Ben Nevis Weather Observatory and Operation Weather Rescue
LOCATION
School of GeoSciences
The University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute
The Kings Buildings, West Mains Road
Edinburgh
EH9 3JW
UK
SPEAKER | Marjory Roy
ABSTRACT | By the latter part of the nineteenth century surface weather observations were being collected and disseminated in “real time” across Europe using the electric telegraph system and from these meteorological services were drawing up daily surface pressure maps and issuing forecasts. But, before the invention of radio, it was not possible to get “real time” observations from ships once they were out of sight of land and very difficult to obtain data from higher levels in the atmosphere, since the instruments had to be retrieved for analysis. As a result manned mountain observatories were being set up in various parts of the world and the Scottish Meteorological Society proposed in 1879 that a mountain observatory should be set up on Ben Nevis. After abortive attempts to receive government funding for the project a public appeal was launched in 1883 and this was so successful that the Observatory was formally opened on 17 October 1883 and manual observations commenced that November. Initially comparison low level observations were made by the schoolmaster at Fort William, but from 1890 onwards a full Low-Level Observatory was in operation using automatic photographic recording instruments provided by the Met Office. The Observatories closed in 1904, due to the unwillingness of Government to provide the funds necessary for their continuing operation.
The hourly data recorded at the Observatories were published in full in five volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, but the usefulness of the approximately 1.5 million values of pressure, temperature (dry and wet bulb), rainfall, wind strength and direction, sunshine hours and cloud amount in providing a comprehensive data-base of mountain weather has been restricted by the lack of a digital data-base. The has now been rectified, thanks to the success of “Operation Weather Rescue”, funded by NERC, where members of the public entered the data values from scanned copies of the published tables.
The story of the setting up and running of the Observatories is an inspiring one and the lecture describes life at the summit of Britain’s highest mountain and some of the weather phenomena and climatological data that were recorded there.
BIOGRAPHY | Marjory Roy graduated with a BSc in physics from Edinburgh University and then joined the Met Office, where she was involved in forecasting before spending several years as an agricultural meteorologist based mainly at Bracknell. In 1981 the Met Office posted her to Edinburgh to take charge of the office there, which at that time was the climatological office for Scotland, responsible for running the climatological network in Scotland and answering any enquiries relating to Scotland’s weather and climate. The Edinburgh Met Office contained in its archives not only the weather data recorded at Met Office run synoptic and climatological stations, but the comprehensive climatological returns of the Scottish Meteorological Society, which ran the network in Scotland from its inception in 1855 until the Met Office took over the responsibility in 1920. Among the archives she found the hourly observations of the Ben Nevis Observatory and its sister Observatory at Fort William and realised that these formed a treasure-trove of detailed mountain weather observations. In 1990, rather than return south, she took early retirement and returned as a research student to Edinburgh University where she obtained an M Phil degree for a dissertation on orographic rainfall and its effect on the interpretation of radar rainfall observations. In 2004 she published a book, The Weathermen of Ben Nevis”, telling the story of the Observatory.
Registration
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED,
This meeting is part of the Royal Meteorological Society Meetings programme, open to all, from expert to enthusiast, for topical discussions on the latest advances in weather and climate. Free to attend. Non members are welcome.
SPEAKER | Marjory Roy
ABSTRACT | By the latter part of the nineteenth century surface weather observations were being collected and disseminated in “real time” across Europe using the electric telegraph system and from these meteorological services were drawing up daily surface pressure maps and issuing forecasts. But, before the invention of radio, it was not possible to get “real time” observations from ships once they were out of sight of land and very difficult to obtain data from higher levels in the atmosphere, since the instruments had to be retrieved for analysis. As a result manned mountain observatories were being set up in various parts of the world and the Scottish Meteorological Society proposed in 1879 that a mountain observatory should be set up on Ben Nevis. After abortive attempts to receive government funding for the project a public appeal was launched in 1883 and this was so successful that the Observatory was formally opened on 17 October 1883 and manual observations commenced that November. Initially comparison low level observations were made by the schoolmaster at Fort William, but from 1890 onwards a full Low-Level Observatory was in operation using automatic photographic recording instruments provided by the Met Office. The Observatories closed in 1904, due to the unwillingness of Government to provide the funds necessary for their continuing operation.
The hourly data recorded at the Observatories were published in full in five volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, but the usefulness of the approximately 1.5 million values of pressure, temperature (dry and wet bulb), rainfall, wind strength and direction, sunshine hours and cloud amount in providing a comprehensive data-base of mountain weather has been restricted by the lack of a digital data-base. The has now been rectified, thanks to the success of “Operation Weather Rescue”, funded by NERC, where members of the public entered the data values from scanned copies of the published tables.
The story of the setting up and running of the Observatories is an inspiring one and the lecture describes life at the summit of Britain’s highest mountain and some of the weather phenomena and climatological data that were recorded there.
BIOGRAPHY | Marjory Roy graduated with a BSc in physics from Edinburgh University and then joined the Met Office, where she was involved in forecasting before spending several years as an agricultural meteorologist based mainly at Bracknell. In 1981 the Met Office posted her to Edinburgh to take charge of the office there, which at that time was the climatological office for Scotland, responsible for running the climatological network in Scotland and answering any enquiries relating to Scotland’s weather and climate. The Edinburgh Met Office contained in its archives not only the weather data recorded at Met Office run synoptic and climatological stations, but the comprehensive climatological returns of the Scottish Meteorological Society, which ran the network in Scotland from its inception in 1855 until the Met Office took over the responsibility in 1920. Among the archives she found the hourly observations of the Ben Nevis Observatory and its sister Observatory at Fort William and realised that these formed a treasure-trove of detailed mountain weather observations. In 1990, rather than return south, she took early retirement and returned as a research student to Edinburgh University where she obtained an M Phil degree for a dissertation on orographic rainfall and its effect on the interpretation of radar rainfall observations. In 2004 she published a book, The Weathermen of Ben Nevis”, telling the story of the Observatory.
Registration
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED,
This meeting is part of the Royal Meteorological Society Meetings programme, open to all, from expert to enthusiast, for topical discussions on the latest advances in weather and climate. Free to attend. Non members are welcome.