Has anyone seen or know about any weather data from Kew observatory that closed in 1980?

The temperature series dates back as far as I know to 1797 and the rainfall series even earlier than that. I would ask the UKMO to see if they could provide it but I know from experience that would be very costly. I know there was a book on the subject in the various Met Office libraries I worked at but surely this data should be available in electronic format nowadays?

Try the Met Office library; you should be able to borrow the book.

On 01/06/2014 20:51, exmetman wrote:
Has anyone seen or know about any weather data from Kew observatory that closed in 1980?

The temperature series dates back as far as I know to 1797 and the rainfall series even earlier than that. I would ask the UKMO to see if they could provide it but I know from experience that would be very costly. I know there was a book on the subject in the various Met Office libraries I worked at but surely this data should be available in electronic format nowadays?


Quite a lot of Kew met reports on
http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/data_ser...books/kew.html

On Sunday, June 1, 2014 8:51:31 PM UTC+1, exmetman wrote:
Has anyone seen or know about any weather data from Kew observatory that closed in 1980? The temperature series dates back as far as I know to 1797 and the rainfall series even earlier than that. I would ask the UKMO to see if they could provide it but I know from experience that would be very costly. I know there was a book on the subject in the various Met Office libraries I worked at but surely this data should be available in electronic format nowadays?

Are you talking about daily or monthly data. For my own area records I tabulated a mixture of the Kew and Greenwich monthly data on an excel spreadsheet. I could send you just the Kew data if you are interested? The only daily records I have are the MetO rain gauge data for City of London Cemetary dating back to 1960.

Daily would be good! I'm keen, but not that keen about transcribing them from the book,and if I remember correctly they were only monthly means. I suppose I could raise a FOI request but that seems a bit over the top.

On Sunday, 1 June 2014 22:08:01 UTC+1, exmetman wrote:

I suppose I could raise a FOI request but that seems a bit over the top.

Are FOIs cheap?
Because I once paid tax in this country and would like to see at least one decent result that doesn't include fitting out a palace for ministers and MPs to fornicate and commit adultery in.

How about we all club together and get someone pedantic and capable of doing moronically repetitive stuff like an automaton to go to Exitdoor and grab a load of scans or photos from the data library.

If we send Dawlish he could work in shifts with himself if we programme him carefully (very, very carefully) maybe even get his socks off and get multiple jobs done simultaneously. We could even offer to pay him handsomely on completion and send him monopoly money when we get the results -after checking he actually managed to do the job properly that is.

Damn no! I just realised we couldn't trust him with temperature figures or aerosol data -certainly not anything related to CO2.
Hmmm... nothing closely related to reality either.
OK. Forget I asked.

OT:
Anyone know of a website that monitors limestone monuments for sulphates?
Or will I have to break into the servers of the University of East Anglia?

In message ,
exmetman writes
Has anyone seen or know about any weather data from Kew observatory
that closed in 1980?

The temperature series dates back as far as I know to 1797 and the
rainfall series even earlier than that. I would ask the UKMO to see if
they could provide it but I know from experience that would be very
costly. I know there was a book on the subject in the various Met
Office libraries I worked at but surely this data should be available
in electronic format nowadays?

A quick websearch turned up a PDF copy of an article about the
observatory by Jim Galvin:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...6080581208/pdf

It was first published in Volume 58 Issue 12 of "Weather". It's possible
that the article's references might prove helpful.

The book "A Century of London Weather" by WAL Marshall, published by
HMSO in 1952 has monthly summaries for both Kew and Greenwich, those for
Kew covering the period 1871 to 1949. A few years ago I bought a
second-hand copy. I imagine that if you search for it on Amazon, there's
a good change that some second-hand book dealer will have a copy for
sale.

It's a pity that it isn't the observatory's magnetism data that you
want, as I see that the British Geological Survey makes all of that
available online.

For daily data, rather than contacting the UKMO it might be better to
contact the observatory directly, as they might be less bound by the
profit motive. Though the weather side of their operations closed in
1980, they probably still have copies of all the old records.
--
John Hall Weep not for little Leonie
Abducted by a French Marquis!
Though loss of honour was a wrench
Just think how it's improved her French. Harry Graham (1874-1936)

John

I found the same article! And yes it is a great pity that its not magnetism data that I'm after - I think that in itself speaks volumes about the non-availability of climate data in the UK! As far as I can see there are daily records extending back to 1773, which may form part of the daily CET composite temperature series.

Bruce.

On 02/06/2014 10:28, John Hall wrote:
In message ,
exmetman writes
Has anyone seen or know about any weather data from Kew observatory
that closed in 1980?

The temperature series dates back as far as I know to 1797 and the
rainfall series even earlier than that. I would ask the UKMO to see if
they could provide it but I know from experience that would be very
costly. I know there was a book on the subject in the various Met
Office libraries I worked at but surely this data should be available
in electronic format nowadays?

A quick websearch turned up a PDF copy of an article about the
observatory by Jim Galvin:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...6080581208/pdf

It was first published in Volume 58 Issue 12 of "Weather". It's possible
that the article's references might prove helpful.

The book "A Century of London Weather" by WAL Marshall, published by
HMSO in 1952 has monthly summaries for both Kew and Greenwich, those for
Kew covering the period 1871 to 1949. A few years ago I bought a
second-hand copy. I imagine that if you search for it on Amazon, there's
a good change that some second-hand book dealer will have a copy for sale.

It's a pity that it isn't the observatory's magnetism data that you
want, as I see that the British Geological Survey makes all of that
available online.

For daily data, rather than contacting the UKMO it might be better to
contact the observatory directly, as they might be less bound by the
profit motive. Though the weather side of their operations closed in
1980, they probably still have copies of all the old records.

All the records were taken to the Met Office archives - Eastern Road as
was, now in the archives at Exeter. See
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/library/archive for more info. This
is because the observatory was Met Office and not independent as you imply.

I was at Kew Observatory in the late sixties, there were some
fascinating old documents there; I hope these were kept.

On 02/06/2014 13:28, exmetman wrote:
John

I found the same article! And yes it is a great pity that its not magnetism data that I'm after - I think that in itself speaks volumes about the non-availability of climate data in the UK! As far as I can see there are daily records extending back to 1773, which may form part of the daily CET composite temperature series.

Bruce.

Fascinating indeed! However, some of Jim's facts seem to be off if my
memory serves well. In my day, we used a Newman barometer (there's one
in the Met O library, but whether it's the same one I don't know). There
was a Kew pattern, but we didn't use it!

The rate of change of pressure wasn't photographic, only pen on paper.
Very interesting to watch when fronts were going through (couldn't do
that with photographic records).

There were three photographic recorders - temperature from the North
Wall screen, pressure and a seismometer. We assistants were responsible
for developing the charts every morning.

Always thought the Dines PTA was the best anemo - been at the top of the
anemo mast on more than one occasion (calibration). Great view from up
there!

Must stop reminiscing!