Copley DCNN 2122 – Snow Business

54.62360 -1.86919 Met Office Assessed CIMO Class 4 installed 1/12/1995

I feel it is important to see the above local image prior to the Google aerial image below to put this site into context.

Firstly I must clarify I have no intention to disparage the obviously diligent amateur meteorologist who originally installed this manual reporting site and maintains its recording. However, the responsible authority is the Met Office who chose to adopt this site’s data back in 1995 and continue to use it.

There are some rather obvious questions to ask and observations to make but firstly this site has regular “celebrity” status – Copley is billed as the snowiest place in the England and that record has more “Implications“.

The Guardian newspaper recently picked up on Copley and the issue regarding the removal of universal Winter Fuel Payments to pensioners.

There are obvious social/political issues to the withdrawal of such payments that are outside of the remit of my assessing Met Office stations, however, there is one rather puzzling issue that reflects rather badly on the data which the Met Office supplies from poorly sited locations.

Clearly the Met office accepts the weather is harsh in Copley and highly likely to be a location for residents to eligible to receive cold weather payments for those vulnerable people on certain means tested benefits in severe weather. They also have a weather station, in Copley, that records those events. Unfortunately the Copley site is NOT deemed acceptable to trigger such payments. A one hour and a quarter, thirty mile drive away in a much more benign location is the Bainbridge weather station. It is on this latter station that Cold Weather Payment averages trigger payments to Copley (Postcode DL13) residents.

A possible reason for the meteorological exclusion of Copley from such payment authorisation could well come down to the fact that it is a completely unsatisfactory location to record data for the climate record. In a back garden with all the various paraphernalia of normal life such as sheds. garden furniture, climbing frames, walls and tools, it simply cannot be regarded as representative of anywhere outside its own perimeter. If a Private Weather Station (PWS) were so poorly located, any readings would never be considered acceptable for any recording basis. Below are the site requirements that Cambell Scientific instruments advise for PWS siting.

Overview

Wind, air temperature, and water vapor pressure measurements are affected by surface type and roughness, soil moisture, regional topography, and obstructions. Sites selected for their applicability to a broader area should be free from obstructions such as buildings, trees, and steep slopes. Ten meter towers are often used to raise measurement heights above low-lying obstructions. The following table lists the suggested measurement heights and exposure (distance to an obstruction) for each type of sensor.

Suggested Measurement Heights and Exposure

Sensor Type	Measurement Height or Depth	Exposure Considerations
Wind	3 m ±0.1 m recommended (AASC) 2 m ±0.1 m, 10 m ±0.5 m, optional (AASC) 10 m (WMO & EPA)	No closer than ten times the obstruction’s height
Air Temperature & Relative Humidity	1.5 m ± 1 m (AASC) 1.25-2.0 m (WMO) 2.0 m for temperature only (EPA) 2 m & 10 m for temperature difference (EPA)	The sensor must be housed in a ventilated radiation shield to protect the sensor from thermal radiation. The EPA recommends the sensor be no closer than four times the obstruction’s height and at least 30 m from large paved areas.
Solar Radiation	Height should be consistent with the exposure standard (AASC, WMO, EPA). To facilitate leveling/cleaning, CSI recommends installing at a height of 3 m or less.	The sky should not be blocked by any surrounding object. However, objects <10° above the horizontal plane of the sensor are allowed.
Precipitation	1.0 m ±0.2 m (AASC) 30 cm minimum (WMO)	AASC & EPA suggest the sensor be no closer than four times the obstruction’s height. The orifice of the gage must be in a horizontal plane, open to the sky, and above the level of in-splashing and snow accumulation.
Soil Temperature	10 cm ±1.0 cm (AASC) 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, 50 cm, 100 cm (WMO)	Measurement site should be 1 m² and typical of the surface of interest. The ground surface should be level with respect to the immediate (10 m radius) area.

Despite its almost celebrity status in national media the site is clearly not meeting any appropriate standards, not even the somewhat “optional” ones the Met Office seems to use.

And who is ultimately losing out? Apart from the longer term issues of an unreliable national temperature record, the local less affluent residents may not receive due payments because the Met office seem unable to supply an accurate weather station.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2024/09/18/copley-dcnn-2122-snow-business/