Isle of Man Ronaldsway Meteorological Office Records: Daily weather and observations registers

This series collects the daily registers made by the Isle of Man Ronaldsway Meteorological Office. The records consist of specially printed notebooks varying in size and type of information they register through time. The observations were registered by trained personnel and taken to the Met Office station located in Ronaldsway Airport.
These records provide data for a range of weather conditions such as atmospheric pressure, temperature, rainfall, clouds' size, wind direction or state of sea and ground. This information was recorded hourly and is organised through two pages in the notebooks. The first covers the morning period from midnight to midday and the second from 1 pm to midnight.
The volumes are heavily coded, but it is possible to find 'decodes' at the beginning of each volume starting on S81/121, which change according to international uniformisation agreements in later volumes.

The Isle of Man Meteorological Office (Ronaldsway Met Office) was opened by the UK Air Ministry as a method to support aviation, as part of a series of weather observation stations at Royal Air Force or Naval Stations throughout the United Kingdom.
The Isle of Man Met Office opened on 7th May 1946 in a barn southeast of Ronaldsway Airport. Some weeks later it was moved to the first floor of its control tower (which was demolished in 2012), starting its daily registers on the 24th July of the same year. In 2011 the office moved to Viscount House adjacent to the terminal building.
The weather readings were done manually, with an officer reading temperatures from the Stevenson screen on the airfield. These observations were completed at every hour of the day and night, 365 days a year and written observations were completed hourly until 1995, albeit with a gradual increase in technology as digital remote reading temperature sensors and laser cloud base recorders were introduced. Since 1995 the observations have still been completed, but are now printed via a computer rather than in ink on paper registers.
The Met Office, in administrative terms, moved from the Air Ministry to the Isle of Man Airports Board authority in 1965 and subsequently to the Isle of Man Department of Infrastructure, which allowed a closer relationship with the Island.
Today, the Island's Met Office has access to United Kingdom's Met Office computer weather models as well as information from other National Weather Services around the world, with forecasters at Ronaldsway interpreting the data to be used locally. These forecasts, observations and warnings are important for aviation, but also for the rest of the Island and users of its coastal waters. The forecasts are available via website, and by telephone with the information produced helping many people on a daily basis. Whether that is something simple like whether to wear a coat or hang the washing out today, the shipping companies to decide whether to sail or not, or for the emergency services and highways division to decide on response levels to a major flooding or storm event.

These records are arranged in the original order they were created. A new reference code was given after transfer to the Isle of Man Public Record Office, but the original numbering was preserved in the field 'Alternative Reference Number' (Alt. Ref. No.) This original reference is organised in an ascending numbering and, many times, a reference to the month and year the volume belongs to. The reference is not consistent in every volume. This numbering was written on a small piece of paper and taped to the spine of the volume; due to glue degradation over time, many have detached and are missing.

For information on visiting the Isle of Man Public Record Office please see our website: www.gov.im/pro .

Please see our website for catalogues: www.gov.im/pro .

Catalogued by Liliana Silva, Records and Archive Officer, Isle of Man Public Record Office, May 2018

Crown copyright exists in documents created by the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man Governments (duration - 125 years from the end of the calendar year of production)

Part of the records in this series were stored at Ronaldsway Airport by the Isle of Man Met Office until they were transferred to the IOMPRO under section 3(8) of the Public Records Act, 1999 in October 2004 and December 2005. In May 2017, the total of these records was fully transferred to the IOMPRO under section 3(4) of the same Act.

Accruals are expected to this series.

• S83 - Isle of Man Ronaldsway Meteorological Office Records: Barograph charts
• S84 - Isle of Man Ronaldsway Meteorological Office Records: Thermo-hygrograph charts
• S85 - Isle of Man Ronaldsway Meteorological Office Records: Rainfall charts
• S86 - Isle of Man Ronaldsway Meteorological Office Records: Anemograph charts
• S87 - Isle of Man Ronaldsway Meteorological Office Records: Monthly weather summaries