{"id":462313,"date":"2026-08-12T04:19:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=462313"},"modified":"2026-08-12T04:19:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:19:31","slug":"cherry-picking-met-office-drops-declining-wind-speed-chapter-from-its-latest-annual-climate-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=462313","title":{"rendered":"Cherry-Picking Met Office Drops Declining Wind Speed Chapter From Its Latest Annual Climate Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From The Daily Sceptic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Chris Morrison<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower UK wind speeds and less powerful storms have always been a bit of a disappointment to activists whipping up a climate crisis frenzy to back the Net Zero fantasy. Going back over 50 years, the data is clearly showing a declining trend. Of course, despite its lamentable inability to step up to the Net Zero plate, wind is one of the UK\u2019s \u201cessential climate variables\u201d, to quote the Met Office\u2019s own words. Since it first started publishing its annual \u2018state of the UK climate\u2019 report, the climatic performance of wind and storms have had their own dedicated chapter. Alas, no more. The 2025 report<\/a>, published last month, has abolished the chapter \u2013 wind it seems is now little more than a footnote. Should do better, some might comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However hard one tries to regard the Met Office as a sound independent science body, its obvious Net Zero promotion constantly gets in the way. \u201cEmbarrassingly duped by activists\u201d was Matt Ridley\u2019s recent verdict<\/a>, and it is difficult to disagree. How it can justify abolishing wind is almost beyond comprehension. It doesn\u2019t take a particularly cynical nature to suggest the ever-expanding chapter on temperatures is unlikely to disappear in future editions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Met Office has had trouble with wind and storms in the past. In January 2024, a spokesperson told a BBC radio programme that UK storms were \u201cmore intense\u201d due to the effects of climate change<\/a>. Paul Homewood asked for an explanation via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, but was told no answer could be provided due to the fact that the information \u201cis not held\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It often seems that the Met Office does not hold a great deal of information when FOI requests are made. It has been asked many times to supply the names of \u2018well-correlated and neighbouring\u2019 stations that are apparently used to estimate temperatures at non-existent weather sites, but the answers always come back none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You do not have to be particularly conspiratorial or uncharitably minded to find difficulty in understanding why the Met Office has got the hump about the heavenly breezes. As with temperatures, rainfall and sunshine hours, all given a large chapter every year, wind speeds and frequency are measured across a UK-wide network of dedicated weather stations. In its 2024 report<\/a>, the Met Office described all these observations as \u201cground truth\u201d, adding that its UK climate monitoring capability would not be possible without them. \u201cWhen considering the variability in the UK\u2019s climate, it is perhaps helpful to consider the observational series presented in this report as one realisation of an ensemble of possible outcomes which, taken together, represent the UK\u2019s climate overall\u201d, it notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update to the latest report: \u201c\u2026 represents the UK\u2019s windless climate overall\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big take-out from recent Met Office reports is the graph below showing maximum wind gust speeds back to the 1970s. Noted the Met Office last year, this is a \u201cuseful measure\u201d of storminess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The graph plots the number of days each year on which at least 20 stations recorded gusts exceeding 40\/50\/60 Kt (46\/58\/69 mph). This useful storm measure shows an obvious decline over around 50 years in almost all the gust speeds tracked. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Met Office has a habit of expressing caution about these inconvenient figures, suggesting data \u201climitations\u201d might be due to changes in instrument types, the station network size and individual site exposure. Would that such doubts were raised by the State meteorologist about its temperature measuring operation with its 100 non-existent stations, \u2018records\u2019 declared from obvious heat spikes picked up by new improved measuring devices, and a hopelessly compromised, unnatural heat-ravaged UK-wide 380-site network<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower wind speeds, particularly if they are part of a long-term trend, are not exactly helpful to the current fanatical Net Zero UK Government that is keen to throw billions of pounds of subsidies at promoting renewable energy, including wind turbines. No doubt energy ministers will welcome a little reticence on such matters from other government departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the Met Office has not completely given up on the value of windstorm scares to push the Net Zero political project. In its separately published guidance notes on wind<\/a>, it states: \u201cIn future, most climate projections indicate that winter windstorms will increase slightly in number and intensity over the UK i.e. more winter storms, including disproportionately more severe storms, are projected to cross the UK. However, this has medium confidence because a few climate models indicate differently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the Met Office arrives at this conclusion is unclear, although like most Net Zero activists it is keen on the \u2018evidence\u2019 produced by selected computer models measuring an unmeasurable atmosphere. It is certainly not backed up by decades of past observations, now conveniently ditched in its recent cherry-pick of essential climate variables. Instead, the report notes individual wind gust extremes and covers major storms in detail, but fails to update vital wind data to provide the trends of most interest to scientists. Needless to say, the Met Office owes the paying public an explanation for its extraordinary behaviour in failing to update such important climate data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Morrison is the <\/em>Daily Sceptic\u2019s Environment Editor. Follow him on X<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lower UK wind speeds and less powerful storms have always been a bit of a disappointment to activists whipping up a climate crisis frenzy to back the Net Zero fantasy. Going back over 50 years, the data is clearly showing a declining trend. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":462315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Lower UK wind speeds and less powerful storms have always been a bit of a disappointment to activists whipping up a climate crisis frenzy to back the Net Zero fantasy. 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