Daily sunshine hours observed on 3rd October 1981 at 03xxx stations (324 reports).
Date (00Z D to 24Z D)
-1 day
+1 day
Plot hours Plot % of theoretical max
UK only UK & ROI
Highest 10
Eskmeals (8 m, CS)7.5 hours
Margate (16 m, CS)6.8 hours
Blackpool, Squires Gate (10 m, CS)6.8 hours
Hazelrigg (95 m, CS)6.8 hours
Manchester Weather Centre (69 m, DRV)6.3 hours
Sellafield No 2 (22 m, CS)5.9 hours
Lizard (73 m, CS)5.7 hours
Plumpton (76 m, CS)5.5 hours
Pen-y-ffridd (86 m, CS)5.5 hours
Wight: Ryde (4 m, CS)5.3 hours

Lowest 10
Tiree (9 m, CS)0.0 hours
St Mawgan (103 m, CS)0.0 hours
Lanark (152 m, CS)0.0 hours
East Kilbride No 2 (178 m, CS)0.0 hours
Glasgow Weather Centre (40 m, CS)0.0 hours
Abbotsinch (5 m, CS)0.0 hours
Paisley (32 m, CS)0.0 hours
Greenock (61 m, CS)0.0 hours
Falkirk, S Wks (3 m, CS)0.0 hours
Stirling, Batterflats (38 m, CS)0.0 hours

Average Sun = 1.6 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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