Dataset: Total Monthly Rainfall at Rothamsted March 1853 - July 2018

Citation:  Sarah Perryman, Tony Scott, Chris Hall (2018). Total Monthly Rainfall at Rothamsted March 1853 - July 2018 Electronic Rothamsted Archive, Rothamsted Research 10.23637/RMMRAIN5318
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Summary

This dataset represents the total monthly rainfall at Rothamsted continuously from March 1853 - July 2018 and is based on continuous daily records measured at the site.

Methods

Daily rainfall is measured as the total (mm) over the 24-hour period 0900 to 0900 GMT. It includes all precipitation - snow, rain, mist and fog. Rainfall was first recorded at Rothamsted in 1853, using a copper funnel rain gauge (5 inch / 12.7 cm diameter) and measured using a graduated cylinder. Since 2004 it has been measured using an electronic tipping bucket rain gauge (10 inch / 25.4cm diameter), ARG100, calibrated to tip at 0.2mm (which has since become the minimum amount of rain that can be recorded). The rain gauge is placed within a 30cm deep 1.5m radius turf wall, retained by brick, to reduce wind eddies that may potentially blow rain out of the gauges. Data were collected daily manually until 2004 and since then by Automatic Weather Station using a standard protocol.

Technical Information

Location: Rothamsted Meteorological Station, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England 51.82 N 0.37 W 128 m asl.

Contributors

  • Sarah Perryman: Data curator
  • Margaret Glendining: Data curator
  • Andrew Macdonald: Project manager
  • Richard Ostler: Project leader
  • Tony Scott: Data collector
  • Nathalie Castells: Data manager
  • Chris Hall: Data collector

Dataset Access and Conditions

Rights Holder

Rothamsted Research

License

Creative Commons License This dataset is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence (4.0).

Cite this Dataset

YOU MUST CITE AS: Sarah Perryman, Tony Scott, Chris Hall (2018). Dataset: Total Monthly Rainfall at Rothamsted March 1853 - July 2018 Electronic Rothamsted Archive, Rothamsted Research https://doi.org/10.23637/RMMRAIN5318

Please review our How to Credit Datasets guidance for more information.

Conditions of Use

Rothamsted relies on the integrity of users to ensure that datasets are used appropriately and Rothamsted Research receives suitable acknowledgment as being the originators of these data. Please review the Conditions of Use before downloading.

Table Of Contents

The monthly summary data contained in this spreadsheet are derived from daily data measured at Rothamsted Meteorological Station, Harpenden. Total monthly data is determined from daily data using Genstat 19th Edition.

Verification includes checks for instrument errors, for missing data and outliers.

The original raw daily data is available, after registering, from the e-RA database. Please contact the e-RA Curators for an access password and further details.

This datasest contains total monthly rainfall and was mistakingly titled 'Mean' monthly rainfall until Decmeber 2022 when it was corrected to 'Total' monthly rainfall; it was then superceded by the long-term total monthly rainfall 1853-2022 in January 2023.

  • The dataset Total Monthly Rainfall at Rothamsted March 1853 - July 2018 is a published dataset from the e-RA Database. e-RA is part of the Rothamsted Long-Term Experiments - National Bioscience Research Infrastructure (RLTE-NBRI), which also covers maintenance of the Long-Term Experiments, the Rothamsted Sample Archive and Rothamsted's environmental monitoring activities including the weather stations and its role in the UK Environmental Change Network
  • The RLTE-NBRI is funded by UK Research and Innovation - Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UKRI-BBSRC) under award BBS/E/RH/23NB0007 (2023-2028). The RLTE-NBRI is also supported by the Lawes Agricultural Trust. e-RA has been part of a National Capability since 2012, previous awards from the BBSRC were Grants BBS/E/C/00005189 (2012-2017) and BBS/E/C/000J0300 (2017-2022)
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For further information and assistance, please contact the e-RA curators, Sarah Perryman and Margaret Glendining using the e-RA email address: era@rothamsted.ac.uk