Sixth warmest January in series since 1884
4 Feb 2020 10:40 AM
Across the UK, January 2020 was the sixth warmest January in a series starting in 1884, making it the warmest since 2007. With an average mean temperature for the month of 5.6 °C, it was 2.0 °C warmer than the average between 1981-2010. It was the fifth warmest January in Scotland with an average mean temperature of 4.8 °C, 2.1 °C above the 1981-2010 average.
The warmest January on record was 1916 with a mean temperature of 6.3 °C, which is a notably long-standing climate record.
In line with the theme of higher than average temperature, the number of days of air frost was considerably below average; where air frost is defined as a day in which the minimum temperature falls below freezing (0 °C).
Dr Mark McCarthy is the head of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre. He said: “January 2020 experienced only five days of widespread air frost the fewest recorded for January since 1990, and third lowest in a series from 1960.
“The weather station in Morpeth, in Northumberland, has broken a 135-year January record by not observing a temperature of 0.0 °C or below during the month.”
Rainfall saw mixed fortunes, with Northern Ireland, eastern Scotland and north east England all recording a relatively dry January with Inverbervie, Aberdeenshire recording 15.6 mm, just 30% of its average January rainfall and the driest place in the country in January. In contrast, north-west Scotland was wetter than average, with 655mm of rain at Achnagart in Ross and Cromarty, which is 151 % of average and was the wettest place.
An east-west contrast was also apparent for sunshine with the sunniest place in the country during January being Leconfield, Humberside with 145 % of average sunshine while Stornoway and Tiree recorded their dullest January on record with just 42% and 38% of average respectively.
Provisional January 2020 |
Mean temp (°C) |
Sunshine (hours) |
Rainfall (mm) |
|
Actual |
Diff from avg (°C) |
Actual |
% of avg |
Actual |
% of avg |
UK |
5.6 |
2.0 |
44.5 |
94 |
121.7 |
100 |
England |
6.2 |
2.1 |
56.3 |
104 |
71.1 |
86 |
Wales |
5.8 |
1.7 |
45.2 |
93 |
142.5 |
91 |
Scotland |
4.8 |
2.1 |
25.5 |
72 |
209.5 |
119 |
N Ireland |
5.3 |
1.1 |
40.1 |
90 |
68.3 |
59 |