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Natural England’s long term monitoring project – which monitors the effects of climate change and air pollution on biodiversity – is getting plugged straight into the Met Office.

The Long-term Monitoring Network (LTMN) is one of the ways that Natural England measures the effects of climate change, air pollution and land management on the natural environment. We need to understand these effects so that we can give the best advice on mitigating or adapting to long-term environmental changes. In a partnership announced today, The Met Office is adding its meteorological expertise to the network to bring it right into the 21st century.

At present the network has 32 monitoring stations, mostly on National Nature Reserves and sometimes in very remote locations. Weather data comes from a network of 16 weather stations, and is retrieved monthly. Not all monitoring sites currently have useful weather data available to them. Any equipment faults can take a long time to discover, which can lead to gaps in our understanding.

Under the new partnership, the Met Office will upgrade all the existing weather stations with new communications equipment, and install new ones at up to 13 further sites. They will connect the stations to their Meteorological Monitoring System (MMS), using the mobile ‘phone network This means that the data will be routinely sent to the MO’s Exeter headquarters, and checked daily for quality, which will allow problems to be detected, reported and dealt with quickly. In return, Met Office will be able to use data from NE stations to validate its weather forecasts.

In addition to its own weather stations, NE will be able to use data from the Met Office’s network of weather stations, reducing the number of weather stations NE needs to operate directly. The weather data will also be made available directly to the public via the Met Office’s wow.metoffice.gov.uk portal.

Jim Trice, Met Office Land Networks Manager said: “working in partnership with organisations such as Natural England helps the Met Office develop, improve and refine the services we provide. The Met Office uses a vast array of weather data gathered from a number of sources including weather stations across the UK. The data from Natural England’s LTMN will make a valuable contribution to the Met Office’s ability to accurately monitor and provide weather advice.

Tim Hill, Natural England’s Chief Scientist said “This new partnership gives us clearer data more frequently over an extended network of stations. That expanded capacity gives us a better picture of how the natural environment is responding to long-term changes, and at the same time simplifies the management of the network.”

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Notes to Editors:

About the Long-term Monitoring Network

The Long-term Monitoring Network (LTMN) is one of the ways that Natural England will understand the effects of climate change, air pollution and land management on the natural environment. We need to understand these effects in order to advise others on mitigation or adaptation actions and to allow us to adapt our own interventions and activities. Long-term datasets are necessary because many of the environmental processes affected are long-term and real change cannot be judged in just a few years. Annual variability in many drivers means that trends are only discernable over many years. Long-term monitoring provides the baseline against which the future state of the environment can be assessed in a reliable historical context and it allows unanticipated changes to be identified.

About the Met Office

• The Met Office is the UK’s National Weather Service, providing 24x7 world-renowned scientific excellence in weather, climate and environmental forecasts and severe weather warnings for the protection of life and property. www.metoffice.gov.uk 

• Follow us on Twitter @metoffice for weather information and follow @metofficeuk for severe weather updates.