Aviemore WMO03063 – The last working Class 5 Junk site to review – until the Met office opens another one.

57.20646 -3.882855 Met Office CIMO Assessed Class 5 Installed 1/7/1982.

Aviemore is most famous as the UK’s main ski resort with a mainline railway station attracting tourism and a chairlift to the nearby Cairngorm Summit. This is also the last Met Office assessed operational CIMO Class 5 weather station left for me to review. A superficial view of the aerial image may make the low ranking seem harsh until you go into further detail.

When Tim Channon first reviewed the site he adjudged Class 1 based on distance from buildings and other potentially compromising visible issues. This was one where he was, quite unusually, dramatically wrong as he failed to consider the topography. This is the 100 metre radius area.

No major issues apart from the buildings to the east-south-east though I would say on this basis Class 2 would be more appropriate but still perfectly acceptable. The topography, however, leaves a lot to be desired to site a credible weather station.

The screen itself is not quite visible in any street view image I could find but the green fencing outline of the enclosure can be seen between the two buildings and is by the overhead electricity cables and pole mounted transformer supplying its power. The 10 metre high wind mast is separate to the enclosure being 40 metres to the rear. The Met Office specifically states that an “Undesirable Site” is one on a slope but such claims never seem to really concern them – the nearest other weather station is Cairngorm Chairlift which is clearly also unacceptably steep.

This Aviemore site is prone to heavy shading from the hills as well as trees and all manner of cold air drainage/frost hollow conditions that the Met office is clearly aware of. They did establish an alternative “Trial Site” presumably to confirm the existing one was acceptable which ran from 4/10/2000 to 16/5/2001 plus they also briefly ran another site with no archived readings. Their Weather Observations Website (WOW) shows all three with the current main site to the north, trial site most southerly and the middle (Youth Hostel) unit shown as blue dots below. The trial site ran consistently warmer by typically 0.3°C in minimum readings but seemingly no remedial action was taken to correct any problems.

Interestingly, Aviemore is one of the very few Met office weather stations that reports its data to WOW on an up to date daily and hourly basis – presumably for its tourism value.

What is probably the most bizarre aspect of this poor quality site is, yet again, it is used as a “Climate Average” site with what I personally find a mind-bendingly perverse comparison.

Yes there really is a “Climate Station” at the summit of Cairngorm. Quite what area this unique location is expected to represent is rather strange to say the least.

I will definitely not be using Aviemore for any long term historic UK climate reconstruction………and as for Cairngorm Summit! This is what it looks like. (p.s. it is NOT CIMO rated.)

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2026/01/07/aviemore-wmo03063-the-last-working-class-5-junk-site-to-review-until-the-met-office-opens-another-one/