Meteorology

 

Forest Research has been a major user of meteorological data over many years; this is unsurprising given the strong relationships between forest growth and function on key meteorological variables such as intercepted solar radiation and rainfall. More recently the climate change research programme has highlighted the importance of long term meteorological observations.

The aims of the meteorology project

• To co-ordinate meteorological data collection and to provide technical and financial support and advice throughout Forest Research and to the wider forestry industry.
• To maintain close liaison with the UK Meteorological Office for data collection, quality assurance and supply.

How is this achieved?

• Co-ordination of data collection from Forestry Commission weather stations and maintenance of records.
• Collection and supply of data for the ICP (Forests) Level II programme.
• Collection and supply of data for the FR Environmental Change Network (ECN) site.
• Provision of an advisory service within Forest Research and to other stakeholders.
• The project also aims to extend the network to cover Level II plots currently lacking data.

Observed meteorological data at Alice Holt Research Station

The UKCIP predictions of a 2^oC to 4.5^oC rise in temperature by the 2080s may seem small, and it is essential that the magnitude of these predictions is placed in context.

Shown here are the summer and winter climate data for the UK Meteorological Office affiliated weather station at Forest Research, Alice Holt Lodge, Farnham, together with the predictions of mean climate under the UKCIP02 2080s Low (dotted lines) and High (dashed lines) scenarios. The solid lines show the direction of trends between 1959 and 2003. 

Key Points

• Over the last 50 years, the average summer temperature predicted for the Low scenario in the 2080s has not been approached, including the extreme years of 1976 and 1995.
• The predictions for changes to winter temperatures are less extreme, but still highly significant; to date, observed warming in winter has been greater than in summer.
• Due to the high inter-annual variability in rainfall, predicted changes to winter rainfall are difficult to distinguish from natural variability, while for summer rainfall, a number of years (including 1976 and 1995) would fall into the ‘average’ category for the 2080s.
• The highest temperature (35.1 degrees Centigrade) was recorded on 10 August 2003, beating the previous record (August 1990) by 0.5 degrees.