Further study?
Are you interested in studying the weather and climate?
Why not take a look at the degrees offered by the Department
of Meteorology at Reading University? See here
for further details.
The Climatological Observers Link was founded in 1970 by a small group of amateur meteorologists and is the enthusiasts' weather observer network for the United Kingdom.
Every month since then a bulletin detailing the weather has been produced.
Membership
COL membership is open to anyone with an interest in the weather.
The organisation caters mainly for amateur meteorologists, but the membership also includes many professionals and observers from other bodies, eg schools, universities and research establishments.
Many of our members run weather stations that co-operate with the Met Office and other organisations, but you don't have to run a weather station to be a member. COL has no age limits - members range from the teens to the quite senior, the current total being over 400.
The distribution of membership is also quite widespread. The majority of members currently reside within the United Kingdom, but a growing number of other countries are represented, ranging from many European countries to others as far afield as Australia.
Monthly Bulletin
Each monthly issue contains
- a synopsis of the previous months' weather
- extensive columns of data from about 350 reporting stations, including information on:
- temperature (air and ground), precipitation, sunshine
- number of days with snow, fog, thunder, etc.
- wind, cloud cover
- monthly articles on
- thunder activity, optical phenomena, snowfall
- information on:
- a station details section, where notable events and records are described
- daily temperature, precipitation and sunshine data from about 12 sites scattered across the British Isles
- monthly mean surface pressure map for the British Isles, and anomaly maps for temperature, precipitation and sunshine
- details of newsworthy weather events from around the world
- letters and correspondence from COL members
Each monthly volume contains about 44 A4-sized pages and, at the end of the
year, an annual summary edition is produced. Monthly issues are published by about 20 days after the end of the month in question.
COL Directory
In an attempt to assist members to keep in touch with each other and
find common interests, a Directory has been published at intervals.
The Directory contains a brief history of COL, full details of the
membership and, for each operating station, also includes the site
location, times of observation, equipment in use, length of site
records, site details and the observers particular interests in
meteorology.
The latest version, updated November 2007, is written on a cd-rom and contains photographs of member's weather stations.
Advertising
COL is able to carry adverts in its monthly Bulletin. For further details, please contact the Editor.
Bulletin Data
Being an amateur-based organisation, it is difficult to lay
down stringent standards of accuracy for data submitted to and
published in the bulletin. Any climatic station, whether
amateur or professional, is likely to have some aspects peculiar to
that site. We believe the general standard of COL stations to be high,
indeed, many are approved by local meteorological offices/national
weather services.
However, all COL stations are graded according
to their equipment and exposure. In addition members are asked to adhere as closely as possible to our
observing/reporting protocols.
Subscription Rate
COL is a non-profit making organisation, run by enthusiasts for enthusiasts.
The 2009 annual rate for U.K. members is £25-00 sterling
(£18-00 sterling to the unwaged) with the cost to foreign
members being increased solely to allow for the corresponding postal charges.
However, for those wishing the receive the Bulletin as a pdf file, these rates are reduced to £8-00 and £5-00 respectively, both worldwide and in the UK.
For members joining part-way through the year, the subscription rate is reduced, unless back issues are required to the start of the year.
COL daily weather diary
The COL daily weather diary forms an important part of each monthly bulletin, and contributions are always welcome for inclusion in this from any source.
Station averages
Late in 1996 COL published a 200-page A4 booklet containing averages for the periods 1961-70, 1971-80, 1981-90 and 1961-90 at almost 200 of its observing stations. The booklet contains information on averages and extremes of temperature, rainfall, sunshine, snow, frost, thunder and hail. Most of the data refer to the periods 1971-80 and 1981-90. The booklet may be purchased for £14 incl p&p.
During 2001 COL produced a booklet of averages for the period 1971-2000 containing monthly values of sunshine, rainfall and temperature. These averages are used in the Bulletin, and may be purchased for £6 incl p&p.
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