On 01/03/11 17:40, Nick wrote:
On Feb 28, 9:47 pm, Dave wrote:
Martin Rowley wrote:
... February sunshine at Hurn (Kipp& Zonen sensor/KZS) was ~43 hours
(provisional), roughly 58% of the 1971-2000 LTA or ~1.5hr/day.

In 1969+ Hurn record only beaten for lack of sunshine (allowing for
change of instrument) by 1972& 1976 (latter the lowest .. at least
the summer made up for it).

Of more significance, aggregating the sunshine total for the months
November 2010 - February 2011 (rough CSR equivalent = 195 hr) then it
looks as if we've had the *dullest* such 4-month period in the Hurn
record; previous lowest was 1994/95 with 209 hour (CSR).

The 195 hour total over those four months represents around 70% of the
LTA 1971-2000.

Martin.

---------------
Nice to have my moaning validated!
Dave

Certainly perceived as a very gloomy month here in Southampton (along
with January, December [redeemed by snow] and most of the second half
of 2010, except October). And not just the lack of sunshine but the
number of days with 8 oktas of cloud and low stratus, which seemed
pretty exceptional - even a 5 or 6 okta day was seen as something of a
luxury during February. Typically, the perceived time of it "getting
dark" was around 15 minutes before sunset, when in more average
conditions it's normally around sunset or even slightly later. So
effectively we seem to be running a couple of weeks "behind schedule".

Jan and Feb combined really have seemed very, very gloomy round here.
Especially annoyingly, the weather type has not been constant: there's
been a mixture of tropical maritime, gloomy highs, and an unfortunate
deadlock between Atlantic and continental air which seemed to be stuck
over the area for most of the second half of Feb. By contrast, the
"sunnier" types, whether they be arctic northerlies, polar maritime
(very noticeable by its absence) and sunny highs, have barely got a
look in.

March has started on the same old theme, the "deadlock" block being
replaced by our old friend the gloomy high. The sun is allegedly still
up as I type this, yet it seems like around 20 minutes after sunset.
Hope something changes soon... so far this has been the least
inspiring start to a calendar year I can remember.

Nick

The cloudiness during February is probably why there has been a distinct
lack of air frosts as well. In fact, I can't remember the last time I
awoke to a frosty landscape.