Bablake Weather Station is headed by Steve Jackson, who is assisted by six students during school term-time. With computerisation, a large team of assistants is no longer required. After all, readings are now taken at home and at locations even outside of Coventry, or even the UK- even this website and the answerphone can be updated remotely!
At its peak in the 1990's the climatological station team would have included up to 14 pupils from the school, each of whom would have had duties to perform on a rota - these would have included drawing up synoptic charts, downloading satellite images, taking manual weather readings, writing forecasts, updating data bases, and responding to public enquiries.
Just in case you are interested, here is a brief pen picture of each member of the current weather station team;
Steve Jackson -
AKA the "Boss" - Weather has been his main hobby since boyhood, mainly thanks to the enthusiasm of his father, who is still a keen amateur observer himself. Passion number one though is his beloved Aston Villa ! He has been known in the past to travel all round the country supporting his team, with mood swings depending very much on their success or failure. More recently gardening and building ponds appears to have taken over as the Villa's performances have varied, though home games remain a major attraction still. Now living at Hatton Park near Warwick with wife Lynda, so the automatic weather station became a priority! Father of Nicki and Andy, both ex-Bablake pupils but now forging their own careers as an optician and marketing executive respectively.
Jamie Stefaniak - aged 17
Jamie joined BWS at the end of 2003 and has risen to the position of weather station team leader, earning full colours at Christmas 2005 for services to BWS. He is an enthusiastic support and a credit to the team. He is a talented rugby player and is taking his Duke of Edinburgh Gold award. Jamie is also a member of the school CCF, and is a bit of a star at debating. He is hoping to study Medicine at university and so is taking science A levels this year.
Will Chamberlain - aged 18
Jamie's mate, joining at the same time, Will has been given the job of redesigning and maintaining this web site, with recent improvements made to the statistics and extreme pages to include monthly climate data, wind records for past years and 'month by month' extreme readings. Will is taking his Duke of Edinburgh Gold award, is a member of the school RAF, and is Jamie's debating partner. Doesn't get involved with the day to day running of the weather station, but still good company when he does ICT jobs for us.
Lizzie Stefaniak - aged 12
Lizzie is Jamie's younger sister - she joined the team in September 2006,and is also sister of ex BWS observer Luke, now at University studying Geography. Lizzie is currently learning the ropes with Jamie and is now the official keeper of The Bablake Weather Station's Met Office Diary for Coventry.
Faith Hannan - aged 16
Faith joined in 2004, and has been a faithful (pun!) support in the mornings ever since - she is excellent company and highly efficient at downloading and analyising daily data, uploading the website forecast and reading the answerphone message! She is a keen musician and enjoys taking part in school productions and is currently working towards her Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. Faith recently finished her GCSEs and is now looking forward to her A-level studies.
Jonathan Smith - aged 15
Jonathan is the newest member of the team joining in early 2007. He is a talented public speaker, representing the school on many an occasion, so he's already a favourite for the answerphone duty each morning. He also enjoys taking part in school plays and represents the school at chess. Jonathan is already becoming competent in organising the morning data but is yet to show his skill in tea-making!
Past members of the weather station team
This is an old picture of Nick and Michelle, two of the weather station assistants who left Bablake in recent years to go on to university. This picture was taken by the "Coventry Evening Telegraph" as Bablake Weather Station had been chosen as the place to lauch the Royal Mail's Weather Stamps in 2001. Nick is training to be a vet at Bristol University, though he has recently taken time out to take a zoology degree , while Michelle is at Sheffield Uni studying Geography, and is taking a Masters degree in 2005-06.
Joie Howsego left the school in 2002; she was only 12 when she joined the weather station team and completed 7 years of loyal service. Joie has a natural sciences degree from Durham, and has a PGCE in teaching - this always seemed inevitable during her time at Bablake - she's a natural! She is now a junior school teacher in Knowle, Warwickshire but living in Nuneaton.