Murlough DCNN9260 – Basking in the shade

52.24515 -5.83173 Met office CIMO Assessed Class 5 Installed 1/1/1968

Murlough House is an historic building near the coastal resort of Newcastle in the south east of Northern Ireland. Over the years it has variously been a country seat for the 4th Marquis of Downshire, a USAF base, a Church of Ireland conference centre, a Field Studies Centre for Queens University Belfast (probably the originators of the weather station) and currently a “Boutique Hotel” and conference centre focusing as a Christian spiritual retreat. Originally built on open farmland with sea views, in the early 20th century it was planted with trees to create a sheltered micro-climate and now sits deep within its own wooded enclosure.

I find Class 5 sites {Class 5 (additional estimated uncertainty added by siting up to 5 °C)}such as Murlough extremely concerning from a climate reporting viewpoint. It was installed as manually reporting (just once per day) in the latter 60s and is thus of no significant benefit to forecasting. The surrounding trees would already have been very well established having been mostly planted in 1910. This level of enclosure will always act as a very large windbreak in a countryside that is generally a patchwork of open fields as evidenced below.

The screen not only suffers heavy shade from the trees but also becomes a suntrap when sunshine breaks the shade line. This is a classic distorting effect. There will be entrapped static air within the screen due to inadequate natural ventilation from the windbreaks that will then suddenly experience rapid warming. This problem is well known to the Met Office who used to openly report it.

Note: “a design that is not immune from problems in extreme cases.” can be readily translated to “sites within artificially created micro climates with very little wind i.e. the grounds of Murlough House”

The meteorologists installing this unit would have been perfectly well aware of the issues but went ahead disregarding the fact that the site in no way reflected the surrounding environment. This was then made more illogical by its inclusion as a “Climate Averages Reporting Site” to represent its region from 1960 ( 8 years before its installation) to 2020 by Met Office senior staff Matthew Perry and Daniel Hollis

Studying the observations record of this “Climate Averages” site rather leaves a lot to be desired. The unit was automated 15/12/2009 quite possibly because so few reliable readings were being taken. In the 349 reporting days prior to automation in that year, no fewer than 125 days readings were not taken. In 2008 there were 107 missing days. The CEDA archive “Remarks” section is full of “Missing Readings” comments such as these which actually cover lengthier periods than the indicated single dates.

Such omissions require “infilling” with estimated data from other “well correlated” sites, so yet again an instance of “averages” being derived from “estimated averages” from elsewhere providing of course those “elsewheres” have readings to use. Temperature records from Katesbridge did not even commence until 1993, Killowen did not start until 1997 and whilst Hillsborough did exist for the entire 60 year averaging period, Lough Cowey only opened in 1978 and closed in 2008.

What becomes even more ridiculous is that there are other weather stations much nearer to Murlough that could be used – Silent Valley is just 10.5 miles from Murlough with temperature data from 1977, Trassey Slievenaman is even closer at 7 miles away with data from 1985, Magherally at 15 miles distant has data also from 1977. What was the thought process of those Met Office mean manipulators publishing their work in 2005 to use distant data from recently opened sites in preference to longer term ones close by?

This whole situation is indicative of attempts to produce end figures by sleight of hand to prove a predetermined end result rather than any genuine climate record. It is from these area and regional figures that the national climate historical record has been produced which is clearly unfit for purpose. Total deconstruction is required.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/murlough-dcnn9260/