Stevensons Screen Thermometers (and sometimes other instruments) are housed in a white, louvred box called the Stevenson

Screen. The father of Robert Louis Stevenson designed and invented it. The louvred sides and door enable a stable airflow over the thermometers. In order to prevent direct sunlight falling on and affecting the instruments when the door is opened it is designed so that the door opens to the north in the northern hemisphere. This is because the Sun never shines from the north. It is painted white to reflect incoming radiation from the Sun and is set at a height of 1.25 metres above the ground, so as not to be affected by the Earth's low-level radiation. The screen should be kept clean from dust and dirt. The thermometers inside are usually the dry bulb, wet bulb, maximum and minimum. They are read in that order. The dry thermometer is a mercury filled thermometer, recording changes in temperature in degrees and tenths Centigrade. The temperature rises and falls as the temperature changes. This is the air temperature reported on TV and in the press. The wet bulb is an ordinary thermometer with a muslin wick covering the bulb. This is fed by water from an adjacent reservoir. The comparison between the dry and the wet bulb temperatures enables the DEW POINT and relative humidity of the air to be calculated. The maximum thermometer is filled with mercury, which moves up the central tube as the temperature increases. There is a constriction just above the bulb of the thermometer, which stops the mercury returning to the bulb when the temperature falls. Therefore, the highest temperature (the max) is recorded regardless of the temperature at the observation.

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Stevenson screen or instrument shelter is an enclosure to shield meteorological instruments against precipitation and direct heat radiation from outside sources, while still allowing air to circulate freely around them.[1] It forms part of a standard weather station. The Stevenson screen

holds instruments that may include thermometers (ordinary, maximum/minimum), a hygrometer, a psychrometer, a dewcell, a barometer and a thermograph. Stevenson screens may also be known as a cotton region shelter, an instrument shelter, a thermometer shelter, a thermoscreen or a thermometer screen. Its purpose is to provide a standardised environment in which to measure temperature, humidity, dewpoint and atmospheric pressure.

Contents

1 History 2 Composition 3 Size 4 Siting 5 Future 6 References 7 External links

History
It was designed by Thomas Stevenson (1818-1887), a British civil engineer and father of the author Robert Louis Stevenson.

Composition
The traditional Stevenson Screen is a box shape, constructed of wood, in a double-louvered design. However, it is possible to construct a screen using other materials and shapes, such as a pyramid. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) agreed standard for the height of the thermometers is between 1.25 m (4 ft 1 in) and 2 m (6 ft 7 in) above the ground.

Size
The interior size of the screen will depend on the number of instruments that are to be used. A single screen may measure 765 mm high by 610 mm wide by 593 mm deep (30.1 in by 24.0 in by 23.3 in) and a double screen 765 mm high by 1050 mm wide x 593 mm deep (30.1 in by 41.3 in by 23.3 in). The unit is either supported by four metal or wooden legs or a wooden post. The top of the screen was originally composed of two asbestos boards with an air space between them. These asbestos boards have generally been replaced by a laminate due to health and safety reasons. The whole screen is painted with several coats of white to reflect sunlight radiation and will usually require repainting every two years.

Siting

The siting of the screen is very important to minimise the effects of buildings and trees. Environment Canada, for example, recommends that the screen be placed at least twice the distance of the height of the object, e.g., 20 m from any tree that is 10 m high, or 40 ft from one 20 ft high. In the northern hemisphere, the door of the screen should always face north so as to prevent direct sunlight on the thermometers. In polar regions with twenty-four hour sunlight the observer must take care to shield the thermometers from the sun and at the same time avoiding a rise in temperature being caused by the observer's body heat. A special type of Stevenson screen with an eye bolt on the roof is used on a ship. The unit is hung from above and remains vertical despite the movement of the vessel. The use of a standard screen theoretically allows temperatures to be compared accurately with those measured in earlier years and at different places. However, theory is not borne out in fact. A 2007 survey of a quarter of the 1,221 stations that make up the U.S. Historical Climatology Network, performed by volunteers coordinated by meteorologist Anthony Watts, showed that over half of the stations fall short of U.S. federal guidelines for optimum placement. Some stations never met the guidelines from the start and other stations that at one time may have met the guidelines were compromised by artificial heat sources introduced since their erection, causing them to report abnormally high temperatures.[2][3] The relevance of this to derived longterm real temperature trends has been questioned, however.[4]

Future
In some areas the use of single unit automatic weather stations is supplanting the Stevenson screen (and other stand-alone meteorological equipment).

References

enson Screen The Stevenson Screen or thermometer screen is a standard shelter (from rain, snow and high winds, but also leaves and animals) for meteorological instruments, particularly wet and dry bulb thermometers used to record humidity and air temperature. It is kept 1.25m/4.1ft (UK standard) above the ground by legs to avoid strong temperature gradients at ground level, has louvred sides to encourage the free passage of air, and is painted white to reflect heat radiation, since what is measured is the temperature of the air in the shade, not of the sunshine.

To allow comparability from screen to screen every aspect of construction and exposure is specified by the World Meteorological Organization. For

example, its doors opens towards the pole to minimize disturbance when reading in daylight. Double roof, walls and floor of white-painted wood provide screening, and extensive louvres maintain adequate ventilation on all but the stillest days. It was invented by the British engineer and meteorologist Sir Thomas Stevenson (1818-1887), the father of Robert Louis Stevenson.