St Annes Old Links Golf Club has been established since 1901 on land which since 1886 had been home to the Lytham & St. Anne’s Golf Club. The club is located in the North West of England about a mile from the Royal Lytham Open 2012 venue.

Stuart Hogg is the Course Manager at St Annes Old Links and has been at the club for over 8 years. Stuart controls the budgets and purchasing of equipment, and has the responsibility of maintaining the greens, fairways and even the car park! The course has 7 full time staff and 4 part time staff depending on the time of year. Stuart started a career in greenkeeping as his “ideal job would be one which he could still play football on a Saturday afternoon!”. He started a Youth Training Scheme job at a championship course local to home and has been developing his knowledge, understanding and skills ever since.

Stuart had used a Davis Vantage

The British Antarctic Survey purchased their first Davis Vantage Pro from us in 2004 to use on the air strip at Sky-Blu, http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Living_and_Working/Stations/Sky_Blu/index.html. The instrument is used to give reliable information to their support aircraft during take off and landings. The groomed blue ice runway is up to 1.2 km in length and 50 m wide, permanently marked by flags.

A second purchase in 2005 means the new Davis Vantage Pro 2, with its increased transmission range of up to 300 metres, is to be located at Fossil Bluff later in the year, http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Living_and_Working/Stations/Fossil_Bluff/index.html. This site is a facility for refueling aircraft

The Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI) at the University of Sussex is the largest research group in the UK studying honey bees and other social insects the bees, wasps and ants that live in a colony with a queen and workers. LASI research studies the honey bee and other social insects "in the round" addressing both applied and basic questions.

Their Davis Vantage Pro 2 station was installed after being acquired as part of the Sussex Plan for Honey Bee Health and Well Being. Dr Martyn Stenning, Technician for the University of Sussex' Biology and Environmental Science department and Mr Phil Chitty from the ITS support, installed the meteorological station on the roof of the Laboratory. It is hooked up to a laptop inside the laboratory where it will feed information through on a daily basis. Dr Margaret Couvillon said: "The weather station will provide accurate and up to date information

We don’t need to tell you just how much affect weather and climate has had on each and every one of us in recent history. Students all over the UK miss days at school because of floods and even snow. Of course we all know that data regarding this is available from many sources but none of it is as relevant as that collected at your school using instruments and devices that your pupils can see and understand.

As ever the weather monitoring equipment in our range offers excellent pan curriculum opportunities and value. Weather information or data collected from weather instruments has relevance to a broad swathe of the curriculum and ticks many boxes. At a basic level it can be used to satisfy requirements of meteorology (as part of Geography), science and technology, maths, communications and media, and ICT.

Weather Shop are a supporting business to the Eastbourne Education and Business Partnership (EEBP). Weather Shop have sponsored

Weather Shop sells to many educational establishments. We would like to collate a selection of these to showcase the value added to school websites for accessing information and providing for the local community:

To add a link to your school's weather data here, please contact us

Our tips these past few months have all seemed to concentrate on how wet it has been this summer. It has been a lot drier in the south recently, though still very wet in the north (August seeing as much as 150% of the average rainfall in southern and western Scotland and Northern Ireland) but we make no apologies for featuring this issue again: it is something we may well hear a lot more about this autumn. Evidently, according to Terry Marsh from the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology, some soils in the UK have been their wettest since records began in 1961, this summer. The groundwater levels have also been at record levels in places for the time of year, especially in the north east, NW England, NW Midlands and Gloucestershire area.

According to the Hydrological Survey for England & Wales in July, many catchment areas were close to saturation by

Last month we discussed the risk of flooding due to high rainfall, noting that periods when hot dry weather predominates are often followed by wet unsettled weather, causing local flooding, such as in 1947 and 1975. Indeed it seems that for many parts 2006 has repeated this pattern; up to 200% of the average rainfall fell in August over parts of East Anglia giving local flooding, bringing rather too much of the needed rainfall in too short a period.

This month our attention need turn to flooding again, though of a rather different sort. During September and October we are expecting to see some of the highest tides for twenty years in places. The cities of Hull, Portsmouth and Cardiff have been recently named as being at especial risk but many other areas are also implicated, particularly resorts down the East coast. Scientists have made the point that as sea levels rise due to climate change and the fact that the south east is slowly sinking, the possibility

Around Autumn this column usually takes a look how the UK's soil has fared over the summer and what winter therefore most likely bodes. This year it really has been a tale of two halves, for example it has been pretty dry in the south recently, but conversely wet or even very wet in the north. August saw just 50% of average rain in the SE for instance but the north west especially Northern Ireland saw as much as 200% of the average rainfall. Unlike 2007 though it has been nowhere near as wet and only in the north west are groundwater levels at high levels for the time of year.

In the north west run off patterns have been typical of a fairly wet winter with reservoir stocks now high. Soils were wet enough in the far NW to allow some aquifer recharge in places, quite rare in summer.

This means that any large amounts of rain running into the wet soil are likely to run straight off

As I recall I mentioned here a few years ago, by early July the course of our summer can often be set. A warm settled June can cause water temperatures locally around the coast to have risen above normal and the weather pattern gets set into what we weather buffs like to call a classic ‘blocked’ set up; when Azores high pressure lies to the north of its usual position, extending well to the north east across the United Kingdom, with gentle south easterly winds pulling up some very warm air up from the heart of the sun baked European continent.

Conversely, we may have found that the unsettled weather we associate with a mobile Atlantic has not let up on us through June, bringing a regular supply of depressions, albeit weak ones -or sometimes not so weak- to the northern and western parts of the British Isles.

Whilst these patterns are a regular feature of our weather across our maritime islands we should never be lulled into a sense of security that we really know what to expect

By early July the course of our summer can often seem set. If we have had a warm settled June water temperatures in our local seas may well have risen above normal and the weather pattern look set into a classic ‘blocked’ set up; the Azores high pressure may be well to the north of its usual position, extending well to the north east across the United Kingdom, with gentle south easterly winds pulling up some very warm air up from the heart of the sun baked European continent.

Conversely, we may have found that the unsettled weather we associate with a mobile Atlantic has not let up on us through June, bringing a regular supply of depressions, albeit weak ones, across us, more especially to the northern and western parts of the British Isles.

Such different patterns are a regular feature of our changeable patterns of weather across our maritime islands and the reason why those of us affected by the weather- which after all is probably