It might come as no surprise to those outside our shores that the Brit’s favourite subject seems to be the Great British Weather, but one man from Southwell in Nottinghamshire has taken this to the extreme.
Jim Rothwell, 80, from the Nottinghamshire village retired from the meteorology service around 20 years ago, but for the last 20 years Mr Rothwell has been attempting a forecasting feat even harder some would say than working out if it will rain tomorrow.
He set out to create a record of the weather right back to 56 BC – over 2000 years of UK weather.
Recent past: Anyone looking for the weather in the past 200 years would likely find reasonably good records, but going back prior to the 1600s the records become much more sketchy and have to be based more on news reports than actual forecasting and recording of the weather. We’re not sure if some of those reports came from famous Nottinghamshire residents such as Robin Hood, although it would have been likely Friar Tuck would have kept some records.
The forecasts are most detailed around the central England region, but can also give an insight into how the weather has changed over two millennia – something which scientists seem to be very interested in with climate change raging in the headlines.
Simpler methods: Instead of taking core samples in the Arctic, Mr Rothwell took a more sedate approach and went down to the local library, council offices and university library to look through historical documents detailing events relating to the weather. Examples include a famous famine which took place after a very wet Summer of 1258 and a severe tornado and hailstorm which destroyed the towns of Lenton and Wilford in 1588.
Perhaps the climate scientists could learn a thing or two from Mr Rothwell’s work and will certainly find Nottinghamshire a lot warmer than the Arctic iceflows.
To assist anyone trying this again in 2000 years time, Nottinghamshire weather today is cloudy with spots of rain.
More Nottinghamshire Resources:
Mr Rothwell on the BBC
Central England visitor attractions
Hotels in Central England
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