2019 20 Winter Quarter

Weather for the Winter Quarter 2019/20 For the most part December’s weather followed the rather damp pattern of the preceding quarter. By the end of the month we had had 91 mm of rain against a ten-year average of 59.4 mm. In fact September, October, November and December were all significantly wetter than we would have expected - 336mm against 232mm, or 145% of the expected rainfall. The middle two weeks of the December were the wettest when we had 13 consecutive rain days. It is interesting to note that despite this the Environment Agency reported that there had not been sufficient First Snowdrop Autumn rain to make up for the deficit resulting from the st 31 December 2019 previous four dry years. The average temperature for December was a little lower than expected and there were 9 nights below 0℃. However there were some good sunny days in amongst the gloom - in the first week, then the three days up to Christmas (23rd-25th) and two leading up to New Year (30th-31st). The new year started rather dull, but the first two weeks were surprisingly warm with generally southerly winds bringing heat from much further south. Not until the 13th-17th did we get the first winter storm with gusts locally of 50 mph (and much more in other parts of the country). There was also quite a lot of rain, 18.3 mm, but most of it fell in the hours of darkness. Then on Saturday 18th the pressure rose, the sun shone and we had not just one but two clear days - and consequently cold nights. This began a much calmer and drier week, but the high pressure area trapped a lot of cloud so there was much less sunshine. A record high pressure was recorded in Wales on Sunday 19th when the pressure reached 1050.5 hPa, the highest UK pressure recorded in 60 years. For the most part the remainder of January was dull and cool, but never really cold or really wet. Only 3 nights saw temperatures below zero and the total rainfall, 42.7 mm, was below the ten-year average of 59.2. You may remember that January 2019 was exceptionally dry with just 23.1mm. The early part of February gave us a short run of fine days and cold nights leading to the next winter storm (Ciara) that brought high winds over the weekend of 8th-9th. There was major and widespread disruption to roads, trains and at airports, as well as flooding in many parts of the country. This led on to a blustery week that brought lower temperatures and snow to the northern hills. The strongest gust record was on Sunday 9th: !56 km/hr (98 mph) on the Isle of Wight on the headland that overlooks the Needles. Having stayed in the National Trust cottage there I can report from personal experience that it is a pretty scary place in a storm! Following this there came a whole series of fronts and storms driven on by an exceptionally strong jet-stream - a British Airways jet got the record for the fastest ever sub-sonic Atlantic crossing from New York to London driven by the powerful wind. The next major storm, Dennis, brought somewhat less violent winds, but heavier rain, causing serious flooding in many parts of the country with unusually heavy rain falling on to ground that was already saturated. If there was any compensation it was that the wind direction was generally West/South Westerly, and therefore comparatively mild, and amongst the gales and the rain there were some really bright sunny days. The final day of February, the 29th, perfectly summarised the whole month with rain and blustery winds all morning and then glorious sunshine in the afternoon. The Met Office declared it to have been the wettest February on record across the country. So looking at the winter quarter in Wickham as a whole, it was the wettest since 2013/14 with 35% more rain than Flooding in Yorkshire 27th February 2020 the 10-year average. Temperatures were slightly above the 10-year averages, but there were only 15 nights when temperatures below zero were recorded against an average of 19. On many of these frosty nights the temperature just dipped below zero for a few of hours - there were no periods of prolonged frost and no days when the temperature didn’t rise above zero. Winter Rainfall (December - February) 260 240 220 200 180 mm 10 yr 160 Ave 140 120 100 80 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 Winter Ave Max & Min Temperatures (Dec - Feb) 14 12 10 10 yr 8 Ave o C 6 4 10 yr 2 Ave 0 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20.

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