Methods and analysis

Met Office weather records explained

The Met Office maintains historic climate records and series, which are used to monitor the climate of the UK at a national and regional level.

More about Met Office weather records

Generation of long-term averages

Monthly and annual long-term average data sets of 13 climate variables were generated for the periods 1961-90 and 1971-2000 using a consistent analysis method. Values were produced for each station in the Met Office's observing network and for a rectangular grid of points covering the UK at a horizontal spacing of 1 km.

Download a description of the analysis methods used to generate long term-averages. This paper was published in the International Journal of Climatology v.25 (2005), pages 1023-1039.

Development of a new set of long-term averages for the UK (PDF, 926 kB)

Climate statistics for the periods 1961 to 1990, and 1971 to 2000

Generation of monthly gridded data sets

Monthly and annual 5 x 5 km gridded data sets covering the UK have been generated for the 1961-2000 period, for 36 climatic parameters. These data sets are used to place individual months into context. The same analysis methods are employed in the production of monthly and seasonal summaries.

Download a description of the methods used to create gridded data sets from point data. This paper was published in the International Journal of Climatology v.25 (2005), pages 1041-1054.

Generation of monthly gridded data sets for a range of climatic variables over the UK (PDF, 590 kB)

A number of the climate variables have been produced with funding from Defra, and are freely available for research purposes.

Climate trends

The monthly and annual gridded data sets have been analysed to investigate trends in the UK climate since 1914 (or 1961 for some variables).

Download A spatial analysis of trends in the UK climate since 1914 using gridded datasets (PDF, 1.6 MB)

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