Daily sunshine hours observed on 15th January 1986 at 03xxx stations (298 reports).
Date (00Z D to 24Z D)
-1 day
+1 day
Plot hours Plot % of theoretical max
UK only UK & ROI
Highest 10
Torquay, Abbey Park (15 m, CS)6.5 hours
Whithorn (40 m, CS)6.4 hours
East Kilbride No 2 (178 m, CS)6.3 hours
Clatteringshaws No 2 (178 m, CS)6.2 hours
Girdstingwood No 2 (91 m, CS)6.2 hours
Penzance, Penlee Gardens (19 m, CS)6.0 hours
Starcross (9 m, CS)5.9 hours
Exmouth, Salterton Road (59 m, CS)5.9 hours
Abbotsinch (5 m, CS)5.6 hours
Glasgow, Springburn (107 m, CS)5.5 hours

Lowest 10
Cwmystwyth (301 m, CS)0.0 hours
Aber No 2 (15 m, CS)0.0 hours
Manston (49 m, CS)0.0 hours
Herne Bay No 2 (40 m, CS)0.0 hours
Faversham (46 m, CS)0.0 hours
Rayleigh, Rawreth Lane (28 m, CS)0.0 hours
Cambridge, Niab (26 m, CS)0.0 hours
Mepal (-2 m, CS)0.0 hours
Boxworth, Samson Field (53 m, CS)0.0 hours
Lowestoft (25 m, CS)0.0 hours

Average Sun = 1.9 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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