Autographic Records

We have a number of autographic records which were used to record:

• Temperature (thermogram)
• Rainfall intensity (hyetogram)
• Air pressure (barogram)
• Relative humidity (hygrogram)
• Wind speed and direction (anemogram)

Though the instruments used for creating these records did vary, they normally included a cylindrical drum on which was mounted graphic paper. The drum rotated slowly making a single revolution once per day, per week, or sometimes per month, and onto which the actual weather information is marked by continuous pen trace.

Nowadays, mechanical recording autographic instruments have been superseded by electronic weather instruments that use computer methods to record these separate weather elements. The digitally recorded data is sent to the Met Office automatically and then immediately fed into the sophisticated computer models.