Buxton weatherman’s account of climate station’s 150-year history

An amateur meteorologist who helped keep Buxton’s very own Met Office climate station running has written an account of its 150-year history.

Michael Hilton, 70, came forward along with 12 other volunteers in 2016 to take daily readings at Buxton’s MET weather station when budget pressures meant the council could no longer do it.

In his account Michael tells how the Buxton Slopes site - which has readings taken at 9am, 365 days a year - was installed in the 1800s to halt diseases such as cholera and typhus which were mistakenly believed to be airborne.

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Michael - whose own website buxtonweather.co.uk, crashed on Tuesday when more than 40,000 people visited in four hours for snow updates - told how ‘not a single day of recordings had been missed since 1865’.

He said: “On November 11, 1918 someone was walking the slopes in Buxton to take the readings on that day.

“It’s a source of prestige for the borough that we’ve got this resource - we are proud to have this 150-year-old weather station in Buxton still to this day.”

Grandfather-of-two Michael, a former IT professional, said the MET station was at present ‘going very well’.

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He said: “Long may it last - we formed two-and-a-half years ago and most of the original 12 volunteers remain with us.

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“It can be a bit cold up there on the slopes at 9am but we all think its worthwhile.”

Speaking about this week’s heavy snow Michael assured that because the snow came from the west another Beast from the East was unlikely.

To read his history of the weather site visit buxtonweather.co.uk/metofficeslopes.htm.