Dartmouth Coastal Weather Station

The Dartmouth Coastal Weather Station is situated at Little Dartmouth on the English Channel coast about a mile to the west of the entrance to the River Dart in South Devon. Latitude 50° 19.9' N, longitude 3° 34.8' W. The Ordnance Survey grid reference is SX 876492.

The weather station is a Davis Instruments Wireless Vantage Pro2. The Integrated Sensor Suite (raingauge, thermometer, barometer, hygrometer) is mounted on a tripod in an open situation about 1.2m above the ground. The anemometer is mounted on a pole about 3m above the top of a chimney stack above a pitched roof, approximately 15m above the surrounding ground, which has an elevation of some 110m above sea level.

The aspect of the surrounding land is open to the sea from ENE (Froward Point) to SW (Slapton Sands). Away from the sea the land rises a little to a ridge some 20m higher at a distance of 400m. This modest amount of shelter may reduce offshore wind speeds slightly. However, the site is particularly well placed to measure onshore winds which, if strong and prolonged, can induce a heavy swell in Dart Harbour and heightened tide levels in the Dart estuary as a whole.

The station was set up in mid January 2008. Various teething troubles mean that the first few days' information may not be complete or reliable.  If  you see any clear anomolies in the current readings please contact: neil@nmillward.eclipse.co.uk.