The Met Office Weather Observations Website – WOW, has received more than 12.5 million weather observations from weather enthusiasts from more than 116 countries.
Launched in June, WOW is a partnership with the Royal Meteorological Society and supported by the Department of Education.
The aim is to help educate children about the weather and encourage further growth in the UK’s amateur weather observing community, creating the UK’s largest source of weather observations.
Storuman in Sweden provides WOW with the most northern observations, while Whitehorse in Canada is WOW’s most western observation.
Oamaru and Wairoa in New Zealand provide the most southern and eastern observations submitted to the site.
Aidan Green, Land and Marine Observations Manager at the Met Office, said: “With an average of 2 million observations submitted every month, WOW has really captured the imagination of weather enthusiasts. It demonstrates how easy it is for anyone to get involved and share current weather observations to generate a picture of how the weather varies from place to place and moves across the world.
Submit the weather near you
Quick observations can now be entered by anyone, even if the user is not logged in, which means it will be quick and easy for any member of the public to let us know about the conditions where they are, especially during severe weather such as snow.
Images can be easily uploaded at the time of submitting observation, which can then instantly be seen on the map or in the new “Photo Gallery” view.
Users can compare a site with the nearest Met Office site at the click of a button for the UK and parts of Europe, allowing weather enthusiasts to see how their own readings compare.
The project team plans to further develop links with education and grow the network of international observations.
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