with no omissions nor estimates indicated.

 1999 12 7.7 1.9 6 58.4 54.5 2000 1 8.8 1.7 9 13.4 --- 2000 2 9.7 2.7 5 54.8 --- 2000 3 11.5 3.2 8 22.8 ---

The mean minimums that both I and AI calculated separately for December 1999 match exactly those quoted by the Met Office at 1.9°C and thus appear to have been taken solely from the manual observations . The automatic readings average a rounded 1.8°C. Again the mean maximums of manual observations that I and AI derived at 7.7°C are an exact match whilst the automatic ones at 7.9°C are not. I consider this to be confirmation that these Sutton Bonington readings portrayed by the Historic Station data are derived directly and solely from this single station and using the manual observations when available up to this point.

Unfortunately at this point for reasons unknown, manual observations became very sporadic with many missing readings particularly in January.

Sutton Bonington: January 2000

Date	DLY max	AWS max	Max diff.	DLY min	AWS min	Min diff.	DLY mean	AWS mean
1 Jan	—	8.7	—	—	2.4	—	—	5.55
2 Jan	—	11.1	—	—	−0.7	—	—	5.20
3 Jan	—	9.7	—	—	5.4	—	—	7.55
4 Jan	11.1	6.0	−5.1	—	−0.8	—	—	2.60
5 Jan	11.9	11.9	0.0	−0.6	−0.7	−0.1	5.65	5.60
6 Jan	11.9	10.2	−1.7	5.4	5.0	−0.4	8.65	7.60
7 Jan	—	9.6	—	2.8	2.6	−0.2	—	6.10
8 Jan	—	7.6	—	—	4.5	—	—	6.05
9 Jan	9.6	5.8	−3.8	—	0.3	—	—	3.05
10 Jan	8.2	8.2	0.0	−2.3	−2.7	−0.4	2.95	2.75
11 Jan	10.2	10.2	0.0	2.6	2.3	−0.3	6.40	6.25
12 Jan	—	9.2	—	8.0	8.0	0.0	—	8.60
13 Jan	—	5.3	—	—	2.2	—	—	3.75
14 Jan	—	5.2	—	—	0.4	—	—	2.80
15 Jan	—	6.4	—	—	3.1	—	—	4.75
16 Jan	—	5.7	—	—	−2.4	—	—	1.65
17 Jan	—	9.1	—	—	−1.5	—	—	3.80
18 Jan	—	8.3	—	—	1.1	—	—	4.70
19 Jan	—	7.5	—	—	2.5	—	—	5.00
20 Jan	9.2	5.8	−3.4	—	−0.9	—	—	2.45
21 Jan	—	7.7	—	−2.1	1.5	+3.6	—	4.60
22 Jan	—	7.1	—	—	2.4	—	—	4.75
23 Jan	7.4	6.8	−0.6	—	1.5	—	—	4.15
24 Jan	5.4	5.5	+0.1	−1.3	−1.3	0.0	2.05	2.10
25 Jan	6.2	6.3	+0.1	0.4	−0.3	−0.7	3.30	3.00
26 Jan	6.4	6.4	0.0	0.1	−0.1	−0.2	3.25	3.15
27 Jan	6.9	6.8	−0.1	1.5	1.0	−0.5	4.20	3.90
28 Jan	—	11.6	—	2.4	2.4	0.0	—	7.00
29 Jan	—	12.9	—	—	4.6	—	—	8.75
30 Jan	13.6	13.6	0.0	—	7.8	—	—	10.70
31 Jan	12.4	12.4	0.0	3.2	7.9	+4.7	7.80	10.15

All 31 AWS calendar days are available.

AWS statistic	Sum	Days	January average
Daily maximum	258.6 °C	31	8.34 °C
Daily minimum	57.5 °C	31	1.85 °C
Daily mean	158.05 °C	31	5.10 °C

Available DLY3208 averages

The DLY series is incomplete, so these are not full-month averages.

DLY statistic	Sum	Available days	Average
Daily maximum	130.4 °C	14	9.31 °C
Daily minimum	20.1 °C	13	1.55 °C
Daily mean	44.25 °C	9	4.92 °C

Strict like-for-like comparison

Statistic	Comparable dates	DLY average	AWS average	AWS − DLY
Maximum	14	9.31 °C	8.28 °C	−1.04 °C
Minimum	13	1.55 °C	1.97 °C	+0.42 °C
Daily mean	9	4.92 °C	4.94 °C	+0.03 °C

What look like staggering differences are actually readily explicable in some, but by no means all, occasions which I will discuss in part 2 of this post. What is inexcusable on the part of the Met Office is that such frequent and known false readings are archived with no evidence whatsoever of quality control to weed out such blatant errors.

For now a further examination of the derived means. The manual DLY readings only comprise 14 days so a monthly average would be a pointless exercise. However, as I have demonstrated before, the Met Office has produced annual means for sites with only 19 days total readings and supplied those under Freedom of Information request so perhaps anything is possible.

For the record, the limited range of manual readings comes in for January 2000 mean minimum 1.55°C and mean maximum of 9.3°C. The automatic readings for the whole month are as follows rounded as per standard Met Office practise.

Mean maximum: 8.3 °C

Mean minimum: 1.9 °C

Going back to the Met Office claimed historic station averages for January shows 1.7°C and 8.8°C which are nothing like any of the possible calculations from either manual or automatic sets of readings. More importantly there are no indications of omissions gaps nor estimates. The derived automatic maximum means are significantly lower.

So what possible reasons can there be for such wide ranging differences in monthly averages over what should just be simple arithmetic? At this point I tried a long shot calculation based on “What if they used the lowest of either reading when available for minimums and the highest of either reading for maximums?” ………..surely not! Well this is what that system produced.

Hybrid Sutton Bonington series: January 2000

Date	Hybrid max °C	Maximum source	Hybrid min °C	Minimum source	Hybrid daily mean °C
1 Jan	8.7	AWS only	2.4	AWS only	5.55
2 Jan	11.1	AWS only	−0.7	AWS only	5.20
3 Jan	9.7	AWS only	5.4	AWS only	7.55
4 Jan	11.1	DLY	−0.8	AWS only	5.15
5 Jan	11.9	Both	−0.7	AWS	5.60
6 Jan	11.9	DLY	5.0	AWS	8.45
7 Jan	9.6	AWS only	2.6	AWS	6.10
8 Jan	7.6	AWS only	4.5	AWS only	6.05
9 Jan	9.6	DLY	0.3	AWS only	4.95
10 Jan	8.2	Both	−2.7	AWS	2.75
11 Jan	10.2	Both	2.3	AWS	6.25
12 Jan	9.2	AWS only	8.0	Both	8.60
13 Jan	5.3	AWS only	2.2	AWS only	3.75
14 Jan	5.2	AWS only	0.4	AWS only	2.80
15 Jan	6.4	AWS only	3.1	AWS only	4.75
16 Jan	5.7	AWS only	−2.4	AWS only	1.65
17 Jan	9.1	AWS only	−1.5	AWS only	3.80
18 Jan	8.3	AWS only	1.1	AWS only	4.70
19 Jan	7.5	AWS only	2.5	AWS only	5.00
20 Jan	9.2	DLY	−0.9	AWS only	4.15
21 Jan	7.7	AWS only	−2.1	DLY	2.80
22 Jan	7.1	AWS only	2.4	AWS only	4.75
23 Jan	7.4	DLY	1.5	AWS only	4.45
24 Jan	5.5	AWS	−1.3	Both	2.10
25 Jan	6.3	AWS	−0.3	AWS	3.00
26 Jan	6.4	Both	−0.1	AWS	3.15
27 Jan	6.9	DLY	1.0	AWS	3.95
28 Jan	11.6	AWS only	2.4	Both	7.00
29 Jan	12.9	AWS only	4.6	AWS only	8.75
30 Jan	13.6	Both	7.8	AWS only	10.70
31 Jan	12.4	Both	3.2	DLY	7.80

Hybrid monthly averages

Hybrid statistic	Sum	Days	January average
Daily maximum	273.3 °C	31	8.82 °C
Daily minimum	49.2 °C	31	1.59 °C
Daily mean	161.25 °C	31	5.20 °C

This system brings the rounded mean maximum to 8.8°C in exact alignment with the Met office data and the minimum to 1.6° is just 0.1°C different just within range of rounding effects. This could of course just be a fluke and would warrant deeper investigation.

Part 2 will move on to discuss the potential reasons for these huge discrepancies in readings, what effect these may be having on overall averages, and whether or not such discrepancies are regularly occurring and going either unnoticed or deliberately ignored. Bear in mind that if this “hybrid” calculation is correct it therefore follows that wildly incorrect readings are being knowingly used in climate averages calculations and computer models.

Part 3 will study February and March 2000 readings with even greater and less explicable difference and summarise what all this line of research is showing.

{All numeric station data can be downloaded from the CEDA file here. https://utils.ceda.ac.uk/cgi-bin/midas_stations/station_details.cgi.py?id=554&db=midas_stations}

Source: https://talkshop.blog/2026/09/14/sutton-bonington-addendum-appallingly-bad-data-recording-with-multiple-known-huge-errors-archived-part-1/