AWS were a great step forward in weather observing but they have an Achilles
heel: they sometimes malfunction, and it’s not any Tom, Dick or Harry who
can fix them. For example just when we’re having an inordinate amount of
rainfall and we’re interested in knowing just how much, the rainfall sensors
of Aboyne and Shoeburyness have gone u/s – and those are just the two I’ve
noticed. I can’t see them getting fixed in a hurry.
Here, on the other hand, some poor devil will be standing in a waterlogged
field in his wellies, trying to make his ball-point write on soggy paper –
but it will get done, and will probably be the only rainfall record the MO
will get in this rural part of Aberdeenshire.

Ian Bingham,
Inchmarlo, Aberdeenshire.
80m asl.