September 3, 2026
From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
Huge news from Dr Eric Huxter’s website:
As Ray Sanders had picked up from a January 2026 FOI request for a list of CIMO 1 and 2 class weather stations.
Kew Gardens, up to now Class 2, did not appear on this list. On May 24th I sent an enquiry as to its current status to the Meteorological Office Enquiries desk. My enquiry was given a case number and I awaited the response. In July there had been no answer therefore I sent the question again, with the associated number. On the 29th August I received the following answer:
We apologies in the delay getting back to you, our support team has come back and said the CIMO rating is or can be different for each sensor depending on the exposure assessment.
I was suitably impressed at the length of time to produce this deflection and sent a more precise question as to the CIMO Site Class for the air temperature sensor and today received this response:
The air temperature sensor at Kew Gardens is classified as CIMO 5.
Full story here.
As readers will be aware, Ray, Eric and I have been paying close attention to Kew Gardens, since it set the May temperature record earlier this year.
Despite being classified as Class 2, recent photographs revealed overgrown vegetation and close proximity of the screen to a fence. By WMO standards, Kew should at best be a Class 4.
On top of that are the inappropriate surroundings in the Gardens.
Kew has often topped the daily lists for hottest places, including that May record:
As WMO rules make clear that Class 5 sites should not be used for climatological purposes, I look forward to the Met Office removing the spurious “record temperature” from their website.
