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graphs      CLIMATE-UK.COM'S  REVIEW  OF  THE  BRITISH  METEOROLOGICAL  SCENE
     MONTHLY  SUMMARY
     No. 577 For   JANUARY   2004
        MOSTLY MILD WITH FREQUENT RAIN;   BRIEF WINTRY EPISODE 26TH-29TH
Text Box: Mild, rainy weather dominated during January, but there were also occasional colder and brighter interludes. Mean monthly pressure was below normal, anomalies ranging from -3mbar in southwest Ireland to -9mbar in Shetland, and the anomalous flow over the UK was northwesterly. The first four days of the month were rather cold with widespread night frost, and parts of Scotland and northeast England were snow-covered following the Hogmanay storm. A southwesterly type returned around the 5th, and the second week of January was very mild but also very disturbed with widespread rain and strong winds on most days. Capel Curig in Snowdonia logged 196mm of rain between the 5th and the 15th, South Uist recorded a gust of 70kn on the 10th, and a waterspout in the Bristol Channel was observed off the Glamorgan coast near Barry on the afternoon of the 11th. Notable temperatures included a maximum of 13.6ºC on the 10th at Teignmouth, Devon, and a minimum of 11.7ºC in central London early on the 11th. Colder weather intervened between the 14th and 18th. Heavy snow fell in mid-Wales and the west and south Midlands (15cm locally in Powys) on the 14th, and the following day Boltshope Park in Durham had 20cm. Meanwhile 56mm of rain fell at Capel Curig on the 15th. Very mild westerly winds returned from the 18th to the 23rd with 13ºC exceeded locally, and heavy orographic rain affected western Britain where Loch Glascarnoch measured 82mm during the 18th/19th.
Text Box: It turned rather colder but brighter on the 24th and 25th, and colder still from the 26th to the 29th as the wind veered northerly. Snow fell widely with 15cm in south Lincolnshire overnight 27th/28th, while a dramatic squall-line brought heavy snow and thunder to much of the UK as it travelled southwards during the 28th, seriously disrupting road, rail and air traffic, but the 29th was very sunny (8.9 hours at Eastbourne). The cold weather lasted to the month’s end in northern Scotland where Altnaharra recorded a minimum of -10.2ºC and a maximum of -5.1ºC on the 31st, but the rest of the UK had heavy rain and gales, gusts reaching 60-65kn in many southern and central districts, while Capel Curig recorded 98mm of rain in 48 hours. The month’s top temperature, 13.9ºC, also occurred on the 31st at Madley (Herefordshire). Mean monthly temperature was close to the 1971-2000 normal in northern Scotland, but about 1 degC above everywhere else; over England and Wales there were 20 warmer Januarys in the last 100 years. Much of the month’s rain fell in the second week and on the last two days, and averaged nationally it was the wettest January for five years. At a local level there were deficits of 10-30% in Aberdeenshire, but a few sites in Moray, Ayrshire, the Scottish Borders and North Yorkshire had double the normal amount. The first half of January was dull (only 7 hours’ sunshine at Aviemore up to the 23rd) but several sunnier days later on improved matters; much of southern England reported monthly totals 20-40 per cent above normal, and Lerwick in Shetland enjoyed a 65 per cent excess.
                                                                                                                                         
                       TEMPERATURE                                SUNSHINE                             RAINFALL                                                       
                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                 
                   
No. of days with grass minimum below 0ºC
                      Highest and lowest totals    
Maximum fall in 24 hrs (beginning 09 h)
                Highest and lowest totals    
Days with snow or sleet
 
Days with fog (Vis <220 yards at 09 h)
 
     
Difference from average
   
Difference from average
             
Days of no sunshine
                      on record for month                         on record for month        
                                                                                         
           
Highest maximum
   
Lowest minimum
         
Maximum duration
       
First year of record
         
Days of no rainfall (0.1 mm or less)
         
First year of record
         
Days with thunder
     
       PLACE  
Mean Maximum
   
Mean minimum
             
No. of air frosts
       
Total for month
                   
Total for month
                   
                               
% of average
                   
% of average
                 
                                                                     
                                   
Highest
   
Lowest
 
Year
             
Highest
   
Lowest
 
Year
       
             
Date
   
Date
         
Date