Daily sunshine hours observed on 13th April 1959 at 03xxx stations (309 reports).
Date (00Z D to 24Z D)
-1 day
+1 day
Plot hours Plot % of theoretical max
UK only UK & ROI
Highest 10
Wisley (38 m, CS)11.9 hours
Gatwick (59 m, CS)11.7 hours
Hampton W Wks (12 m, CS)11.5 hours
Southampton, East Park (20 m, CS)11.2 hours
Croydon Airport (61 m, CS)10.9 hours
Porton (111 m, CS)10.9 hours
Wittering (74 m, CS)10.8 hours
Regents Park (39 m, CS)10.8 hours
Heathrow (25 m, CS)10.8 hours
Kew (5 m, CS)10.8 hours

Lowest 10
Falmouth (51 m, CS)0.0 hours
Penzance, Penlee Gardens (19 m, CS)0.0 hours
Haverfordwest (41 m, CS)0.0 hours
Dale Fort (33 m, CS)0.0 hours
Aberporth (133 m, CS)0.0 hours
West Kirby Park (7 m, CS)0.0 hours
Ambleside (46 m, CS)0.0 hours
Spadeadam (274 m, CS)0.0 hours
Newton Rigg (169 m, CS)0.0 hours
Sellafield (13 m, CS)0.0 hours

Average Sun = 6.0 hours

*MIDAS UK data available from 1887
*SYNOP data available from 2000
*Background satellite imagery from 25/02/2000

Data courtesy of MetOffice and OGIMET
OpenMIDAS Data - Met Office (2021): MIDAS Open: UK daily temperature data, v202107. NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis, 08 September 2021.


Methods for measuring sunshine have changed over time, older records and some climate sites today will use a Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder, whereas nowadays the majority of measurements will be taken using a pyrheliometer and threshold of 120 W/m^2 for sunshine. The instrumentation used is indicated by the letters in the table - WMO means a pyrheliometer was used, CS means a Campbell-Stokes recorder was used, and S means that the value was extracted from the SYNOP report (most likely to be a pyrheliometer measurement but not for certain). Clicking on an icon in the map will display a popup which also contains this information.

It is possible to convert the newer pyrheliometer measurements to a Campbell-Stokes equivalent for a fairer comparison across time, which is done for climatological purposes, and is a function which I may add to this page at some point.



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