Wellesbourne DCNN 9268 – A long term reliable site.

52.20599 -1.60479 Met Office Assessed CIMO Class 2 installed 1/1/1950

In recently discussing the serious disinformation the Met Office was peddling regarding Astwood Bank weather station, I offered comparative readings from the Wellesbourne weather station. I feel it is now appropriate to review Wellesbourne to put my contentions of bad versus good sites into full context. Wellesbourne is a very good site and this is why.

Firstly it is important to clarify that this site is NOT, and never was, an aviation site despite its close proximity to RAF Wellesbourne. The historic aerodrome had its own distinctly separate weather station (though data was never archived for climate reporting purposes) and indeed still does have a sophisticated set up. https://www.wellesbourneairfield.com/wxoffice.htm

One thing (amongst many) that the airfield itself is famous for is being the inadvertent final resting place of the magnificent AVRO Vulcan XM655 which (allegedly) landed there by mistake and was subsequently unable to depart. It apparently taxis around on events days but is no longer air worthy. Well worth a visit to get up close to such an iconic aircraft.

The weather station was actually installed in 1950 at a slightly different site to its present location being moved to its current site in 1955. The original site would not be different in climatology being only a short relocation at the same altitude. Archived temperature records only start from 1959 though it would be perfectly reasonable to use the data all the way back to its origin in 1950 which are available.

So why do I feel this is a good site? Firstly the raw CIMO assessment standards with a 100 metre radius circle are indicated below. This could actually be widened out to 250 metres before any artificial constructions come into sight. The only realistic concern is the changing ground cover, more later.

It is important to check topography – in this case the expression “as flat as a pancake” comes to mind so certainly no problems there.

A final street view check gives a very distant view of the screen to the right of the white wind mast. It looks tiny and is barely visible because it is so far from any road. The image fore-shortens distance, the buildings in the view behind are a greater distance behind than the station itself is from the road.

The only reason the Met Office can mark this site down from the very best is on the changing and potentially unnatural ground cover. I agree that there has been research suggesting newly ploughed/harrowed fields can have detrimental warming effects, but in the grand scheme of things is this really of any importance when the likes of Heathrow et alia are considered? Class 2 is however considered fully representative of the surrounding area and this site is certainly open and does not suffer from any artificial low wind speed effects. UHI is obviously non-existent, Wellesbourne is only a large village and the neighbouring towns are several miles away.

What I find most interesting about Wellesbourne is its history and purpose. Most weather stations used for climate reporting were never really intended for that purpose. Aviation sites were originally for aviators, coastguard and port sites were for naval purposes, walled kitchen garden sites were largely for the owners historic vanity projects, botanic gardens and specialist horticultural sites for micro climate monitoring and so on. However, open cropping and agricultural research sites were established and maintained for monitoring wide areas and real world conditions. The whole purpose of their existence was the development and improvement of crops to grow in the real natural world – artificial conditions were very much not what they wanted.

Wellesbourne is a campus of the large agricultural division of Warwick University and is widely acknowledged as a centre of excellence with a long reputation and history.

Not only did Warwick maintain Wellesbourne weather station but also had the nearby Moreton Morrell campus weather station from 1953 to 1991. Both sites were meticulously well observed with the ongoing Wellesbourne site automated in 2011.

I feel it is fair to state that Warwick University have proved to be very good custodians of their weather facility as they most certainly should be with it is so critical to their specific needs. This rings true of other similar institutions whose needs are intrinsically associated with the natural climate conditions. Rothamsted Research responsible for four weather stations, Sciantec at Cawood, Newcastle university at Morpeth, Cockle Park, Strathclyde University College at Craibstone, Trawsgoed and the University of Aberystwyth are all reliable quality examples.

The Met Office certainly does have a few good sites and there are more for me to review soon. What is of grave concern is that such good sites are having their data “homogenised” with and compared to some totally unacceptable junk sites by a Met Office that has long ceased to operate in an overt and transparent manner. “Mixing and matching” good quality readings from Wellesbourne with the almost comedic back garden enthusiast amateur rubbish like Astwood Bank is not credible science and displays a deliberate attempt to manipulate data and provide disinformation to fool the taxpaying public. That the Met Office refuses to advise which weather stations it uses in its computer modelled statistical data torturing reveals they are unfit for purpose.

There are now only just over 100 stations left to review and thence to commence the analysis work of those good quality, reliable long term sites for reconstruction of a national historic temperature record. Wellesbourne will certainly be one of those sites to consider.

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Yesterday’s (15/5/2025) Met Office daily climate extremes showed Wellesbourne the regional high at 20.7 °C. wind the wind gusting up to 54 kph from the South West.

Meantime, just a few miles away, Astwood Bank experiencing wind from the one direction it might penetrate the lowest level hedge only recorded 17.6°C. Does the Met Office really not understand why it has lost all its credibility?

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2025/07/16/wellesbourne-dcnn-9268-a-long-term-reliable-site/