January 2016 continued the run of unseasonally mild temperatures. The average temperature of 5.2°C was 0.2°C higher than the previous January best set in 2014, and 1.6°C higher than the January mean. The maximum recorded temperature was 13.3°C on the 24th at 15:37 and the minimum temperature was -1.6°C on the 16th at 04:07, the lowest temperature since -2.8°C was recorded on November 22nd 2015. The average maximum was 7.5°C, with the average minimum being 2.7°C.
The maximum dew point was 11.8°C at 14:32 on the 24th, with the lowest dew point being -3.7°C on the 14th at 20:39. The monthly average dew point was 3.5°C. 15.08 hours of sunshine was recorded in the month, easily the lowest ever recorded in January, and there were six frost days. The U.V. index peaked at 0.7 on the 29th. The lowest wind chill was -3.5°C at 09:13 on the 17th.
50.0 millimetres of rain was recorded, 27.3 millimetres of that total falling in the first week, making it the wettest start to a year ever at Bracken House. The wettest day was the 7th when 11.6 millimetres fell. Remarkably, the rain fell lightly in the month with the maximum rain rate being 10.4 mm/hr on the 7th at 04:35. The was the lowest maximum rain rate recorded in any month here.
Overnight on the 16th and 17th, a total of 25 millimetres of snow fell, the heaviest snowfall since 40 millimetres was recorded on January 30th 2015, and the first snowfall of 2016.
The maximum wind speed was 22.00 mph at 12:55 on the 27th, with the average wind speed for the month being 6.08 mph (mean 5.1 mph). The maximum gust speed was 35 mph at 07:34 on the 27th, with the monthly average gust speed being 8.7 mph. The average wind direction was 213° and the total wind run was 4423.27 miles.
The average barometric pressure was 1004.9 millibars. The highest pressure was 1029.0 millibars on the 16th, and the lowest was 975.5 millibars on the 10th. The average humidity in the month was 89%.
Weather Underground graph for January 2016