Mr. Gresham Cookeasked the Secretary of State for Air what are the earliest meteorological records for this country still available to the Meteorological Office; and when official meteorological observations were first commenced.
§ Mr. J. Amery:Summaries are available of rainfall observations made at Towneley, Burnley, Lancashire, in 1677. The earliest known instrumental observations of temperature for this country were made at Upminster, Essex, in 1699. Records of these are still held by the Royal Society. Official meteorological records were first collected in 1849. They began to be maintained systematically in 1860.