As the year draws to a close, let's look back at what the weather's been like. Not because it's something we all want to reminisce over, but because it's interesting to see what a full year's weather looks like.
The tables below show the weather for each day in 2019, grouped into categories and totted up by month. Yes, there are still three days to go, so I've used the forecast to predict the rest, and I'll come back later to update speculation with fact. I've blanked out the background of every empty cell to make the pattern of the coloured data stand out more. I've also emboldened any tally that enters double figures, making the general trend a bit easier to follow.
This is data from a weather station in Hampstead, so won't perfectly reflect your experience, nor the national picture. But it does present an intriguing picture of the year gone by, and 2019's weather really wasn't that bad.
Maximum daily temperature, Hampstead, 2019
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
35-40°C
1
30-35°C
1
2
3
25-30°C
3
8
5
1
20-25°C
6
8
10
19
20
10
15-20°C
4
3
6
16
14
1
3
19
13
10-15°C
6
16
25
13
7
2
17
10
8
5-10°C
17
6
3
5
1
20
23
0-5°C
8
2
This is what the rise and fall of the year's maximum temperatures looks like. What stands out here is that one day in July when the mercury touched thirty-seven degrees - Hampstead's hottest temperature of the last decade - while Cambridge endured the UK's hottest day on record. Overall the summer couldn't match 2018, when there were twice as many days when the temperature in London topped 25 degrees, but 2019 still had a lot of short-sleeve weather to go round. The real outlier was February, which was much milder than usual, its final week record-breakingly so. Autumn's been unremarkable in comparison. Only ten days all year failed to reach 5°C, while there's not a single occurrence of temperatures remaining below freezing all day, but that's the joys of the inner London heat island effect for you.
Hottest day of the decade: 25 July 2019 (37°C) Chilliest day of the decade: 28 February 2018 (-2°C max)
Minimum daily temperature, Hampstead, 2019
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
15-20°C
4
17
10
2
10-15°C
2
7
22
14
21
21
11
1
5-10°C
7
14
16
17
19
4
7
15
11
14
0-5°C
15
13
15
10
5
5
15
17
-5-0°C
9
1
1
3
Minimum temperatures show a similar rise and fall through the course of a year, but within a narrower range. Thirty-three days this year had nights with temperatures exceeding 15°C - ideal for sitting outside - and the temperature in summer pretty much never went below 10°C. This year's cold snap was in the second half of January, a month which had most of the nights when the temperature dropped below freezing - fourteen in total. Anywhere outside central London will likely have had rather more.
Mildest night of the decade: 18 August 2012 (20°C) Coldest night of the decade: 11 February 2012 (-8°C)
Hours of sunshine, Hampstead, 2019
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
12-15hr
5
7
5
6
3
1
8-11hr
1
7
5
6
2
5
6
8
10
3
5-7hr
7
7
4
3
7
7
6
12
3
6
3
3
2-4hr
5
4
8
9
12
5
9
6
8
10
10
12
0-1hr
10
4
8
4
3
5
3
1
6
4
6
2
0hr
8
6
6
3
3
1
1
2
8
11
14
We're not used to seeing actual sunshine data, more usually simplifying the weather to "gosh it's sunny" or "oh it's dull". This year we've enjoyed twenty-seven days with over twelve hours of sunshine, all of them in the middle of the year because the sun's not above the horizon long enough at other times. January and February were abnormally sunny, for the time of year, whereas October and November were notably duller than they normally are. Overall sixty days had no sunshine at all, with the last three months of the year responsible for half that total.
Sunniest month of the decade: July 2018 (263 hours) Dullest month of the decade: December 2010 (29 hours)
Daily rainfall, Hampstead, 2019
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
>20mm
1
1
10-20mm
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
5-10mm
3
1
2
1
3
1
3
4
4
6
1-5mm
3
6
9
4
5
9
6
4
6
7
10
8
0-1mm
5
1
4
7
8
5
7
3
5
12
2
0mm
20
19
16
19
16
14
21
18
17
13
4
13
It doesn't rainthat often in London, with over 50% of days this year (the bottom row) completely dry. Even most of the wet days weren't that wet - fewer than forty days exceeded 5mm. As for relentlessly wet days, only eleven times did Hampstead's rain gauge top 10mm, and only one cloudburst of a day exceeded 30mm. April was by far the driest month (followed by January and May), while every month since September has been wetter than average (December especially so). But rainfall is a notoriously erratic statistic, often varying wildly geographically, and one torrential outburst can outrank weeks of lighter precipitation.
Wettest month of the decade: January 2014 (142mm) Driest month of the decade: June 2018 (0.8mm)
Extreme weather, Hampstead, 2019
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Fog
2
Hail
Thunder
4
2
1
Frost
9
1
1
3
Snow
3
1
Finally, still based on observations in Hampstead, a look at some of the more unusual meteorological conditions. Fog only afflicted us briefly in February, whereas hail has been entirely absent this year. As for thunder, most of this year's total rumbled during a single week in July. Air frost was particularly prevalent in January, with one horticulturally-annoying outlier in mid-April. January had the most snowy days, but most of the year's snow fell on the first of February.
Foggiest month of the decade: December 2016 (7 days) Hailiest month of the decade: March 2012 (6 days) Thunderiest month of the decade: June 2016 (7 days) Frostiest month of the decade: December 2010 (287 hours) Snowiest month of the decade: January 2010 (18cm)
All in all, summer's brief scorcher aside, 2019's weather has been fairly ordinary. Here's to more typically atypical weather in 2020.
