Coventry:Coundon DCNN 4488 – Caught at Deep Fine Leg?

52.42445 -1.53641 Met Office assessed CIMO Class 4 and Satisfactory Installed 1/10/1998

I would like to suggest this is one of the more “unusual” of Met Office sites, unfortunately such absurdly located sites are actually quite normal features of the 384 strong list of climate reporting sites the Met Office currently uses.

A fellow investigator recently suggested to me regarding another typically absurd site ” I think we should be taking this up with individuals at the Met Office.  For instance asking who specifically signed off on this station being used.  We need to make them feel hot under the collar. ” I totally agree with that sentiment – who was/are the meteorologists who felt Coventry:Coundon was/is an acceptable site to contribute recordings to the historic climate record?

In this case the site has a very detailed account of its history by those who originally established it – students at the private and historic Bablake School. It is not unusual for school weather stations to have been adopted by the Met Office.

A Bablake (Coundon) weather station originally dates back to 1977 and involved none other than well known weather presenter Ian McCaskill amongst other celebrity benefactors in its formation. The detailed and quite charming history is available on the site’s very own web page and makes interesting reading showing the dedication of amateur meteorologists both young and old.

http://www.bablakeweather.co.uk/bws-history-1977-2017

Circumstances required the station to be relocated to its present automatic site in 1998 from which date its readings are fully archived. For all this charming history and endeavour, however, it should not be forgotten that weather stations are supposed to, as far as possible, reflect the natural environment and be representative of the widest possible area. How does this Coundon site fare in that respect?

How much of the surrounding area of Coventry is a cricket pitch? Virtually none thus the site fails on that count from the off – and even the on.

The CIMO guide gives specific definitions of extraneous heat sources but I seriously doubt that cricket nets (which Google Earth Pro images clearly show predate the weather station) were considered. The originators of those standards would probably have presumed no credible meteorological organisation would actually locate a weather station alongside intermittently placed enclosures like these. Similarly they would not be likely to have expected sight-screens to be moved alongside Stevenson screens – indeed they probably would never have heard of the former screening.

I seriously doubt the presence of occasional and temporary spectator seating would have been a consideration in the siting requirement stipulations…and the low level ball catching sheeting…..and the ground’s staff equipment. It would have been assumed such things would not exist at any credibly assessed site.

And then going back to the headline image….how were those circles and straight lines mowed in the grass? Certainly not by “push mower” but by a motorised mower regularly passing within inches of the screen.

All in all, despite its “charming” history, it is still an exceptionally poor site that cannot be considered reliable nor accurate. The Met Office oversaw the installation of this site – whoever “signed it off” needs to seriously consider their interpretation of the standards.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2024/10/03/coventrycoundon-dcnn-4488-caught-at-deep-fine-leg/