{"id":424209,"date":"2026-02-01T19:22:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T18:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=424209"},"modified":"2026-02-01T19:22:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T18:22:44","slug":"forrest-lodge-burnhead-dcnn6107-an-example-of-everything-wrong-with-modern-met-office-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=424209","title":{"rendered":"Forrest Lodge, Burnhead DCNN6107 \u2013 An example of everything wrong with modern Met Office\u00a0sites."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Tallbloke’s Talkshop<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Ray Sanders<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial
55.14438 -4.27766 Met Office\u00a0CIMO<\/a>\u00a0Assessed Class 4 Installed 17\/03\/2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Forrest Estate\u00a0<\/a>is a large, wooded estate in Dumfries and Galloway noted for not only its \u201ccountry pursuits\u201d of shooting and fishing but also for holding stages of\u00a0motor rallying<\/a>\u00a0on the private roads. The weather station was installed as a manually reporting unit in 2016. Quite why the Met Office is using such new very low grade and intermittently reporting sites in the 21st century is the topic of this review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) formed the Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation (CIMO) to standardise meteorological observations worldwide several decades ago. The UK Met Office formally adopted these standards with effect from 2014 and it is the 2014 standard that I link and refer to in every review. It would be reasonable to assume that every subsequent new weather station installed after 2014 would be intended to meet the best possible standards of 1 and 2 for any reputable organisation. Unfortunately, the Met Office clearly does not feel constrained to meet even the lowest standards if Forrest Lodge Weather station (installed 2016) is an example of their operating standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Met Office claims Forrest Lodge meets Class 4 \u201cClass 4 (additional estimated uncertainty added by siting up to 2 \u00b0C) \u201c<\/em><\/strong>. This would be bad enough in itself even before detailed examination reveals the site does not even meet that standard and in reality, is an unacceptable \u201cClass 5 (additional estimated uncertainty added by siting up to 5 \u00b0C) Site not meeting the requirements of class 4. \u201c<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Above are 10 and 3 metre radius circled areas from the exact pinpoint of the screen. The first blatantly obvious point to note is that screens should be situated on flat ground\u2026\u2026\u2026. flat ground does not cast shadow!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wind the clock back on google Earth Pro images to 2005, well before the screen installation, reveals a completely different topography in the area of the screen. N.B. the ground is not casting shadow only a few shrubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The site has been levelled to accommodate a new roadway, parking area and expansion of the clubhouse facilities with the spoil dumped and grassed over producing a sheltering embankment area. On top of this they have latterly installed the screen. I cannot find images of the screen itself, but I have identified this below as showing the embankment area in front of the clubhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Group<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The screen is sitting on top of an artificial mount of approximately 2 metres height with ground falling away on two sides within 3 metres \u2013 this in itself rules out Class 4. Furthermore, the height of the surrounding coniferous forest evident above will inevitably lead to unacceptable levels of shade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now contrast this Forrest Lodge Met Office judgement at Class 4 with their condemnation of their perfectly flat Levens Hall site rated as Class 5. indicating a 30 metre radius (10 times that shown above) clear circled area. There is something seriously wrong with Met Office CIMO ratings assessments if Levens Hall is considered much worse than Forrest Lodge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The next issue is one of observations. The sole purpose of a weather station is for observation to be taken as without them they are entirely pointless. On the Met Office WOW site there are often \u201cGold, Silver and Bronze Awards\u201d shown with Forrest Lodge awarded a \u201cSilver\u201d as below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

{N.B. I regularly have to reset my internet connection due to getting this from the Met Office with almost boring regularity \u2013 they really do not seem to like me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Error<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After resetting this is what showed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Weather<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So what is all this awards system about? I asked Grok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWOW is a public platform run by the UK Met Office where volunteers, amateur meteorologists, schools, and others submit manual or automatic weather observations from personal weather stations or manual readings.The Silver Award specifically recognizes consistency in submitting daily manual observations over the course of a year. According to the official WOW FAQ<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n