The Met Office is No Longer a Serious Scientific Organisation

The Met Office has confirmed that its June temperature 'record' came from a junk site. But rather than drop it, it has upped it to 38°C

Several recent controversies, which appear to have had more to do with propaganda than objective science, have cast further doubt on the scientific credibility of the Met Office.

During the heatwave at the end of June, the Met Office declared a new record temperature for June of 37.7°C at Lingwood in Norfolk. Concerns were immediately raised when it was revealed the Lingwood weather station was a junk Class 5 site, which should not be used for climatological purposes.

All provisional records must be verified, so the Met Office inspected the site. Its Inspection Report confirmed all the problems previously identified and even found other issues of significant concern with the site.

Yet astonishingly it ignored all this and confirmed the new ‘record’ as valid. Incredibly it even increased the temperature from 37.7°C to 38.0°C, arguing that the operator had made a mistake with his reading.

The Lingwood site is in a private garden, surrounding by high hedges on three sides and a thick bank of trees on the other. World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) standards state that temperature recording stations should be in open areas with no nearby obstacles, and in areas with low vegetation of under 10cm.