Whitesands DCNN 8108 – What are the Met Office’s real motives?

51.89491 -5.28553 Met Office assessed CIMO 4 ********Installed 6th MAY 2024*********

Whitesands weather station was installed as a new and additional official Met Office manually recording “Climate” station less than one year ago. This review seeks to uncover why the Met Office feels it is acceptable to still be installing such low grade sites in regions which already have disproportionately high number.

The headline Google aerial image dates from 7/6/2024. The preceding dated image on the historic file of 14/3/2023 does not indicate any evidence of a Stevenson Screen as neither does the latest Street View image of September 2021. This site is thus not an adopted existing private weather station, it is a new additional site that only records manually with single daily readings taken at 09:00. Manually reporting stations are of very limited use in immediate weather forecasting hence this site is primarily for reporting a shorter range of data for historic records a.k.a. “Climate Reporting”. A sample from this Met Office link states:

“The purpose of the climate network is to enable the climate of the United Kingdom to be determined and monitored and thereby meeting the requirements for international exchange, commercial applications and research. The UKON2 document specifies how requirements for network density, site representativity, observing schedules and accuracy are met at the present time. The minimum observing requirement at a climate station is the daily measurement of maximum temperature, minimum temperature and rainfall amount though many stations make a wider range of observations such as those elements listed in sections 4.5 – 4.8. The current climate network is made up of the following sub-networks:” {my bold: n.b network density and distribution, “representativity” – if such a word exists – observing schedules and accuracy are all issues discussed by the Surface Stations Project}

Data from all climate stations (regardless of how poorly sited they may actually be ) is included in the compilation of the UK’s national historic temperature record. Whilst there are, as yet, no archived temperature records from Whitesands I feel it is still perfectly reasonable to question this site’s “representativity”, the implications of “network density” and likely accuracy of this site.

To help to visualise the site below is a street-view image prior to installation. The screen is now sited immediately inside the fence just to the east (right) of the yellow speed restriction sign indicating both 5 mph and, by inference, that motorised vehicles will be passing in extremely close proximity.

And here is the sign by the entrance gate.

Given that the weather station is called “Whitesands”, the entrance sign indicates “Dunes” and this location is actually “Dunes at Whitesands Camping” I think these provide adequate “clues” as to the likely nature of the location and soil type – sand dunes by the seaside.

All imagery indicates the screen is set by a fence, alongside a roadway for slow moving vehicles to turn a corner. The site is Met Office assessed as Class 4. I would suggest Class 5 is really more appropriate given all the likely site compromises such as the large waste bin facility alongside – this is a camping site after all. However, even at Class 4 the official site representativity is stated as “Class 4 (additional estimated uncertainty added by siting up to 2 °C)

The Met Office and BBC made great emphasis on soil types, notably sandy heath soils in their bizarre defence of accuracy at Heathrow. Whilst seemingly not noticing the distinct lack of soil at Heathrow it was stated

“Even the soil can be a factor, according to Gareth Harvey from the BBC Weather Centre.”Take another very warm spot, like Wisley – located in the Surrey heathland and typified by sandy soils,” he says.”Sand is a natural insulator and so the heating effect of sunshine is stored in the top layer only, which gets very hot and then warms the air.”

If sandy soils can have a warming effect on a locality what are the likely effects of entire hills of pure sand i.e. Sand Dunes? To suggest a poorly sited (Class 4 at best) weather station, in such an exclusive environment micro climate and with transient artificial effects alongside as representative is simply not credible.

The question is – Why is the Met Office still installing such known poor and unrepresentative quality in 2024?

Addressing the issue of “Network Density” brings up an amazing plethora of “Climate reporting” weather stations already existing in this particularly small area. Taking a centre point of a line between Cardigan and Tenby and drawing a circle of radius of 20 miles, there are the following weather stations.

1. Aberporth – Automatic since 1957 – Installed 1941 = Class 4.
2. Pembrey Sands – Automatic since installation in 1993 – Class 5S.
3. Dale Fort – Manual since 1950 – Class 4S.
4. Tenby – Manual since 1969 – Class 4.
5. Milford Haven – Automatic since 1951 – Class 5.
6. Whitechurch – Automatic since 2011 installed 1975 – Class 4.
7. Saron – Manual since 1988 – Class 4.
8. Scolton Country Park – Automatic since 2011 – installed 1989 – Class 4.

It is difficult to see any meteorological reason to add yet another poor quality weather station to so many existing and also notably poor sites. This area of approximately 2,500 square kilometres of what is largely the traditional boundary of Pembrokeshire now has 9 climate reporting stations. As I highlighted in reviewing Buxton, the larger area and inland county of Derbyshire (at over 2,600 square kilometres) has just 3 climate reporting stations. A similar discrepancy was noted with the cooler eastern Scotland county of Fife – also with just 3 reporting stations – that directly contrasts with the 11 sites in the hot spot of west London with one weather station per every 14 square kilometres.

Whilst I have no concerns whatsoever about how many weather stations the Met Office may chose to have, I find myself suspicious of the distribution numbers of the remaining and often manual climate reporting sites. There appears to be many more residual sites in warmer areas following closure of rural one due to difficulties in automation. The instances of the Met Office adding extra very poor quality additional sites for non forecasting purposes to these areas suggests motives other than accurate historic temperature recording.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2025/04/19/whitesands-dcnn-8108-what-are-the-met-offices-real-motives/