WMO03658, Benson (RAF Benson)
51 37 13N 01 05 55W
Altitude 62 metres
Estimated Class 1
UHI, some local from encroaching housing.
This tends to be the coldest met site in the South of England, located in the upper Thames valley, perhaps more in the South Midlands, not far from Oxford.
I have been past Benson hundreds of times and yes the place has grown. Ground images can be explored to see the age of housing.
Flying as far as I can recall has tended to light. The met station will have been relocated as the original station was developed.
In this case we are getting back into Bing coverage, see the UHI problem here won’t be major.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Cold night breaks August records in places
31.08.2012
Last night saw some unusually cold August night-time temperatures across parts of the UK, with some observation sites hitting record lows.
Among those stations seeing their coldest recorded August temperature were:
Braemar No 2, Aberdeenshire: -2.4 °C
Aviemore, Highlands: -1.8 °C
Redesdale Camp, Northumberland: -0.7 °C
Bainbridge, North Yorkshire: 0.5 °C
Benson, Oxfordshire: 2.1 °C
Bradford, West Yorkshire: 2.8 °C
Observation sites have operated for differing amounts of time, so some records are more significant than others. Out of the new records, Bradford has the longest historical dataset – going back to 1908.
It’s worth noting that none of these break the all-time record low UK temperature for August, which is -4.5 °C recorded at Lagganlia, in Inverness-shire on 21 August 1973.
http://metofficenews.wordpress.com/
Hi Gray, good to see you drop by. Nice observations. It was cold here in Leeds next door to Bradford last night.
As it happened I drove past Benson on that evening and it’s also my local Met Station. The 2.1C reading though was something of a surprise. Does it foretell a cold winter I wonder?
I wonder when the first swallows will start crossing the channel southwards this year.
http://danieldefoeblog.com/2012/04/26/our-summer-friends-the-swallows/
Swallows – I’d expect them very soon. They’ve been gathering for the last ten days here in South Wales, about two week earlier than in previous years.
A bit earlier than Defoe’s observation in Early october in the early 1700’s then. Hmmm. Could be due to a lack of insects following the cool wet summer though.