Broadwindsor DCNN8727 – What criterion do amateur weather stations meet to be Met Office adopted?

52.82169 -2.78992 Met Office CIMO Assessed Class 4 Temperature records from 1/11/2011.

Broadwindsor is another example of a recently, installed and maunal reporting garden site at Providence Farm, Common Water Lane, Broadwindsor. When researching these types of stations I am often baffled by why the Met Office selects them when they are obviously poorly sited from the start. I think in this case I have found a reason which probably applies to many others. It seems to be simply who you are and who you Know!

This site was a long term rain gauge site (likely for reasons to be revealed later) that had a screen and more instrumentation added in 2011 from when temperature readings started. Broadwindsor is in Dorset, a county which, to me, appears overly endowed with lots of relatively new but very poor to atrocious sites such as Kingston Maurward. The Met Office quotes Class 4 for this site which I feel is incorrect. I am certainly not one to nit-pick but the screen is almost literally sitting on the fence like Seavington: Hurcott Farm – is this a west country thing?

The hedgeing, changeable ground cover (a vegetable patch it would seem running to the south) and proximity to building really makes this an unregulated Class 5. Are the Met Office claiming this site is on a par with sites like Stowe.

The tall trees surrounding the site (no doubt a source of shading and acting as windbreaks) prohibit a Streetview image but the 2D option from historic images offers this below.

So why was this garden site chosen to be included in the data set of official Met Office “Climate Reporting” stations? This is how it is described on the Met Office WOW page.

I cannot find any obvious indication that this site is associated with an education unit though I may be wrong. What I was able to verify was who actually runs this site, Dr Mike Lowing, former President of the British Hydrological Society (hence probably that original rain gauge site). It is rather obvious that those with Stevenson Screens and instrumentation in their gardens are going to be keen meteorologists and often associated with meteorological institutions. This does though, also suggest that they should know how to site their equipment to the best possible standard. It is not for me to instruct anyone how to go about their business but it does seem strange to have located the screen where it currently is when they appear to have a large open space to the east to set up a very good site. It appears the Met Office have adopted this site’s readings on no more grounds than it is there, a common theme that I am noting throughout the country with these amateur sites. It should be also noted that the readings record is impeccable as it should be.

The Met Office seems to be working on a principle of quantity over quality on a par with the old tailor’s phrase “Never mind the quality, feel the width”. Yet again this is not a site that I would be including in any serious reconstruction of the natural national historic temperature record.