Stevenson Screens (Weather Instrument Shelters)

Below is a checklist of Stevenson screens (weather instrument shelters) on postal items (stamps, souvenir sheets, aerogrammes, postal cards, etc.). Catalog numbers, years of issue, and notes on the items featured are given when available. If readers know of additional information or images, please contact the authors using the e-mail addresses at the bottom of this page.

A Stevenson screen (also known as an instrument shelter) is a meteorological screen to shield instruments against precipitation and direct heat radiation from outside sources, while still allowing air to circulate freely around them. It forms part of a standard weather station. The screen creates, as near possible, a uniform environment in relation to the air outside, and is used to shelter various types of temperature and humidity measuring instruments. The smallest screens contain a dry bulb thermometer and a wet bulb thermometer. Larger screens also include minimum and maximum thermometers. Still-larger screens can contain recording instruments: a thermograph and/or a hygrograph, or a thermohygrograph which combines the functions of those two instruments.

The Stevenson screen was designed by Thomas Stevenson (1818-1887), a British civil engineer and father of the author Robert Louis Stevenson. All screens should be installed so that the sensitive parts of all sensors are at the same level, at 1.5 meters above the ground. Exceptions to this may be made in an area subject to accumulations of snow. The shelter should be movable or, if this is impractical, be mounted at a level above the highest expected accumulation of snow for that location. Meteorological screens that do not fit the specifications for Stevenson screens (directly above) are identified below as instrument shelters.

Country	Catalog Number*	Type of Item**	Year of Issue	Notes on Content
Afghanistan	647		1963	Two Stevenson screens
Afghanistan	650	Imperforate	1963	Two Stevenson screens
Afghanistan	C47 iC47		1963	Two Stevenson screens
Afghanistan	C49		1963	Two Stevenson screens
Afghanistan	1360		1989	Stevenson screen, door open
Albania	1208		1969	Stevenson screen
Algeria	351 (Mi451) i351		1966	Stevenson screen
Algeria	351 fdc	Stamp on FDC
Argentina	1306		1981	Stevenson screen
Argentina	None	Cachet on cover	1988	Stevenson screen
Austria	1169		1980	Stevenson screen
Australian Antarctic Territory	L102		1997	Stevenson screen
Australian Antarctic Territory	L102 maxi	Maxicard, also back	1997	Stevenson screen
British Antarctic Territory	319		2002	Stevenson screen, door open
Canada	479 fdc	Cachet on FDC	1968	Stevenson screen, cross-sectional view
Canada	1287 fdc	Cachet on FDC	1990	Stevenson screen, door open
Chad	227		1970	Stevenson screen, door open
Chad	227 proof	Die proof
Chad	227 proof strip	Color proof strip
China (People's Republic)	367-369 fdc	Cancel on FDC	1958	Stevenson screen
China (People's Republic)	484		1960	Stevenson screen
China (People's Republic)	1384		1978	Two Stevenson screens
China (People's Republic)	1387		1978	Two Stevenson screens
China (People's Republic)	1516		1979	Stevenson screen, door open
China (People's Republic)	None	Postal card	2002	Stevenson screen
China (People's Republic)	None	Postal card (different)	2002	Multiple Stevenson screens
China (People's Republic)	None	Postal card	2003	Three Stevenson screens
China (People's Republic)	None	Postal card	2007	Three Stevenson screens
China (Taiwan)	1651		1970	Stevenson screen
China (Taiwan)	1651 specimen	Specimen
Croatia	None	Cancel on WMD1 cover	1994	Stevenson screen
Croatia	None	Cancel and cachet on WMD1 cover	1994	Stevenson screen
Croatia	None	Cancel (same) on WMD1 cover (different)	1994	Stevenson screen
Croatia	513b fdc	Cancel on FDC	2003	Instrument shelter, round
Cuba	1591		1971	Stevenson screen
Falkland Islands Dependencies	1L50		1980	Two Stevenson screens
Falkland Islands Dependencies	1L50 reissue	1L50 reissued	1985	Two Stevenson screens
French Southern and Antarctic Territories	231		1997	Instrument shelter (at upper left)
French Southern and Antarctic Territories	257k	On stamp and in (right) margin of page from souvenir booklet of 28 (2x (257 (a-n))), also booklet back	1999	Stevenson screen
Germany (East)	2091 cov	Cachet on cover	1980	Stevenson screen
Gilbert and Ellice Islands	218		1973	Stevenson screen, door open
Gilbert and Ellice Islands	219
Gilbert and Ellice Islands	218-221 fdc	Two stamps on FDC
Great Britain (Jersey)	294	One of booklet pane of 4 (294a (2x (293-294)))	1982	Stevenson screen
Great Britain (Jersey)	1300		2008	Stevenson screen
Great Britain (Jersey)	1297-1301 fdc	One stamp on FDC, also back
Great Britain (Jersey)	1299a	In (lower) margin of MS10
Greenland	475a	SS1	2006	Stevenson screen
Hungary	2019 fdc i2019 fdc	Cancel on FDC	1970	Instrument shelter
India	708		1975	Two small instrument shelters for temperature and humidity sensors in automatic observing station
India	708 fdc	Stamp and cachet on FDC
India	708 folder1	FDC folder
India	708 folder2	FDC folder (different)
Iran	1285		1964	Stevenson screen
Ivory Coast	213		1964	Stevenson screen
Korea (North)	3730	Two of MS4 (2x 3730+2x 3731)	1998	Stevenson screen
Malagasy Republic	C116		1973	Stevenson screen
Mozambique	1105		1989	Stevenson screen, door open
Namibia	691		1991	Stevenson screen (upside-down reflection in sunshine recorder / heliograph)
Namibia	692		1991	Stevenson screen, door open
Namibia	693		1991	Stevenson screen
Namibia	690-693 fdc	Three stamps on FDC	1991	Two Stevenson screens, one with door open, another in reflection
New Zealand	794		1984	Stevenson screen, door open
New Zealand	794a	MS4 (791-794)	1984	Stevenson screen, door open
Nigeria	708		2000	Stevenson screen
Panama	457D (Mi782)		1964	Three Stevenson screens, elevated more than usual
Panama	457D specimen	Specimen
Portugal	1113		1971	Stevenson screen
Portugal	1113 fdc	Stamp on FDC
Portugal	1113-1115 fdc	One stamp on FDC
Romania	None	Stamped envelope	1984	Two Stevenson screens
Romania	None	Stamped envelope	1984	Stevenson screen (upside-down reflection in sunshine recorder / heliograph)
Romania	None	Stamped envelope	1984	Three Stevenson screens
Romania	None	Cachet on postcard	2007	Stevenson screen
Russia	1765		1955	Two Stevenson screens
Russia	1766		1955	Two Stevenson screens
Russia	None	Postal card	1955	Stevenson screen
Russia	C97		1956	Three Stevenson screens
Russia	None	New Year's greeting card, also back	1959	Stevenson screen
Russia	2495		1961	Stevenson screen
Russia	None	Stamped envelope	1962	Two Stevenson screens
Russia	None	Cachet on cover	1963	Stevenson screen
Russia	3110		1965	Stevenson screen
Russia	None	Stamped envelope	1968	Stevenson screen
Russia	3860 cov	Cachet on cover	1971	Stevenson screen
Russia	None	Stamped envelope	1976	Stevenson screen
Russia	None	Cachet on cover	1981	Stevenson screen
Russia	None	Stamped envelope	1985	Stevenson screen
Russia	None	Stamped envelope (different)	1985	Stevenson screen
Russia	None	Cancel and cachet on stamped envelope	1986	Stevenson screen
Russia	None	Postal card	1987	Two Stevenson screens
Russia	None	Cancel on postal card	1987	Stevenson screen
Russia	None	Stamped envelope, see detail	1987	Small instrument shelter
Russia	None	Cancel on stamped envelope	1989	Stevenson screen
Saudi Arabia	456		1967	Stevenson screen
Saudi Arabia	457		1967	Stevenson screen
Saudi Arabia	458		1967	Stevenson screen
Saudi Arabia	459		1967	Stevenson screen
Saudi Arabia	460		1967	Stevenson screen
Saudi Arabia	670		1975	Stevenson screen
Senegal	1441 i1441		2000	Stevenson screen, door open
Senegal	1441 deluxe-proof	Deluxe proof
South Africa	610-613 fdc1	Cancel on FDC	1983	Stevenson screen, door open
South Africa	610-613 fdc2	Cancel (same) on FDC (different)
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	125		1987	Stevenson screen
Sweden	1002	One of strip of 2 (1002a (1001-1002))	1973	Stevenson screen, door open
Sweden	1002a fdc1	One stamp on FDC
Sweden	1002a fdc2	One stamp on FDC (different)
Tristan da Cunha	Local		19??	Stevenson screen
United Nations	188-189 fdc	Cachet on FDC	1968	Stevenson screen
Uganda	1194		1994	Stevenson screen
Uganda	1195		1994	Stevenson screen
Uganda	1197		1994	Stevenson screen, door open
Upper Volta	95		1962	Instrument shelter, door open
Vanuatu	565		1992	Stevenson screen
Viet Nam	2338		1992	Two Stevenson screens
Viet Nam	2338-2339 fdc	One stamp on FDC

^*Scott catalog number, unless prefixed with Mi or BL for Michel.
^**FDC = first day cover; SS# = souvenir sheet, MS# = miniature sheet, where # = number of stamps in sheet, and the numbers in parentheses are the catalog numbers of the stamps in the sheet.

¹WMD = World Meteorological Day.

Back to Weather Philately.