EIR/202600517443 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Scotland river temperature for Spey catchment data: EIR release
Information requested
I found these contact details via the Scotland River Temperature Monitoring Network. I am aware that monthly averages can be downloaded from the SRTMN website/app however I am looking for hourly or daily temperature data for the Spey catchment. Does this data exist and if so, is it possible to access/download.
And later answered the following questions:
Would you require data from all available sites in the Spey or are there particular sites of interest?
3x Locations on the Spey, grid refs are:
322607, 841419
327785, 843972
328402, 847650
Over what time period do you require data?
E.g. particular years or months.
Time periods:
Last 3 years: Instantaneous data (15 min values)
Full record: daily mean / max / min
At what timestep/resolution would you like the data?
(We can provide daily temperature data from our database. We have previously found that this can be refined to suit the analysis objectives. If you require sub-daily data for your objectives, the raw resolution of SRTMN data is 15-minutes. However, exporting at this resolution can be challenging as the file sizes can become substantial.)
As per above
What temperature metric would you like?
E.g. instantaneous (e.g. raw 15-minute values), daily mean /maximum / minimum
As per above
Would you like the data as an excel .csv or some other format?
csv would be fine”
Response
As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the Purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
Please find attached Annex A and Annex B which contains the data you have requested. Additionally please see below for metadata information*.
We have provided calibrated data, and all unreliable data (i.e. exposure to air) have been removed from the dataset.
The below sites are provided. Site Easting and Northing information has been removed from both exports to reduce file sizes.
Site.Name Easting Northing Spey_Scot196 327785 843972 Spey_Scot88 322607 841419 Spey_Scot90 328402 847650
The differences in time series length between sites reflects variable deployment and download dates.
Instantaneous data are provided for the three most recent complete years (2023, 2024 and 2025) Daily summary data are provided for the total timeseries available
Please can you ensure that the data are referenced as: “Data from Scotland River Temperature Monitoring Network (SRTMN) 2026. Crown Copyright.”
Should you require the peer reviewed publications related to the design of SRTMN and information on data collection methods, these can be found on the various SRTMN webpages;
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotland-river-temperature-monitoring-network-srtmn/pages/overview/
*Column Metadata – File SRTMN_Spey_88_90_196_Daily_Summaries_2014_2026.csv
Site.Name - unique site name
Site.Code – unique site code (shortened from site name)
Year - year of the observation
Month - month of the observation
Day.of.Month - day of the month of the observation
Day.of.Year – day of the year of the observation (1-365 or 1:366 in a leap year)
Average.Calibrated.Value – we have provided the daily mean water temperature value (degree C) following data calibration (rather than raw logger values). All unreliable data have been removed.
Max.Calibrated.Value – we have provided the daily maximum water temperature value (degree C) following data calibration (rather than raw logger values). All unreliable data have been removed.
Min.Calibrated.Value – we have provided the daily minimum water temperature value (degree C) following data calibration (rather than raw logger values). All unreliable data have been removed.
Column Metadata – File SRTMN_Spey_88_90_196_Raw_Resolution_2023_2025.csv
Site Name – unique site name.
Detail Date – date and time of temperature recording in the format day/month/year
hours:minutes:seconds
Calibrated Value - calibrated river temperature value (degree C). All unreliable data have been removed.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Detected exemption language
We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes.