ITS HANDIWORK can be found all over the globe, from the depths of the Amazon jungle to top of soaring Asian skyscrapers.

And now a small North East firm, whose success shows that Britain is not the only weather-obsessed nation, is preparing to break into the vast US market.

North Shields-based Environmental Measurements Limited (EML), and its team of six, supplies rain and wind gauges to markets across the world, including China, Russia, Turkey and Korea.

This week the firm’s Chinese partner will install a wind-monitoring system on the roof of a Hong Kong hotel, while the company is also in the process of supplying 64 rain gauges to a storm water management project in Singapore.

A largely untapped market for the group is the US ... a trend that managing director Mark Dutton is hoping to change this month through a number of stateside meetings which promise to bear new contracts for the firm.

Dutton will attend the American Meteorological Society’s Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans next week, where he is meeting a number of companies that have expressed an interest in providing an outlet for its products.

He said: “Currently we export 40% of turnover through a network of agents and OEMs in Europe but we have an increasing emphasis on overseas markets further afield such as China, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, Turkey, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.”

“Our typical markets or end users are agricultural and horticultural organisations, university research departments, water companies and hydrologists, environmental organisations such as the Environment Agency, landfill sites, building management services and docks and harbours.

“In other words locations where there is a need to monitor meteorological conditions such as rainfall or wind speed and direction for operational or research purposes.”

One such location is in Brazil where the company supplied over 500 rain gauges to two major meteorological projects in Brazil, including the System for the Vigilance of the Amazon projects, a scheme which started in the 1990s to monitor the Amazon’s future potential and limitations.

Closer to home, on top of the towering Milburn Stand at St James’ Park, EML’s wind gauges are used to determine whether or not conditions are safe for window cleaners to go to work on the glass exterior of the stadium.

Earlier this month EML relocated from Sunderland to larger premises at the Orion Business Park in North Shields after 15 years on Wearside.

The company produces wind,speed and direction sensors, aerodynamic rain gauges, data-loggers and automatic weather stations.