Walney Island WMO03214 – A maritime and aviation site promisingly good enough for purpose.

54.12489 -3.25791 Met Office CIMO assessed Class 1 archived temperature readings from 1/2/1992

Walney Island is a road bridge connected island in the Irish Sea just off the mainland at Barrow-in Furness. This area has in the past been variously in the counties of Lancashire, possibly Westmorland though now comes under Cumbria. The area has a long naval tradition that also developed into aviation with Vickers Aviation eventually becoming BAE. Airships started using a Walney aerodrome as early as the First World War with the runways built in 1940. Although the main runway (17/35) is currently only 3,317 feet/ 1013 metres there are tentative plans to extend and develop the site into an international airport.

The weather station will date back to its wartime era but principally for use of the RAF. A general “start” date of 1971 is quoted with temperature records only archived digitally from 1992. I have not been able to find any manuscript records prior to that date and it is quite probable none were kept for general public circulation.

As far as I can ascertain the current site has been the same certainly since archived temperature records began in 1992 but it seems unlikely for any original station to have been so remotely sited from the runway thresholds. It is worth noting that there have been several weather stations sites at Barrow itself with one dating back to 1880 (and probably earlier) that would have served the naval function and this site would have been the main area synoptic site throughout most of 20th century history.

The Met Office assesses this site as Class 1 and it would be churlish of me to dispute that claim. Google Streetview handily has a panorama view from the Control Tower (courtesy Tony Rastrick 2019). Unfortunately the weather station sits on the image join slightly distorting dimensions. This helpful local view shows the station (centre image either side of the window partition) to be better than may be assumed from the flat aerial view. There is wide clearance around the enclosure of approximately 35 metres scaled from the aerial image.

In his initial review Tim Channon suggested Class 2 would be a more appropriate judgment and on balance that is probably the technically correct judgment particularly considering the extensive paving issues..

WMO03214, Walney Island

Tim made a detailed assessment of paving and cabinetry within enclosures and argued that this did potentially downgrade all major synoptic sites such as Walney for the exact accuracy that should be required for climate reporting – after all in climate terms, averages of tenths of a degree are being considered and not the approximations of forecasting. His detailed argument can be found here.

For my part I do not feel perfection should be the enemy of the good and the Walney Island unit is a good enough quality site to represent its somewhat unusual maritime location on the Furness peninsula – a pity its records do not go back further but a good benchmark for 21st century readings. Walney is one of a cluster of Class 1 rated stations that Cumbria is fortunate to be blessed with and this seems to show in their distinctly undramatic temperature averages regardless of whether they are maritime or higher inland sites..

Station: Walney Island

Climate period: 1991-2020  

Month	Maximum temperature (°C)	Minimum temperature (°C)	Days of air frost (days)	Sunshine (hours)	Rainfall (mm)	Days of rainfall ≥1 mm (days)	Monthly mean wind speed at 10 m (knots)

Annual

12.93

7.61

20.73

–

1026.98

155.45

10.64

Climate period: 1961-2020

Annual

12.29

6.92

32.28

–

991.59

152.31

–

Walney Island is displaying remarkable consistency with its near neighbours as I demonstrated in my review of St Bees Head. With 60 year maximum average increment of just 0.64 °C and minimum increment of 0.69 °C, this starkly contrasts with the shock horror pronouncements from the Met Office, where stations of exceptionally dubious provenance such as Heathrow (which really is Class 5 and not the claimed Class 3) display almost double those increments at 1.21 °C and 1.1 °C respectively.

In recreating a historic temperature record from only good quality and reliable sites, I feel the North West England area will be readily well served and should not prove difficult. The added bonus of so many Class 1 sites currently in the area (Walney, Shap, Warcop and St Bees Head) will assist in providing benchmarking for the post LIGT period to compare PRT readings against in other areas. Other northern sites such as Cawood, High Mowthorpe and Morpeth are promising for the north and northeast of England.

A project which at times I was despairing of being able to complete does finally now seem to be becoming achievable.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2026/07/09/walney-island-wmo03214-a-maritime-and-aviation-site-promisingly-good-enough-for-purpose/