It was a rather unexceptional but milder, drier and sunnier than average January in Royston, with no records broken.

Mild conditions were experienced for most of January until a colder easterly spell set in near the end of the month which necessarily resulted in a reduction in the mean temperature excess over the average. In the event it was the mildest January since 2008.

The mean daily maximum temperature in January was 8.7°C, which is 1.8°C above average. The mean night minimum temperature was 1.2°C above average at 3.7°C. The highest temperature recorded in the month was 12.1°C on 3^rd. This was not a particularly high temperature for the month as it has been exceeded in January in 20 of the years since 1972. The lowest day maximum temperature of the month was 1.8°C on 31^st.

The lowest temperature registered in the month was –3.1°C on 14^th whilst the lowest grass minimum temperature recorded was –7.3°C on the same date. The highest night minimum temperature in January was 10.9°C on 1^st. Totals of 5 air frosts and 13 ground frosts were recorded in January.

The mean earth temperature at 30 cms depth as observed at 0900 GMT daily was 5.7°C, which is 1.2°C above average. The earth temperature ranged between a high of 7.7°C on 1^st to a low of 3.3°C on 18^th.

After the very dry 2011 the weather in 2012 has commenced on a similar dry note. Total rainfall in January was 42.8 millimetres, which is 84% of average. With the next three months being the driest of the year on average this does not bode well for the recovery of water levels in aquifers and rivers.

The wettest day of the month was 18th with 12.4 millimetres rainfall. The number of "rain days" in January was 16, with rainfall exceeding 1.0 millimetre on 9 of these days. No measurable rainfall was recorded in the 10 day period from 7^th to 16^th inclusive. It was the driest January since 2010 only.

The only snowfall observed in the month consisted of a few hardly perceptible small flakes of snow in the morning of 31^st. Last year January was completely snow free whilst in contrast January 2010 was a snowy month with snow falling on 13 days.

A rather sunny period occurred around mid-month contributing to the month’s total of 78.7 hours being 21% above average; however it was the sunniest January since 2009 only.

The sunniest day in the month was 27^th with 7.1 hours sunshine, just beating 16^th which accumulated 7.0 hours. Five days in the month were completely sunless.

The first few days in January experienced some strong winds with the highest daily maximum gust speed of 51 mph occurring on 3^rd. Additionally a gust of 50 mph occurred on 5^th. The mean wind speed through the whole month was 8.0 mph. The highest daily (00/00 GMT) mean wind speed in the month was 18.0 mph on 3^rd, whilst at the other end of the scale the calmest day of the month was 14^th with a mean wind speed of 1.0 mph.

The analysis of wind directions as observed at 0900 GMT daily indicates a bias towards winds with a westerly component, as follows: NORTH 2 days, NE 0, E 2, SE 2, S 5, SW 10, W 7, NW 2 and CALM 1.

The mean MSL air pressure in January was 1019.8 mB, which is 4 mB above average. The highest and lowest pressure readings in the month were 1033.5 mB and 991.9 mB on 13^th and 3^rd respectively.

The mean relative humidity in January was 86.5%. The highest daily (00/00 GMT) mean relative humidity in the month was 95.2% on 18^th and the lowest daily mean relative humidity was 75.9% on 22^nd. The absolute lowest relative humidity reading in January was 58% at 1320 GMT on 22^nd.

Fog (visibility < 1000 metres @ 0900 GMT) was observed on only 1 day (29^th) in the month, but on this occasion it was thick and visibility fell below the 200 metres threshold.

Met. Observer, Royston (Iceni) Weather Station

4^th February 2012

Royston Crow (Corvus Cornix)