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A scheme that allows members of the public to "adopt" weather systems has raised more than ?,000 for a German institute.

Students at Berlin's Free University's Meteorological Institute invited the public to pay to name areas of high and low pressure that influence Central Europe's weather after cuts to the institute's budget threatened its 24-hour observation of the climate.

But while sunny weather is being snapped up, low pressure systems have been on special offer. "People prefer to be named after sunshine, not rain," said Petra Grasse of the institute. "Unfortunately, we have many more bad days in Germany than good, and so we have made the areas of low pressure cheaper."

High-pressure systems cost ?205 and the lows go for ?136.