The Met Office have announced that the observing site on Sule Skerry
(03010) is to close. The provisional date for closure is 27th March
2019. Reasons given are the high cost of mainteance (access is only
possible by helicopter) and, as the site is in a bird reserve, there
are significant restriction on when the site can be accessed and on
what activities can be carried out.

This closure means the loss of a very long-standing observing site
which opened in 1952. SYNOPs were originally prepared by the resident
lighthouse keepers. When the lighthouse was automated the keepers were
withdrawn and the manual observing was replaced by an AWS.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.