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Four decades of meteorological data at EFFC

Staff at Epping Forest Field Centre have been taking daily weather recordings from the Met. Office’s on-site meteorological station for nearly 40 years providing valuable data for several of the Centre’s courses.

The station and data collected is extremely valuable for several of the Centre’s courses, monitoring climate change, observing local weather patterns and assessing impacts on wildlife populations.

The meteorological (met.) station in the grounds of Epping Forest Field Centre collects a range of daily weather readings including: maximum/minimum temperatures, grass and concrete overnight minimum temperatures, rainfall and wind direction/speed.

Staff at EFFC use the met. station and data directly for courses such as the new Edexcel A level Extreme Weather course. Students will create a weather diary using a variety of qualitative and quantities methods to assess the weather. The relationship between land-use and flood risk will be investigated through infiltration and interception experiments and students will model a storm event using storm simulator plots. They will also observe how weather is recorded and see the importance of information collected, especially with the recent increase in extreme weather events.

Students participating in the KS3 Geographical Skills and KS2 Contrasting Places courses have opportunities to see weather recording instruments and record aspects of the weather themselves.

Once readings at the met. station have been collected they are inputted into the Met. Office’s online database. After quality control the data is used by the Met. Office for long-term climate records and monitoring. Many local organisations, including the City of London and construction businesses, also use the data collected at the met. station, particularly after extreme weather events, to monitor effects on local sites. After the unusually high rainfall in November 2009 data from the Centre was utilised for building construction compensation claims.

The Environment Agency closely monitors the frequency and amplitude of rainfall events at High Beach to inform the operation of the Thames Barrier flood protection scheme. In addition weather conditions are being used to assess the impacts of climate on the body condition and survival of the declining great crested newt and other wildlife populations.

For more information or to book contact Epping Forest Field Centre on 0208 502 8500.