Umborne Valley Weather Report for January 2014:
As the extraordinarily unsettled Winter continues, it will
come as no surprise to hear that January was the wettest month that I have ever recorded since my records began in 1995 here. Furthermore, the total of 285.1mm exceeded the previous wettest month, September 1999 by over 50mm. Only three ‘days’ (0900-0900) recorded no rain, and if these could be less wet, two three-day spells, 9th-11th and 28th-30th, recorded just over 1mm in each. Against that, three days recorded over 25mm (1 inch); the wettest being the 31st. with a fall of 29mm. The
seven week period starting on the 12th. December has seen around 483mm. This total is over half of the total rainfall recorded from January 1st 2013 until the December date, of which October contributed about half of that!
With the help of a relation who has assembled my figures
onto a graph, I shall try to send through with this report the picture of the monthly rainfall totals since Spring 1995. What it seems to show is a fairly typical ‘english’ pattern for the first few years, with the occasional wet month. Then a period of perhaps five years when rainfall was pretty low. Then rather more extreme shifts, starting with the Summer of 2007 and concluding with the ‘drought’ of 2011-2012, and finally the peaks of rainfall totals that have occured since April 2012.
With winds coming from the Atlantic, January was a mild
month, notably so during the daytime. On the 25th the temperature reached 14C in calm, sunny conditions, after the mildest night of the month. This was one of two consecutive days when Exeter Airport recorded the highest temperature in the U.K. The average monthly maximum temperature was a little below 11.2C, about the same as in the previous mild Januarys of 2008 & 2007. However, the nights could be cold, notably
between the 10th and 14th with a minimum of -3.8C on the 14th. Averaged out, this gave a mean temperature of about 6.1C, and put this month colder than 2008, but the mildest since.
Peter at Pottlelake
