Pembrey Sands WMO 03605 – 100% Unacceptable by the Met Office’s own regulations.

51.71437 -4.36749 Met Office CIMO Assessed Class 5S Installed 1/1/1994

This is my 150th post in the Surface Stations Project. Most would have expected that I would have run out of sub-standard sites to review but the reality is far from it. Pembrey Sands is rated by the Met Office themselves as the lowest possible Class 5, and then some more, being heavily affected by shade. The fact is that this site is 100% unacceptable and unfit for purpose for an even more fundamental reason.

Pembrey Sands weather station is located at the Weapons Range of the same name and consequently in a public restricted area. Clearly the surroundings, whilst natural, are not typical of the wider area in being largely sandy soil and even open bare sand – a problem but not the main one.

I cannot over emphasize how irrelevant the Class 5 assessment of any weather station is. Giving a rating suggests some standard (albeit a low one) is being met – this is not the case. Class 5 is entirely a negative and very short assessment as follows.

All this actually means is that there are no criteria to meet and simply that it fails to meet Class 4 which is, in effect, the lowest possible rating with any qualifying standards. Class 4 is inaccurate and unrepresentative junk, Class 5 is even worse. The addition of adding an “S” to further indicate problems due to shade is somewhat superfluous. However Pembrey gets even worse than that. This short You tube clip below briefly explains requirements for an acceptably sited Stevenson Screen.

And this still from another clip adds to the point

All official weather stations require Stevenson Screens to be located over GRASS – surely that is not too difficult to either understand or comply with in the UK – is it?

So why is it that Pembrey Sands weather station is located over CONCRETE? This site will inevitably record artificially enhanced higher temperature readings.

There is no problem with having this weather station for its intended military purposes. The facts are that the Met Office knows full well that this site does not meet acceptable standards for climate reporting purposes and contributing data to the historic temperature record. The conclusions can only be that it has been included since the 1990s to either deliberately corrupt the temperature record or the Met office is not operating in a competent manner. Take your pick.