Donna Nook No 2 WMO 03385 – Heat Burst Phenomena.

53.47487 0.15296 Met Office Assessed CIMO Class 5S Installed 1/1/1993

This site is RAF Donna Nook Weapons Range and is a public restricted area. The almost invisible screen is to the rear of the control tower. It is classed at the worst possible rating of Class 5 (inaccuracy by siting of an additional up to 5°C) plus it is further compromised by heavy shading. Whilst there is no problem with having a weather station here for site specific purposes, I find it quite bizarre that the Met Office includes this site as a climate reporting station with its data contributing to the historic temperature record. In what possible way could such a site represent the natural environment?

Although site imagery has been unavailable in the past, we now have Gav Briggs to thank for posting this to Streetview images in June 2024. The screen can (just) be seen in front of the control building on the raised mound in the centre.

Donna Nook does, however, have one interesting claim to fame. In 2019 it was the right place to record a rare weather event generally known as a “Heat Burst” but in some cultures more dramatically known as “Satan’s Storm”. From Wikipedia:

“In meteorology, a heat burst is a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterized by a sudden, localized increase in air temperature near the Earth’s surface. Heat bursts typically occur during night-time and are associated with decaying thunderstorms. They are also characterized by extremely dry air and are sometimes associated with very strong, even damaging, winds. Although the phenomenon is not fully understood, the event is thought to occur when rain evaporates into a parcel of cold, dry air high in the atmosphere, making the air denser than its surroundings. The parcel descends rapidly, warming due to compression, overshoots its equilibrium level, and reaches the surface, similar to a downburst. Recorded temperatures during heat bursts, as informally known as “Satan’s Storm”, have reached well above 40°C (104°C), sometimes rising by 10°C (18°F) or more within only a few minutes”

The event was reported locally at the time.

In their now classic 21st Century style the Met Office sensationalised the event starting with “WOW”. No doubt they have archived this data or from other similar events into some form of “record”

Whilst this weather event was recorded by the Donna Nook station it is worth noting that had it not been there, the Met Office would not have acknowledged the data if only recorded by a private weather station in the same locality. So despite private weather stations hugely outnumbering the official Met Office ones and so often being better sited and equipped, they are effectively totally disregarded.

Donna Nook is in an acknowledged very poor site and its data should not be included in the historic temperature record.