58.17823 -0.85016 Met Office Assessed CIMO Class 5 + Subject to Shading Installed 1/1/1948
Alice Holt is a forest area in Hampshire and the site’s weather station holds a long term temperature record. The station is jointly operated by the Forest Research , UK Environmental Change Network and the Environment Agency. There is obviously no problem whatsoever with a Forest Research institute accurately monitoring weather, soil and weather conditions but should such an exceptional area’s data be included in the national temperature record?
The Met Office rates this site as low as rankings allow – this is it in close up.
Although there are no significant immediate extraneous heat sources to affect readings, the Class 5 rating is enforced by being in the middle of a forest clearing. Shading from the surrounding trees and also the obvious wind break effect create a localised micro climate. Originally the site was manual recording but considered worthy of conversion to automated reporting in 2009 though there is, logically, no wind speed recording instrumentation.
The question of whether such micro climate data should be included in the national historic record is quite interesting in that this site’s records are consistently colder than the surrounding area. Very near neighbouring sites at Odiham (Class 3) and South Farnborough (Class 2) are also automated and much better quality. The map below from https://weatherobs.com/ shows the locations of automatic reporting sites in southern England. Alice Holt Lodge is adjacent to Guildford.
Mean daily annual temperature records indicate Alice Holt Lodge is up to 0.7°C colder for 2023.
The same differential applies to data from 2021 and 2022 and demonstrates the significant differences that can be caused by variation of siting. Given that some “Climate Scientists” seem captivated by such small variations of temperature and attribute them to being an “existential threat”, I do wonder if they have ever considered such mundane aspects as siting of instrumentation and the obvious difference it makes.
via Tallbloke’s Talkshop
November 3, 2024 at 05:12AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 