January 2000 was another mild winter month in the UK, with daytime temperatures averaging more than 1° C above the average. Only two January's in the last decade have been colder than average and only two months in the last 14 have been cooler than average (see Graph - June 1999 and December 1999). The month start mild and ended extremely mild, with the coldest weather occurring on the 13^th and 14^th of January. The whole country was mild, from Lerwick down to Guernsey, the east coast more so than the west coast.

Unusually for a mild winter month, January 2000 was also dry, with only a few western locations recording more than their January total. Stornoway was the wettest in relative terms, with 72 per cent more rainfall than is usual in January. The driest weeks in the month coincided with the coolest temperatures during weeks 3 and 4. Parts of southern England recorded less than 30 per cent of average January rainfall.

Very sunny winter month again, with sunshine totals nearly 30 per cent above average. Only the northwest of UK missed out on the excess sunshine - Leuchars in eastern Scotland recorded more than 3 hours per day, 66 per cent more than usual. The 9^th January with a nationwide average total of 5.6 hours, was as sunny as an average April or August day. This was the seventh month in succession with sunshine totals above normal in the UK.

Dr Mike Hulme is a Research Climatologist at the University of East Anglia

(more details at web site: http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~mikeh/) 

Daytime Temperature: 1.1°C above average; Rainfall: 31% below average; Sunshine: 29% above average.

[all average figures are based on the 1951-80 average]

Mean monthly extremes:

Warmest Guernsey 10.2°C

Sunniest Leuchars 97 hours sun

Wettest Stornoway 198mm

Coldest Eskdalemuir 5.4°C

Cloudiest Lerwick 31 hours sun

Driest Birmingham 14mm