An external view of the Met Office building at night.

Dan Hollis

Dan works in the National Climate Information Centre (NCIC) where he is responsible for developing and applying climatological data analysis and presentation techniques.

Areas of expertise

  • Climate data analysis.

  • Geographical information systems (GIS) and gridding.

  • Presentation of climate data.

My Publications - Hollis, D

Current activities

Dan's primary role is to improve the data analysis and presentation methods used within the team. This involves work on improving the accessibility and usability of UK climate data, developing tools to exploit that data for the benefit of users, and developing and testing ways of improving the quality of the data. Current projects include a simplified observations database, GIS tools for generating products from gridded climate data, and an investigation of how satellite data could improve the analysis of surface observations of sunshine duration.

Dan also works on extending the range of UK climate information available. Recent activities include creating new data sets for the UKCP09 and extending the range of climate maps on our web site.

Dan participates in consultancy work that requires expert analysis of UK climate data. Examples include an assessment of the UK wind energy resource from small-scale turbines, an assessment of the exposure of trunk roads to strong winds, and the provision of climate data for major sporting events.

Dan is also involved in the activities of ECSN. He is currently participating in the EUMETGRID project which aims to develop an operational system for creating and delivering high-resolution gridded climate data sets covering the whole of Europe.

Dan also assists with routine production work and ad-hoc enquiries.

Career background

Dan joined the Met Office in 1986 and initially worked on a number of hydro-meteorological projects, including a study of extreme precipitation for a dam in Kenya. He then spent about ten years investigating how weather and climate impacted on the business of our customers. The range of applications was very varied and included wind farm siting, burst water mains, leaves on railway lines, hospital admissions and sales of beer. Dan has been working in the NCIC since 2000.

Prior to joining the Met Office, Dan obtained a BSc in Physics from the University of Bristol. Subsequently he obtained an MSc in Meteorology from the University of Reading while working at the Met Office.