Tibbenham Airfield WMO03931 – Modern Met Office misinterpretation.

52.45662 1.16246 Met Office CIMO Assessed Class 2 Installed 12/2/2015

The Commission for Instrumentation and Meteorological Observations (CIMO) together with the International Standards Organisation published the regulatory standards for weather station site standards in 2014. There have been very many UK weather stations installed after that date, very many are of a low rated poor standard. In many cases I find the Met office’s assessment puzzling with some surprisingly marked better though many seem harshly marked down. Tibbenham airfield is assessed Class 2 which I regard as somewhat optimistic for the reasons below.

Firstly below I have marked the 10 metre and 30 metre radius annuli from the screen. The vehicles to the west (right) are caravans and historic images show various comings and goings within 30 metres over recent years. The Met office seems to overlook these transient effects even to the extent demonstrated at East Malling where medium term buildings severely compromise the site.

What I do not understand even more though, is their ignoring the twin lines of hedges to both the east and west creating an almost north/south corridor. As well as affecting winds from the sides these will unquestionably act as both wind breaks and funnels variable with wind direction. The easterly of the two hedges is shown below and is high enough to obscure the screen from sight.

Norfolk Gliding Club have their own webcam offering live views of their facilities. I captured the still below showing the eastern hedge, caravans, glider trailers, cars, western hedge and hard standing areas.

Historic images from just prior to the weather station indicate the eastern hedge is actually a recent planting at the same time as the site installation presumably to delineate the airfield site. However this also indicates that the Met Office would have known about this at the outset rather similar to Culzean Castle , Albemarle and too many others. They really should have considered the longer term effects – or perhaps they did.

In summary I do not consider it reasonable to consider this Tibenham site a fully representative site for the wider area and Class 2 is not appropriate. The typical Met Office standard of Class 4 is much more appropriate. That the modern day Met Office in full knowledge of the CIMO requirements for climate reporting stations chose to install another lower standard unit that will only deteriorate over time due to the almost inevitable neglect of the hedges is a poor reflection on their standards.