WELLS CATHEDRAL SCHOOL Press information: Tel 01749 674820 © Copyright |
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Some of the members of the Wells Cathedral School 'MetLink International Project 2000 Left to right: Sarah Petherick (16yrs.) from Dulcote, Charles Bacon (17yrs.) from Glastonbury, Nick Charlesworth (16yrs.) from Shepton Mallet, Claire Hornidge (17yrs.) from Wedmore and James Milsom (16yrs.) from Wells |
Geography students from Wells Cathedral School have been asked by the Royal Meteorological Society to take part in their annual MetLink Project for a second time, following last year's successful scheme. One of only six secondary schools in the United Kingdom invited to participate in the project, the Cathedral School will be linking up and sharing data with many other schools across the world via the Internet.
During last year's venture, when the school were required to compare the accuracy o Met Office weather forecasts with actual weather conditions in Wells, pupils found that general temperature readings for the area were higher than predicted by the professional forecasters, indicating that Wells may be an urban heat island. For the 'MetLink International Project 2000', the Wells Cathedral School team this year will follow up the previous findings and extend their investigations into surrounding rural areas, to compare readings there to those of the city centre.
Ten Lower Sixth geography students are involved on the project, nine day pupils from a variety of outlying rural areas will be armed with rain gauges, maximurn/minimum thermometers and anemometers, taking readings morning and evening at their homes. The remaining pupil, a boarder, will monitor readings in the heart of the city using the school's weather station. At the conclusion of the three week study period, all the findings will be collated and analysed to see if any distinctive patterns occur, which suggest that Wells does indeed have a microclimate. The information will also be subsequently uploaded onto the MetLink database on the Internet, so that it may be used by other schoolchildren world-wide.
" If Wells does possess an urban heat island, then enhanced global warming will occur in the city with the Cathedral School pupils being able to monitor and forecast the accelerated rates of heating that may result Such a phenomenon is a well researched feature of larger urban areas but has not been studied on the same scale in rural cities and towns, so where better to start than England's smallest city, Wells", Dr. Andrew Hignell, Head of the School's Geography Department and project leader commented.
FEBRUARY 2000 For further press information contact: The Marketing Office on 01749 674820
WELLS CATHEDRAL SCHOOL, Wells, Somerset, BA5 2ST, Marketing Office Telephone & Facsimile 01749 674820