Water company predicts brighter spells for young weather forecasters

Back: Cerys Hanes, Matthew Cousin and Sirat Lodhi, teacher Graeme Dymond and Karen Zyla (United Utilities)
Front: Lucy Ryan of United Utilities and student Jen Welsby

United Utilities has donated a £700 weather station to Rochdale Sixth Form College – and it is now in pride of place on the school roof - to help young geography students keep an eye on changing weather patterns.

The new gadget will provide the youngsters with a hands-on way of gathering real time data about rainfall and flood risk as part of an A level geography unit looking at extreme weather.

United Utilities stepped in to make the donation while it is carrying out a £50 million project at various locations around Rochdale to help the town’s sewer network perform better during storm conditions.

Lucy Ryan, project co-ordinator at UU, explained: “The local community has been really patient while we’ve been digging up parts of the town to build new underground storm storage tanks and larger sewers. Our project is a response to changing weather patterns – so we felt it was very appropriate to thank the community for their patience by supporting the college in this way.”

Graeme Dymond, geography teacher at the college, said: “Some of the key skills our students need to learn includes the recording, collecting and analysing of weather data – and the new weather station will be invaluable for this. Not only that, we can share the real time data on screens around the college and with local secondary schools.

"We’re really thrilled with the donation.”

United Utilities has completed its work at seven sites around Rochdale and the final two sites will be finished by 2015 – bringing cleaner water courses across the town. Already the project has provided £10,000 of funding for the new Mandale skate park and £2,000 towards other local community grants.

The Rochdale sewer project forms part of United Utilities’ £3.5 billion programme between 2010 and 2015 – bringing cleaner rivers, bathing waters and drinking water quality for customers across the North West.