The wind gets up to speed
Mon, 13 Jan 2014 13:11:00 GMT
University Weather Watch, December 2013
RECORD- breaking weather statistics were recorded during December. Monthly temperatures far exceeded the temperatures normally expected, with the temperature only falling below zero on one occasion during the month. Rainfall figures were below average. The Met Office stated that this was the windiest December in records from 1969 and one of the windiest calendar months since January 1993. A major storm hit the country on December 5th, with incredibly high wind speeds. On this day the University weather station recorded the highest maximum gust since our records began in 1990.
It was the warmest December since then, with a monthly recorded temperature of 7.25˚C; over 2.21˚C higher than the expected average of 5.04˚C. The warmest day of the month was Thursday 12th, with an average temperature of 12.5˚C (average 13.05 ˚C) making it the fifth warmest December day since our records began. The highest maximum temperature of 14˚C was recorded on Sunday 15th . The coldest day of the month was Wednesday 25th with an average temperature of 2.9˚C (average -0.94˚C). The lowest recorded temperature of -0.1˚C was also recorded on this day (average -3.82˚C). The temperature only just fell below zero on one day of the month.
A total of 88.6mm of rainfall was recorded during the month, slightly lower than the average figure for December of 99.3mm. The wettest day of the month was Monday 23rd with 19.8mm of rain (22.3% of the month’s total rainfall). Just six days of the month escaped rain. The driest spells were Sunday 1st to Monday 2nd and Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th.
The mean wind speed for the month was 14.97km/hr making it the seventh windiest month out of all months since 2003 when our new weather station was installed. The highest mean wind speed was 77.40km recorded on January 5th when major storms hit the country. The highest gust of wind was 149.4km/hr (over 92mph) again recorded on January 5th; this is the highest wind speed recorded by the weather station since our records began.
The prevailing wind direction for the month was south west.
