Obviously it's impossible to leave out this December’s exceptionally mild weather. The average temperature for December finished fractionally higher than November’s average. Generally temperatures for the remainder of last year were around average. The annual average temperature has finished in third spot out of five years of my temperature records. I've added tables below for rainfall and average temperatures for the last five years.
New Year’s Day 01 January 2016 - 02 January 2016
A Look Back
It was a shock to the system when winter finally made an appearance. The temperature fell to -1.1°C (30.0°F) by dawn on New Year’s Day. It was the first time this winter that I'd to pour hot water into the birdbath to thaw out the water. It didn't get very warm all day, failing to make it much above 4°C (39°F) in the hours of daylight. It began to rain in the early evening and got a little bit milder too. Since it started to rain it’s continued cloudy and wet and we’re still awaiting our first glimpse of sunshine for 2016.
Temperature & Rainfall from 01 January - 03 January 2016 (09:00)
It's time to look back at last year's weather statistics. The stand-out factor for me over the last year has been the very windy conditions we've experienced almost throughout the whole year. We did have a bit of a respite through the summer. The graphic below compares the wind speeds of the last few years and shows how this year is easily the windiest.
I don't suppose there can be many people living in the UK who are unaware of the recent flooding. Leeds and York situated only a few miles from where we live have been badly affected. Therefore it seems a little surprising that December’s rainfall record for Ossett wasn't particularly high. Our annual rainfall was a little above average.
2015 did see a couple of all time records set. Although we didn't have a long spell of hot weather through summer 01 June this year was the highest daytime temperature I've recorded reaching 33.1° C (91.6°F). The second record is much more unwanted with a high wind gust speed of 43 mph on 29 November.
For the first time since five had my weather station I've put together the annual average temperatures since 2010. It would seem from this chart that the winter months are the ones with the greatest deviations from the average. December seems to be worst culprit. 2010 was very cold with an average temperature of 0.3° C (32.5°F)for the month compared to December 2015 with 9.6° C (49.3°F). January and February in 2010 together with March in 2013 have also been coolish months. The summer months seem to have been far more consistent.
I wonder what lies in store for 2016.
Sunday 03 January 2016 - Monday 04 January 2016
Flowering Early
Four days into the new year we're still waiting for our first sign of sunshine. It rained most of Sunday and Monday was damp and drizzly all day.
I posted a photo of an iris coming into flower in our front garden and mentioned that I couldn't see any signs of iris Katherine Hodgkin. Well now I can as Katherine Hodgkin’s first leaves and flowers have suddenly made an appearance.
If lots of spring bulbs flower early in January or at least earlier than usual then it's going to make for a rather understated spring. Spring bulbs are only going to flower once this year. I must check to see when our irises came into flower last year. Spring without daffodils won't be spring.
If I've learnt anything resulting from early flowering bulbs is that they don't seem to need sunshine to produce flowers as that's one thing that's been in very short supply over the last month or so.
Tuesday 05 January 2016 - Wednesday 06 January 2016
Rotting Away!
Tuesday was another dull and dreary day. Wednesday wasn't much different although at one time in the early afternoon I thought it was actually going to clear up. The roads and paths were starting to dry up and the sun almost broke through the clouds but no sooner had it happened it began to pour down with rain and that was an end to the sunshine. Still my weather station recorded 18 minutes of sunshine the first of the year.
It seems to have been wet and damp for months now. I went into the garage for some onions and even the cardboard boxes the onions are stored in had gone soft in the dampness. Rain hadn't got through the roof it's just weeks of damp and dreary weather has taken its toll on the boxes and onions.
As I sorted out the best of the onions it was clear that many of them had rotted and were only good for the compost heap. We've a couple more boxes stored in the shed on the plot but I'm not expecting them to be in any better condition.
I’ve noticed that there are suggestions that winter may begin by the middle of next week with cooler temperatures and the possibility of snow showers almost anywhere across the country.