Climate summaries

Overview of weather across the UK for previous months, seasons and years

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UK last month

January 2020

At the start of January, high pressure lay over southern parts of the UK, bringing settled weather but generally with plenty of cloud. This gradually moved away south-eastwards allowing frontal systems in from the west, and from the 7th to 17th the weather was mild, unsettled and also very windy at times. High pressure brought settled weather from the 18th to 25th, with plenty of sunshine initially but by the 22nd most places were overcast. Wet and windy weather returned from the 26th, and there was snow in some areas on the 27th and 28th, mainly on high ground, but very mild air returned on the last three days.

The provisional UK mean temperature was 5.6 °C, which is 2.0 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average, making it the 6th warmest January in a series from 1884. Mean maximum temperatures were generally around 2.0 °C above average and mean minimum temperatures were mostly 2.0 to 2.5 °C above average, but in Northern Ireland both mean maximum and minimum temperatures were only around 1.0 °C above average. Frosts were generally fewer than average. Rainfall was 100% of average, and it was a wet month in western Scotland but drier than average in eastern Scotland, north-east England and Northern Ireland. Sunshine was 94% of average, and it was a dull month in western Scotland and north-west England, but sunnier than average in north-east England.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 15.5 °C was recorded at Achfary (Sutherland) on the 7th. A minimum temperature of -7.9 °C was recorded at Braemar (Aberdeenshire) on the 10th. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 GMT on the 11th, 138.0 mm of rain fell at Skye Alltdearg House A wind gust of 76 knots (87 mph) was recorded at South Uist (Western Isles) on the 13th. A snow depth of 15 cm was recorded at Tulloch Bridge (Inverness-shire) on the 28th.

Regional values for January 2020