University Weather Watch
December 2011 - windiest and warmest
Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:09:00 GMT
The year blows out!
December 2011 was the windiest month since March 2008 and the fourth windiest month since the University’s most recent weather station was installed in 2005!
The mean wind speed for the month was 17.75km/hr. The highest mean wind speed was 36.72km/hr recorded on Christmas Day, the highest figure recorded for December since 2005. The highest gust of wind for the month was 108.36km/hr again the highest figure recorded for December since 2005. The prevailing wind direction for the month was west.
According to the Met Office, the mean temperature for December was 0.6°C above the 1971-2000 average. It was the mildest December since 2006 and over 5°C warmer than December 2010. Over England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the number of air frosts was significantly below average.
In Huddersfield, it was a particularly mild month, but very few days of the month escaped rainfall. Compared to the previous two Decembers, there was very little snow, although some fell on Friday 9th and there were scattered snow showers around Huddersfield between Thursday 15th and Sunday 18th.
Huddersfield experienced the third warmest December since our records began. The monthly mean temperature was 6.4˚C making it 1.5˚C higher than the average figure for December of 4.9˚C. The maximum temperature of 14.3˚C was recorded on Monday 26th. The warmest day of the month was Christmas Day with an average temperature of 12.6˚C, making it the fourth warmest December day since our records began
The coldest days of the month were Saturday the 17th and Sunday the 18th with an average temperature of 2.3˚C. The lowest minimum temperature of -0.2˚C was recorded on Saturday 17th. The temperature fell just below zero on two days of the month.
Huddersfield received 20.2% of the annual rainfall for 2011 during December. A total of 131.4mm of rain fell during the month (average 95.1mm) making it the wettest month since November 2010. The wettest day of the month was Friday 23rd with 12.2mm of rain (9.3% of the month’s total rainfall). Just six days of the month escaped rain, the driest spell falling between Sunday 25th and Monday 26th inclusive.
2011 in summary
- A total of 650.5mm of rainfall was recorded during the year compared to the average figure of 823.5mm recorded since our records began in 1990, making it the driest year since 1993 (560.7mm) and the third driest year since our records began.
- The wettest month of the year was December with 131.4mm of rainfall (20.2% of the year’s total). The wettest day of the year was Thursday 3rd February with 33.6mm of rainfall. The driest month of the year was April with just 5.2mm of rainfall making it the second driest April since our records began. The driest spell without rainfall was Tuesday 12th April to Wednesday 4th May inclusive making a run of 23 days.
- The warmest month of the year was July with an average temperature of 16.1˚C. The warmest day of the year was Sunday 26th June with an average temperature of 23.6˚C. The highest temperature recorded during the whole year was 30.9˚C recorded on Monday 27th June; it is worth mentioning that the second and third highest temperatures recorded during the year were Friday 30th September and Saturday 1st October with recordings of 28.8˚C and 28.7˚C respectively! The coldest month of the year was January with an average temperature of 4.4˚C. The coldest day of the year was Friday 28th January with a temperature of -0.4˚C. The lowest recorded temperature for the year was -3.2˚C recorded on Thursday 20th Jan.
- The windiest month of the year was December with a mean wind speed of 17.75km/hr, making it the windiest month since March 2008. The windiest day of the year was Friday 4th February with an average wind speed of 43.92km/hr. The highest gust of wind for the whole year was 131.76km/hr recorded on Monday 7th February.
The monthly University of Huddersfield Weather Watch is compiled and written from data gathered at the university’s weather station by Julie Walker,who is Resource Centre and Environmental Technician in the School of Applied Sciences
