 |
Strathspey Weather |
Cromdale Weather Station |
 |
| |
|
Established in January 2001, "Strathspey Weather," a member of the
"Climatological Observers Link," is a private
weather-monitoring facility based in The Cairngorms National Park of
Highland Scotland. We are situated within the Morayshire
village of Cromdale, approximately three miles east of
Grantown-on-Spey, an area renowned not only for its whisky -
but its outstanding natural beauty, and diversity of British
wildlife. Strathspey is subject to extremes of British
Climate, experiencing differences of 50°C between the highs of
summer, and the lows of a Highland winter. The station is situated
within the grounds of my house, and consisted initially of a
“Weather Monitor” automatic electronic station, manufactured by
Davis Instruments, with an independent sun sensor by
Instromet. The station has since evolved, and now incorporates
the class-leading
“Davis Vantage Pro 2.” Linked to this system is a Davis Weatherlink
IP logger, which records a broad range of data. Unlike many similar
electronic systems, the IP logger enables this data to be streamed,
directly to the internet - by-passing the computer, |
 |
 |
enabling up-to-the-minute data to be accessed 24 hrs. a
day. Using specialist Davis software enables a wide range of graphs and reports to be
downloaded as required.
RUNNING A DAVIS VP2
ALONGSIDE TRADITIONAL MET OFFICE EQUIPMENT
On July 1st.
2009 the station was upgraded to become an official Met Office climate
station following the installation of approved recording equipment, comprising of thermometers mounted within a
traditional Stevenson screen, a grass-minimum thermometer, and a 5” stainless
steel rain-gauge. Measurements
are taken daily at 0900 UTC/GMT for submission to the Met
Office. Running two systems however has in itself thrown up some
minor difficulties. From this date minimum and maximum temperatures and
rainfall measurements shown within the daily, monthly and annual
tables are those as recorded by the Met Office equipment,
whilst data covering daily |
mean temperature, barometric pressure, wind and sunshine will
continue to be provided by the automated instruments. Therefore, as
accurate
as the
electronic Vantage Pro 2 has been proved to be
(http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/expert_reports.htm) there
will be minor discrepancies in comparison to the traditional
recording methods
required of a Met Office Climate Station.
Additionally, the times of the
“recording day” 24 hours from midnight, local time, in the case of the
electronic station, against the 24 hours from 9 am
UTC for the Met Office equipment may also disclose apparent anomalies. As
previously stated, where differences inevitably arise, the readings
of the Met Office equipment shall at all times be used over those of
the Davis system. Rainfall totals shown within the live daily update
data will be adjusted monthly. I hope, in time to provide
comparative details of the two systems' operation. All
timings are shown within the table
covering daily data. Finally, all data within this website is free to
use, though acknowledgements would be appreciated.
Printer-friendly copies are also available as Microsoft “word documents” (free of
charge)
upon request.
|
 |
STATION DETAILS |
 |
|
Standard Map Reference
57° 20' 14.2" N
3° 32' 28.9" W |
Ordnance
Survey
Map Reference
NJ 072 284 |
|
Elevation
192.5 metres
(632 ft) ASL
|
MAP
Courtesy of Google Maps |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|