I can now give an update on what is happening with SEPA as regards to getting rainfall data from there which will be very valuable for a lot of my fellow Scottish members of this forum who have used the SEPA site to obtain rainfall data for their local stations in the past.

First of all, I must add that certain things on that site have not changed. If you try to get the rainfall data from there in the old way, you will still get that same old Service Unavailable page. However, I have been informed on this forum that the nature of the recent cyber attack means that certain new systems might need to be developed and from what I can see, it looks as though this is what is going to happen as regards to being able to get any rainfall data.

If you go to the SEPA homepage and then click on the link which says "rainfall" under the section which says "water" (don't click on the link below that for rainfall data, as that will just take you the usual service unavailable page), you will be taken to another page which tells you all about what is happening as regards to the cyber attack and the current inability to get any rainfall data from there.

On the right-hand side of that page, you will see two different links which are listed under related items. The one which says "rainfall data" is just the old link which will once again, just take you to the service not available page. However, there is another link which says "Citizen Science Portal - Rainfall Observers" and that is where you want to go to as it looks as this is going to become the new way of getting rainfall data from SEPA in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

Just in case you have trouble getting to that section of the SEPA site, here is the direct link to it. It looks as though this site is going to operate in a similar manner to how wundergound operates for all types of weather observations. Anyone who has their own weather station (and I know that there are a number of people on this forum who do) will no doubt, also have their own way of recording rainfall and if your station is located somewhere in Scotland, you will be able to register there to enter your own rainfall data and have that available on-line.

However, SEPA was also previously good at giving me that important data for the major stations such as Edinburgh Gogarbank and the botanic gardens in Edinburgh, so I am hoping that this will continue to be the case under the new system once that is fully up and running. I haven't tested that part of it though, as I don't have my own weather station or rain gauge, but you are free to test that and come back to this thread on that matter if you so wish.

As for getting data from there, you won't need to register for that and so, it will just be a case of clicking on where it says "view data". As I write, there isn't actually any data available just yet and it may well be a while before there is. However, there is already a clickable map there and when that data does eventually become available,you will then be able to select the station from there, for where you are trying to get data for.

Given the nature of the recent cyber attack, this will obviously all have to be done with security in mind and so, I would probably expect this new system to be harder to hack or scrape than the old system, but it is nice to see that things are now happening on that front and I am now looking forward to seeing that new system fully up and running, whenever that eventually happens.