New resource for schools: long-term weather data from Rothamsted

The provision of these data arose after discussions with local secondary schools who expressed an interest in using real local data.

There are two datasets available :

Daily weather data from Rothamsted, 1990 to present (in a dataset called SCHOOLMETDAY):

• RAIN: total rainfall in a day (mm)
• SUNHOURS: total amount of sunshine in a day (hours)
• TMAX: maximum air temperature during the day (°C)
• TMIN: minimum air temperature during the day (°C)
• WDIR: wind direction at 09:00 GMT each morning (degrees)
• WINDRUN: total amount of wind in a day (km)

Monthly data from Rothamsted, 1878 to present (in a dataset called SCHOOLMETMTH):

• RAIN: total rainfall in a month (mm)
• SUNHOURS: total amount of sunshine in a month (hours)
• TMAX: the mean maximum monthly air temperature (°C)
• TMIN: the mean minimum monthly air temperature (°C)

These datasets complement those made available through the ECN Data centre, especially the monthly dataset which takes data back as far as 1878 and is one of the longest running meteorological records available.

The datasets can be found by following the link to “Schools” at http://www.era.rothamsted.ac.uk/. All the data are freely available, just contact the e-RA Curators (era@rothamsted.ac.uk) for a password to access the data.

We hope the data will be useful in a variety of National Curriculum subjects including Geography, Science, Maths and Computing.