It's raining, Ken

The 78-year-old grandfather provides a valuable public service in a country with only one real obsession - the weather.

For almost half a century, Ken has been recording rain, sun, snow and hail for posterity, public libraries - and, of course, for readers of The Argus.

Weatherman Ken Woodhams has been there to provide comment and perspective through floods and storms, hurricanes and heatwaves.

If you want to know whether the sun was shining on the day you were born, chances are Ken can tell you.

Need advice about when to leave cold and wet Britain behind and take a holiday abroad? Ken can advise you on the best month to go.

For the record, those who don't like the cold should go in February and those who can't stand the rain should book an October flight.

Planning a wedding and want to maximise your chances of a dry sunny day? Ken recommends May.

Although fascinated by the weather and weather charts at school, Ken did not take start his hobby until 1947.

He gradually built up his equipment so he had almost as much as an official weather station in the back garden of his house in Avondale Road.

Every morning at 9am he goes through his routine of removing a bottle from a collecting funnel in the garden, taking it indoors and - using a measuring jar - recording the amount of rain over the previous 24 hours.

Then he records the highest and lowest temperatures for the same period using a screen sheltered from direct sunlight.

Next, he measures humidity and makes a visual check of the direction of the wind, also noting if the sky is cloudy or blue.

With 50 years of records under his belt, Ken is in the perfect position to judge whether our weather really is changing and if global warming is truly starting to have an effect. His results suggest not.

Ken has worked out the average rainfall over a 20-year-period from 1950 and compared it to the 30 years from 1970. The difference between is only 0.09 of an inch.

The temperature seems equally stable.

From 1941 to 1970 the overall average temperature for the year was 10.6C. Between 1971 and 2000 it was 10.8C.

Ken said: "It is less than one degree, not a tremendous amount of warming, is it? I treat all the theories with reserve."

In a country where weather forecasters can occasionally become targets for derision, Ken is probably wise to stick to recording the weather, rather than predicting what it is going to do.

But he does not always get off so lightly.

He said: "I do get blamed sometimes when the weather is particularly bad but it's all in good humour.

"I think people are so interested because we're an island surrounded by water and the weather is always changing. It is interesting to witness the variations.

"I never really get tired of talking about the weather, people are always mentioning it to me. They might complain about the tremendous amount of rain we've been having and I'll say, 'no we haven't. It's much less than normal for this time of year'."

For a man quick to defend weather forecasters from their critics, it is perhaps not surprising the one he most admires is Michael Fish, once the most ridiculed man in Britain after telling people not to worry hours before a hurricane struck.

Ken said: "I met him at a BBC exhibition and introduced myself. He told me how good he thought it was that people like me were taking records all around the country."

Indeed Ken is an encyclopaedia of knowledge about the weather in Brighton and Hove in the second half of the 20th Century.

He said: "The 1987 hurricane was the most memorable weather event down here for the past 50 years. It was the same year I retired from business so I got a good send-off.

"The impact of the hurricane was dreadful, lots of trees down and parks wrecked, and it coincided with a lot of rain.

"The hottest summer was 1976 and the coldest spell ran almost continuously from December 22 to February 17, 1963."

Ken tends to agree with those who say weather goes in 200-year cycles.

He said: "When people say it was never as bad as this when I was a youngster they are probably right, but the cycle will come around again.

"We haven't had a lengthy cold spell with snow storms and two or three feet of snow lying in a while, we are probably due one of those."

Ken has two children and is an active member of St George's Church in Kemp Town, Brighton. He sings with the choir and is a reader, helping with services and calling on sick people at home.

He and his wife June also enjoy walking.

Ken's weather hobby came in useful during his 48 years as a claims officer for an insurance company. He still gets the occasional visit from builders and solicitors wanting detailed records on past weather conditions.

He said: "I do feel I've achieved something over the past 50 years and it only started off as a hobby.

"I'd like to keep going for as long as I can. The gentleman who did the same thing for The Argus before me stopped when he was 80. I'd like to carry on a bit longer."