present day, among a vast collection of data that makes up one of the most comprehensive meteorological collections in the world. i am joined by mike, a climate information scientist and we are amongst this huge collection of historical data. looking at the oldest weather observations, thinking about temperature, how is that used alongside new data to compare how the climate is changing? great question. when we look at the records, these are from durham 0bservatory records, these are from durham observatory in 1890 and it can be quite difficult to read but they were very systematic. when we think about observations, we think about how they are used for weather forecasting, but the forecast we generate in the met office, there is observations coming in from a huge array of sources and it's important to understand the climate and if we want to understand the future climate, first we need to understand