Project Consultant : Christine Shaw
We have a comprehensive weather station on site at Bascomb Copse, as at other research sites under our control. This station is actually part of the national grid of stations reporting weather information. The data is collected each morning at 09.00 GMT.
The need for such a station is paramount in establishing the impact of weather, in all its aspects, on the performance of cereals and vegetables in crop trials (Potential Yields of Prehistoric Cereals), the survival of buildings and their need for maintenance (Iron Age Structures: Domestic and Agricultural), and the response of all the processes involved in the changes occurring in the experimental earthworks (Sedimentation, Erosion and Plant Revegetation in Experimental Earthworks).
It is necessary to differentiate between climate and weather. Climate is the prevailing pattern of rain, sun, cloud, temperature or whatever. Climates may be hotter or colder, drier or wetter, there may be rainy seasons interspersed with arid periods and so on, each one of which affects the length of the growing season and the type of plants adapted to thrive. Weather, on the other hand, may be defined as the "level" of each of these climatic factors at any given place and time. It is represented by the prevailing values for temperature, rain, wind etc., which set the pattern of a given climate.
The impact of weather on man's survival in even the recent past should not be underestimated. Until man devised adequate storage practices, especially for staples (Storage of Grain in Underground Silos), food supplies were essentially seasonal. One of the more significant historic events, known to most of us, is the mass migration of Irish people, following collapse of the potato harvest, where the ravages of blight were brought about by the prevailing weather.
Ultimately, it is the extremes of weather, rather than the routine, that dictate survivability. Depending on past harvests and the adequacy of storage practices (which may just as well be above ground granaries as silos, though the former need extraneous raw materials for construction and are more prone to rodent attack), then as few as two years of failed harvests can cause major starvation. There is no need for the seven years of 'biblical' famine! Without exception, the deification of weather and fertility is and has been a world-wide phenomenon.
The key parameters recorded at Bascomb are air temperature (max./min.), grass temperature, soil temperature (at both 50mm and 100mm depth) and rainfall using British Standard equipment. Wind speed and direction are also measured, along with the average run of the wind as given by an anemometer.
It is not appreciated by everyone that plant growth, through root development, as well as germination is dictated by soil temperature rather than air temperature. Whereas, our own response is certainly to air temperature in the first instance! In general it is found that only the extremes of wind have much of an effect on the structures, including fences. Little or no effect has been found on the earthworks - see the forthcoming monograph (mid - late 1999). Crops may be lodged by certain combinations of wind and rain, in a recognised way.
The Bascomb results are published with annual updating (Publications). As well as being tabulated, the data is presented graphically, year on year, to allow ready appreciation of cycles and fluctuations.
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Created 01 August 2001 - Updated 24 May 2007