JANUARY Most of the snow that so badly affected Shetland had gone by the 3^rd. A blocking high over Scandinavia and persistent strong south-easterly winds resulted in the month being the driest on record for Fair Isle - with less than half the total rainfall of the previous driest January (59.8 mm in 1985). Due to the ameliorating effect of the North Sea, Fair Isle did not experience the bitterly cold weather that the easterly winds brought to the rest of the UK, though it did experience a brief cold snap from the 21^st to the 26^th, as the wind temporarily backed easterly.

Fair Isle: Rain 26.2%, sun 61.8%, mean temperature +1.3°C.
UK: Virtually all of Britain was dry and dull. Most areas had mean temperatures close to normal, though the north and west were mild. Very mild over Scotland. Sunny in the north-west, with Cape Wrath reporting 50 hrs (191%) having the sunniest January since records began in 1957. Dull in the east and north-east - Aberdeen, Leuchars, Edinburgh and Eskdalemuir all recorded their lowest-ever January sunshine totals. Very dry with only the south-west having near normal rainfall.

FEBRUARY A dull first half to the month, then a sunny second half as the month reverted to type and displayed its typical anticyclonic character. The year’s highest pressure of 1039.4 mb was recorded on the 20^th.

Fair Isle: Rain 110.6%, sun 90.5%, mean temperature -0.4°C.
UK: All parts of Britain were quite cold and sunny. Scotland was colder than normal with heavy snow in the south-west on the 5^th/6^th. Sunny in the south and, like the rest of the British Isles, generally wetter than normal.

Winter (Dec-Feb) Not quite as windy as normal, but colder with above-average days with snow.

Fair Isle: Rain 55.4%, sun 94.9%, mean temperature -0.3°C.
UK: Following several mild winters over recent years, this one saw a return to a more ‘traditional’ type. Glasgow had its driest winter for 27 years and the sunniest ever, while Aberdeen was dull and wet.

MARCH With the month dominated by high pressure - the mean of 1022.2 mb the highest on record for March - easterly winds were frequent and, having a continental origin, the air was often very dry. The monthly mean relative humidity of 79.8% was also a record low. Despite the dry air, sufficient moisture was picked up during the short sea track to bring very cloudy conditions. With recorded sunshine falling well short of even the previous lowest total (72.4 hrs in 1980), this month was the dullest March on record - despite the 46.0 hours sunshine (all but 10 hours of the month’s total) recorded during the last week! It was a dry month - especially considering the fact that most of the month’s rain fell on the 11^th when 21.4 mm were recorded. Storm force SE’ly winds gusted to 75 kt on 12^th and, with the relatively dry conditions, blowing sand was reported in Shetland and Orkney.

Fair Isle: Rain 57.2%, sun 57.0%, mean temperature -0.4°C.
UK: Scotland - like the rest of the UK - was dry, dull and cold.

APRIL Cold on the 1^st - with the overnight grass surface temperature falling to the year’s lowest value of -7.2°C. Apart from a further cold spell from the 11^th to the 14^th it was a mild month with winds predominantly from a south-easterly direction.

Fair Isle : Rain 90.7%, sun 89.8%, mean temperature +0.6°C.
UK: Though mean temperatures overall were a little milder than usual, this disguised a mix of some very cold and some spring-like days. Wet in the west, very dry in the south-east. Dull, wet and mild across much of Scotland.

MAY A cold month - overnight temperatures -1.3°C below normal. The first half to the month was sunny and dry, the second half cloudier and with more in the way of rain. Winds were predominantly north-easterly in direction. Though rainfall was above average for Fair Isle, Lerwick recorded 17% less rainfall than normal.

Fair Isle: Rain 136.1%, sun 134.2%, mean temperature -0.9°C.
UK: A mild last few days prevented this from being the coldest May on record across much of the British Isles. Dry, though dull, in the east and south-east, the rest of England and Wales was wetter than normal. Colder than average across Scotland and generally dry and sunny - with the Western Highlands cloudy and wet.

Spring (Mar-May) Generally cold and dry.

Fair Isle: Rain 85.5%, sun 102.9%, mean temperature -0.2°C.
UK: Dull and distinctly cool across England and Wales but also dry - and exceptionally dry in the south-east. Cold and generally dull for Scotland. At Lerwick it was the driest spring since 1980. It was very cold across Central Europe, with extensive sea-ice in the Baltic and heavy snow in Norway. North-east America also experienced a very cold spring following on from a severe winter.

JUNE The month began reasonably sunny, though with a strong south-westerly airflow across Scotland. Mid-month saw much of Scotland sunny, although the Northern Isles became cloudier. Northerly winds brought a cold spell from the 18^th to the 23^rd, the month then ending cool and uncharacteristically cloudy .

Fair Isle: Rain 72.4%, sun 80.4%, mean temperature +0.3°C.
UK: Temperatures were generally close to normal, though the more eastern and southern areas of England were warm. Dry or even very dry virtually everywhere. Sunny over England and Wales. Scotland was also warm, though with above average sunshine only in the south.

JULY A cold, wet month - unsettled at the start and end. A ground frost (-1.8°C) was reported on the 3^rd. It was only between the 20^th and 23^rd that mean daily temperatures struggled to above normal. Despite it also being a dull month, the 18^th saw the year’s sunniest day with 14.5 hrs sunshine recorded.

Fair Isle: Rain 122.0%, sun 86.8%, mean temperature -0.6°C.
UK: Rather cool and mainly drier than normal across England and Wales where sunshine totals were generally above average. For July as a whole, Scotland saw temperature and sunshine values close to normal - with the east relatively warmer and sunnier than the west. Most districts - other than the north-west and the Northern Isles - had a dry month. An anticyclone around mid-month was so intense that the pressure of 1038.9 mb recorded at Aboyne (16^th) broke the UK record for July.

AUGUST A very dull, mild, and damp month. With the average relative humidity almost 95% it was not surprising that, with fog reported on 19 days, this was the foggiest August recorded on Fair Isle - and the second foggiest month ever (22 days with fog in May 1981). The 19^th was the warmest day of the year with a maximum temperature of 16.3°C.

Fair Isle: Rain 86.9%, sun 71.6%, mean temperature +0.7°C.
UK: England and Wales had above average sunshine but, except for the north-west of England, were wetter than usual. East Anglia was very wet due to a 36 hrs deluge on the 28-30^th. Like the rest of the UK, temperatures across Scotland were warmer than normal by around 1°C. The south-east was dry with sunshine totals around normal. The rest of Scotland was a little duller and drier than normal - only Tiree and Orsay were wetter than average. The last few days of the month hinted at the imminent arrival of summer in Fair Isle - a mere three months late!

Summer (Jun-Aug) It was very dull and foggy, with near normal temperatures. A relatively small number of heavy falls of rain - especially in the latter half of July - boosted the rainfall total to near normal. Fog was reported on 43 days. Apart from two brief mild spells just before the end of June and late July, temperatures were below average until early August.

Fair Isle: Rain 94.6%, sun 79.5%, mean temperature +0.1°C.
UK: Across England and Wales mean temperatures were close to normal. Sunshine totals were above average in all districts, except for north and west of the Great Glen. Many parts of Britain had a dry summer. However, despite much of East Anglia and Kent having very low rainfall up to mid-August, two major rainfall events ensured that here the summer ended up with near or just above normal rainfall. All of Scotland was a little warmer and drier than normal.

SEPTEMBER Summer finally arrived. A sunny, dry and mild month with predominantly SE’ly winds.

Fair Isle: Rain 38.1%, sun 129.7%, mean temperature +0.8°C.
UK: Temperatures were close to normal across much of England and Wales, with most areas reporting below average rainfall. Eastern England, due to a preponderance of easterly winds, was duller than normal while all other areas had a sunny month. After a reasonably fine summer over all of Scotland except the Northern Isles, the tables were turned - the rest of Scotland having unsettled weather conditions. While it was very sunny in the west - Tiree, with 176 hrs, had the second sunniest September since records began in 1927 - the Grampian area was exceptionally wet (500%). With 271 mm recorded, Kinloss had almost half its annual rainfall in the first 11 days of the month.

OCTOBER Mild, wet and dull.

Fair Isle: Rain 125.9%, sun 77.4%, mean temperature +0.8°C.
UK: It was a rather warm month right across Britain, sunnier than normal in the south-east where it was also very dry. Scotland was wetter than average everywhere except in the northern half of Shetland. Temperatures were mostly near normal, with sunshine values below normal except in the south-east.

NOVEMBER The month was notable for its prolonged wintry spell due to a predominantly northerly airflow - cold, wet and snowy, though also surprisingly sunny! The 4^th was the wettest day of the year with 46.2 mm collected in the 24 hrs. With snow lying at 0900 UTC on 5 mornings, this was the ‘snowiest’ November on record for Fair Isle. The minimum air temperature of -3.2°C recorded on the 19^th was the lowest of the year, while the overnight minimum of -7.7°C recorded on the snow surface was the year’s lowest ‘grass’ minimum. Winds with a northerly component were frequent during the month.

Fair Isle: Rain 162.3%, sun 117.8%, mean temperature -1.8 °C.
UK: Rather cold but sunny across the whole of the British Isles. Quite a wet month virtually everywhere - especially in the south-east.

Autumn (Sep-Nov) September provided a very pleasant start to the season. October was also mild but wet, while November - more wintry than autumnal in nature - resulted in this being Fair Isle’s ‘snowiest’ autumn on record.

Fair Isle: Rain 111.6%, sun 111.9%, mean temperature +0.0°C.
UK: Mostly mild until early November then cold with frosts and an early snow cover in some places. Rainfall generally close to normal except for parts of central and eastern England which were drier than normal. Sunshine totals were well above average everywhere.

DECEMBER A wet first half to the month, then becoming dry. Apart from a mild spell from the 7^th-11^th this was a generally cold though dry and sunny month, with a prevalence of easterly winds.

Fair Isle: Rain 77.9%, sun 181.9%, mean temperature -0.5°C.
UK: A cold month over the whole of England and Wales, though not quite as cold in Scotland. Much of Britain was dry or very dry, though north-east England was wet. Sunshine totals were above average almost everywhere - despite many places being sunless almost every day from the 6^th to the 21^st. In Shetland it was very sunny where values were around 300% of normal - a few extra hours making an enormous percentage difference in a normally sunless month.

©Dave Wheeler Fair Isle 1997