Levens Hall DCNN7122 versus Warcop Range WMO03226. Bizarre Met Office comparisons.

Levens Hall 54.258854, -2.77848, Altitude 7 metres amsl. CIMO Class 5 Temperature records from 1/4/1992

Warcop Range 54.57243, -2.41318 Altitude 227 metres amsl CIMO Class 1 Temperature records from 1/2/1992

The Met Office has decided that the two above sites, almost simultaneously opened and which are 26 miles apart in Cumbria represent the worst possible CIMO classification of 5 at Levens Hall and the very best possible of Class 1 at Warcop Range. They also claim they are “well correlated” despite a 220 metre elevation difference and one being on the coast whilst the other is well inland. Confused?……The Met Office definitely is.

The above daily extremes webpage gives hyperlinks to the detail of the weather experienced at the named sites……well a reasonable person would assume so as the Met Office is highlighting their previous day’s “extremes”. Most would expect clicking on Levens Hall would take them to Levens Hall’s data but they would be completely wrong. Despite being a 33 year long running site the link for Levens Hall looks like this.

Consider this in detail. The link expressly does NOT offer any data for Levens Hall at all – how is that acceptable? Is Levens Hall data something that cannot be openly divulged? Why offer links to Warcop which recorded the region’s coldest temperature? There is, in reality, no way of checking Levens Hall’s previous day’s readings available to the general public. Even going to the Met Office’s own “Weather Observations Website” only reveals “No Data Found”

The first alternative option to coastal low altitude (7 metres/23 feet) Levens Hall is Shap at 16.7 miles away and 248 metres/814 feet higher elevation, followed by those other absurd high elevation and inland comparisons including Warcop itself, Great Dun Fell 2, and Keswick. It is quite surreal that the UK tax payer funded Met Office feels it is acceptable to quote such unsubstantiated “extremes”, hide any means to verify the details and then divert readers attentions to other sites which will not have even remote likely correlation to the original claim. The self-same Met Office which points out how dramatically different coastal and very close inland locations can often be.

The Met Office secrecy is made all the more peculiar when the actual data it appears to be hiding is readily available from a third party source anyway as below.

The only thing even more perverse than these current “weather” links is the long term location specific climate averages offered for Levens Hall opting to include the 55 year dead Ambleside as the nearest comparative.

The bizarre comparisons go even further regarding the individual sites being compared both by me and the Met Office in referring to Warcop.

Levens Hall is a long standing site on low lying and perfectly flat land 6 miles to the north west of Grange over Sands. The headline 30 metres radius circled area indicates minimal intrusions likely to affect readings. None of the 14 historic images at various times of day and year dating back to 1985 (before site installation) indicate any shading from the trees on the 30 metre perimeter line. This is probably a Class 2 site or at very worst Class 3. The Met Office class 5 assessment is ridiculous and I challenge them to prove the likes of Heathrow or Chertsey Abbey Meads can be considered superior to Levens Hall. Why this site is so marked down and its readings so covert makes no rational sense at all particularly as it was also a well observed site with very few missing readings and deemed worthy of automation in 2010.

Examining the Class 1 Warcop Range site is particularly interesting in that it is demonstrably not Class 1. When Tim Channon reviewed the site in 2012 he categorically ruled out Class 1 largely on the “dumping ground” to the west of the site. Looking at that feature in more detail from street view indicates it is much more than a minor problem.

That “dumping ground” is now a 50 metre long berm almost 2 metres high (measured from “Elevation Finder) that lies just 21 metres from the screen. Given this site lies to the west of the high Fells, not only are westerly winds likely blocked by the berm but descending easterly air streams are equally likely trapped from the east. It is also significant to note that this is an active military site in very frequent use.

Warcop is quite possibly one of those “Human Errors” where the Met Office default position is to rate all sites as Class 1 and “Excellent” unless actively marked down. I doubt anyone impartially applying the CIMO guidance could genuinely feel this site is significantly better than Levens Hall, the reverse position is much more likely.

In summary these two Cumbrian sites are indicative of remarkably inconsistent site appraisals for climate reporting purposes of sites further confused by bizarre representations (or lack of presentation) of any actual verifiable data. All in all, extremely erratic and poor standards.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/levens-hall-dcnn7122-versus-warcop-range-wmo03226-bizarre-met-office-comparisons/