Year 2009
April bluebells in a Devon woodland.
Summary for 2009 A cold, dry start to the year but things soon warmed up and this led into a gloriously warm and sunny Spring. The warmth lasted until the beginning of July then the first really unsettled spell of the year started with virtually the whole of the month being cool, windy and wet making it the wettest July on record with 350% of the average rainfall. Drier, slightly warmer weather returned in August but it remained stubbornly sunless. It took until September for 'real' summer weather to return since the sunny and warm June of 3 months earlier. October and November continued the warmth, though rather more unsettled, especially November which turned out to be a remarkably wet and windy month. The first cold weather since early February arrived in December. Warmer than 2008, but slightly cooler than 2006 & 2007. Drier but rather less sunshine than either 2007 & 2008.
Summary 2009 Mean Max 15.0ºC   Mean Min 7.2ºC   Mean 11.1ºC         High Max 28.5ºC 3rd Jun Low Max 1.1ºC 7th Jan High Min 17.2ºC 2nd Jul Low Min -8.4ºC 7th Jan Mean Grass Min: 4.4ºC   Grass Min: -10.3ºC 19th Dec     Rain Total (gauge) 887.7 mm   Rain Total (tipping bucket) 796.6 mm   Rain Days >0.2 169 Days   Rain Days >1.0 138 Days   Max 24 hrs 27.0 mm 6th Jun     Air Frost 32 Days   Ground Frost: 76 Days   Snow Falling 4 Days   Snow (50%) @ 9am 2 Days   Thunder Heard 11 Days   Hail <5 mm 4 Days   Hail >5 mm 0 Days   Fog @ 9am 4 Days       Total Monthly Sunshine: 1703 Hours   Most Sunshine in a Day: 15.7 Hours 30th May Average Daily Sunshine: 4.7 Hours   Sunless Days: 31 Days   Cloudless Days: 32 Days   Total Possible Sunshine: 4547h:49m   Percentage of Total Sun: 37%       Mean Soil Temp @ 30 cm: 10.6ºC   Min Soil Temp @ 30 cm: 0.8ºC 8th Jan Max Soil Temp @ 30 cm: 19.2ºC 2nd Jul Mean Soil Temp @ 100 cm: 10.5ºC   Min Soil Temp @ 100 cm: 4.0ºC 12th Jan Max Soil Temp @ 100 cm: 15.8ºC 29th Aug     Wind >39 mph 6.0 Days   N 30.8 Days   NE 32.7 Days   E 27.5 Days   SE 66.9 Days   S 44.3 Days   SW 41.4 Days   W 65.1 Days   NW 20.3 Days   Calm 24.0 Days   Mean Wind 3.9 mph   Max Gust 48 mph 8th Mar     Mean Cloud Cover: 53%   Mean RH @ 9am: 89%   Rain Duration >0.1mm/hour: 487.0 Hours   Frost Duration: 310.3 Hours   Max Frost Duration in a Day: 19.3 Hours 2nd Feb     Mean Sea Temperature: 12.7ºC   Normal for Month:     Max Sea Temperature: 20.3ºC 7th Aug Min Sea Temperature: 6.4ºC 11th Jan     Mean Pressure 1013 hPa   Max Pressure 1037 hPa 11th Sep Min Pressure 970 hPa 23rd Jan     Max Dewpoint: 18.4ºC   Min Dewpoint: -11.2ºC   Mean Dewpoint: 6.6ºC         Max Humidity: 100%   Min Humidity: 35%   Mean Humidity: 78%	2009 was warmer than the long-term average. The Met Office ranked the year as the 10th warmest ever recorded. Overall it was slightly wetter than the average, though the first 6 months were drier than normal, the second half was wet (except for September) with July and November being exceptionally wet. There was a high number of ground frosts and this was due to lot of nights with calm, clear and starry conditions. This also led to a higher than average number frosts. Sunshine levels were below the long-term average, and levels in July and August were particularly disappointing. Soil temperatures started the year below normal but gradually recovered through the spring and into early summer then they dropped below the average during mid-late summer. It was not a particularly windy year but there was a notable storm on the 8th of March. This was the only real gale. Winds dominated from the usual westerly sector though winds from the south-east were rather more common than the average due to high number of days with a sea breeze. Much more frostier than 2007 and 2008. Sea temperatures were generally around or slightly below average, especially during the latter half of the summer and into the autumn. Overall pressure was below the LTA and is indicative of the unsettled nature of this year, especially from July onwards. Dewpoints failed to reach their normal highs during the summer and overall were below normal.   Humidity was below normal despite this being a wet year.
Figure 1. Temperature and Rainfall for 2009.
Figure 2. Sunshine and air pressure for 2009.
Figure 3. Wind direction for 2009.
Figure 4. Soil & sea surface temperature (SST) for Lyme Bay for 2009.
Figure 5. Windspeed and mean pressure for 2009.