Pitsford Weather Centre, formerly Pitsford Hall weather station, is an climatological station maintained by Pitsford School in the village of Pitsford, Northamptonshire. The centre was established in 1998 and issues local forecasts for the county as well as maintaining a detailed and continuous weather record. The centre maintains the Met Office climate station for Northampton, officially known as Pitsford, Northampton. The centre is a regular contributor to weather-related articles in the local press and has featured on local and national TV and radio. An analysis of each month's weather as well special articles are published in the centre's Monthly Weather report received by the British Library and available online and in hard copy to subscribers.
The weather station has been run by Sixth Form students using traditional meteorological instruments from its inception in 1998 until 2016 when the site became fully automatic and renamed Pitsford Weather Centre. However, manual observations were recommenced in 2018 when the site was incorporated into the Met Office network of climatological monitoring stations.
The Weather information is now available via Twitter and Facebook as well as smartphone apps for iPhone and Android.
An extensive archive of county weather records is held by the station which date back to 1880 and the station continues to receive weather records from a number of sites from across the county.
The weather centre's most popular feature remains its Daily Weather Report, a comprehensive 3 day forecast for Northamptonshire, distributed by free subscription email.
The station enjoys the patronage of broadcast meteorologists Michael Fish MBE (now retired) and Alex Deakin. It is a corporate member of the Royal Meteorological Society.
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences, with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not begin until the 18th century. The 19th century saw modest progress in the field after weather observation networks were formed across broad regions. Prior attempts at prediction of weather depended on historical data. It was not until after the elucidation of the laws of physics and more particularly, the development of the computer, allowing for the automated solution of a great many equations that model the weather, in the latter half of the 20th century that significant breakthroughs in weather forecasting were achieved. An important branch of weather forecasting is marine weather forecasting as it relates to maritime and coastal safety, in which weather effects also include atmospheric interactions with large bodies of water.
Northampton is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands region of England. It lies on the River Nene, 60 miles (97 km) north-west of London and 50 miles (80 km) south-east of Birmingham. As the county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is the largest settlement within the unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; it had a population of 212,100 at the 2011 census.
Northamptonshire, archaically known as the County of Northampton, is a historic county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is known as "The Rose of the Shires".
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th century. Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere, land, and ocean and using meteorology to project how the atmosphere will change at a given place.
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the purposes of protection, safety, and general information. It is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) branch of the Department of Commerce, and is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, within the Washington metropolitan area. The agency was known as the United States Weather Bureau from 1890 until it adopted its current name in 1970.
The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope Endersby, who took on the role as Chief Executive in December 2018 and is the first woman to do so. The Met Office makes meteorological predictions across all timescales from weather forecasts to climate change.
Alexander Roy Deakin is a meteorologist and weather forecaster for the Met Office. Deakin appeared regularly on BBC services and was one of the main weather presenters on the BBC News at Ten. In addition, he joined the Weather team on BBC Breakfast in January 2007 and appeared regularly at the weekends and as cover during the week.
Pitsford is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire in the United Kingdom. According to 2001 census, the parish's population was 636 people, increasing to 671 at the 2011 census.
The Northampton & Lamport Railway is a standard gauge heritage railway in Northamptonshire, England. It is based at Pitsford and Brampton station, near the villages of Pitsford and Chapel Brampton, roughly 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Northampton.
Pitsford Water or Pitsford Reservoir is a 413 hectare reservoir and biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Brixworth in Northamptonshire. It is owned by Anglian Water, which manages it as a water park for walking, cycling, fishing, sailing and birdwatching. An area of 181 hectares north of the causeway which divides the reservoir is the Pitsford Water Nature Reserve, which is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.
Pitsford and Brampton railway station is a railway station serving the villages of Pitsford and Chapel Brampton in Northamptonshire, England.
Met Éireann is the State meteorological service in the Republic of Ireland, part of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute, also known internationally as MET Norway, is Norway's national meteorological institute. It provides weather forecasts for civilian and military uses and conducts research in meteorology, oceanography and climatology. It is headquartered in Oslo and has offices and stations in other cities and places. It has around 500 full-time staff and was founded in 1866.
Brixworth Country Park lies next to Pitsford Water in Northamptonshire, England.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), is an autonomous and independent institution tasked with providing weather forecasts and public warnings concerning weather for protection, safety and general information.
Pitsford School, established 1989, is a co-educational, 3-18 independent school in Pitsford, Northamptonshire. Originally called Northamptonshire Grammar School, the school changed its name to Pitsford School in September 2011. Pitsford School is run by the Northamptonshire Independent Grammar School Charity Trust, set up on 27 July 1998. The trust was registered with the Charity Commission in August 1988 to promote and provide for the advancement of education. On 6 September 1989, the school opened with 47 boys admitted across three year groups, Y7-9. The founding Headmaster was Dr Malcolm Tozer, the current headmaster is Dr Craig Walker..
Surface weather observations are the fundamental data used for safety as well as climatological reasons to forecast weather and issue warnings worldwide. They can be taken manually, by a weather observer, by computer through the use of automated weather stations, or in a hybrid scheme using weather observers to augment the otherwise automated weather station. The ICAO defines the International Standard Atmosphere (ISA), which is the model of the standard variation of pressure, temperature, density, and viscosity with altitude in the Earth's atmosphere, and is used to reduce a station pressure to sea level pressure. Airport observations can be transmitted worldwide through the use of the METAR observing code. Personal weather stations taking automated observations can transmit their data to the United States mesonet through the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP), the UK Met Office through their Weather Observations Website (WOW), or internationally through the Weather Underground Internet site. A thirty-year average of a location's weather observations is traditionally used to determine the station's climate. In the US a network of Cooperative Observers make a daily record of summary weather and sometimes water level information.
The Northampton–Market Harborough line is a closed railway line in England. It opened on 16 February 1859 and finally closed on 16 August 1981. The former trackbed is used by the Brampton Valley Way and part of the route has been re-opened as the Northampton & Lamport Railway.
Church Brampton was a railway station on the Northampton Loop Line serving the village of Church Brampton in Northamptonshire.
The National Weather Service Boston/Norton, Massachusetts, is a local office of the National Weather Service (NWS), run under the auspices of the NWS's Eastern Region. This weather forecast office (WFO) is responsible for monitoring weather conditions throughout most of southern New England. The southern New England weather forecast office provides warning and forecast services for most of Massachusetts, Northern Connecticut, and all of Rhode Island. Besides public weather services, WFO Norton (BOX) provides marine, aviation, fire weather, and hydrological forecast services. Additional hydrologic information is provided by the co-located Northeast River Forecast Center (NERFC).