SPEAKER | Stephen Burt FRMetS and Professor Tim Burt
ABSTRACT | Weather records have been made at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford since the 1760s, with an unbroken daily record from November 1813 – the longest single-site weather record in the British Isles, and one of the longest in the world. The record was begun by Thomas Hornsby, Savilian Professor of Astronomy, and all observations were carefully made using the finest instruments available; that tradition continues to this day and, unlike many other meteorological stations, an observer still visits the Observatory every morning at 0900 hours GMT to take the readings without fail – come rain or shine, 365 days per year. In their recently published book, Stephen and Tim provide a full record of Oxford’s climate over 250 years (the period of record varies by element) with accompanying analysis, plus examples of extreme weather events with supporting archival information from local sources including photographs.
