Visiting Fellow

Visiting Fellow within the Department of Meteorology

(Following retirement in July 2018)

Web Pages

Durham Weather and Climate since 1841 (Oxford University Press, 2022) 

Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767 (Oxford University Press, 2019)

The Weather Observer's Handbook (Cambridge University Press, 2012, forthcoming second edition 2023)

One Hundred Years of Reading Weather (2015) https://research.reading.ac.uk/meteorology/atmospheric-observatory/one-hundred-years-of-reading-weather/

Research Interests

• UK and Ireland climatology – assembly, analysis and publication of long meteorological records, specifically from the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford (1767 to date) and the Durham University Observatory (1841 to date), both subjects of full-length books by Oxford University Press, jointly authored with Tim Burt (emeritus professor of Geography, University of Durham)
• Data rescue – digitisation and recovery of historical meteorological records from archive sources, including Ben Nevis Observatory and Rainfall Rescue citizen science programmes with Professor Ed Hawkins
• Documentation and climatology of weather extremes in the British and Irish Isles and North Atlantic
• Weather photography, still and timelapse
• Meteorological metrology, meteorological observing and surface meteorological instruments
• History of meteorology and meteorological instruments
• The University of Reading's weather records (since 1901), Atmospheric Observatory tours and community outreach talks
• Saharan dust - lifting and transport mechanisms to western Europe (dustfalls)
• Meteorological effects of solar eclipses

CURRENT Research Projects

• Meteorological records from the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, from 1767 book link
• Meteorological records from the Durham University Observatory, from 1841 book link
• Data rescue – digitisation and recovery of historical meteorological records from archive sources (Ben Nevis Observatory, Rainfall Rescue)
• Documentation and climatology of weather extremes in the British and Irish Isles and North Atlantic, including extremes of barometric pressure in these areas since 1800
• Member, RMetS UK Climate Extremes sub-committee
• London’s meteorological records, 1660s to date
• Reading’s meteorological records, 1830s to date: voluntary observer for the Atmospheric Observatory
• Weather and Photography: Science Photo Library https://www.sciencephoto.com/search/contributors/s9b  contributor; forthcoming book on Photographing Weather
• Comparative methods to measure air temperature (passive and aspirated thermometer screens) and long-term evaluations of various methods

student supervision

• MSc 2015: Charles Malyon, Comparative performance of surface relative humidity measurements
• BSc 2016/17: Jack Wade, A critical analysis of the representation of extreme air temperatures measured at Gravesend-Broadness
• BSc 2017/18: Aaron Nicholson, Reading’s Urban Heat Island
• MSc 2017/18: Lucy Aylott, Nature and cause of extreme UK wind gusts
• MMet 2018/19: Nicola Stebbing, Extreme snowfall events in southern and south-eastern England – are they becoming more or less frequent?

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS and Other interests

• Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society (FRMetS)
• Member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS)
• Member, Irish Meteorological Society (IMS)
• Committee Member, Scientific Instruments Society (SIS)
• Committee Member, Royal Meteorological Society Special Interest Group on Meteorological Observing Systems
• Committee Member, British Standards Institution Hydrometry and Precipitation
• Chairman, Royal Meteorological Society South-East Local Centre, 2010-2016
• Chairman, Climatological Observers Link, 2011-2019
• Public Engagement including UoR Press Office spokesperson and local community group presentations

Publications

For a complete list of my publications since 1975, see my ORCID  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5125-6546 record

Centaur Publications

Last update: 1st June 2022