Sunshine Galore!

[Weather-history]

May 1909 was an extraordinarily sunny month. Here are some figures from this truely remarkable month.

Falmouth

30th April-21st May inclusive: 262.1hrs, a daily average of 11.9hrs

Mill Hill, London: 227.5hrs for the same period as shown for Falmouth and a daily average of 10.3hrs.

Ilfracombe (hrs)

30th April: 12.6

1st May: 12.8

2nd: 14.0

3rd: 13.2

4th: 13.6

5th: 14.2

6th: 14.0

7th: 13.6

8th: 14.0

9th: 14.2

10th: 11.2

11th: 14.0

12th: 13.0

13th: 13.2

14th: 10.0

15th: 6.8

16th: 13.2

17th: 13.2

18th: 14.0

19th: 14.8

20th: 14.6

21st: 11.6

Total for that period: 286.6hrs

Woolacombe for the same period: 270.5hrs

May 1909 totals

Camden Square: 276.1hrs (no sunless days)

Tenterden: 317.0hrs

Wallington: 288.6hrs

Slough: 312.9hrs

Copdock: 270.7hrs

Hoar Cross: 250.2hrs

Buxton: 252hrs (+95hrs)

Totland Bay: 350.7hrs (+147.2hrs)

Torquay: 315.1hrs

Blackpool: 287.9hrs (+84.9hrs, no sunless days)

Southport: 284.8hrs

Haverfordwest: 295.2hrs

Llandudno: 282.9hrs

Observatoire St Louis, Jersey: 382.2hrs , an average of 12.3hrs per day!

[cheeky_monkey]

if memory serves me right wasnt may 1990 very sunny too? how did that compare to may 1909???

Edited March 25, 2009 by cheeky_monkey

[Weather-history]

if memory serves me right wasnt may 1990 very sunny too? how did that compare to may 1909???

It was very sunny but not as sunny as May 1989. Some areas recorded 300+ hrs for that month.

[cheeky_monkey]

i must be losing my memory as i get older i remember may 1990 being very sunny at hot at times..not so much 1989...maybe essex was sunnier in may 1990 more than 1989?

[Terminal Moraine]

I don't know about Essex in particular but the whole of the south east seems to have been slightly sunnier in May 1989 than in May 1990

Hastings had 331.1 hrs in 1989 and 323.3 in 1990

Hove had 322.1 hrs in 1989 and 308.8hrs in 1990

Beccles in Suffolk had 308.8 hrs in 1989 and 278.3 in 1990.

This pattern seems to apply across most of the country, we had 268.8 hrs in 1989 and 240.4 hrs in 1990

Coventry had 254.9 hrs in 1989 and 247.5 hrs in 1990.

[Summer of 95]

I think it's probably the memory of those two Mays (1989 and 1990) plus the warm and sunny May 1992 that's responsible for me thinking Mays are never as good now as they were when I was younger, the feeling that it ought to be a warm, sunny month. By contrast in 1991, which was a cold and dull May though very dry, I can remember people saying in mid-month "Where's summer" etc as though it ought to have arrived, that it was not normal to have got to mid-May without the hot sunny days.