We are all affected by what the weather is doing when we go on a walk and often we make a decision to walk or not to walk by seeing what the weather is doing before we venture out. What a year it’s been for walking and I think that we can all agree that it’s been very wet underfoot, especially since August and several of our walks have had to be cancelled due to flooding.
As many of you will know that I run my own weather station in Macclesfield I just thought that I would share with you some of the trends from the past year and here is a basic summery month by month.
January;- A very dull month with rainfall slightly below average. After a settled start, the weather gradually turned more changeable with a little snow or sleet on a number of days.
February;- A fairly sunny month with spells of settled weather after the first week. High pressure was dominant towards the end of the month with some spring like days.
March;- Very wet and unsettled up to the 18th then virtually dry for the latter part of the month. Temperatures showed a slight upward trend from the 18th onwards.
April;- The bulk of the month was settled with high pressure areas until around the 21st. Most of the month’s rainfall fell between the 24th and 28th with 1.23” of rain falling on the 27th. It turned quite warm prior to the short wet spell.
May;- A generally settled month with only a few brief breakdowns in the weather. After some cool weather to start the month, day time maximum temperature were nudging 20C on several days. Rainfall was well below average.
June;- Unsettled and cold for much of this month but temperatures did recover for the latter part of the month. Towards the middle part of the month there was a notable wet spell with 1.01” of rain on the11th. There were several depressions at the start of the month.
July;- Although fine and pleasantly warm for the first half of the month the weather turned very humid and unsettled for the second half of the month with some high daily rainfall totals. 2.58” of rain was recorded on the 28th and 1.52” of rain on the 31st making it a record breaking wet month with 8.47” of rainfall. Some extremely high temperatures were recorded with 33.7C on the 25th. There were several thunder days at the end of the month.
August;- The very unsettled spell of weather continued into the middle of the month with again some high daily rainfall totals including 1.24” on the 9th and 1.08” on the 16th. Daily temperatures slowly dropped through this period but it turned very warm again towards the end of the month with 29.4C recorded on the 25th. There were several thunder days at the start of the month. (rainfall total between 17th July and 16th August totalled 12.29”)
September;- Another very wet month and despite temperatures remaining fairly high, it was a very dull month. There were a few days of dry weather between the 17th and 21st after which it turned very wet with the passage of several depressions.
October;- The very wet theme continued and rainfall spread evenly throughout the month. Notable wet days were the 25th 1.04” and 26th 1.08” after which resulted in some localised flooding. There were numerous depressions throughout the month and daily maximum varied little and was mostly between 10-15C. The first autumn air frost was on the 28th.
November;- No let up in the very wet spell of weather and again wet throughout the month. 1.15” of rain was recorded on the 7th. It was an exceptionally dull and gloomy month with many dull days. There was a succession of depressions throughout the month and after a mild start, temperatures dipped somewhat through most of the month but it turned slight warmer in the closing days of this period.
December;- Again the rainfall was above average but slightly drier than previous months. The month opened with a few days of fine weather and some air frosts before turning wet for much of the remainder of the month. There were however a few fine sunny winter days. The month was noted for several very deep depressions with barometric pressure dropping to 28.65” on the13th.
MONTHLY RAINFALL TOTALS
January:- 2.42”
February;- 1.83”
March ;- 5.86”
April;- 2.78”
May;- 1.73”
June;- 4.61”
July;- 8.47”
August;- 5.20”
September;- 5.66”
October;- 5.36”
November;- 5.23”
December;- 3.78”
That’s a staggering 52.95” of rain. (Average is around 36 inches in Macclesfield) It’s been the wettest year since my records began in Macclesfield in 1990, but spare a thought that if you lived in Fort William, this would have been a dry year as their average rainfall is 78 inches!
