North Wyke DCNN 8836 – The way it should be done despite the Met Office attempts to corrupt it.

50.76864 -3.90392 Met Office CIMO assessed Class 2 Installed 1963 – Met office temperature records unusually only from 1981 but site owner records go back to installation.

North Wyke weather station is one of the very few very good quality sites the Met Office has, or put more accurately, Rothamsted Research runs its four sites in an exemplary fashion. Along with its main Harpenden location this prestigious agricultural research institute also has sites at Brooms Barn, Woburn and North Wyke and all rank amongst the Met Office’s best.

North Wyke weather station lies in central Devon 4 miles to the north east of Okehampton and 16 miles west northwest of the Met Office HQ in Exeter. Studying the basics, the map below indicates both 30 metre and 100 metres radius circles centred on the Stevenson screen itself which lies in the east of the notably very large enclosure.

The Met Office has chosen to assess this as CIMO Class 2 which I feel is possibly incorrect – surely this site meets Class 1. There may be technical reasons to mark it down as not perfect but I personally cannot see them from this viewpoint. Helpfully Google Streetview offers a low altitude (possibly drone) image as below.

I can see no reason to not accept readings from this site as being fully representative of many miles around mid Devon. Observational standards when manually reporting were effectively 100%. Even more important to add is that Rothamsted research takes their weather observing function very seriously and, more important, very scientifically. In complete contrast to the Met Office, Rothamsted are very open with their data and freely publish large amounts.

The issues that the Surface Stations Project will be analysing are exactly how such good raw data is being used. Whilst the Met Office endlessly engages in homogenisation exercises to “correct” for missing readings, site deficiencies, UHI and all manner of often esoteric factors, the facts are that good quality data from an unaltered and unaffected by changing condition site do not require such treatment. Preliminary studies of the raw data from the likes of Wye and Ipstones Edge did not confirm the Met Office’s “signal” levels of rising temperatures. Unquestionably a slow uplift in daily means was evident but nothing at all as striking as the Met Office chooses to present.

North Wyke is included in the Location specific Long Term Climate Averages site but it must be borne in mind that this an “adjusted” series that is heavily homogenised and subject to modifications – it is not a specific presentation of raw data solely from North Wyke.

It is, however, very noticeable that whilst many other climate averages sites are claiming mean maximum uplifts in the region of 1.2°C (e.g. RAF Odiham) over the sixty year period 1961 to 2020, the North Wyke data is showing a much more modest 0.8°C. Such a “signal” discrepancy between inland Devon and inland Hampshire seems improbable until one considers the nature of the sites. This comes into particular focus when considering the claimed well correlated/homogenising sites for North Wyke.

“Chivenor” is actually RAF Chivenor a coastal aerodrome. Exeter Airport is obviously another coastal aerodrome. Teignmouth on the coast comfortably meets the definition of 100% Junk and is a site that the Met Office itself used to create a “Fact sheet” demonstrating micro climates and how coastal sites differed from inland ones like North Wyke. Bovey Tracey: Yarner Wood No 2 met its demise over 17 years ago which is probably a good thing as it really was in a wood and probably ranked even worse than Teignmouth as shown below.

The high quality North Wyke site is having its data corrupted by yet more unrepresentative for historic climate reporting aviation sites, micro climate junk and, as ever, the “Undead” of a long closed and exceptionally poor weather station.

Conversely North Wyke and all Rothamsted units are ones to be added to the list of those suitable for reconstructing a reliable temperature record alongside the likes of Sciantec’s Cawood , Trawsgoed in Wales, Morpeth Cockle Park (original site), Wye and others to be advised.

There are now just around 70 more operational sites still to review and about the same number of important historic sites to complete this stage of the project. Sadly, there are still more Class 5 sites than Class 1 left to go despite this being my 372nd post. However, a nucleus of good quality sites has been identified and there are also a few independent/”private” weather stations of good quality to be included.

Hopefully by the spring next year I should be in a position to start the full historic temperature reconstruction.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2025/10/30/north-wyke-dcnn-8836-the-way-it-should-be-done-despite-the-met-office-attempts-to-corrupt-it/