UK Max and Min Temperature data - .temp file format

PLEASE NOTE: The file format described below refers to the Met Office Land Surface data (1900-2000) dataset which has been superseded by the Met Office MIDAS dataset (1853-present) at the BADC.

The surface observation data are in a simple ASCII format.

A list of UK stations for which the BADC holds .temp files is available (.temp stations).

The file name convention is (STATION_NAME)(YEAR).(MESSAGE_TYPE).(FILE_EXTENSION)

These .temp files contain maximum and minimum temperatures measured over a period of up to 24 hours. The file headers TIME and COUNT define the observation period. For air temperatures, the observation period will usually be one of the following: 09-09, 09-21, 21-09. For minimum grass temperature and minimum concrete temperature, the time of measurement is usually 0900Z. When the period of exposure is known to be 21-09, then COUNT = 12.

-999 indicates a missing value.

The first line of the data file is the fields headers (which are detailed in the table below).

The fields in the .temp data files are :

HEADER PARAMETER FIELDS COLUMNS UNITS COMMENTS
ID Station Ref. Number 1 1-8 - Station identification
IDTYPE - 2 9-17 - Station identification
MET_DOM Meteorological Domain 3 18-28 - Message types
YEAR Year 3 29-35 - 4 characters
MON Month 4 36-43 - 1 or 2 characters (from 1 to 12)
DAY Day 5 44-51 - 1 or 2 characters (from 1 to 31max)
TIME Time 6 52-59 - Hour of observation from 0 to 2300
COUNT Hour count 7 60-67 - See COUNT definition
MAX_T Maximum Air Temperature 8 68-75 0.1 degree Celsius See Met Office documentation
MIN_T Minimum Air Temperature 9 76-83 0.1 degree Celsius See Met Office documentation
MIN_GRASS_T Minimum Grass Temperature 10 84-96 0.1 degree Celsius See Met Office documentation
MIN_CONC_T Minimum Concrete Temperature 11 97-108 0.1 degree Celsius See Met Office documentation



More information about the Met Office surface data is available in the documentation provided by the Met Office.