Although the Atlantic was, contrary to popular supposition, quite
active for much of January, the preferred depression track lay to
the north of Iceland, thence to Spitsbergen, and was sufficiently
distant from the British Isles to allow very persistent high pressure
over eastern Europe to extend its influence across the country
from time to time, especially during the last 10 days. As a
consequence it was a very dry January over most of the UK.

More available:
Charts: http://www.climate-uk.com/monpre/0601.htm
The Monthly Review will appear later today
at: http://www.climate-uk.com/monthly/0601.htm
Graphs: http://www.climate-uk.com/graphs/0601.htm and
http://www.climate-uk.com/graphs/200601.htm
Not The Long Range Forecast will be uploaded on Feb 3 to
http://www.climate-uk.com/page4.html

The mean sea-level chart is dominated by a deep Icelandic
Low of 990mbar centred close to coast of SE Greenland,
and an intense High of 1030mbar centred over Belarus. The
Azores high of 1024mbar lies in its usual place, but with
little circulation of its own. Quite a strong S-SWly flow
covers Scotland and Ireland, but England and Wales
has a sluggish S-ly flow.

The sea-level pressure anomaly field is dominated by two
large anomalies - much below over Greenland and
much above over northern Europe, resulting in a
remarkably strong anomalous SW-ly flow over the
Norwegian and Barents Seas and extending into the
Arctic Basin. This has had a major impact on the extent
of ice in that region. The main anomaly centres a
+15mbar over NW Russia
+14mbar in the southern Baltic
+3 mbar near the Azores
-15mbar over eastern Greenland
-3mbar over central Algeria
Over the British Isles pressure anomaly ranges from +6mbar in
the Channel Islands to +10mbar close to the coast of NE
England. The anomalous flow is SW-ly over Scotland, S-ly
over much of Ireland and northern England, and E-ly over
the southern one-third of the UK.

CET (after Manley) 4.3°C (+0.1 degC wrt 1971-2000)
CET (after Hadley) 4.3°C (+0.1 degC)
and by this measure it was the coldest January since
2001, although over a substantial part of the country
January 2003 was colder.
E&W Rain: 30.9mm ( 33% of 1971-2000 mean)
making it the fourth driest January in the last 100 years;
only those of 1964, 1987 and 1997 were drier
E&W Sunshine: 57.3 hr (104% of 1971-2000 mean)
lower than last Jan, but marginally higher than Jan'04.
The quarter Nov/Dec/Jan which we might characterise
as the darkest quarter of the year, produced 217.7 hr
of sunshine over E&W, which is 129% of the long-term
mean for 71-00, and a new record in a series which
extends back to 1881.

CScotT: 4.6°C (+0.8 degC)
ScotRain: 62.2mm ( 58%)
ScotSun: 38.9 hr ( 92%)

NIT: 5.8°C (+0.7 degC)
NI Rain: 36.0mm ( 37%)
NI Sun: 52.6 hr (106%)

Rainfall totals ranged from 270mm at Inveruglas (Argyll)
to 9.6mm at Coltishall (Norfolk). Percentages
ranged from 98 at Tulloch Bridge (Lochaber) to
11 at Torquay (Devon).

Sunshine totals ranged from 92.9hr at St Mawgan (Cornwall)
to 26.1 hr (KZ sensor), 28.4 hr (CS recorder) at Lerwick
(Shetland). Percentages ranged from 166 at Fishguard
(Pembrokeshire) and Odiham (Hants) to 56 at Gogarbank
(Midlothian).

(c) Philip Eden