JANUARY With winds reaching gale force on 17 days and storm force on two days the month was as wild as is common in the Northern Isles. Gusts of hurricane force (>63 kt) or more were reported on eight days. Frost was more frequent than usual and the 9 days of snow cover was almost twice the average for the month.

Fair Isle: Rain 122.9%, sun 131.5%, mean temperature -0.3°C.
UK: Mild, but cold in Scotland. Generally dull and wet, but sunny in Scotland.

FEBRUARY A higher than average frequency (228%) of winds from beween SW and NW (with an arctic maritime origin) resulted in a cool month. Despite being wet, the month was also sunny.

Fair Isle: Rain 166.4%, sun 147.6%, mean temperature -0.4°C.
UK: Much of the rest of Britain was mild, dull and wet.

Winter (Dec-Feb) Snow was observed to fall on 53 days - the highest total on record, and well above the mean value of 35.7 days. There were 18 days with snow cover - the fourth highest total on record (mean 12.4). Both air frost 16 (13.2) and ground frost 39 (32.6) were more frequent. The wettest winter on record, with 363.8 mm, or 132.1% of the average. Suprisingly it was also the second sunniest on record with 141.7 hrs, or 139.9% of average.

Fair Isle: Rain 132.7%, sun 142.8%, mean temperature +0.1°C.
U.K.: Mild, and the wettest on record.

MARCH Another cold month and again snow was more frequent than normal - the total of 22 days with snow observed is the highest on record for March. The 28th was a particularly cold day with a minimum of -4.3° Celsius and a maximum not rising above freezing.

Fair Isle: Rain 99.0%, sun 117.4%, mean temperature -0.9°C.
UK: Cool and sunny with near average rainfall.

APRIL With the wind direction at 0900 GMT from between W through N to NE on 24 mornings, it was a cold month. Snow fell on 10 days (ave. 6.3) while the 14 days (ave. 7.5) with hail reported is the highest April total since records began. The month's mean sea temperature of 6.8° Celsius (ave. 7.4° Celsius) is the lowest April figure on record.

Fair Isle : Rain 133.1%, sun 84.5%, mean temperature -0.3°C.
UK: Dry or very dry. Mild and quite sunny.

MAY The island's second coldest May on record. Following a cold spring, May's mean sea temperature of 7.8° C is also the second lowest on record - at 0.9° C below the long-term mean. With a cold sea, fog was reported at Fair Isle on 7 of the last 9 days of the month. A brilliant aurora display was observed on the 2nd, with noctilucent clouds seen on the 19th and 23rd.

Fair Isle: Rain 72.4%, sun 103.1%, mean temperature -0.6°C.
UK: Dry and sunny with near average temperatures.

Spring (Mar-May) The third coldest spring recorded since 1974. Winds were from between West and North for 50% of the time - and were from a northerly direction on more occasions than in any previous spring. The season’s mean sea temperature of 7.0° Celsius (average 7.7° Celsius) was only 0.1° Celsius above the lowest ever value of 6.9° Celsius.

Fair Isle: Rain 102.8%, sun 100.0%, mean temperature -0.6°C.
U.K.: Mild, dry and sunny.

JUNE Cold and dull at first, warm and sunny last ten days. Mostly dry. The blocking anticyclone that has been to the west of the British Isles during much of the spring - together with persistent low pressure over Scandinavia - continued to feed cold northerly winds down over northern Scotland during much of June.

Fair Isle: Rain 79.6%, sun 96.1%, mean temperature -0.2°C.
UK: Dry, dull in the east. Near average temperatures.

JULY A dry and sunny month with persistent fog at times. The month's maximum temperature of 18.0° Celsius (29th) is only the second time that this figure has been reached since August 1982. There was a ground frost reported on the morning of the 1st. Though fog was reported at some time during the day on 17 occasions, it was the sunniest July recorded on Fair Isle.

Fair Isle: Rain 80.5%, sun 138.5%, mean temperature +0.0°C.
UK: Very dry and sunny in the south-east, normal elsewhere. Very warm.

AUGUST As the month progressed, there was every prospect that - like the rest of the UK - it was going to turn out the warmest ever. A subtle shifting of the persistent high - responsible for the hot weather during much of the summer over most of the UK - resulted in north to north-west winds spreading cooler conditions in over the Northern Isles from the 24th onwards making this month only the third warmest on record. Despite this, and though there were only ten days when the temperature reached 15.5° Celsius ( 60°F), the average daily maximum temperature of 14.9° Celsius for the month equals the previous highest set in August 1991!

Fair Isle: Rain 41.3%, sun 109.0%, mean temperature +0.9°C.
UK: Extremely dry and very sunny. Very warm.

Summer (Jun-Aug) It was Fair Isle’s third driest summer since records began, but only the fifth warmest since 1976. Since 1989 - unlike the rest of the UK - we have had three sunnier summers.
Fair Isle: Rain 64.0%, sun 113.3%, mean temperature +0.3°C.
U.K.: Over the UK as a whole summer 1995 (June, July, August) was the driest this century (35% England and Wales), the hottest since 1976 (CET +2.4° Celsius) and the sunniest since 1989.

SEPTEMBER Very wet in the north-east of Scotland, but less so on Fair Isle - the frontal systems not pushing much further north than Orkney. However, with winds regularly from a south-east direction - bringing mild and moist air northwards - fog and low stratus was frequent until mid-month. The 23rd saw a breakdown in the relatively settled conditions, with the first major depression of the autumn tracking north-east through the Faeroe-Iceland area and bringing an unsettled, windy end to the month with severe gales at times. Temperatures, which had been above average all month, then fell to well below average - with sleet observed on the last four days.

Fair Isle: Rain 137.7%, sun 85.2%, mean temperature +0.8°C.
UK: Even by mid-month much of north-east Scotland was reporting it to be the wettest month on record.

OCTOBER With southerly winds predominating - from between SE and SW on 23 days at 0900 GMT - it was Fair Isle's warmest October on record. Mean daily temperatures were 1.4° Celsius above average and the 9th, with a maximum of 15.5°Celsius, was the warmest October day ever recorded. As a result of a predominantly moist, southerly air-flow, fog, mist and low cloud were more frequent than normal. Despite this it was a sunny month with below average rainfall. It was also a windy month with gales recorded on 13 days - almost equalling the highest October record of 14 gale days in 1976. On two days winds exceeded severe gale F9, with storm F10 SSW winds - gusting to 76 kt - on the 25th. Winds gusted to over 50 kt on 7 days.

Fair Isle: Rain 91.3%, sun 127.6%, mean temperature +1.4°C.
UK: Very dry in the south-east, wet in the west. Also sunny and very warm.

NOVEMBER This was the fourth month in succession that the mean temperature on Fair Isle was above average. It was less windy than usual, with gales reported on only two days. Winds were predominantly from a south-westerly direction with only one significant outbreak of arctic air around mid-month.

Fair Isle: Rain 59.3%, sun 98.7%, mean temperature +0.7°C.
UK: Dry in the south-east, but wet elsewhere. Mild.

Autumn With a mean daily temperature of 9.6° Celsius, this was Fair Isle's warmest autumn on record. The previous warmest - autumn 1989 - had a mean daily temperature of 9.2° Celsius. Despite all of the season’s months being milder than normal, snow or sleet was reported on 12 days - well above average value of 7.3 days.

Fair Isle: Rain 93.5%, sun 101.0%, mean temperature +1.1°C.
UK: Wet, with about average sunshine. Warm.

DECEMBER Dry, cold and sunny - if any December can be described as sunny! Early on the 18th a cold front, moving south in a developing arctic airstream, crossed over Fair Isle and introduced much colder weather to the Northern Isles. Troughs associated with polar lows moving south down the Norwegian coast brought overnight snow showers to the north - giving Fair Isle a thin snow cover by early on the 19th. The snow cover lasted until the end of the month.
Blizzard conditions were experienced on Christmas Eve. Easterly winds quickly increased to storm force - gusting to 82 knots - and the visibility fell to100 metres or less in heavy wet blowing snow.

Fair Isle: Rain 47.9%, sun 166.0%, mean temperature -1.4°C.
U.K.: Wet in the south and east, dry in the west and north. The coldest December since 1981.