Weather news
Coopersale Fields in freezing fog, January 2021 (Photo: Roger Emmens)
The north wind doth blow, and we shall have snow…
A review of the weather in January 2021
This well known quotation attributed to Mother Goose came true in January. Our commonest wind direction was northerly, and we had two days of snowfall on 16th and 24th, though with only small accumulations, lasting just a day and two days respectively. If you think the rainfall totals on those days too small for the amount of lying snow, bear in mind that 1cm of snow is equivalent to just 1mm of rain.
Overall, for only the second time since January last year, we experienced a month cooler than the long term average. January clocked in with a mean temperature of 3.3 °C compared with the long term average of 4.2 °C, and in the fifteen nights with an air frost, the lowest temperature recorded was -3.5 °C on 25th. In addition, there were two ice days on 8th-9th during a period of freezing fog – an ice day is when the temperature never rises above freezing.
Storm Christophe came through on 20-21 Jan with the lowest pressure of the month of 974 mb and the highest winds at 31mph (force 6), but little rain. But it was overall another wet month: at 94.0mm we had 53% above the average for January. With a nice touch of symmetry, we experienced 21 days of rain, with 21mm being the wettest day on 14th.
| Measure | Unit | Minimum | Average | Maximum | Average min | Average max | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relative humidity | % | 67 | 93 | 98 | |||
| Temperature | °C | -3.5 | 3.3 | 12 | 0.9 | 5.8 | |
| Wind source (most common/highest gust) | Sector | NW | SW | ||||
| Wind high gust | mph | 16.5 | 31 | 16.5 | |||
| Rain daily accumulation | mm | 3.0 | 21.0 | 94 | |||
| Barometric pressure | hPa | 974.2 | 1012.0 | 1032.8 | |||
| Solar irradiance during daylight | W/m² | 63 | 418 | 196 | |||
| Sunshine | Hours | 1.3 | 5.5 | 39 |