The total number of sunshine hours recorded in the United Kingdom in 2024 was over *****. This was a decrease from the previous year, which had ***** sunshine hours. Since 1930, the highest number of sunshine hours recorded in a year in the UK occurred in 1995, at *****.

The lowest average daily sun hours in the United Kingdom typically occur in January and December. The highest daily sun hours recorded since 2015 was in May 2020, at an average of 9.7 hours per day. In comparison, May 2024 saw 5.6 hours of daily sunshine. High levels of monthly sunlight in 2018 Since 2014, the pattern of total monthly hours of sunlight remained relatively similar up until 2018. That year there was a noticeable increase in sunlight hours in May, June and July – with May recording 241 hours of sunlight. The following year the pattern returned to normal, but a significant increase was again recorded in 2020. Annual sun hours The average annual number of daily sun hours in the UK has remained above four hours per day since 2001, but has not increased above five. Daily sun hours were highest in 2003 at 4.9 hours per day. The following years saw sun hours remain at a similar level, until figures increased again to 4.9 hours in 2022.

The amount of monthly hours of sunshine in England follows a similar pattern each year, with the longest durations occurring in Spring and Summer. During the period in consideration, the highest amount of monthly sunshine hours was recorded in May 2020, at over *** hours. This was more hours of sunlight than the UK average. Overcast and rainyIn addition to low periods of sunshine, England is also susceptible to precipitation. Between 2015 and 2023, the greatest number of days in which more than 1mm of rain fell was **** days in March of the latter year. The driest month was May 2020, with just *** rain days. Europe’s gloomiest and sunniest citiesThe United Kingdom has some of Europe's cloudiest cities, such as Glasgow, London and Manchester. On the other hand, most of Europe’s sunniest cities are located in Spain, with Alicante taking the lead at *** hours of monthly average sunshine.

The total monthly hours of sunlight in the UK follow a similar pattern each year. May typically has the highest monthly hours of sunshine, peaking at nearly 267 hours in 2020. Unsurprisingly, the lowest hours of sunlight occur at the end of each year.Little sunshine throughout the dayThe average annual number of daily sun hours has seen little change since the turn of the century, with the lowest average number being recorded in 2012 at 4 hours and the highest average being 4.9 in 2003 and 2022. Instruments such as the Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder are used to measure sunshine duration. However, more modern equipment is now being used as the Campbell-Stokes recorder overestimates sunshine duration. England gets the most sunshineAlthough sunshine isn't the most common sight throughout the United Kingdom, on average England receives the most monthly hours. In recent years, the longest monthly duration of sunlight was recorded in May 2020, at an average of 267 hours. In comparison, Scotland received just 215 hours of sunshine in the same month.

Since the turn of the century there has been little change in the average daily sunshine hours in the United Kingdom. In 2024, an average of 3.8 daily sun hours was recorded. This year saw the lowest amount of daily sunlight during the period in consideration, while 2003 and 2022 saw some of the highest values, with 4.9 hours of daily sunlight. Summer sun Unsurprisingly it is the spring and summer months that receive the most daily sunshine hours. The longest duration was recorded in 2020, when the average daily sunshine in the second quarter reached 7.9 hours. In 2023, the second quarter of the year had an average of seven daily sun hours. In comparison, that same year's first and fourth quarters recorded just 2.7 and 2.1 hours of daily sunshine, respectively. Historical sunshine In 1930, the average annual sunshine hours amounted to 1,290 hours. Sunlight has traditionally been recorded using a Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder, which was developed in the late 19th century. However, measurements from this instrument can overestimate sunshine duration. Whilst still often used at non automated climate stations, more accurate modern sunshine sensors are in use these days at automated stations.

The UK daily temperature data contain maximum and minimum temperatures (air, grass and concrete slab) measured over a period of up to 24 hours. The measurements were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within NCM, DLY3208 or AWSDLY messages. The data span from 1853 to 2023. For details on measurement techniques, including calibration information and changes in measurements, see section 5.2 of the MIDAS User Guide linked to from this record. Soil temperature data may be found in the UK soil temperature datasets linked from this record. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. These include the addition of data for calendar year 2023. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. Currently this represents approximately 95% of available daily temperature observations within the full MIDAS collection.

The UK daily weather observation data contain meteorological values measured on a 24 hour time scale. The measurements of sunshine duration, concrete state, snow depth, fresh snow depth, and days of snow, hail, thunder and gail were attained by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK operated and transmitted within DLY3208, NCM, AWSDLY and SYNOP messages. The data span from 1887 to 2024. For details of observations see the relevant sections of the MIDAS User Guide linked from this record for the various message types.

This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. These include the addition of data for calendar year 2024.

This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. Currently this represents approximately 95% of available daily weather observations within the full MIDAS collection.

UKCP09 Regional values Monthly Averages - Sunshine duration (hours per day) Long-term averages for the 1961-1990 climate baseline are also available for 14 administrative regions and 23 river basins. They have been produced for all the monthly and annual variables, apart from mean wind speed, days of sleet/snow falling, and days of snow lying, for which data start after 1961. Each regional value is an average of the 5 x 5 km grid cell values that fall within it. The datasets are provided as space-delimited text files.

The datasets have been created with financial support from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and they are being promoted by the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) as part of the UK Climate Projections (UKCP09). http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/content/view/12/689/.

The data files are obtained by clicking on the links in the table below. Each text file contains values of the 1961-1990 baseline average for each administrative region and for each river basin. Monthly variables have 12 values for each region (one for each month) whereas annual variables have just one value (the annual average).

To view this data you will have to register on the Met Office website, here: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climatechange/science/monitoring/ukcp09/gds_form.html.

The UK daily rainfall data contain rainfall accumulation and precipitation amounts over a 24 hour period. The data were collected by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within the following message types: NCM, AWSDLY, DLY3208 and SSER. The data spans from 1853 to 2024. Over time a range of rain gauges have been used - see section 5.6 and the relevant message type information in the linked MIDAS User Guide for further details. This version supersedes the previous version (202407) of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. These include the addition of data for calendar year 2024. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. A large proportion of the UK raingauge observing network (associated with WAHRAIN, WADRAIN and WAMRAIN for hourly, daily and monthly rainfall measurements respectively) is operated by other agencies beyond the Met Office, and are consequently currently excluded from the Midas-open dataset. Currently this represents approximately 13% of available daily rainfall observations within the full MIDAS collection.

Site specific (293 individual stations) monthly average (1981 - 2010)

        The data consists of:
        Max Temp (degrees C) 
        Min Temp (degrees C) 
        Sunshine (hours) 
        Rainfall (mm) 
        Raindays >=1.0mm (days) 
        Days of Air Frost (days) 
        Monthly mean wind speeds at 10m (knots)

        District and Region monthly average (1961-1990, 1971-2000, 1981-2010)

        The data consists of:
        Max Temp (degrees C) 
        Min Temp (degrees C) 
        Sunshine (hours) 
        Rainfall (mm) 
        Raindays >=1.0mm (days) 
        Days of Air Frost (days)

        UK monthly average (1961-1990, 1971-2000, 1981-2010)

        The data consists of:
        Max Temp (degrees C) 
        Min Temp (degrees C) 
        Sunshine (hours) 
        Rainfall (mm) 
        Raindays >=1.0mm (days) 
        Days of Air Frost (days)

During the period in consideration, the month with the most hours of bright sunshine in Wales was ********. With a total of *** hours, this was noticeably more sunshine than was recorded in the same month of the previous year, and more than the UK average. The shortest duration occurred in *************, at **** hours.

The UK hourly weather observation data contain meteorological values measured on an hourly time scale. The measurements of the concrete state, wind speed and direction, cloud type and amount, visibility, and temperature were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within SYNOP, DLY3208, AWSHRLY and NCM messages. The sunshine duration measurements were transmitted in the HSUN3445 message. The data spans from 1875 to 2018. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. For details on observing practice see the message type information in the MIDAS User Guide linked from this record and relevant sections for parameter types. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. Note, METAR message types are not included in the Open version of this dataset. Those data may be accessed via the full MIDAS hourly weather data.

The UK hourly weather observation data contain meteorological values measured on an hourly time scale. The measurements of the concrete state, wind speed and direction, cloud type and amount, visibility, and temperature were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within SYNOP, DLY3208, AWSHRLY and NCM messages. The sunshine duration measurements were transmitted in the HSUN3445 message. The data spans from 1875 to 2019. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. Of particular note, however, is that as well as including data for 2019, historical data recovery has added temperature and weather data for Bude (1937-1958), Teignmouth (1912-1930), and Eskdalemuir (1915-1948). For details on observing practice see the message type information in the MIDAS User Guide linked from this record and relevant sections for parameter types. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. Note, METAR message types are not included in the Open version of this dataset. Those data may be accessed via the full MIDAS hourly weather data.

The UK hourly weather observation data contain meteorological values measured on an hourly time scale. The measurements of the concrete state, wind speed and direction, cloud type and amount, visibility, and temperature were recorded by observation stations across the UK and transmitted within SYNOP, METAR, DLY3208, AWSHRLY and NCM messages. The sunshine duration measurements were transmitted in the HSUN3445 message. The data spans from 1875 to present.

This dataset also contains data from a selection of overseas sites: SRC_ID STATION STATUS LAST DATA 1580 GUTERSLOH CLOSED 28/10/2013 13:00 1582 BRUGGEN CLOSED 29/09/2001 05:00 1584 LAARBRUCH CLOSED 14/05/1999 23:00 1585 GIBRALTAR, NORTH FRONT OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 1588 AKROTIRI, CYPRUS OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 1603 ASCENSION ISLAND AIRFIELD OPEN 02/02/2020 21:00 1605 BOTTOMS WOOD, ST HELENA OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 1608 PORT STANLEY, FALKLAND IS CLOSED 31/12/1980 23:00 1609 MOUNT PLEASANT, FALKLAND IS OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 56810 MOUNT OLYMPUS OPEN 16/04/2019 09:00 61737 MOUNT KENT, FALKLAND ISLANDS OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 61743 MOUNT BYRON, FALKLAND ISLANDS OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 61744 MOUNT ALICE, FALKLAND ISLANDS OPEN 02/02/2020 05:00

The UK hourly weather observation data contain meteorological values measured on an hourly time scale. The measurements of the concrete state, wind speed and direction, cloud type and amount, visibility, and temperature were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within SYNOP, DLY3208, AWSHRLY and NCM messages. The sunshine duration measurements were transmitted in the HSUN3445 message. The data spans from 1875 to 2023.

This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. These include the addition of data for calendar year 2023.

For details on observing practice see the message type information in the MIDAS User Guide linked from this record and relevant sections for parameter types.

This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. Note, METAR message types are not included in the Open version of this dataset. Those data may be accessed via the full MIDAS hourly weather data.

HadUK-Grid is a collection of gridded climate variables derived from the network of UK land surface observations. The data have been interpolated from meteorological station data onto a uniform grid to provide complete and consistent coverage across the UK. The dataset at 12 km resolution is derived from the associated 1 km x 1 km resolution to allow for comparison to data from climate projections. The dataset spans the period from 1836 to 2023, but the start time is dependent on climate variable and temporal resolution.

The gridded data are produced for daily, monthly, seasonal and annual timescales, as well as long term averages for a set of climatological reference periods. Variables include air temperature (maximum, minimum and mean), precipitation, sunshine, mean sea level pressure, wind speed, relative humidity, vapour pressure, days of snow lying, and days of ground frost.

This data set supersedes the previous versions of this dataset which also superseded UKCP09 gridded observations. Subsequent versions may be released in due course and will follow the version numbering as outlined by Hollis et al. (2019, see linked documentation).

The changes for v1.3.0.ceda HadUK-Grid datasets are as follows:

• Added data for calendar year 2023

• Added newly digitised data for daily rainfall (62 Scottish stations for 1945-1960)

• Daily rainfall data for Bolton, 1916-1919 have been corrected (previous values were corrupted and needed redigitising)

• Daily rainfall data for Buxton, 1960 have been corrected (conversion from inches to mm had been applied incorrectly)

• Rainfall data from EA and SEPA APIs are included for the last three months of the dataset (Oct-Dec 2023) (for all earlier months the rainfall data from partner agencies is obtained from the Met Office's MIDAS database)

• The number of stations used for groundfrost, sunshine and windspeed have reduced at different points in the historical series when comparing v1.3.0.ceda to the previous version v1.2.0.ceda. These reductions in station numbers have been caused by changes made in the data processing steps upstream of the gridding process.

• For groundfrost this reduction has been caused by an automated quality control process flagging the historical data which have been removed as suspect (mostly affecting data from 1961 to 1970).

• For sunshine the small reduction in the 1960s has been caused by the removal of digitized monthly sunshine data through this period where we wish to reverify the data source.

• For windspeed the reduction from 1969 to 2010 has been caused by changes to rules applied relating to data completeness when compiling daily mean windspeeds, which in turn have followed through to monthly statistics.

• We plan to carry out a review of the data which have been excluded from this version. Some of it may be reintroduced in a future release.

• Net changes to the input station data:

• Total of 126970983 observations

• 125384735 (98.75%) unchanged

• 28487 (0.02%) modified for this version

• 1557761 (1.23%) added in this version

• 188522 (0.15%) deleted from this version

The primary purpose of these data are to facilitate monitoring of UK climate and research into climate change, impacts and adaptation. The datasets have been created by the Met Office with financial support from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in order to support the Public Weather Service Customer Group (PWSCG), the Hadley Centre Climate Programme, and the UK Climate Projections (UKCP18) project. The output from a number of data recovery activities relating to 19th and early 20th Century data have been used in the creation of this dataset, these activities were supported by: the Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme; the Natural Environment Research Council project "Analysis of historic drought and water scarcity in the UK"; the UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Strategic Priorities Fund UK Climate Resilience programme; The UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Public Engagement programme; the National Centre for Atmospheric Science; National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the NERC GloSAT project; and the contribution of many thousands of public volunteers. The dataset is provided under Open Government Licence.

Context

Simple time series data for weather prediction time series projects.

Content

The data contains the following information from the UK Met Office location at London Heathrow Airport. The data runs from Jan 1948 to Oct 2020 and includes the following monthly data fields:

• yyyy = Year
• mm = Month
• tmax = Maximum temperature (Celsius)
• tmin = Minimum temperature (Celsius)
• af = Count of Air Frost days in the given month
• rain = Total rainfall (mm)
• sun = Sunshine duration (hrs)

Acknowledgements

Provided by the UK Met Office: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/historic-station-data Available under Open Government Licence: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Example code

The following Python code will load into a Pandas DataFrame:

colspecs = [(3, 7), (9,11),(14,18),(22,26),(32,34),(37,42),(45,50)] data = pd.read_fwf('../input/heathrow-weather-data/heathrowdata.txt',colspecs=colspecs)

The following will remove the first few lines of text

data = data[3:].reset_index(drop=True) data.columns = data.iloc[1] data = data[3:].reset_index(drop=True)

HadUK-Grid is a collection of gridded climate variables derived from the network of UK land surface observations. The data have been interpolated from meteorological station data onto a uniform grid to provide complete and consistent coverage across the UK. These data at 1 km resolution have been averaged across a set of discrete geographies defining UK river basins consistent with data from UKCP18 climate projections. The dataset spans the period from 1862 to 2019, but the start time is dependent on climate variable and temporal resolution. The gridded data are produced for daily, monthly, seasonal and annual timescales, as well as long term averages for a set of climatological reference periods. Variables include air temperature (maximum, minimum and mean), precipitation, sunshine, mean sea level pressure, wind speed, relative humidity, vapour pressure, days of snow lying, and days of ground frost. This data set supersedes the previous versions of this dataset which also superseded UKCP09 gridded observations. Subsequent versions may be released in due course and will follow the version numbering as outlined by Hollis et al. (2018, see linked documentation). For this version of note is that historical data recovery has improved monthly rainfall 1862-1910, daily rainfall 1883-1910, monthly temperature 1900-1909, and additional sunshine grids for 1919-1928 have been added. The primary purpose of these data are to facilitate monitoring of UK climate and research into climate change, impacts and adaptation. The datasets have been created by the Met Office with financial support from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in order to support the Public Weather Service Customer Group (PWSCG), the Hadley Centre Climate Programme, and the UK Climate Projections (UKCP18) project. The data recovery activity to supplement 19th and early 20th Century data availability has also been funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC grant ref: NE/L01016X/1) project "Analysis of historic drought and water scarcity in the UK". The dataset is provided under Open Government Licence.

The highest average temperature recorded in 2024 until November was in August, at 16.8 degrees Celsius. Since 2015, the highest average daily temperature in the UK was registered in July 2018, at 18.7 degrees Celsius. The summer of 2018 was the joint hottest since institutions began recording temperatures in 1910. One noticeable anomaly during this period was in December 2015, when the average daily temperature reached 9.5 degrees Celsius. This month also experienced the highest monthly rainfall in the UK since before 2014, with England, Wales, and Scotland suffering widespread flooding. Daily hours of sunshine Unsurprisingly, the heat wave that spread across the British Isles in 2018 was the result of particularly sunny weather. July 2018 saw an average of 8.7 daily sun hours in the United Kingdom. This was more hours of sun than was recorded in July 2024, which only saw 5.8 hours of sun. Temperatures are on the rise Since the 1960s, there has been an increase in regional temperatures across the UK. Between 1961 and 1990, temperatures in England averaged nine degrees Celsius, and from 2013 to 2022, average temperatures in the country had increased to 10.3 degrees Celsius. Due to its relatively southern location, England continues to rank as the warmest country in the UK.