Daily sunshine hours observed on 20th March 1983 at 03xxx stations (299 reports).
Date (00Z D to 24Z D)
-1 day
+1 day
Plot hours Plot % of theoretical max
UK only UK & ROI
Highest 10
Whithorn (40 m, CS)9.0 hours
Arbroath (29 m, CS)8.4 hours
Cupar, Elmwood Ag College (42 m, CS)8.4 hours
Silent Valley (129 m, CS)8.4 hours
Shanwell (4 m, DRV)8.3 hours
St Andrews (18 m, CS)8.2 hours
Aspatria (62 m, CS)8.2 hours
Sellafield No 2 (22 m, CS)8.1 hours
Leuchars (10 m, CS)8.0 hours
Blythe (262 m, CS)7.9 hours

Lowest 10
London Weather Centre (43 m, CS)0.0 hours
Cookstown (77 m, CS)0.0 hours
Isle Of Portland (52 m, CS)0.0 hours
Brawdy (111 m, CS)0.0 hours
Girdstingwood No 2 (91 m, CS)0.0 hours
Marlborough (129 m, CS)0.0 hours
Boscombe Down (126 m, CS)0.0 hours
Lyneham (145 m, CS)0.0 hours
Wight: Sandown (4 m, CS)0.0 hours
Wight: Shanklin (55 m, CS)0.0 hours

Average Sun = 3.3 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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