Observations About Wales:

From Travel To Business & Politics

first published in   December 1997

Peak Conditions --
The Unique Snowdonia Weather Stations Project Offers Hikers & Researchers Information On Summit Conditions

Visitors to the Snowdonia National Park are getting more than a welcome in the hillsides when they arrive in the parking lot at Pen-y-Pass to start their hikes to the top of Eryri. Since July 1995 mountain enthusiasts have been able to get important near-real-time information about weather conditions at the summit of Snowdon on a computer monitor situated in a glass-enclosed alcove that is a part of the National Park Authority’s buildings located at the foot of the Pyg Track. The weather information is relayed by cell-phone from the Automatic Weather Station (AWS) perched unobtrusively on top of the summit cafe on Snowdon’s peak. A second AWS is due in 1998 at Clogwyn (the penultimate stop on the Snowdon Mountain Railway) a gap famous for strong funneled winds.

It’s Unique!
Before modern technology stepped in, a paper copy of the Meteorological Office report for the day was pinned up by a National Park Warden. Readers familiar with Pen-y-Pass will recall that the report was posted on the wall in the semi-sheltered passage leading to the café and restrooms. The Snowdonia Weather Stations Project computer monitor now rules supreme nearby in its own little alcove protected by locks and a thick glass window. The paper forecasts were updated every 24 hours. With the advent of the Snowdonia Weather Stations Project, people can now get fresh weather condition information every hour. A colorful, bi-lingual graphic display shows air temperature, average and gust wind speeds, wind direction and hourly rainfall.

Better still, these days, people with a longing for the mountains can decide whether the conditions are right for a hike by going to town. There are weather station monitors in Llanberis at the Electric Mountain visitor center and in Betws-y-Coed at Cotswold Outdoor, the equipment shop. By the time you read this article there may be other monitors in different locations. As far as we know, these public displays are unique in the world. The summit equipment being solar-powered and the data being relayed by a cell-phone link puts the system in a class of its own.”

What Shall I Wear?
The weather station, first installed on Snowdon summit in October 1993, operates year-round. During its early days, distribution of its hourly updates went only to the university in Bangor and to the Royal Air Force Meteorological Office (Met. Office) on Anglesey. Since going live, the weather station has recorded some very dramatic events. For example: Winds gusted to 140 mph on December 8th, 1993. Summit temperatures rose to 78.8 degrees Fahrenheit on August 1, 1995 — distinguishing this date as the hottest day in the hottest month on record. Summit temperatures dropped to ten degrees Fahrenheit on January 27, 1996. While this date holds the record for coldest temperature, February averages out to being the coldest month. Luckily it’s also the shortest!

Being close to the coast, Snowdon receives the full force of prevailing south-westerly gales. The area is also legendary for its high levels of rainfall, approximately 120 inches recorded each year. In October, as this article was being written, summit conditions ranged from snow and freezing temperatures early in the month, to a balmy 57 degrees Fahrenheit in mid-month. So, while the Snowdonia Weather Stations Project still doesn’t solve the problem of deciding what clothes to take on your trip to North Wales (as you’re packing 3,000 miles away in America), at least once you’re in the neighborhood you’ll get ample warning about what to expect weather condition-wise before setting a foot on the mountain.

What Keeps It Going?
The weather station is powered by batteries and solar panels limiting the range and type of equipment that can be used (the generators that produce power for the summit building are shut down between November and May). If unlimited power was available during the winter the rain-gauges, anemometers and other sensors could be heated electrically, and all near-real-time data from the summit would be available year-round. Unheated and vulnerable to the elements, the weather station is affected in winter by rime ice, which coats the summit quickly and copiously under certain winter conditions, and can cause some of the instruments to stop working. There may be a solution, however: A new Welsh-manufactured, unheated rime-resisting amemometer from Vector in Rhyl is being tested this winter. 

Mount Snowdon In Your Living Room!
Imagine a window into Wales from anywhere in the world. New investments of $31,500 would buy year-round input to all monitor sites, and allow the information to go live on the internet. It would take an additional $31,500 per year to put a live camera shot from the summit on the weather station’s internet page. Right now, it costs about $35,000 per year to run the project as it stands broadcasting hourly reports to weather station monitors at the university in Bangor, the RAF Met. Office and to most public area screens. Initial funding for the project came from commercial and environmental organizations.

Global Hot Topics Researched in Wales
Mountains cover some 20 percent of the earth’s land surface. They are important as water catchments, and forest and moorland conservation areas. They harbor mineral resources, and are invaluable as recreation areas. Despite the importance of mountains, little is known about the weather in these high and often remote areas. Mountain weather is often severe, even in summer and even on the relatively low mountains in Britain. On Yr Wyddfa, the summit of Snowdon, we have a unique weather information system. As far as we know, ours is the only solar-powered mountain summit weather station sending its information over a cellphone link to live public displays around the mountain. So, not only is the Snowdonia Weather Stations Project a boon for the safety of vacationing visitors, it can help provide valuable research data for two very hot topics, global warming and ultra-violet radiation.

Global warming has implications for the rare and valuable flora and fauna of the Snowdonia range, and beyond. Recent research has suggested that some of the earliest effects of environmental change may be found in mountain vegetation. Over the next few years it will be possible to build up a record of the year-round ambient conditions and climate on Snowdon so that changes and trends can be identified.

Further, ultra-violet light can be damaging to people and vegetation. Depletion of the protective ozone layer in the upper atmosphere allows more ultra-violet light through to the earth’s surface. Despite almost universal clamor, little is known about the levels and the effects of ultra-violet light reaching mountain summits. From 1996, a range of sensors has been measuring total solar energy, photosynthetically active radiation and ultra-violet radiation. Damaging ultra-violet radiation is popularly known by the terms UVa and UVb.

The Snowdonia Weather Stations Project has made the first attempt to record all-year-round weather on Snowdon summit. It is the not the first mountain summit project in Britain, but it is a first for Wales and some aspects may well be unique world-wide.

Possibly the earliest mountain weather records were started in 1781 on the Hohenpeissenberg at 3,200 feet in the Bavarian Alps. Another early project, the Ben Nevis Observatory in Scotland operated from 1833 to 1904. Readings were taken 24 hours a day, all year-round; the sensors being de-iced manually thorough the winters! (These days Scotland has newer AWSs, but these take their power from the ski lifts. While one weather station is near Ben Nevis, none are at the location where the original 19th  century one stood.) Manual weather records from Yr Wyddfa, Snowdon summit, began in 1987 and were confined to the summer season, May to October. The first automatic year-round recording of weather on Snowdon began with the Snowdonia Weather Stations Project in October 1993. Apart from a few minor gaps during the installation phase, records are complete and up to date.