Radcliffe Meteorological Station Oxford

Online monthly mean temperature dataset - updated to Dec 2023


Full details on the source and derivation of the records, thermometer exposures, times of observations, corrections applied etc to 2019 are given in Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767, Appendix 1.This file contains monthly, annual and seasonal means of air temperature. The first month with data is December 1813.

Except for 1814, the monthly means presented here are the average of the monthly mean of the daily maximum and minimum temperatures; estimates have been made to cover minor periods of missing data. For 1814 only, the monthly means are based upon a diurnally-adjusted mean of three daily temperature observations.

Until 1849, the thermometers were exposed on a north wall; since August 1849, they have been exposed in a thermometer screen, of the Stevenson type since December 1878. Note that, for records prior to 1925, the monthly mean temperature may differ slightly from the mean of the daily values, or previously published data, owing to the inclusion of minor corrections for exposure and terminal hour variations prior to that date.

Full details on the source and derivation of the records, thermometer exposures, times of observations, corrections applied etc are given in Burt & Burt 2019, Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767, Appendix 1.

Daily temperature records prior to 1972 were made in degrees Fahrenheit, and have been converted to degrees Celsius (rounded to one decimal place). Monthly means are presented to a precision of two decimal places, primarily to distinguish between months with similar means, but it should be noted that the accuracy of the measurements is no better than 0.1 degC.

Between October 2017 and February 2020, and from January 2023 to date, maximum temperatures are from the Met Office Vaisala HMT333 logger within the Stevenson screen. A calibrated mercury maximum thermometer was reinstalled in the Stevenson screen adjacent to the logger sensor in February 2020 and until December 2022 inclusive the maximum temperatures in this table were taken from the mercury maximum thermometer, owing to doubts regarding the validity of readings from the Vaisala logger. From January 2023 onwards, maximum temperature records are again taken from (a replacement) Vaisala logger in the Stevenson screen. Daily maximum temperatures recorded by the Vasiala logger averaged 0.2-0.3 degC cooler than the mercury maximum thermometer over the period of valid overlapping record. Minimum and grass minimum temperatures are from standard alcohol-based minimum thermometers throughout.

Dataset may be subject to changes, and will be updated periodically with current data.

If you use these datasets in publications, please cite the source as:
Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767 by Stephen Burt and Tim Burt, published by Oxford University Press, 2019.

Please let us know < email to rms@ouce.ox.ac.uk > should you find any errors in these datasets.

DATASET DOCUMENTATION
YYYY - Year (four digits). First record 1813
Jan   Monthly mean temperature at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford. Units degrees Celsius, 2 decimal places.
Feb, Mar etc   similarly for each month of the year
Annual - Annual mean temperature at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford (mean of 12 monthly values). Units degrees Celsius, 2 decimal places.
YYYY - Year (four digits) repeated. First record 1813
Winter - Seasonal mean temperature (average of Dec, Jan, Feb) at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, dated to the January year. Units degrees Celsius, 2 decimal places.
Spring   ditto, for March-April-May
Summer   ditto, June-July-August
Autumn   ditto, Sept, Oct, Nov