The Lochaber Raingauge Network

Spatial variations in the average rainfall–altitude relationship in Great Britain: an approach using geographically weighted regression

“…The largest GWR height coefficients identified for the Highlands are close to 4.5 mm/m, and are centred on Lochaber. Yet Harrison and Clark (1998) noted that there did not appear to be a strong relationship between altitude and precipitation in this area. There is a paucity of higher level stations in this area, and the orientation of the Great Glen from southwest to northeast could lead to higher low level precipitation totals than might otherwise be expected.…”

“…Examples include Chaun and Lockwood's (1974) use of the mean height over 8 km around each station and, in more extreme form, Hill et al's (1981) use of the average height over 4 km grid squares centred 1.5 km to the southwest of the gauge site. Recently, using data from a 17 gauge network ranging in altitude from 8 to 385 m in Lochaber in the western Highlands of Scotland, Harrison and Clark (1998) have shown that even in an area where altitude effects are usually held to be pronounced, it is possible to sample spatially and temporally such that the rainfall -altitude relationship disappears or can even be negative. Directional effects and gauge exposure in individual rainfall events have been modelled in a number of ways (Weston and Roy, 1994).…”

Paleohydrological Records from Peat Profiles and Speleothems in Sutherland, Northwest Scotland

“…Such agreement among the published peat records from Scotland suggests that a number of the peaks in surface wetness have a wider regional significance. However, because annual fluctuations in precipitation are not closely correlated even over relatively short distances in Scotland (e.g., Harrison and Clark, 1998) a correspondence among paleoclimate records is not necessarily expected. Perhaps longer term, higher magnitude changes in precipitation show greater regional coherence than annual and subannual fluctuations.…”