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January
- 1st January saw very windy weather continue to sweep across the UK but especially parts
of the south with gusts to 76mph at St Just (Cornwall) and 74mph at Sheerness, Kent.
- 9th-15th January saw
a very unsettled period across the UK as a series of low pressure systems developed under a very strong cross Atlantic jet.
Some of the highest gusts recorded included 82kt (94mph) at Benbecula ( W Isles) on the 10th 72kt
(83mph) at Foula (N Isles) on the 11th and 77kt (89mph) at Lerwick (N Isles) on
the 12th and then again on the 15th, 73kt (84mph).
- The 18th of January saw the
period's most damaging winds as a deep area of low pressure ran across Scotland and because the winds were further south
in more populated areas they were more prone to damaging high gusts. There were 13 deaths reported as winds gusted to 73kt (84mph) at Liverpool Crosby and also at Blackpool's
Squires Gate (Lancs), even London reported 67kt (77mph) at Heathrow Airport. A fuller report and analysis of this storm
will be available shortly.
February
- A short cold spell
on the 8th-10th brought widespread snow to many parts of the country, with as much as 15cm reported at Whipsnade
(Beds) on the 8th and 27cm at Boltshope Park (Durham) on the 10th. The usual traffic
congestion and related road and rail chaos ensued. The period also brought some fairly low day and night time temperatures.
On the 7th Altnaharra (Sutherland) only reached -3.0C and then on the 8th it dropped to -10.7°C, the lowest temperature reported
all winter and one of the highest 'lowest' min temperatures reported in a recent UK winter.
March
- March
was a very sunny month, about the 5th sunniest in the last 100 years.
- 18th March
saw a deep depression develop and move near the far north of Scotland with gusts of 94mph at Foula and 91mph at Sule
Skerry and Fair Isle reported.
were reported on the 18th
April
- April was very warm and dry. It was the warmest April since 1659 (at least). In parts of
the south, esp Sussex, it was an astounding 6C warmer than average. 26.5°C
was the highest temperature recorded during the month at Herstmonceux (Sussex) on the 15th.
May
- May was the 10th wettest on record in England & Wales and the wettest since
1967 with 198% of the average across the UK. Parts of the south saw their wettest ever May.
- 25th-26th May: A deep low developed west of SW England bringing storm force gusts
and heavy rain as it Moved SE towards NW France. A report on this by Paul Blight and David Smart can be found here
June
- May and June together become the 2nd wettest similar period ever recorded since1760 across England and Wales. Over
240mm of rain fell on average in the period. June was around the 10th wettest ever recorded (final figures to be confirmed).
- 12th-15th June saw a
very wet period across the Midlands and Northern England. Figures included 113mm in 48h at Edgbaston,
123mm in 60 hours at Wilsden and 115mm in 60h at Emley Moor
- 23rd-25th June saw further prolonged heavy rain across the north of England and parts of the Midlands.
Totals for the 48h to 21h on the 25th included 112mm at Fylingdales (N Yorks), 85mm at Emley Moor (W Yorks), and 85mm
at Capel Curig (Snowdonia)
July
- 20th-21st July Low pressure sat across central
parts in this period before movingaway across Eastern Scotland and its asociated slow moving fronts gave some widespread,
heavy and prolonged rain, more especially in the south of England and the Midlands as 2 inches fell in
a large area Notable 2 day totals included 157mm
at Pershore Agricultural College and 128mm at Brize Norton. Birmingham Egbaston reported its highest ever 24 hour rainfall
in July (62mm) .The amount allowed some severe flooding down along the Severn and the upper Thames rivers. This
was the most notably flood event since 1947 in the area around Tewkesbury and Gloucester and caused widespread loss of water
supplies to customers and billions of pounds worth of flood related damage. See related BBC news story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6911778.stm.
- Wettest July on record was recorded across England with 129mm of rain beating
the previous record of 126.5mm (4.98in) set in 1936; see BBC article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6925602.stm
Records in 2007 so far for UK as a whole -unless otherwise stated- (data courtesy Kevin Bradshaw)
- Wettest period from May-July on record recorded across England and Wales with 414.1mm
as opposed to next wettest which was 1789 with 349.1mm
- driest April since 1912 and 4th driest on record but..
- the wettest June since 1860 and the 2nd wettest on
record
- the wettest July since 1888 and 15th wettest on record
August
- August 5th The warmest day of the year so far saw 29.7C at Holbeach and Congingsby (Lincs) with 30.3C on top of the roof of the old London Weather Centre (though this
doesnt stand officially due to the exposure).
August 21st: Early morning storms around 4am hit parts of Kent. Lightning strikes
knocked out a signal box and damaged points as well as leading to road closures due to flooding in Dover, Hawkinge
and Alkham. Some notable totals were recorded by local stations. In particular a private station in Capel
le Ferne 2 miles east of Folkestone reported 68mm in the early morning in just a few hours, another in Seasalter
in the Herne Bay area reported 56mm, again in a few hours.
September
- Sept 24th: A deep depression moved across the north of the UK, bringing a lot
of rain and strong winds in places. These were mainly confined to an area close to a squally cold front. Strong gusts
were recorded in places in the south. Milford on Sea (Hants) reported 60kts (69mph), Brighton Marina reported 53kts (60mph),
Chichester Harbour 52kts (59mph) and even inland speeds of up 67mph at Cranwell and 63mph at Lyneham were reported.
Tornadoes were also reported at Northampton, Farnborough and Nuneaton and possibly Long Eaton with substantial damage to property.
November
- Nov 8th: A deep low ran across to the NE of the UK with very strong
winds on its northern flank, Fair Isle recorded 93mph and the exposed North Rona as high as 108mph .
Nov 19th: A deep low to the south dragged cold air up SE from an unusually
cold continent for mid November, whilst mild moist air was advected NE from Biscay. Bournemouth was especially wet, seeing
46mm fall, 50% of its average November rainfall, and 42mm of that fell in the space of 12 hours. Also wet were New Milton,
Kidderminster and Pershore, all reporting over 40mm in a day. Snowfall was the key story though, with places like Sennybridge
(nr Brecon) reporting 7cm and Bromyard as much as 10cm with similar amounts across parts of East Wales, Worcestershire and
Shropshire.
December
- Dec 2nd: As a deep low pressure circa 977mb moved E-SE across
the Midlands
and out into the North Sea it was a very disturbed windy day in the south, along the coast especially, with the WeatherShop's
anemograph at Sovereign Harbour reporting 53mph. However there were stronger winds in other exposed areas, these included
Alderney, Channel Is 78 mph Hurst Point, Solent 74mph Sandown Pier, IOW 69mph Hilbre Island (Wirral)
68mph St Catherine's Point 65 mph Lee on Solent 65 mph Guernsey Airport and St Martin's 65 mph
Guernsey St Pierre du Bois 63mph Isle of Portland 63 mph Portland Harbour 62mph
Some of these reports
are from AWS reports from local observers as well as official UK Met offfice reports.
- Dec 9th: Yet another deep low produced some exceptionally windy weather in
the south west today. As a low moved ESE across Wales (970 mb) and into East Anglia by the afternoon, pressure fell rapidly
in Wales (around 10mb in three hours) and a very tight gradient developed to its south and moved across the far SW and up
through the western Channel. Gusts of 87mph were reported at Lands End weather station around 7am and 83mph at St Marys' on
the Isles of Scilly; on the Channel Isles, Guernsey reported 80mph a few hours later, as the winds veered WNW'ly. Luckily
the strongest winds only really affected Cornwall and South Devon and so most areas of the SW were spared damage. The
extreme NW of France also saw gusts to 86mph. Winds were still strong 12 hours later, Lands End was reporting gusts above
70mph still as late as 6pm as pressure rose extremely rapidly with a large ridge of high pressure pushing in.
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