The upper dale climate can be unforgiving and it is becoming more extreme. Alex Metcalfe spoke to Ian Findlay who has one of the UK’s highest weather stations in the UK
BOTANIST, ornithologist, meteorologist, fell rescuer, photographer, charity leader and farmer – these titles don’t cover everything Ian Findlay does and has done.
The 82-year-old MBE has lived at Langdon Beck since 1974 when he moved up from Sussex to work for the Nature Conservancy Council.
It’s a proper day out of the office when your car struggles over a rough farm road.
My Volkswagen made it to Mr Findlay’s farm and he welcomed me in to unveil his unparalleled collection of weather data and wildlife observations.
Mr Findlay moved up to Langdon Beck to work for the NCC in an era of great upheaval in the upper dale.
Grand building projects were the hallmark of the 1960s – reservoirs had been built at Balderhead and Selset to supplement water to industry on Teesside.
By the end of the decade it was Cow Green’s turn and, heavily subsidised by chemical and industrial giants, research was given a big funding boost.
Mr Findlay says: “It ended up being built at Cow Green having gone through a lot of debate in parliament and the House of Lords – it really was controversial at the time.”
From that controversy came work for Mr Findlay.
A lump sum of £100,000 was poured into research by chemical giant ICI – some of which went into a new weather station.
He says: “There were a number of projects on botany, invertebrates, and a whole range of others.
“But the one thing that was obviously going to affect this was the large expanse of water and how it affects the climate of the area.
“There is only one way to monitor it and that’s a weather station.”
And so, Mr Finlay’s 43-year association with the upper dale’s weather began.
Based up at the reservoir, the station tracked changes in the upper dale climate after it was built finding that between 1968 and 1978 the temperature rose by 0.1 of a degree celcius.
Hardly a mammoth climate change – but it was enough to feed several university studies for the next few years. One body which kept a close eye on the findings was the Met Office.
Mr Findlay says: “They were extremely interested in it because it was the highest manned weather station in Britain.
“There was an agreement and it came under the umbrella of the Met. I’ve generally done it ever since.”
Sun gauges, a battalion of thermometers, an anemometer, rain gauges and all manner of meteorological paraphernalia now sit in one of Mr Findlay’s fields.
When he retired, English Nature decided they wanted rid of it from Cow Green and the Met Office asked him if he would carry on.
It’s been on his farm since 1995 sitting 1,300 feet above sea level and is still one of the highest manned stations in Britain.
A trusty book of weather phenomena listed from one to 99 instructs him of which corresponding code to input that day onto one of his sheets. It’s here he shows me how many types of drizzle you can have.
He says: “You can have intermittent drizzle, heavy drizzle, light drizzle. When you have done it a long time it’s not a problem.
“A number of these things have gone automatic and it’s a bit complex – once you get into upland areas things do freeze up and get covered.”
Come rain or shine the readings are made – Mr Findlay tells me he’s had to wade through waste deep snow and shovel out the station in the past.
His figures go back to 1968 and prove handy whenever some evidence is needed.
He says: “I can tell you exactly what the weather was like at 9am that morning whatever the day – it’s as simple as that.”
Anecdotally, it’s been a wet summer for farmers with any string of dry days for bailing few and far between.
And Mr Findlay can certainly back that up with his September data.
He says: “For September we had 120.9mm which isn’t excessive and sunshine of 113 hours – but probably more significant when assessing something like this is was we had 24 rain days – that’s the crunch bit.”
Global warming is an inevitable topic which crosses Mr Findlay is path regularly. What does he reckon?
“I have reservations,” he says. “I’ve been doing this for too long – some media like to get something and really highlight this and that.
“People’s memories are very short and that’s when I have the facts. If we monitor anything we cannot argue about it because it’s down.
“Interestingly enough, the farmers will say it’s a harsh year for silage and hay and it has been very difficult but if you look at the rainfall totals for the year they are quite consistent.”
However, some marked changes in the climate haven’t passed him by.
“There is no doubt about it – winter patterns have changed and they changed around about 2000,” he says.
“After that, we’ve seemed to get more rain annually – it’s not a lot, but what we have had is some years of excessive amounts of rain in a short period of time and that’s what everyone relates to it.
“You only have to think of the Cumbria and they have been flooded right out.”
Read next week’s Teesdale Mercury to understand more of Mr Findlay’s findings.
