Monthly weather summaries from January 2009

For monthly summaries before this date see Philip Eden's excellent site at Climate UK http://www.climate-uk.com/page3.html

Here are some of the key weather events & extremes we have experienced across the UK. The content is divided into two sections; events pre 2004 and from January 2004 onwards with the section pre 2004 currently under construction.  

Weather extremes index:

Events before 2004 are here

2004 events are below

2005 here

2006 here 

2007 here

2008 here

2009 here

• 31st Dec-1st Jan New Year's Eve Storm: Heavy snowfalls and blizzard conditions for the Northeast of Scotland and England with -16C reported at Altnaharra, Scotland
• 28th Jan: Snow squalls A band of heavy snow and thunderstorms moved south during the day affecting the majority of the UK.

February

• 4th Feb: Very mild in the south the earliest 64F ever recorded- 17.9C at Gravesend, Kent.
• 25th Feb: Blizzards hit NE Scotland & Northern Isles.
• 26th Feb: Heavy snow for N Ireland and Wales Sennybridge tumbles away to -11C.

March

• 10th- 11th March: A southerly tracking low brings a late heavy snowfall to the west of England & Wales.
• 19th-20th March Severe gales across central parts of the UK  
• 21st March: The 'Broadwell Storm' & Filkins tornado. See a full report on 'UKww' here

April

• 26th April: The Brecon 'Ball Lightning' Event. See a full report on 'UKww' here
• 27th April : Thunderstorms over London and SE England give localised downpours and flooding.

June

• 23rd June : A deep low (for June) crosses the UK. Tennis at Wimbledon is completely washed out by the rain. Some very high rainfall totals reported. See more discussion about the event at 'UKww' here 

July

• 7th- 8th July: A rather stormy period again for England and Wales. High rainfall totals in England & Wales. A record low July maximum temperature is reported at Sennybridge (9.6C) Some severe thunderstorms on the 8th across the central south & east Midlands.
• 17th July Heavy thunderstorms move across the SE and London and into E Anglia. Places in E London report up to 3-4cm hail
• 22nd July Severe storms move across the Midlands including reports of ball lightning, tornadic vortices and wind gusts, perhaps as high as 100kt

August

• 3rd August Severe storms in London northwards 42mm of rain in a hour at High Wycombe, large hail, flooding reported in London.     
• 16th August Boscastle flash floods- after up to 200mm of rain in a few hours in heavy thunderstorms, a wall of water 10ft high rushes down the Valency valley and through Boscastle, N Cornwall bringing severe flash flooding and causing houses and cars to be washed away. For a detailed report and analysis of the event (and other events of this nature during the last century in the South West UK) see the special page here 
• 18th-19th August Deep Channel low. During a very unsettled August week, a small but deep low (as low as 984mb) formed in part from ex tropical storm Bonnie's moisture developed in the Bay of Biscay and moved along the Channel overnight with winds gusting to 74kts (85mph) in its path here and 63mph at Langdon Bay, Dover.

October

• 3rd-4th October Ex hurricane Lisa brings heavy rain and strong winds to the UK. 75mm of rain reported in 24 hours in upland N Wales and gusts to 68mph at Wainfleet and 65mph at Wittering, Lincs as it develops and deepens as an extratropical low pressure centre 984mb by 06Z on the 3rd over the N England and moves out into the northern N Sea. A special report by Paul Blight looks at the issues around forecasting such developments over the UK.  
• 4th October Squall line moves across the UK spawning a number of possible tornadoes. A special article looks at the event and the difficulties of assessing tornadic activity on such squall lines.  
• 27-28th October: One of the deepest low pressures to form in the SW approaches in October gives coastal flooding in the southwest and Wales with associated high tides and severe gales

November

• 20th-21st November: A cold plunge of arctic air brought widespread snow to the Midlands and parts of the south with over 5cm of lying snow in some central parts. A temperature of -13 was recorded on snowcover at Kinbrace, Sutherland, the coldest of the year so far.

December

• 13th December was the coldest day in the SE since late December 2000 with Biggin Hill below 0C all day.
• 17th December saw a rapidly deepening depression move quickly ESE across S Ireland, England and Wales bringing with it a spell of heavy rain, gale force winds and possible sting jet development with tornadoes along the South coast and gusts to 70mph reported.

Continue to 2005 events, listed here

Many thanks to Dave Jameson for compiling and collating much of this data and Paul Blight for his additional synoptic development sections with related charts.  

Paul Blight can be contacted at pblightuk@yahoo.co.uk if you wish to ask for permission to reproduce any of his articles here or contact him regarding any of his weather discussions.