Met Office marks World Meteorological Day
EARLY warning and early action is the theme of World Meteorological Day this year, an event which encourages people to understand their role in protecting the earth’s atmosphere.
Guernsey’s Met Office has been stationed at the airport since 1946, but individual climate enthusiasts began recording the weather locally as far back as 1777.
Senior observer Adam Heaume, who switched from a finance career six years ago, said that living in an island makes people particularly interested in learning about the weather.
‘Being in an island, the weather dictates almost everything you do, whether its sporting activities or travelling out of the island,’ he said.
The weather is monitored 24 hours a day year-round to provide information to Air Traffic Control and maintain the island’s weather records in an hourly analysis.
Mr Heaume said the role of the job was split between aviation and climatology, which can cause added pressure when the island is hit by adverse weather.
‘The challenge is that we are single-manned, so one of the biggest challenges is when the weather gets bad, that is when we generally get all the enquiries while we are also trying to provide a service to aviation. There is only ever one person in the Met Office, unless the weather is particularly bad, like in the snow, then we would call someone else in,’ said Mr Heaume.
Guernsey works closely with the Jersey Met Office.
‘We have a great working relationship with the Jersey Met Office – a lot of people don’t realise is we don’t actually forecast the weather here, that is done in Jersey.’
In line with the rest of the world, annual reports show the island’s average temperature to be increasing year on year.
During 2021, Mr Heaume worked with Reading University professor Ed Hawkins to develop a climate stripes graph for Guernsey going back to 1843.
The graphic showed that of the 30 warmest years on record, 20 have occurred since 1994.
‘Climate change is certainly something a lot of us are interested in and we would love to have the time to look at climate change more on a local level, but we have definitely noticed that the average temperature is increasing,’ he said.
