January 1998
With a mean daily temperature of 5.5° Celsius, it was it was another mild month in what is – so far – proving to be a rather mild winter. (1989 saw the warmest January with a mean of 6.9° Celsius). The first half of the month was decidedly warm, with the maximum of 11.1° Celsius recorded on the 11th - the highest January temperature ever measured on Fair Isle. (The previous highest was 10.7° Celsius in 1989). The mean daily temperature of the sea around Fair Isle, at 9.0° Celsius, is the warmest ever recorded in January here. (1990 was the former warmest at 8.6° Celsius)
Rainfall for the month was slightly below average at 95.4% of the long-term mean. Sunshine was above average with 132.4% of normal.
Winds during the month were noticeably lighter than usual and frequently in the SW’ly quadrant (66.7%). However, just after mid-month a brief spell of strong to gale force N to NE’ly winds did bring a spell of bitterly cold weather with heavy snow showers and drifting of the lying snow.
 | Daily Data |
| Weather Diary |
1998 |
Day |
1974-96 |
1998 |
Day |
1974-96 |
|||
Mean Max Temperature |
6.8 |
5.8 |
Highest Max temp |
11.1 |
11 |
10.7 |
||
Mean Min Temperature |
4.1 |
3.1 |
Lowest Min temp |
-2.2 |
18 |
-4.5 |
||
Mean Sea Temperature |
9.0 |
7.1 |
Lowest grass minimum |
-3.6 |
29 |
-10.2 |
||
30 cm Earth temperature |
5.5 |
4.6 |
Days with ground frost |
6 |
11.3 |
|||
100cm Earth temperature |
6.5 |
5.6 |
Days with air frost |
3 |
4.8 |
|||
Total Rainfall (mm) |
97.0 |
101.7 |
Days with snow/sleet |
7 |
13.6 |
|||
Wettest Day (mm) |
10.5 |
22 |
15.0 |
Days snow cover at 09hr |
4 |
4.8 |
||
Rain Days ( 0.1mm +) |
23 |
25.7 |
Days with hail |
4 |
14.4 |
|||
Wet Days (0.9mm +) |
20 |
19.3 |
Days fog during 24hrs |
4 |
3.4 |
|||
Total sunshine, hrs |
34.3 |
25.9 |
Days with fog at 09hrs |
0 |
0.4 |
|||
Sunniest day, hrs |
4.6 |
8 |
4.3 |
Days with NIL sun |
15 |
14.5 |
||
Mean wind speed, kts |
16.9 |
21.2 |
Days with gale |
7 |
11.6 |
|||
Maximum gust, kts |
65 |
1 |
75.6 |
Days with thunder |
0 |
1.1 |
||
Mean Sea Level pressure |
1005.8 |
1005.3 |
Days with aurora |
1 |
3.6 |
|||
Wind Direction% |
||||||||
North |
13.3 |
10.6 |
S. West |
26.7 |
17.6 |
|||
N. East |
3.3 |
5.6 |
West |
10.0 |
19.7 |
|||
East |
3.3 |
8.2 |
N. West |
10.0 |
10.2 |
|||
S. East |
6.7 |
12.1 |
||||||
South |
30.0 |
19.2 |
CALM |
0.0 |
1.2 |
Weather Diary - January 1998
- To be uploaded later
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