Overview of the Rothamsted Weather Station

Part of experiment rms
  • Description: Rothamsted has one of the longest continuous sets of meteorological recordings in the world. Daily rain and wind direction have been measured since 1853, temperature since 1878 and sunshine from 1890. A daily diary documenting visual observations of weather was kept from 1853-1959 and these historical written records are also available from our database.

    Currently over 25 different variables are recorded each day. The weather station was automated in 2004, with a range of sensors attached to an automatic data logger; some manual observations continued until May 2007. Hourly data from 2004 are available from the e-RA Data Curators.

    In 2018, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) officially designated Rothamsted as a Centennial Station, joining a global network of sites recognised by the WMO for recording reliable observations for over 100 years.

    These weather data are the longest available historic weather data available in Hertfordshire, England.

    Real-time hourly, daily and yearly weather charts for Rothamsted are available on-line over 28 days or 365 days (rolling) via the Rothamsted Environmental Change Network (ECN) pages.

  • Date Start: 1853
  • Date End: Ongoing
  • Recording: Daily at 0900 GMT
  • Automatic data recording began: Jan 1st 2004
  • Manual recording finished: May 2007
  • Address: Rothamsted Research, West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, United Kingdom
  • OS Grid Ref: TL 13154 13272
  • Latitude/Longitude: 51.8066 N -0.3602 E
  • Altitude: 128 m asl

Key Contacts

  • Andy Gregory

  • Role: Principal Investigator
  • Organisation: Rothamsted Research
  • Address: West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, United Kingdom

  • Tony Scott

  • Role: Data Manager
  • Organisation: Rothamsted Research
  • Address: West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, United Kingdom

  • Sarah Perryman

  • Role: Data Manager
  • Organisation: Rothamsted Research
  • Address: West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, United Kingdom

  • Margaret Glendining

  • Role: Data Manager
  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6466-4629
  • Organisation: Rothamsted Research
  • Address: West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, United Kingdom

Funding

  • The e-RA database, including the published datasets generated from it, is part of the Rothamsted Long-Term Experiments - National Bioscience Research Infrastructure (RLTE-NBRI), which also includes the Long-Term Experiments, the Rothamsted Sample Archive and Rothamsted's environmental monitoring activities including the weather stations and its role in the UK Environmental Change Network.
  • The RLTE-NBRI is funded by UK Research and Innovation - Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UKRI-BBSRC) under award BBS/E/RH/23NB0007 (2023-2028). The RLTE-NBRI is also supported by the Lawes Agricultural Trust.
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Rothamsted
BBSRC

For further information and assistance, please contact the e-RA curators, Sarah Perryman and Margaret Glendining using the e-RA email address: era@rothamsted.ac.uk