Welcome to my Orkney Weather web site. It is from my interest in recording the weather that I have created this site so that people interested in the weather and climate of Orkney can look at what is happening at the moment and what took place over past years. This is not a weather forecasting site but there are links to the Met Office forecasts.
My name is Keith Johnson and I live at the edge of the Loch of Hundland in the Parish of Birsay in Orkney. I have always had an interest in the weather from my sea-going days as watching the weather became second nature. In late 1999 I was approached by SEPA to install a rain gauge at my home as a check on a rain gauge they have at the Durkadale burn and they in turn persuaded the Met Office to supple some further instruments to the rain gauge and so my weather station was born and commenced recording Jan 2000. At the same time I purchased an automatic weather station (AWS) from Davis Weather Systems of the USA and up to now I have had two such AWS from the same company. I have since added an Automatic Weather Station from Campbell Scientific in 2017.
I should explain that my weather readings are not to serve synoptic weather forecasting but are classed as “climate records” to be added into the UK data base which records the climate of the UK.
There is a difference between Weather and Climate which is not always apparent. Weather is what you get on a day-to-day basis and climate is what you get over 20 -30 years.
I hope you enjoy visiting the site.
If you wish to pass on any interesting weather information or ask a question please contact me by email: ak.johnson@btinternet.com
