Sunshine levels 2013

[Terminal Moraine]

We're not far off 2008 levels, but as mentioned in my edited post, we need cloud to be at a minimum. We have less sunless days than February 2008, though (so far, at least).

A long way from 2008 levels here. 45.5 hrs so far this month compared with 114.1 hrs for the whole of February 2008.

We might beat last February's 60.4 hrs though, depending on how cloudy this high turns out to be once the colder weather arrives.

[Aaron]

Well I should point out that we're not far off 2008 levels to date, we're still a long way off the actual sunshine hours for that month.

[summer blizzard]

What a poor dull month March has being in contrast to to March's 2010-2012.

[Aaron]

What a poor dull month March has being in contrast to to March's 2010-2012.

66 hours to date at Church Fenton compared to 124.6 hours this time last year, so exceptionally dull indeed.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Aaron

[reef]

58 hours so far here. The 1981-2010 average is 112 hours so it will be an exceptionally dull month and possibly even duller than 2005 which saw 63 hours.

We were overdue a dull one though, the last 6 were well above average and only one of the last 12 were below average in the sunshine stakes. Four were more than 150%.

[Bottesford]

So a very dull year so far then with both Jan & Feb being very cloudy.

No surprise with air mostly being sourced from the east - a cold & cloudy direction. Only the real deep cold spells have brought lots of sunshine.

Hopefully a rebalance of stats May to August...

[summer blizzard]

So a very dull year so far then with both Jan & Feb being very cloudy.

No surprise with air mostly being sourced from the east - a cold & cloudy direction. Only the real deep cold spells have brought lots of sunshine.

Hopefully a rebalance of stats May to August...

Easterlies can generally be quite complicated.

Here in Leeds a south easterly is probably the sunniest wind direction outside winter but a north easterly can see us under murk like the north east.

A fine line.

[Guest pjl20101]

December 2011 - March 2012 were all exceptionally sunny in this location and actually had a total higher than the entire summer:

Dec: 73hrs (140%)

Jan: 89hrs (156%)

Feb: 96hrs (120%)

Mar: 201hrs (179%)

Total: 459hrs (152%)

Summer 2012: 444hrs (78%)

In 2012 only summer was below average in the sunshine stakes, every other season was 110% or more. People generally base how sunny they think the year has been on the May-Sep period. The year as a whole was actually sunnier than average here but few could remember how sunny winter and early spring were.

I am right in thinking reef that last years summer wasn't just the wettest since 1912, but also the dullest since 1954. However the second half of summer we did tend to get more sunny days, but it was too little too late.

[Mark Neal.]

First sunny morning for a while. Been plenty of cloudy mornings, from dull easterlies so far in 2013.

[Bottesford]

I saw some sun for first few hours of the day - was nice. It's gone now of course.

Easterlies are indeed a complicated beast for cloud cover but generally the longer the land track from your location to the sea the better.

If I see Ely winds progged I simply assume cloudy then occasionally be pleasantly surprised.

Hope to see the end of this vile wind direction soon - been going on far too long now.

[Terminal Moraine]

50.7 hrs so far this month so well below average but already sunnier than March 2005 which recorded only 46.5 hrs. It will end as the dullest March since 2005 though as 2006 was the next dullest since then with 80.6hrs. Every March from 2007 until this one has recorded more than 100 hrs of sunshine.