Kirkby Stephen train station not only serves trains on the historic Settle – Carlisle route, it has also now taken on the role of being a weather station. Funded by the Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line (FoSCL), information on a wide range of weather indicators is updated online every 6 seconds by a state-of-the-art automatic system. It also provides a short-term weather forecast. This means it is ideal for anyone planning a walk in the fells, or simply wanting to know whether they need to water the garden or wrap up extra warm when walking the dog.
This is the latest in a series of initiatives designed to bring back Kirkby Stephen station into the heart of the community. It is a joint venture between FoSCL, the Settle & Carlisle Railway Trust (who have restored the station), Imagerail (station tenants) and the mylocalweather.org.uk network (which links four weather stations in the Yorkshire Dales area). The weather station itself continuously monitors sunlight, rainfall, cloud base height, temperature, wind chill, wind speed, atmospheric pressure and humidity. As well as the present readings, daily, monthly and all-time records are displayed. Together with the summary weather forecast for the next 12 and 48 hours this information is displayed live online at www.mylocalweather.org.uk/kirkbystephen.