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Settling contracts and project assessment

New Engineering Contract (NEC) monthly summary

The NEC states that extension to contract claims can only be granted if the weather has been exceptionally severe. The weather must have been worse than could have been expected on average one year out of 10 (this is calculated using a 30-year time period from 1961-1990), in terms of:

A rain sodden building site.
  • Monthly rainfall total
  • Number of days with rainfall greater than 5 mm
  • Number of days with an air frost
  • Number of days with snow lying at 0900 UTC

The NEC monthly summary helps you to settle claims quickly and efficiently and provides the following information.

  • A comparison of weather experienced during the month in question.
  • Summaries for approximately 150 locations in the UK.
  • The monthly weather information required by users of the Institution of Civil Engineers NEC.

Downtime summaries

This report helps you to monitor the progress and evaluate the efficiency of a project by:

  • Helping you to monitor the progress and efficiency of site operations.
  • Enabling faster settlement of contractual disputes.
  • Detailing the number of hours of work lost during the day.
  • Providing summaries of weather conditions that interfere with outdoor operations.

Long-term averages are also available as separate reports by weather item, covering the entire year.

Construction vehicles on a site.

Examples:

How does the service work?

Downtime summary reports are provided in two parts.

  1. Concentrates on the number of working hours with adverse weather
  2. The number of days with adverse weather. This is related to general disruption, including damage to partly completed work

For more information please email construction@metoffice.gov.uk, stating your area of interest, or call our 24-hour Customer Centre.