The warmest January in over a decade
IT WAS the warmest January locally since 2007 with a mean temperature of 6.7c.
Only 2007 and 1921 have been warmer in the last 100 years!
A very strong jet stream for most of the month ensured very mild SW winds pumped up over us. Average daily temperatures registered 9.5c nearly 2.5c above normal and night temperature were logged at just 4c again more than 2c above normal.
The warmest day recorded a temperature of 13.3c and the coldest day had a high of 6.9c which was the highest coldest day figure I have recorded in 20 years of records!
The mildest night had a temperature of 7.4c 5c above normal and only 3 nights recorded an air frost with the lowest temperature of -2.7c being recorded on the 19th.
Rainfall at 49mm was below normal by 11mm with rain falling on just 14 days with the highest fall of 9mm being recorded on the 9th.
The mild cloudy days also meant the sunshine was below normal too at 56.4 hours which is 5 hours short of the usual 61 hours.
Most of the month was cloudy and mild with the only major change in the weather occurring on the 18-22nd when a very large high developed over the UK with a central pressure of 1050mbs the highest air pressure in any month since 1957.
Most of the months sunshine was recorded in this period too. So far winter has been a lamb with just 5 air frosts in Dec and Jan with no snowfall at all. Mild and cold winters tend to come in clusters and very little or no snow is far from unusual but we still have most of February to go through first.