PILOT reports describe measurements reported up to four times daily by radiosondes at worldwide fixed land stations. The dataset contains measurements of wind speed and direction. The data are measured from the surface to approximately 20-30 km and measurements are usually taken every 2 seconds. These data are provided as-is from the Met Office and so will need the message components bringing together for each ascent The PILOT data contain the following observations: Wind speed at standard pressure levels Vertical wind shear Maximum wind level The data comprise vertical profiles of temperature, dew-point temperature, wind speed and wind direction at standard and significant pressure levels. The standard pressure levels are 850, 700, 500, 400, 300, 250, 200, 150, 100, 70, 50, 30, 20 and 10 hPa. Significant pressure levels are calculated according to the Met Office criteria and constitute levels at which significant events occur in the profile, e.g temperature inversions. The data are measured from the surface to approximately 20-30 km. Generally there are up to 4 ascents per day from each station, though some sites may only have 1 or 2 ascents. Ascent times are typically around 00, 06, 12 and 18 UT. A maximum wind level is defined as a level at which the wind speed is greater than that observed immediately above and below that level..

Helical scans from the Met Office's Wardon Hill C-band rain radar, Dorset, England produced in support of the NERC funded "Forecasting Rainfall exploiting new data Assimilation techniques and Novel observations of Convection" (FRANC) project. These data are opportunistic observations made by the radar as it transitioned between horizontal and vertically pointing scans and vice versa obtained during the period of the FRANC project. The radar is a C-band (5.3 cm wavelength) radar and data are received by the Nimrod system at 5 minute intervals.

The UK mean wind data contain the mean wind speed and direction, and the direction, speed and time of the maximum gust, all during 1 or more hours, ending at the stated time and date. The data were collected by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within the following message types: SYNOP, HCM, AWSHRLY, DLY3208, HWNDAUTO and HWND6910. The data spans from 1949 to 2018. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. For further details on observing practice, including measurement accuracies for the message types, see relevant sections of the MIDAS User Guide linked from this record (e.g. section 3.3 details the wind network in the UK, section 5.5 covers wind measurements in general and section 4 details message type information). This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record.

The UK daily temperature data contain maximum and minimum temperatures (air, grass and concrete slab) measured over a period of up to 24 hours. The measurements were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within NCM, DLY3208 or AWSDLY messages. The data span from 1853 to 2023. For details on measurement techniques, including calibration information and changes in measurements, see section 5.2 of the MIDAS User Guide linked to from this record. Soil temperature data may be found in the UK soil temperature datasets linked from this record. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. These include the addition of data for calendar year 2023. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. Currently this represents approximately 95% of available daily temperature observations within the full MIDAS collection.

The UK soil temperature data contain daily and hourly values of soil temperatures at depths of 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, and 100 centimetres. The measurements were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within NCM or DLY3208 messages. The data spans from 1900 to 2019. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. At many stations temperatures below the surface are measured at various depths. The depths used today are 5, 10, 20, 30 and 100cm, although measurements are not necessarily made at all these depths at a station and exceptionally measurements may be made at other depths. When imperial units were in general use, typically before 1961, the normal depths of measurement were 4, 8, 12, 24 and 48 inches. Liquid-in-glass soil thermometers at a depth of 20 cm or less are unsheathed and have a bend in the stem between the bulb and the lowest graduation. At greater depths the thermometer is suspended in a steel tube and has its bulb encased in wax. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record.

The UK hourly solar radiation data contain the amount of solar irradiance received during the hour ending at the specified time. All sites report 'global' radiation amounts. This is also known as 'total sky radiation' as it includes both direct solar irradiance and 'diffuse' irradiance as a result of light scattering. Some sites also provide separate diffuse and direct irradiation amounts, depending on the instrumentation at the site. For these the sun's path is tracked with two pyrometers - one where the path to the sun is blocked by a suitable disc to allow the scattered sunlight to be measured to give the diffuse measurement, while the other has a tube pointing at the sun to measure direct solar irradiance whilst blanking out scattered sun light. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. The data were collected by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within the following message types: SYNOP, HCM, AWSHRLY, MODLERAD, ESAWRADT and DRADR35 messages. The data spans from 1947 to 2019. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record.

The UK daily weather observation data contain meteorological values measured on a 24 hour time scale. The measurements of sunshine duration, concrete state, snow depth, fresh snow depth, and days of snow, hail, thunder and gail were attained by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK operated and transmitted within DLY3208, NCM, AWSDLY and SYNOP messages. The data span from 1889 to 2018. For details of observations see the relevant sections of the MIDAS User Guide linked from this record for the various message types. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. Currently this represents approximately 95% of available daily weather observations within the full MIDAS collection.

This dataset contains a set of reference long term averages for observed climate variables on an approximately 25km resolution grid. This matches the resolution of the HadRM3 regional climate model and the UKCP09 climate projections. These data represent the baseline reference climate averages for the period 1961 – 1990. The data were derived from the Met Office gridded land surface climate observations – long term averages at 5km resolution (see related dataset). Each 25 x 25km grid box value is an average of the 5 x 5 km grid cell values that fall within it. Averages have been calculated for each month, season and the year as a whole (17 data sets). For the days of frost and days of rain variables the seasonal and annual averages are the total of the individual monthly averages. For the remaining variables the seasonal and annual averages are the mean of the monthly averages (allowing for differences in month length). To facilitate combining the baseline data with the UKCP09 climate projections, the 25 km baseline averages for rainfall have been expressed in units of millimetres per day (rather than total millimetres, as for the 5 km data sets). The data are provide in CF-1.5 compliant NetCDF format. The data are additionally provided in ESRI-ascii format, suitable for ingestion in GIS applications, and a simple timeseries format for users requiring a limited number of points.

Dual-polar products from the Met Office's Clee Hill C-band rain radar, Shropshire, England. Data from this site include augmented ldr (linear depolarisation ratio) and zdr (differential reflectivity) scan data (both long and short pulse), available from August 2018 to present. The radar is a C-band (5.3 cm wavelength) radar and data are received by the Nimrod system at 5 minute intervals.

The UK soil temperature data contain daily and hourly values of soil temperatures at depths of 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, and 100 centimetres. The measurements were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within NCM or DLY3208 messages. The data spans from 1900 to 2018. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. At many stations temperatures below the surface are measured at various depths. The depths used today are 5, 10, 20, 30 and 100cm, although measurements are not necessarily made at all these depths at a station and exceptionally measurements may be made at other depths. When imperial units were in general use, typically before 1961, the normal depths of measurement were 4, 8, 12, 24 and 48 inches. Liquid-in-glass soil thermometers at a depth of 20 cm or less are unsheathed and have a bend in the stem between the bulb and the lowest graduation. At greater depths the thermometer is suspended in a steel tube and has its bulb encased in wax. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record.