Honorary Fellow

Responsibilities:

• Meteorological scientific support and observational data provision for staff in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading
• Teaching support for some of the Department's courses, particularly our annual MSc field trip top Dorset, MSc Boundary Layer Meteorology, BSc python programming, BSc Numerical Methods for Environmental Science, and MSc Introduction to Weather Systems.
• I maintain the international Met-Jobs mailing list
• I previously maintained mailing lists for the National Centre for Earth Observation
• I provide daily meteorological charts and analyses for use within the Department - see the links here
• My 'doom and gloom' world weather news items feature in the weekly Weather and Climate Discussion sessions in our Department, as do my blogs relating to current local weather
• Various outreach activities, primarily in schools

Research Interests:

• Digitisation of old weather records from the University (1900-present day); see for example here
• Maintaining current weather records in the Department - see here for example
• Author of Setting Up a Weather Station and Understanding the Weather: A Guide for the Amateur Meteorologist and co-author of One hundred years of Reading weather.

Some recent research Projects:

• Local data manager for GLoCAEM - Global Coordination of Atmospheric Electricity Measurements, GLOCAEM (GLObal Coordination of Atmospheric Electricity Measurements) brings together world experts in atmospheric electricity to create the first near real time database for atmospheric electric field (or potential gradient, PG) measurements. Potential gradient measurements can provide insights into a number of meteorological processes including global lightning activity, climatic variability, aerosol pollution, fog and cloud, as well as space weather influences on atmospheric processes.
• AgriCLASS - The AgriCLASS Sectoral Information System took available, high-quality climate data and agricultural data and models, and translated them into products that prove useful to the agricultural sector. The concept was to build a system which allows climate variables to be fused with agricultural information. For the purpose of the Proof of Concept we concentrated on producing impact indicators for woody perennial crops that are high investment, multi-year yield, and responsive to cumulative change – i.e. climate affected. There are many variables that impact on the productivity of such crops including: water availability, light, temperature, day length, phenology, local conditions, past history, future trends.

Other interests

• Weather observing, outreach and communication
• Editor of the monthly bulletin of the Climatological Observers Link
• Maintaining a home weather station in Maidenhead
• Relief observer for the University's climatological station
• Formerly a member of the Royal Meteorological Society's Council, the Education Committee and Editor of Weather
• The provision of press releases about local weather

Centaur Publications

Last update: 8th August 2023