The Radcliffe Meteorological Station in Oxford is unique in the UK, and it is one of a handful of stations worldwide to have maintained continuous observations at the same site since 1815. The (unrelated) authors were inspired to prepare Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767, the first book about the station, by the bicentennial event held in 2015. Twin motivations are the lack of detailed publications about the site and its instrumentation – though shorter summaries exist, e.g. Smith (1968) – and the aim to present and summarise the full data set. This second goal is particularly laudable, as the proper treatment of climatological data is widely recognised as ever more important. Historical data sets play a significant part in the assessment of long-term change, and numerous attempts have been made to combine sporadic and brief time series from multiple locations, perhaps most famously the Central England Temperature series (Manley, 1953). However, it does not take much detective work when searching for original source data in such compilations to realise that they are rarely completely described, thus preventing full examination. Dedicated journals now exist for the presentation and description of data (e.g. Allan, 2014), which may remedy some of these problems. In addition to being the first detailed historical account of a site of such climatological significance, Oxford Weather and Climate provides a complete description of the data values themselves. Put simply, everything one could ever want to know about the weather and climate of Oxford in the last 250 years is in this book. Why 250 years? Until its move to South Africa early in the 20th century, Oxford’s Radcliffe Observatory, started by Thomas Hornsby (1733–1810), Savilian Professor of Geometry, was used for both astronomical and meteorological observations. Burt and Burt explain that Hornsby’s early writings indicate his enthusiasm for meteorology, with the 1767 date in their book’s title referring to the start of his regular rainfall observations, which were first made in 1761. These ceased with his old age in 1804 and were resumed by the Observatory in 1811, with Burt and Burt establishing, in a significant historical achievement, that the first full year of records was 1814 rather than 1815, as was previously thought. Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767 actually looks much further back than its title might suggest, including pre-Hornsby observations from the 17th century, including those by the philosopher John Locke, and even including William Merle’s 14th century weather diary. As well as extensive historical information, the book covers the contemporary site, its management by the Geography Department, and the weather and climate of Oxford within the regional and global context. The considerable urban development over the duration of the observations is considered in some detail, though it is not thought to have strongly affected the data. Much of the book is taken up with a monthby-month, and a season-by-season, summary of the data, describing averages, trends, extremes, and any particularly notable events. This aspect is a highly valuable reference source, illustrated by good-quality plots and, where possible, archive photographs. I understand the authors delayed publication in order to include the very warm (though not record-breaking, as readers of the book will learn) summer of 2018 in their discussion. In fact the data values presented extend to the end of the calendar year 2018, an impressive achievement given publication was in May 2019. The analyses presented are rigorous and do not make statistical assumptions about the data. I did wonder if more use could have been made of statistical tests in discussions of, for example, consecutive years in which records were broken. Presumably at least some of these “coincidences” are

中文翻译：

---

书评：斯蒂芬·伯特和蒂姆·伯特自1767年以来的牛津天气与气候

牛津的拉德克利夫气象站是英国唯一的气象站，自1815年以来，它是全球少数几个在同一地点进行连续观测的站之一。（无关的）作者受到启发，从1767年开始编写牛津的天气和气候资料，第一本关于该站的书，是在2015年举行的百年纪念活动中。双重动机是缺乏关于该站及其仪器的详细出版物-尽管存在较短的摘要，例如Smith（1968）-以及旨在呈现和总结完整内容的目的数据集。第二个目标特别值得称赞，因为对气候数据的正确处理已变得越来越重要。历史数据集在评估长期变化中起着重要作用，为了将来自多个地点的零星和简短的时间序列相结合，进行了许多尝试，也许是最著名的英格兰中部温度序列（Manley，1953年）。但是，当在这样的汇编中搜索原始源数据时，并不需要太多的侦探工作即可意识到几乎没有完整地描述它们，从而妨碍了全面检查。现在存在用于数据表示和描述的专用期刊（例如Allan，2014年），这可以解决其中的一些问题。除了是具有如此重要气候意义的站点的第一个详细历史记录之外，牛津天气与气候局还提供了数据值本身的完整描述。简而言之，这本书是有关过去250年来牛津的天气和气候的所有信息。为什么是250年？牛津的拉德克利夫天文台在20世纪初移居南非之前，由萨维利亚几何学教授托马斯·霍恩斯比（Thomas Hornsby，1733-1810年）创立，被用于天文和气象观测。伯特（Burt）和伯特（Burt）解释说，霍恩斯比（Hornsby）的早期著作表明了他对气象学的热情，书名中的1767年日期指的是他对常规降雨的观测的开始，该观测始于1761年。这些观测值随着他的老年在1804年终止并恢复了。由伯特（Burt）和伯特（Burt）于1811年通过天文台建立，这是一项重大的历史成就，记录的第一个完整年份是1814，而不是以前认为的1815。实际上，自1767年以来的牛津天气和气候看起来比标题所暗示的要远得多，包括霍恩斯比（Hornsby）在17世纪之前的观测，包括哲学家约翰·洛克（John Locke）的观测，甚至包括威廉·默尔（William Merle）的14世纪天气日记。除了广泛的历史信息，该书还介绍了当代遗址，地理部门的管理以及区域和全球范围内牛津的天气和气候。尽管未对观测数据产生重大影响，但仍详细考虑了观测期间城市的可观发展。这本书的大部分内容是按月，按季节，总结数据，描述平均值，趋势，极端值以及任何特别值得注意的事件。这方面是非常有价值的参考资料，可以通过高质量的绘图以及可能的情况下的存档照片加以说明。我了解作者推迟出版是为了在他们的讨论中纳入2018年夏季的热情（尽管这不是破纪录的，这本书的读者会学到）。实际上，所提供的数据值一直延续到2018日历年末，这是在2019年5月发布的一项令人印象深刻的成就。所提供的分析非常严格，没有对数据进行统计假设。我确实想知道，是否可以在讨论连续多年记录中断的讨论中更多地使用统计测试。大概至少其中一些“巧合”是 给定的成就是在2019年5月发表的。所提供的分析非常严格，并未对数据进行统计假设。我确实想知道，是否可以在讨论连续多年记录中断的讨论中更多地使用统计测试。大概至少其中一些“巧合”是 给定的成就是在2019年5月发表的。所提供的分析非常严格，并未对数据进行统计假设。我确实想知道，是否可以在讨论连续多年记录中断的讨论中更多地使用统计测试。大概至少其中一些“巧合”是