Inverewe Garden has been maintaining daily weather records since 1962 (apart from a short unfortunate lapse in 1994-5). These have been transmitted to the Meteorological Office to assist with national weather-forecasting. The data collected had been used at the property to provide a short-term display to show visitors how the current year's readings compared with the recent past. All of the records have recently been transferred into a new computer programme which allows easy display in chart format - with the outcome that the results can now be plotted over the entire forty-year period and the trends that these data show can be charted.

In most cases these do seem to support the general predictions about global warming: that, while there can be considerable variations from year to year, the underlying trends are that this area is gradually becoming wetter and warmer.

[However, some results might need further investigation before such quick interpretation: the apparent drop in January sunshine totals might have more to do with the shadow being cast by the growth of a nearby tree than by a greater clouding-over in the sky!]

Given that the essence of the NTS's work is to provide a continuity of management and that we are often planting for the relatively long term (for example trees for perhaps the next 200 years), we must now begin to analyse what these trends mean for the Garden's plant collection: will our current collection continue to thrive under these new conditions, or should we be adding other plants which might fare better?

A set of data and its corresponding chart is attached below.

Issues:

• Do you agree that there is a general trend of increased temperature?
• Are there other ways to interrogate the data?