Milford Haven Conservancy Board WMO 03604 – another “Slab” removal ignoring major problems.

51.70883 -5.05338. Met Office CIMO Assessed Class 4. Installed 1/1/1951 Temperature records from 1/1/1964.

Milford Haven Conservancy Board site (hereafter MHCB) is not Class 4 by any stretch of the imagination. It is an unsuitable Class 5 site whatever the Met Office may try to claim. It is unsatisfactory not only for addition of its readings to the national historic temperature record and almost certainly not very useful for much local meteorology of any type. That the Met office is evidently “tinkering around the edges” of the problems at this site is becoming a recurring theme of their poor maintenance of sites.

MHCB is at the extreme south west of Wales. This whole area is meteorologically important in forecasting terms in being (along with Cornwall and Devon) the first points for westerly frontal systems reaching the mainland of Great Britain. Along with its neighbouring sites it is in a very poor position. Margam No 2 is Class 5 and with a dismally bad observations record, Pembrey Sands is Class 5S and unacceptably mounted over concrete, Whitechurch is Class 4 in a domestic back garden and (yet to be reviewed) Scolton Country Park is also Class 4 and located in sheltered scenic gardens. With MHCB also Class 4 this is not a good combination particularly as it is hard to accept this latter’s rating.

My first question to the Met office is – why on earth locate this station just to the east of the biggest artificial prevailing-wind break they could find in the area? Hubbertson Fort (the curved structure in the headline image) is a very large construction unquestionably creating wind shielding and other effects downwind of westerlies/south westerlies. Did nobody stop to think this might not make the leeward side not a good location?

Examining the site from the most recent street view imagery clearly indicates unacceptable levels of tall shrubbery (in excess of 2 metres high in places) completely surrounding all the compound bar the small access path. All previous images dating back to 2003 indicate similar overgrowth. Note the chimneys of the Fort in the background. The numerous vehicles in the flat and tarmac surfaced car park sit at 37 metres amsl whilst the screen is quoted at 44 metres and the top of the banking to the fort is a further 6 metres higher. This is effectively a terraced site and not uniformly level as required.

However, just as at Nottingham:Watnall, the Met Office has seen fit to tinker around the edges of major problems and remove only the single slab within the enclosure immediately in front of the screen to “reduce heat sources”.

Are such minor modifications in the face of such major defects indicative of diligent pursuit of reliable readings both representative of the wider area and useful for weather forecasting, or of a lack of competence in the basics? I suggest this site is really only Class 5 and completely unacceptable for its readings inclusion in the compilation of the UK historic temperature record.