[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Making Observations ] [ My Interests ] [ Cedric Roberts ]

My background is physics, mathematics and computing, and I have taught mathematics up to A level in schools,  also A level and BTEC Computing and various IT courses at our local college. 

I have a long-standing interest in weather and climate. I did work at the Met Office, once, but only a 4 week holiday job as a student in the late1960s.
 
I started recording daily weather data in 1993, initially just out of interest, but then looked for applications for this data, such as correlating our local climate with growing conditions for our home-grown fruit and vegetables, looking for correlation between temperatures and our fuel bills!

I have constructed a complete Integrated Database of Halesowen weather observations from 1956 (using data from Cedric Roberts) until 2004, and appended my own records from that date, giving me a valuable resource of continuous data from 1956 to the present , over 50 years.

From my Integrated Database I am able to look at the data in many different ways, and having so many years I am able to look at trends in temperature and rainfall over the years, and have a good base of information to look at when I'm asked "when was it last that cold?"

I submit my data to Climatological Observers Link (COL) a group of met enthusiasts who collect and share weather observations in the UK and some locations elsewhere. Their website can be found at  http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~brugge/col.html 

I am also interested in both orbiting and geostationary satellite imagery, and am a member of GEO (Group for Earth Observation). Their website is http://www.geo-web.org.uk

HALESOWEN WEATHER WEBSITE

My website http://www.halesowenweather.co.uk  was set up initially to offer some of my findings to locals who might be interested, and time has shown that it does attract enquiries from a variety of people who want to find something out, often about Halesowen weather (where I am usually able to help), and sometimes about weather elsewhere (where I can usually suggest where they might look - often starting with suggesting Googling!).

I have listed a selection of the types of enquiries I have received, and it is satisfying to see that the website is being found not only by quite a few individuals, but also by organisations such as the Environment Agency and by several departments within my local authority, Dudley MBC.

Clearly I cannot easily put all the data I have on the website, as it is voluminous to say the least!
That is why I am happy to provide an answer to any genuine enquiries via my email  info@halesowen.co.uk