Records are broken yet again at the very end of 2021
DECEMBER 2021 was once again a warmer than average one with no significant cold spells throughout the month. Afternoon temperatures were logged at 8.5c which was 1.4c above normal with night time figures being logged at 4.4c, a considerable 2c above the norm.
The average temperature of 6.4c was 1.5c higher than the 30 year average. There were only 2 night time air frosts recorded throughout the month when usually you would expect up to 10 and our coldest night only -1c so very little window scraping was required in December this year.
The average temperature of 6.4c make it the warmest December in Leicestershire since 2018. There was no snowfall at all during the month which is unusual.
Rainfall totals amounted to 67.8mm in Hinckley at Dean Whitakers station and in Mountsorrel I recorded 61mm.
Both of these figures are about 5% above normal. It was also a very dull month with just 24 hours of sunshine being recorded at Mountsorrel making it our dullest December since 1989. Only 1972 and 1987 had less sunshine in the last 50 years. Winds were mostly moderate but gusts did reach 50mph during the visit of storm Barra on January 7th.
December started off on a cooler note and it was relatively wet with the arrival of storm Barra on the 7th.
It then became milder with temperatures climbing to 14.1c on the 12th. A strong SW developed and brought us some very mild air. A large area of high pressure then sat over the UK from the 15th and this gave us an endless run of dull gloomy days.
There was no sunshine recorded between December the 16th and the 27th a period of 12 days, a statistic not equalled since 1979.
After Christmas the high pressure moved away and instead of cold and snowy weather like originally promised the air reaching us decided to blow in from the Azores once again.
It became remarkable mild with temperatures on the 31st reaching 14.8c at Mountsorrel, double the expected figure with the night of the 30th producing a minimum of 12.2c, a whopping 10c higher than it should have been.
The 30th was the mildest ever night recorded in Leicestershire in December and is just another record to add to those now frequently broken in regards to temperature.
Once again Steve Jackson at his Coventry based station has looked at the longer term temperature trends from his Coventry based station that he has records for since 1892.
The last decade (2011-2020) saw a mean monthly temperature for December of 5.9c. This figure was a huge increase of 1.8c than was recorded during the first decade of the century (2001-2010) at 4.1c. The last 10 years has been the warmest December decade since records began in the 19th century locally. The same has been true for all other months since September. The warmest ever December was 2015 when winds from the Azores blew in for the entire month and gave us an average temperature of 10c!
Looking at 2021 as a whole we find that with an average temperature of 10.6c it has been the 8th warmer than average year in a row with only 16 warmer years than this one recorded since 1892.
It has been wetter than average year (772mm) and only 5 years have been wetter than this one in this century. It has been comparatively dull with 1451 hours being recorded 7% below normal.
Locally the weather events that stand out this year was the January snow falls which gave 10cm our heaviest snow fall since 2012. It was twice as wet as usual. April 2021 was extremely dry with just 2mm of rain falling, the driest since 1938. May saw another deluge of rain with 130mm falling. The summer was mixed with both June and July being warmer than average. July saw an incredible storm hit the village of Kibworth with hail stones 5cm wide and 75mm of rain falling in an hour which is equivalent to 5 weeks rainfall!
August was disappointing as it has been in many recent years. September however was the second warmest month ever recorded with October being above average too. November was mainly mild but an arctic spell in the last weekend provided us with 3cm of snowfall. Finally December was mild with a record breaking night temperature being logged in the last week.
A Very Happy New Year to you all!