Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Balmoral weather station recognised after more than 100 years of recording rain, snow and shine

Balmoral kitchen garden site in April 1952 showing the Stevenson Screen and rain gauges. (The Met Office)
Balmoral kitchen garden site in April 1952 showing the Stevenson Screen and rain gauges. (The Met Office)

A Deeside weather station, which has recorded a century’s worth of rain, snow and sunshine, has been globally recognised.

The Balmoral station was first established in 1906 and was later relocated to what is now the village golf course.

Now the facility has been officially made a Centennial Station by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) along with five other locations across the UK.

The distinction recognises the fact the station has recorded more than 100 years of weather.

Adam Barber, the Met Office’s climate, pollen and rainfall network manager, said: “The Met Office has a long history of collecting weather data, including working with volunteers.

“Through the lenses of our network of weather observing sites, we are able to build a great understanding of the UK’s changing climate and record some notable weather events. All of these sites are building valuable memories of weather.

“Without the volunteers who over time have cared for these sites, hosted them on their land, and submitted observations every day, the irreplaceable UK climate record would be nowhere near as comprehensive.”

The Balmoral station was initially located in open parkland but was moved in 1958 to an area of kitchen garden.

In 1967, this became the edge of the golf course with the enclosure site housed to the east of the head gardener’s house.

The gardener was historically charged with being the observer at the station, assisted by his colleagues.

Often this role became associated with one particular family – Alex Stuart helped collect observations and then took over the job himself in 1936.

However he was killed in World War II and his brother took over, continuing his observations until his retirement in 1974.

The records from the site provide a rich historical record of the region, with notable events like Storm Frank recorded via the heavy rainfall during the end of December 2015 and beginning of 2016.

Balmoral is typically cool all year round, with an average annual temperature of 6.8 °C over the period 1981-2010.

The hottest calendar month was July 2006 with a mean temperature of 16.2 °C.