28th January - A Sunny Month

[Nicholas Gardner]

Nice to see the monthly sunshine total passing 100 hours today on what was a superb day with a deep blue sky and dazzling, warm sunshine. This Atlantic air is certainly a huge improvement on that nasty, cold air of recent.

Saturday 28th January:
Minimum = 2.4C
Maximum = 11.3C
Rain = 10.2 mm
Sunshine = 6.3 hours
Monthly sunshine = 103.4 hours

This month joins the last 2 Januaries in having 100+ hours of sunshine.

Is January becoming sunnier? It certainly seems to be when compared to the LTA data I have for nearby Sidmouth. But that was with a CS recorder so all the usual caveats apply.

Otter Valley January sunshine:
2016 = 101 hours
2015 = 105 hours
2014 = 76 hours
2013 = 67 hours
2012 = 88 hours
2011 = 70 hours
2010 = 89 hours
2009 = 78 hours
2008 = 67 hours
2007 = 64 hours

This January may well end up the sunniest I've recorded.

[Nicholas Gardner]

Well, there have just been 3 sunless days (29th -31st) so the monthly sunshine total for January stands at 103.4 hours.

Three consecutively sunless days are rather rare here. I may be wrong as this is a difficult statistic to find in my past records but so far, the last time there were 3 or more consecutively sunless days was December 2010.

So, despite being sunnier than average, this January ended damp, drizzly, soggy and very dull. Also of note was that today's (31st) overnight minimum was a pretty mild 11.1°C and the day maximum was 11.6°C. Unusually narrow temperature range.