HISTORY AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
Past Observers of Pitsford Hall
Pitsford Hall weather station was born out of Northamptonshire Grammar
School's pan-European environmental project Acid Rain 2000, which grew to become a highly regarded international forum for the
exchange of ideas on acid rain between 1997 and 2000. The school needed to record basic climatic
elements including rainfall, temperature, relative humidity, wind strength and
wind direction, and so installed a Stevenson screen, simple raingauge and a
small Davis-type weather station on the flat roof of the main school building.
Instrumental to the success of the weather station in its early days were four geography students (Martin Sheehy, Paul Dickens, Andrew Stanton and Will
Keggin) who were the first to begin a tradition of Sixth Form weather recording
at the school.
Spurred on by the achievements of Bablake School in setting up its own weather station 20 years previously, the students refused to settle for second best and so, with the help of the school's Head of Geography set about to put Pitsford Hall on the map. Sponsorship was acquired from local companies, including Barclaycard and British Timkin, and an award of £2000 granted by Transco. This enabled the purchase of a full range of weather instruments including screens, autographic instruments, barometers, raingauges, sunshine recorder and anemometer. Over the years that followed, the inventory of the station has continued to grow and much of the earlier 'second-hand' equipment has been replaced with new. At its height the station maintained a ground level meteorological enclosure in addition to the rooftop instruments. Significant vandalism though in 2007 forced the closure of the ground enclosure and the station now concentrates its operation on the roof of Pitsford Hall. Improvements have also enhanced the facilities in the weather station office. The station was one of the first parts of the school to gain Internet access in the early days of the world wide web and with the exception of the human element of weather observation, computers are used to acquire the latest weather data from around the world, process records and are key in producing the local forecast. In 2001 the station won a major contract to supply weather data to Costain-Skanska during the dualling of the A43 between Towcester and the M40. The revenue from this enabled Pitsford Hall to introduce an online automatic weather station which was upgraded in 2007 following a successful fundraising campaign amongst the station's regular users of weather data. More recent additions have included hardware to detect lightning activity across the county sponsored by Northampton Science Park.
At the heart of the weather station's
operations from the very start was a web site where weather data could be
updated on a regular basis. The station's web presence has helped it gain recognition in a very short space of time
and is the main route through which people learn of the station's activities.
The station now represents an excellent teaching resource
for meteorology at the school. All potential observers receive thorough training
in observation methods and in basic theory. To date, new observers have been
recruited from the ranks of A-level geography students, continuing a tradition
established by the four founders. Although the station has now acquired a
professional standing, it will continue to remain very much the responsibility
of the students thus continuing the tradition of community service which is a
hallmark of the education at Northamptonshire Grammar School. Such is the
responsibility placed on the students that each year the school awards an
academic prize to the individual showing the greatest commitment to the work of
the station. The Hadley Meteorology Prize has
been endorsed by the Royal Meteorological
Society. 
