Radcliffe Meteorological Station captures rainiest day in Oxford for more than 47 years

The Radcliffe Meteorological Station holds the longest series of temperature and rainfall records for one site in Britain.

60.0 mm of rainfall was observed in the rain gauge on Saturday 3rd October 2020, which was the wettest October day since daily rainfall records began at the Radcliffe Meteorological Station in January 1827, sixth wettest day of the 70,000 days in the records, and the rainiest day in Oxford for over 47 years.

Geography DPhil student David Crowhurst is one of the station monitors, who captured the record-breaking measurements. “The cumulative 72-hour rainfall total was 104.8 mm, which was also a new record for the Station.”

The Radcliffe Meteorological Station possesses the longest-running record of temperature and rainfall data for a single site in Britain, running continuously from 1813. Its records, which date back to 1767, are taken in strict accordance with the UK’s national weather service Met Office standards, and yet double the length of Met Office records themselves, which only date back to 1910.

Despite being over two centuries old, the Radcliffe Met Station plays an active role in modern day climate reporting and research. It provides information about historical weather trends, and also about local variations in weather in the Oxfordshire area. It is maintained by the School of Geography and Environment at the University of Oxford.

You can read more about the history of the Radcliffe Observatory on our website, as well as in a recent book about the history of the station, Oxford Weather and Climate Since 1767, by Stephen Burt and Tim Burt, available via Oxford University Press. Stephen (Department of Meteorology, University of Reading) and Tim (Emeritus Professor, Department of Geography, Durham University) collaborated on the book which explores Oxford and the Radcliffe Meteorological Station‘s role in producing 250 years of weather records.