The Quantifying Flood Risk of Extreme Events using Density Forecasts Based on a New Digital Archive and Weather Ensemble Predictions Project is a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Flood Risk for Extreme Events (FREE) Research Programme project (Round 1 - NE/E002013/1 - Duration January 2007 - December 2008) led by Dr Patrick McSharry, University of Oxford. The dataset contains a collection of rainfall depth maxima data, dating back to 1860, plus associated description documents and rainfall maps of extreme events across the UK, have been used. All of these products have been digitised from the paper version of the British Rainfall publication, and are now archived at the BADC to enable easy access for future use and the wider community.

Rainfall observations from the Armagh Observatory, founded in 1790 by Archbishop Richard Robinson. As well as astronomical observations various meteorological parameters have been recorded since 1794. If users wish to find data from other areas of work undertaken by the observatory they should visit the Armagh Observatory website.

The Quantifying Flood Risk of Extreme Events using Density Forecasts Based on a New Digital Archive and Weather Ensemble Predictions Project is a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Flood Risk for Extreme Events (FREE) Research Programme project (Round 1 - NE/E002013/1 - Duration January 2007 - December 2008) led by Dr Patrick McSharry, University of Oxford. The dataset contains a collection of rainfall depth maxima data, dating back to 1860, plus associated description documents and rainfall maps of extreme events across the UK, have been used. All of these products have been digitised from the paper version of the British Rainfall publication, and are now archived at the BADC to enable easy access for future use and the wider community. Floods in the UK are often caused by heavy rainfall lasting from minutes to weeks. Efficient management and mitigation of flood risk, especially surface water flooding in urban areas, requires accurate and reliable precipitation forecasts as inputs to flood risk models. Houses in flat areas are particularly at risk and meeting the shortage of houses in the south-east requires building on these areas. To estimate the flood hazard risk in order to try to protect these buildings, accurate rainfall predictions are needed. However, the connection between record rainfall and flooding is highly nonlinear, so that rainfall predictions must also say how likely rainfall is at any time - calculating the probability of rainfall. Extreme rainfalls caused devastating floods in Boscastle in 2004 and Lynmouth in 1952, but the causes and pattern of rainfall was different. Therefore, scientists also need to know what pattern of rainfall caused the flooding. This research aims to get good quality predictions of the probability of rainfall by combining advanced methods from statistics, the output from a new supercomputer model of the weather, and a new computer archive of exteme rainfalls going back to 1866 (and up to 1968), provided by a specialist company Hydro-GIS Ltd. It also aims to produce an automatic system for discovering the most likely pattern in the predicted rainfalls. The new prediction system and data will be freely available over the internet for use by the government and universities.

The Auchencorth Moss Atmospheric Observatory was setup in 1995 to measure meteorology, trace gases, aerosols and their fluxes. It is (55ᵒ47’36” N, 3°14’41” W) an ombrotrophic peatland with an extensive fetch at an elevation of 270 m, lying 18 km SSW of Edinburgh, UK, and can be categorised as a transitional lowland raised bog. The site is grazed with < 1 sheep ha^-1. During 2000s the site activity has increased and was established in 2006 as EMEP (European Monitoring and Evaluation Program, Level 2/3) supersite for the UK. Long term monitoring is led by NERC CEH with contributions from other organisations/research institutes including Ricardo AEA, BureauVeritas, NPL, the University of Birmingham and University of Edinburgh. In April 2014 the site was awarded WMO GAW regional station (World Meteorological Orgamisation Global Atmospheric Watch). In 2017 the site joined the ICOS network (Integrated Carbon Observation System). Similar measurements are also made at nearby Easter Bush Field site by the same team. The meteorological measurements were initially made to assist with interpretation of the fluxes and as such weren't installed with the intention of providing WMO standard measurements.

The site was setup in 1995 to measure meteorology, trace gases, aerosols and their fluxes. It is (55ᵒ47’36” N, 3°14’41” W) an ombrotrophic peatland with an extensive fetch at an elevation of 270 m, lying 18 km SSW of Edinburgh, and can be categorised as a transitional lowland raised bog. The site is grazed with < 1 sheep ha^-1. During 2000s the site activity has increased and was established in 2006 as EMEP (European Monitoring and Evaluation Program, Level 2/3) supersite for the UK. Long term monitoring is led by NERC CEH with contributions from other organisations/research institutes including Ricardo AEA, BureauVeritas, NPL, the University of Birmingham and University of Edinburgh. In April 2014 the site was awarded WMO GAW regional station (World Meteorological Orgamisation Global Atmospheric Watch). In 2017 the site joined the ICOS network (Integrated Carbon Observation System). The meteorological measurements were initially made to assist with interpretation of the fluxes and as such weren't installed with the intention of providing WMO standard measurements but since 2014 we have been moving towards these standards as well as enhancing instrumentation. The dataset includes the following parameters at half hourly intervals, although not every variable is available from 1995 to 2016: -T_upper_Avg - initially used to estimate senisble heat fluxes, fine wire type-E thermocouple. -T_lower_Avg - initially used to estimate senisble heat fluxes, fine wire type-E thermocouple. -T_RHT_Avg - Temperature measured by a Vailsala relative humidity and temperature probe. -RH_RHT_Avg - Relative humidity measured by a Vailsala relative humidity and temperature probe. -P_Avg - atmospheric pressure at the sites elevation. -Tot_Solar_Avg - Total solar radiation measured by a Skye SKS1110. -PAR_Avg - Photosynthetically Averaged Radiation measured by a Skye SKP215. -NetRad_Avg - Net radiation, Kipp & Zonen NrLite. -Rainfall - tipping bucket rainfall. -SoilTavg - Average soil temperature from four type-E thermocouple probes. -Soil Heat Flux - calculated from two measurements of soil heat flux with Hukseflux HFP01 plates, corrected to surface flux using the standard formula. -Cs = Bd(Cd+fSWC.Cw) -SC = DTs.Cs.d/Dtime -SHF = Plate Average + SC -DTs = change in average soil temperature from start to end of measurement period (first and last two minutes); d = plate depth 0.2 m; Bd = soil bulk density, 100 kg m-3; cd = Specific Heat Dry Soil, 840J kg-1 K-1; fSWC = fractional soil water content, measured or 0.9; cw = Specific Capacilty Heat of Water, 4190 J kg-1 K-1; Dtime = measurement period, 1800 s -Soil Moisture - soil water content measured with TDR probes, campbell CS616 -WindSpd (measured) - measured by a Gill R3 then Windmaster sonic anemometer at 3.6 m -WindSpd 10 m - for most of the time period this is estimated from the turbulence measurements and 3.6 m windspeed but from 22/06/2016 a Gill Windsonic 2D anemeometer measures at 10 m -Wind Dir - measured by the sonic anemometer at 3.6 m -snow_depth_Avg - Campbell Scientific SR50A-L Sonic Ranging Sensor -Present Weather - Vaisala FD12P Present Weather Sensor -1 hr Past Weather - Vaisala FD12P Present Weather Sensor -Visibility - Vaisala FD12P Present Weather Sensor -Evaporation - to be estimated from the water-vapout flux measurements For modelling purposes gapfilled (variables with _gf suffixes) times series will be included, they are created by linearly initially interpolating across upto an hours missing data, filling with colocated measurements (adjusted by linear interpolation with the core data), filling with measurements from nearby sites (adjusted by linear interpolation with the core data). Ta_gf P_gf RH_gf Total_Solar_gf Rainfall_gf Windspd 10m_gf Wind Dir_gf

Simulations made using the HadGEM2 model in AMIP (atmosphere only) configuration for the SAPRISE (South Asian PRecIpitation: A SEamless assessment) project. The SAPRISE project investigates the impacts of aerosols on the South Asian Monsoon using historical simulations forced with anthropogenic aerosols i.e. sulphur dioxide, black carbon and biomass burning aerosols. The simulations cover the period from 1850-2000.

This dataset contains meteorological observations taken from Ben Nevis and Fort William (1883 -1904). These records were produced as part of the Operation Weather Rescue project. Between 1883 and 1904, detailed meteorological observations were taken at the summit of Ben Nevis (56.80N, 5.00W, 1345m elevation) and in the town of Fort William (56.81N, 5.12W, 13m elevation). Hourly observations include temperature (both wet and dry bulb), rainfall, atmospheric pressure at both locations. Daily observations include minimum and maximum temperatures and rainfall. Additional observations taken at Fort William School during the same period are also included. Units are Celsius for temperature, mm for rainfall and mb for pressure. V2 is the latest version.

The Penlee Point Atmospheric Observatory (PPAO) was established by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in May 2014 for long term observations of ocean-atmosphere interaction. The observatory is only a few tens of metres away from the water edge and 11m above mean sea level. This dataset collection contains air temperature, dew point, wind speed and direction, rainfall, sulphur dioxide, ozone, carbon dioxide and methane measurements from Penlee Point Atmospheric Observatory from 2014-2017. At the mouth of the Plymouth Sound, the site (50° 19.08' N, 4° 11.35' W) is exposed to marine air when the wind comes from 110° - 240°. Typical southwesterly winds tend to bring relatively clean background Atlantic air. In contrast, winds from the southeast are often contaminated by exhaust plumes from passing ships. The PPAO is in close proximity to marine sampling stations that form the Western Channel Observatory, enabling better understanding of the ocean-atmosphere coupling.

The Penlee Point Atmospheric Observatory (PPAO) was established by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in May 2014 for long term observations of ocean-atmosphere interaction. The observatory is only a few tens of metres away from the water edge and 11m above mean sea level. This dataset contains air temperature, dew point, wind speed and direction, rainfall, sulphur dioxide, ozone, carbon dioxide and methane measurements from Penlee Point Atmospheric Observatory from 2014-2017. At the mouth of the Plymouth Sound, the site (50° 19.08' N, 4° 11.35' W) is exposed to marine air when the wind comes from 110° - 240°. Typical southwesterly winds tend to bring relatively clean background Atlantic air. In contrast, winds from the southeast are often contaminated by exhaust plumes from passing ships. The PPAO is in close proximity to marine sampling stations that form the Western Channel Observatory, enabling better understanding of the ocean-atmosphere coupling.

An ensemble of simulations made using the Unified Model version 6.6 (HadGEM2) in AMIP (atmosphere only) configuration for the SAPRISE (South Asian PRecIpitation: A SEamless assessment) project. The simulations are used to investigate the impacts of aerosols on the South Asian Monsoon. The four-member ensemble of simulations are forced with anthropogenic-only aerosols i.e. sulphur dioxide, black carbon and biomass burning aerosols. The simulations cover the period from 1850-2000. Since aerosol-only simulation is not compulsory in CMIP5, these four runs are complements to other CMIP5 simulations conducted by Met Office using the HadGEM2-ES (vn 6.6).