Rhyl No 2 WMO 03313 – Hands up if you are very confused!

Rhyl Weather Station operational 1899 to 1991 53.31378 -3.50095 9 metres/ 30 feet amsl. No CIMO Rating

Rhyl No 2 53.31382 -3.50090 Met Office CIMO Assessed Class 5 elevation 77 Metres/253 Feet amsl. Installed 1986.

Rhyl weather station was a long term site dating back to the 19th century set atop a berm surrounding “Marine Lake” on the north Wales coastline. For unknown reasons the Met Office shut down the site and opened a new one almost 6.4 km/4 miles away, inland, and at a 68 metre/223 feet higher elevation which they named Rhyl No 2 presumably suggesting it was a replacement for the original location. This new, very sophisticated site, with the full range of Met Office instrumentation, has been officially assessed as the lowest possible Class 5 i.e. meeting no stated regulations at all other than failing to make Class 4.

This is what it currently looks like……..slope, shading trees, and no expense spared eh?

It is hard to comment on the numerous class 5 stations the Met Office has other than to point out there are usually good reasons – in the case of Rhyl No 2 these are rather obvious. The screen sits to the side of “Engine Hill” which rises from 50 metres to over 120 metres in under 1 kilometre, is prone to heavy shading with the odd vehicle and agricultural machinery regularly parked alongside.

The confusing issue here is the way the Met Office have chosen to name this site as a “replacement” (i.e. “Number 2”) and suggest some association between the two completely different locations. Considering the “Factsheet” referring to micro-climates where the Met Office chose to contrast Teignmouth with the nearby Princeton site, they highlighted the significant differences caused by elevation and proximity to/distance from coastal influences. This is exactly the same issue between the two Rhyl stations whose operational period overlapped by five years. The Met Office had a long enough period to clearly see the sites bore little similarity.

Going back to the description issues of “Climate Averages” as demonstrated at Dungeness and the subsequent Met Office surreptitious change of their web site description to “Location Specific Long Term Averages”, I referred to the “Wayback Machine” Link here

https://web.archive.org/web/20240503102510/https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-climate-averages/gcmwbpsb4

Note how inputting “Rhyl” leads straight to the location coordinates, elevation and description which are all specific to the No 2 site at 77 m amsl and not the coastal site at just 9 metres. This would possibly be “innocent” enough until the actual reported data is looked at. The entirety of the 1961 – 1990 obviously predates the installation of the No 2 station which was not actually reporting official temperature readings until 1992

This raises the question of which site’s readings were used to compile this earlier period’s data. The Met Office claims internationally “peer reviewed” systems to conjure up these numbers….but from where? It was not the No 2 site. They were unable to verify the data used for Folkestone and Dover stations to 2020 when I challenged them simply claiming the data was no longer held. I find it implausible that an organisation responsible for recording literally multiple millions of readings would not keep records of those used for “peer reviewed” methods – in the absence of recorded data no system can meet peer review by definition.

For the Rhyl No 2 area the CEDA archives do not show any weather stations prior in the vicinity, in fact, there were none within 20 Miles at anything close to this elevation. Going back to the “Micro-climate” piece, the coastal original Rhyl site would record significantly higher to the newer inland high site. However, comparison between the “data” over time shows the inevitable significant increment from the 1961/1990 levels to the 1990/2020 that is completely contrary to the Met Office claimed likely lower inland readings on relocation.

How much credence can be given to these Met Office number sets? If anyone cares to ask the Met Office exactly how they have compiled this time series with specific reference to Rhyl only, I would like to know their answer particularly going back to 1960. If they cannot clarify data of 2020 for Flkestone and Dover, the 60year old data is highly improbable to be retained. They no longer answer my requests. I strongly suspect, though, no definitive answer will be forthcoming. The current iteration of “Climate Averages” renamed ” Location-specific Long-Term Averages” reads as follows on its front area site explainer.

The “nearest” site at 21 miles distant (Aber No 2) closed over 23 years ago. Capel Curig was installed after Rhyl No 2 and principally used to chase extreme wind speed records. The notorious record temperature chasing relocated Hawarden Airport site is at just 11 metres amsl. Bala, 25 miles away, is by a weir at the end of a glacial lake that is Wales’ largest body on inland water cannot possibly bear any meteorological similarity.

The whole situation regarding readings from Rhyl, wherever taken are inevitably completely unsuitable for inclusion in the long term historic temperature record. This is a very poor reflection all round on the Met Office and its operating standards.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2025/03/16/rhyl-no-2-wmo-03313-hands-up-if-you-are-very-confused/