How pensioner Jim has kept a weather eye open for 60 years

An amateur meteorologist has been taking daily weather records in his back garden for more than six decades - and says it is handy for knowing when to put the washing out.

- by Philip Cunnington

Jim Lawson, 80, began keeping hand-written records as a 14-year-old schoolboy in 1958 when encouraged by his mother.

Since then, he has kept old-school, paper records and each day notes the max temperature, rainfall amount, relative humidity, and air pressure.

Armed with thermometers, barometers, hygrometers, and a Met Office standard rain gauge, he religiously takes the readings at 10am, 2pm, and 8pm each day.

The lowest temperature Jim ever recorded was back in January 1963, when the mercury plunged to a bone-rattling -17C.

The highest was 13 years later, in the 1976 heatwave, when Jim recorded temperatures in excess of 33C.

Over the years, Jim says, he has seen some weather patterns changing - with years now wetter than they used to be.

He said: "We do seem generally to be getting wetter years now, but it's not always the case.

"It's somewhat wetter. Instead of goocm, we're now getting a metre of rain a year here.