Buxton Slopes Met Office Weather Station – and Leek Thornecliffe Met Office Weather Station – a Comparison of Winter Data

 

            

 

I think I need to start by explaining who I am, to save any confusion between two completely separate and different, weather stations! - I co-ordinate the activities of the Met Office, Slopes Weather Team, but in addition, for the last 15+ years, I have run an independent weather site, based about a mile from the Slopes site, displaying the weather past present and future, and lots more, at www.buxtonweather.co.uk  

 

The Buxton Slopes Met Office site, is a Climatological Weather Station (a Climatological Weather station takes daily readings to create a long term climate record. The site is at an altitude of 307 Metres above sea level

This site is managed by The British Meteorological Office, and manned by a wonderful group of local volunteers, who attend the station each morning, 365 days a year, at 09.00 GMT, to take readings.  Some 22 readings and observations are taken on every visit, and these are entered by the volunteer team, each morning, through an online Met Office portal, for use in real time forecasting – and for inclusion in Long Term Climate Records for the UK. 

DWP Benefit Claims “Cold Weather Payments”

The Government Website has this to say about DWP “Cold Weather Payments”: “‘You'll get a payment if the average temperature in your area is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees celsius or below over 7 consecutive days.   You'll get £25 for each 7 day period of very cold weather between 1 November and 31 March.”

The DWP uses Leek Thornecliffe for data, in determining possible benefit payments, for all Buxton area postcodes.       I was asked by Councillor Madeline Hall to investigate the possibility of using Buxton Met Office site data – presumably because there would seem to be a real possibility that Buxton data would be more advantageous in benefit payments – why not use the site – it is more local to claimants in this area!

SO……… We have done some more work on the question of Leek Thornecliffe and Buxton Met Office sites

 

I stress that these figures are my personal interpretation of the data from our Buxton Slopes site and from the Met Office Leek site – this interpretation should not be taken as a Met Office view – although on application they will be able to assist – but would likely charge – part of their activities are as a commercial organisation.

We have been provided with detailed data about Leek – and we do have (although technically the figures belong to The Met Office – they manage and fund the equipment and calibration and inspections, even if we provide the volunteers) the daily figures for Buxton Slopes.

I will start with some good news, but then pull the rug from under it!

Even though Buxton Slopes and the Leek Thornecliffe site are nearly the same height above sea  level - Buxton at 307 metres asl and Leek at 298 metres asl,   Buxton IS colder than Leek – that is when we purely take the minimum daily readings for coldest daily air temperature every day from 1st November 2021 to 31st March 2022

Buxton average minimum temperature 2.256C

Leek average minimum temperature 3.459C

There is a complication which we cannot address :
‘You'll get a payment if the average temperature in your area is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees celsius or below over 7 consecutive days.

We have no way of factoring in FORECASTS – the figures I quote are daily (usually overnight) lows over those 151 days – taking an AVERAGE of all those lowest temperatures achieved.

But fundamentally we need to look at what the DWP are looking at in determining this payment – that is consecutive days – ideally 7 days

So we have looked at that data, looking at consecutive days at or below 0C ….. days 3 and upwards

In those 151 days, Buxton only achieved 4 occasions with 3 consecutive days at 0C and below, and only 1 occasion with 4 consecutive days at 0C and below.

Leek achieved 2 occasions with 3 consecutive days at 0C and below, and 2 occasions with 4 consecutive days at 0C and below, AND 1 occasion with 5 consecutive days,  and 1 occasion with 6 consecutive days (and the 7th day at the end of that string was just 0.2C – so it nearly made the golden 7 days!)

As I mention, we cannot factor in forecasts, but it does seem quite clear from these figures that, although we are colder in Buxton generally, Leek is more prone to extremes – and those extremes are to the advantage in the formula used by the DWP – especially if the “forecast” was beneficial in early January when that string occurred – DWP would have paid the benefit using Leek figures!

I compiled these figures and Meg Fowler, another member of the team of volunteers at Buxton Slopes, has independently been through the data to double check my figures.

So if you want our humble opinion – with The DWP formula as it is, there would be no benefit in moving to the use of Buxton Slopes figures – and it is likely that the use of Leek Thornecliffe is actually modestly advantageous to benefit claimants”

Michael Hilton