SUNSHINE was in short supply during December, the second consecutive month of dull weather for the Island, while the new year has brought a month’s worth of rain in just nine days.
Latest figures from Jersey Met show there were 12 days without sunshine last month, with the overall total of 44.3 hours – equating to just 85 minutes of sun per day and well below the 30-year average of 70.9 hours.
The lowest total for sunshine since records began in 1925 remains the December 1937 tally of just 32.5 hours.
The December 2024 total followed 15 sunless days the previous month as part of a total of 57.3 hours of sunshine – the dullest November since 2008.
The statistics for December also showed 85.7mm of rain – around two-thirds the average for the final month of the year – in spite of there being only seven dry days.
It was also relatively mild, starting with a daily high of 15.4°C on the first day of the month and including a low of 2.7°C on 14 December.
Across the month, the average mark was 8.5°C, compared with 7.7°C for the years 1991 to 2020.
Although New Year’s Day was mild, with the temperature reaching 12.2°C, January has been cold and particularly wet so far, with total rainfall of 101.2mm recorded over the first nine days of the month – already beyond the 30-year average for the month of 95.2mm.
Conditions were particularly wet on Wednesday, with totals of around 40mm recorded at both Maison St Louis in St Helier and Howard Davis Farm in Trinity between 5am Wednesday and 8am the following day. The two weather stations recorded 9.1mm and 8mm of rain respectively during the heaviest spell between 7pm and 8pm on Wednesday.
