Daily sunshine hours observed on 17th April 1965 at 03xxx stations (344 reports).
Date (00Z D to 24Z D)
-1 day
+1 day
Plot hours Plot % of theoretical max
UK only UK & ROI
Highest 10
Leuchars (10 m, CS)10.7 hours
St Andrews (18 m, CS)10.2 hours
Blairgowrie (70 m, CS)10.1 hours
Kirkcaldy (32 m, CS)10.0 hours
Perth (23 m, CS)9.8 hours
Dunbar (23 m, CS)9.7 hours
Dundee (45 m, CS)9.6 hours
Bush House (184 m, CS)9.4 hours
Carnoustie No 2 (27 m, CS)9.3 hours
Strachan (120 m, CS)9.2 hours

Lowest 10
Lowther Hill (754 m, CS)0.0 hours
Bute: Rothesay (43 m, CS)0.0 hours
Eastbourne (15 m, CS)0.0 hours
Dover (6 m, CS)0.0 hours
Folkestone (39 m, CS)0.0 hours
Oxford (63 m, CS)0.0 hours
Skegness (6 m, CS)0.0 hours
Baltasound (24 m, CS)0.0 hours
Cwmystwyth (301 m, CS)0.1 hours
Hastings (45 m, CS)0.1 hours

Average Sun = 3.1 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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