Almondsbury WMO 039330 – A modern standard.

51.55156 -2.55941 Met Office assessed CIMO Class 2 Installed 27/3/2018

I follow up my previous review of Craibstone No 2 with Almondsbury to demonstrate what I previously highlighted as double standards operating at the Met Office. Craibstone was relocated to a completely new site in 2021 whilst Almondsbury was newly installed in 2018. The Craibstone Screen now sits 100 metres off a minor road in rural north Scotland, the Almondsbury screen is located by the M4/M5 motorway interchange just to the north of Bristol. Craibstone is assessed as almost as bad as it gets (Class 4) whilst Almondsbury is conversely rated almost as good as it gets (Class 2) and is a World Meteorological Organisation reporting site. How realistic is all this?

Firstly this is the most recent image from google street view as seen from the M5 motorway.

As in the case of Craibstone, the immediate location of Almondsbury is flat (in the latter case due to artificial excavation of the immediate area for reasons evident below) but there is a surrounding slope which rises 13 metres over a distance of 150 metres from 74 metres amsl at the station to a spot height of 87m. The slopes at both sites are comparable.

Craibstone sits 100 metres away from a minor country lane, whilst Almondsbury lies approximately 100 metres from the M5 eastbound carriageway as below.

Craibstone has a few agricultural experimental trial fields surrounding the rural site whilst Almondsbury not only has a significant area of hard-standing by it and a major Urban Heat Island to the south but is also home to a National Police Air Service helicopter base.

https://flightsim.to/file/30992/gb-0838-almondsbury-bristol-npas-gwaa-heli-base

The screen is to the left of the wind sock just north of the hard standing in the image above and is also visible in the image below just to the right of the wind sock…..and there are rather a lot of helicopters regularly operating in the vicinity. Obviously there are imperative reasons for having a weather station reporting immediate weather conditions here – that is beyond dispute. Whether or not data from such an unnatural location should contribute to the ongoing historic nation temperature record is seriously debateable.

I welcome anyone’s views on this seeming different interpretations of standards. For my part I fail to understand how the new Almondsbury site can be so highly rated with Craibstone so poorly. Furthermore why are both Almondsbury and the almost comical Craibstone neighbouring site of Dyce considered worthy of WMO reporting?

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2024/10/26/almondsbury-wmo-039330-a-modern-standard/