Brief comments on the climate statistics for Coventry during December
2004

Temperature

With a mean monthly temperature of 5.4C, December became the 11th month
of 2004 to record above average temperatures for Coventry (+0.4C), with
July being the only exception.

It has been warmer than both December 2003 (4.7C) and 2001 (3.6C), but
cooler than December 2002 (5.5C).

Only 3 Decembers have been warmer than December 2004 in the past 10
years (1997, 1998, 2002).

· 20th The coldest night of the month registered -3.6C, making
this the coldest December night since 2000 (-7.4C).

· 23rd This was the mildest December night (min 10.7C) since
1998 (10.9C).

· 25th & 26th The coldest days of the month registered a
maximum of just 3.4C - however, this was the highest such value since
1989 (3.6C maximum).

Rainfall

For the second month in succession, it has been drier than average in
Coventry with 69% less rainfall than the 1971-2000 climatological normal
for the city.

With just 19.6mm of rain, this has been the driest December locally
since 1991 (15.7mm) - there were just 5 'wet days', the lowest number
also+ since 1991 (4)..

Only 6 December months have recorded less rainfall than December 2004
since records began in 1892 (1926, 1933, 1943, 1963, 1970, 1991)

Although the snow fell late in the day on Christmas Day (2210hr), we had
our first "White Christmas" in the city since 1995.

Sunshine

With a monthly sunshine total of 73.4 hours (52% above average), this
has been the sunniest December in Coventry since 2001 (85.9hr).

Looking back through the record books however, we find that December
2001 is the only month to record more December sunshine since such
records were first kept in the city in 1894.




--
Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry
www.nelink.co.uk/users/bws