Pitsford weather centre, formerly known as Pitsford Hall weather station, was born out of Acid Rain 2000, a collaborative project between schools across Europe to examine the effects of acid rain.  The project was co-ordinated by Northamptonshire Grammar School, later Pitsford School, and was awarded first prize in Transco's Grassroots environmental award scheme. The prize money was put towards acquiring basic equipment to record weather data, complete ecological surveys of indicator species and send starter packs to partner schools across Europe. The project was launched in 1998 with the intention to run for 2 years until the year 2000.  However, such was the enthusiasm of the original group of students, it was decided to keep the weather station running as a long-term community service project for Sixth Form students at the school.

At the heart of the project from the outset was the goal of making local weather data freely available to the local community. Publishing daily weather data online soon brought the attention of farmers, other local schools, conservationists and outdoor activity groups. The station's observers,  all A level geographers, began to use the data to further their understanding of weather and climate. Their growing expertise led to the publication of monthly weather reports and, tentatively at first, the release of a daily weather forecast. 

As the years rolled by, the accuracy of the weather station's forecast improved with access to online weather forecasting models. A significant milestone was reached when the station was approached by Costain-Skanska to supply daily forecasts during the construction of the Silverstone by-pass.  By this stage, interest in the weather station had grown significantly and, with the help of major sponsors including Barclaycard and British Timken, the range of meteorological equipment was expanded and earlier instruments replaced with Met Office patterns.  The station acquired a bespoke online automatic weather station designed by Instromet Ltd and began providing real-time weather data via its developing website. A lightning detector system was installed that enabled recipients to receive text warnings of approaching storms. 

Interest in the weather station began to extend beyond the county. Observers were regularly featured in the media - press, TV, even national radio.  Broadcast meteorologists Michael Fish and Alex Deakin both offered their patronage of the weather station.  By 2010, the monthly weather report had evolved into an official periodical with its own ISSN number and copies lodged with the British Library.  Copies of the report began to be collected by several major reference libraries across the county.  In essence, the station had now become the leading authoritative source of weather and climate data for the county and was regularly featuring in articles in the local press. 

The height of the weather station was through the 2010s. During this period, the weather station had its own designated office in the main school building, access to a rooftop enclosure and two ground level enclosures recording everything from temperature, humidty, rainfall, atmospheric pressure and sunshine, to wind speeds, maximum gusts, evaporation, grass and concrete minimum temperatures, and a range of earth temperatures up to 1m deep. Two parallel automatic weather stations were ensuring a continual supply of realtime weather data. 

Further development of the automatic weather station eventually led to a reduction in the quantity of manual observations and, in 2016, manual observations ceased completely. However, two years later, the movement of the University of Northampton to its town centre location led the Met Office to seek out an alternative location for the official Met Office climatological site for Northampton. The school's extensive grounds, rural setting and the expertise acquired through many years of weather observation and recording made Pitsford the ideal site and in the summer of 2018 the Met Office climate site was launched with daily data being released via the WOW website.

I was involved personally with the weather station since its inception until my retirement in 2024. One of my roles was to train countless generations of Sixth Form students as volunteer observers, learning not only how to read the station's manual instruments, but also how to upload current and recent weather data to the station's website and, eventually, the Met Office.  Each morning I would compile and publish a daily forecast ('The Daily Weather Report') and, at the end of each month, analyse the data with the students and publish the Monthly Weather Report. Unfortunately, when I retired, it became necessary to rationalise some of the station's activities, but still the tradition of training Sixth Form students to record weather data and send it to the Met Office remained. 

Sadly, in July 2026, the school became a victim of financial pressures and was forced to close its doors forcing the weather centre to be decommissioned after 28 years of maintaining an unbroken daily weather record.  The result was not only a potential loss of an important source of current weather data, but also a huge archive of historical records - not just from Pitsford, but from a large number of sites from across the county stretching back as far as 1880.  Consequently, I launched a rescue - salvaging much of Pitsford's manual and electronic instruments and began the task of setting up a new weather station at my home in Brixworth. Alongside the weather station, I also began to create this website with the aim of ensuring ready access to this extensive weather record.  

Unfortunately, the remarkable story that is Pitsford weather centre has come to a close, but I am determined that its legacy and the work of hundreds of volunteer student observers lives on.

Mike Lewis