Weather log December 2024
Key:
WW= Willow Warbler
ST = Song Thrush
BB = Blackbird
Sun 1st a very mild start to Winter 2024, it was apparently the mildest December 1st in the 130 year record at Coventry, minimum 10.8c (previous record 9.0c Dec 1st year 2000). Other minima Pembrey Sands 12.6c, Pershore 12.0c, Shobdon 11.6c, Nott 10.9c, Lwn 10.8c, CC 10.6c. It was Coventry's mildest December 1st on record as well (max 14.5c today), other max Wellesbourne 15.1c, Shobdon 14.8c, CITE 14.3c, Pembrey Sands 13.2c, Nottingham 13.0c, Aberporth & Lwn 12.3c, Whitechurch (Pembs) 30mm wettest in the UK.
Mostly mild and unsettled first week or so:
Fri 6th West & S Wales and the SW in a red wind warning for tomorrow (named storm Darragh).
Sat 7th named storm Darragh was a powerful and sustained one! The deep low slowly crossed N Eng into the N Sea today, the winds had been SW to west overnight veered NW early morning. Winds really picked up here by 0200 with tremendous gusts estimated at over 60mph. A lot of rain too 33mm by 0900 and 39mm by 1100 when it eased somewhat. The back garden bore the brunt during the afternoon, at times it seemed to ease but then the severe gusts returned with a vengeance. Some of the fencing surrounding our garden damaged although it was already loose, a small dead Ash tree came down too. Several brief power cuts this afternoon, winds still gusting to an estimated 65mph (perhaps 70?). Certainly at least on par with the strongest winds experienced here (max gust 65mph when the anemometer still worked several years back). Hundreds of trees down across the county and localised flooding, for example a large tree blocked the main road to Aberystwyth at Chancery and another blocked the road up to Cwmann just past the former tavern. Co-op car park Lampeter flooded up to the store (not so unusual). Some parts of the county have been without power most of the day.
Highest gusts today: Capel Curing 93mph overnight, Aberdaron 92mph overnight (mean windspeeds topped 65mph at times here); other Pembrey Sands 86mph, Aberporth 85mph; even inland Trawsgoed recorded 71mph this afternoon, some of the highest speeds I recall seeing there. Strong winds continued into the night with some gusts still reaching 50mph I reckon until at least midnight. An unusually sustained episode of very strong winds and from an unusual direction (NW). Aberporth having gusts over 80mph for 9 successive hours! Top gusts Midlands at Shawbury 63mph with Coventry 53mph, CL 52mph. Trees were being blown over here too during the evening. Although gusts not extreme, Coventry had its windiest day (mean windspeed 20.1mph) since December 1993 (21.6mph) showing how sustained it was. Although the anemometer here stopped measuring wind speed several years ago it is quite likely that this was 'a day of gale' which necessitates the day having at least a period of 10 minutes during which the speed averages at least 39mph (gale force). There were no such days during the operational 7 years and so unusual if correct. A PWS in the Preselis had gusts over 90mph! The highest gust ever recorded at Aberporth is 107mph from the Burn's day' storm January 1990.
NRW rainfall totals to midnight: Dinas, near Ponterwyd in the Cambrians 96mm, Cwm Dyli (Snowdonia 91mm); Pembrokeshire bore the brunt of the wind but escaped the worst of the rain (Tenby just 1mm); Capel Curing 72mm wettest MO site today, Trawsgoed 61mm, Llanwnnen 36mm.
Sun 8th died down at last but still gusting towards 40mph during the morning. Remarkable how the wind has dried things out, 24 hours ago the lawn was boggy with pools of standing water, today much of it is fairly firm to walk on with little mud!
Several mostly dry and rather cold days followed before it turned unsettled again by mid month.
First half of December 2024 has been very mild and very dull, rainfall ranging from dry to very wet:
Rain totals 1st to 0900 16th:
Mona 50mm (average), Capel Curig 202.4mm (rather wet), Trawsgoed 111mm (very wet), Aberporth 45mm (average), Llanwnnen 95.6mm (rather wet), Pembrey Sands 31mm (dry), Milford Haven 29mm (dry); Nottingham 40mm (rather wet), Coleshill 32mm (average), Coventry 36.5mm (rather wet), Church Lawford 36.8mm (rather wet), Pershore 27mm (average), Hereford 22mm (dry).
Sunshine 1st - 15th: Aberdaron 14 hours, Llanwnnen 9 hours (estimated), Nottingham 11 hrs, Coventry 12.7 hrs, Shobdon 11 hrs (all very dull).
Unsettled spell after mid month, often mild or very mild:
Wed 18th plentiful rain as a low crossed S UK, widely around an inch, nearer 2 inches locally; Capel Curig 39.2mm (2100), and to 0900 19th Lwn 27.1mm, Coventry 26.8mm. Also very mild, maxima above 14c parts of Mids (Pershore 14.5c).
Christmas period mild and mostly dry:
Christmas Eve (Tue) mild or very mild, maxima Shobdon 13.6c, Nott & Trawsgoed 12.1c, Lwn 11.6c, MH, Pembrey Sands & Pershore 11.1c, Astwood Bank 10.2c; sunny intervals in places.
Christmas Day (Wed) a mild day; mostly cloudy, a little drizzle west Wales, sunny spells Midlands but fog much of the day some places: maxima ROW 12.7c, CITE & Shobdon 12.3c, Nottingham 11.9c, Trawsgoed 11.5c, Llanwnnen 10.6c, Capel Curig 9.2c, Astwood Bank (Worc) 9.0c, Church Lawford 8.9c.
Boxing Day (Thu) here at Lwn much of last night cloudy, this cleared before dawn allowing the temperature to drop to 2c and almost a ground frost, most of the day then lovely unbroken sun but foggy by dusk. A few places may have had a grass frost (Tirabad air min 1.2c). Fog persistent parts of the Midlands, checking the Coventry webcam there was thick fog there all afternoon. The fog indicative of temperature inversion in which foggy valleys can be colder than sunny hills by day, hence very variable maxima Pennerley (Stiperstones, Salop) 13.7c (warmest in UK), Trawsgoed 13.4c, ROW 12.7c, CITE 12.3c, Lwn 8.9c, Pembrey Sands 8.3c, Coventry 6.9c, Nott 6.1c, Hereford 5.3c.
Fri 27th local air frost parts of inland Wales (Tirabad min -1.7c), widespread and persistent mist or fog again, this being the case at Llanwnnen where visibility not above 400 metres all day, also at Coventry a foggy day (webcam). Unusual to have an all day fog here at Lwn, visibility 100- 400 metres. Quite a cold day where foggy, Lwn max just 4.1c the coldest day of a mild month; other max Shobdon 2.0c, Llysdinam (Powys) 2.1c, Market Bosworth 2.6c, Coventry 2.9c, Sutton Bonington 3.7c, Pennerley 11.3c.
Rather mild to end the year but not much rain:
New Years Eve (Tue) mild maxima generally 10-12c.
Nature notes
Start of month: first Celandine leaves out and first few Primrose flowers.
Tue 3rd a recently in flower (last week?) secondary Foxglove up the lane southern forestry
Sun 8th not much storm aftermath apparent but half dozen large trees down on the small but exposed hill near Neuadd farm.
Mon 9th southern forestry terrible destruction: firstly a lot of Beech trees up the lane uprooted, these were perhaps 200 years old (between 6 and 10 of these down); it was when the wind veered NW and must have funnelled along the valley; talked to the man who recently bought the run down house (Caermalwas-Fach) the property just 50 yards from the trees that fell and with a number of large mature trees in his garden inc Beech, Horse Chestnut and Eucalyptus he has no choice but to fell those in case they fall on his house. He told me that the forestry up by the gate had gone. Also he was without power for 3 days now. He was right it was shocking, must be several thousands trees flattened or snapped off on top of the hill, it was impossible to get through either track they were blocked by all the trees. Walked back down the lane chatted to another man who lives nearby also without power still (our worst was just a 6 hour outage Sunday evening). Another devastated area to the right of the bottom track near the valley bottom near the road, many hundreds more downed conifers. Was though able to follow this track and up the hill and along much of the other end of the upper track (that was blocked so badly at the gate end), and so some areas of forestry did survive. The interior of this forest section almost entirely down for half mile or so. Across the valley to the north the western flanks of that forestry seemed unscathed as did the one to the west, and so not utter devastation.
Wed 11th: on the way to Newquay not so many trees down excepting on more exposed NW facing hills. Newquay & Aberaeron likewise appeared to have got off lightly, although a man in Newquay said lots of roofs had suffered damage but had mostly already been repaired.
Spoke with the pet shop man who lives at Aberarth just north of Aberaeron, quite near the church which is very exposed 100 metres up on a hill overlooking Cardigan Bay. He planted his 15 acres with trees 15 years ago and reckons to have lost several acres. Also he told me that the church roof had blown off.
Sat 14th all locations have power back on one week after Darragh
This blog provides a very good account of storm Darragh from nearby Rhydcymerau in Carmarthenshire and has photos of the Caermalwas Fach beech destruction amongst others:
Lovely old tree downed by wind University by the footbridge, thankfully could n't see anymore though.
Christmas Eve, Lampeter, Song Thrush singing by Student Union.
Christmas Day many birds calling, inc Tits, Starlings singing their heads off.
Late month: the very mild month with a total absence of air frost has meant continuing albeit slow vegetation growth such as ground weeds and some flowers; garden hedgerow producing fresh leaves since trimmed October. Celandine foliage well progressed. Notably the lawn has many spiders webs amongst the grass which is more typical of Autumn. Rooks already active Uni rookery.
Fri 27th Neuadd lane, Celandine foliage advanced; patch of fresh green ferns by the Grannell stream along with a few Redwing going to roost.
Sub 29th Abergavenny Blackbird singing quite well dusk by the car park. Much Mistletoe evident en route to Midlands (as usual most of it between Crickhowell and Ross-on-Wye). Quite a few trees down in Wales but not more than 1% seemingly.
Long Lawford Bluebell spikes in garden along with plentiful Primroses in flower.
Green Woodpecker her a few times whilst in Long Lawford.
December 2024 summary
Very mild and dull/very dull; rain variable from dry to wet
Rainfall totals Dec 2024
Mona, Anglesey 119mm
Capel Curig, Snowdonia 424.8mm (wet)
Aberdaron, Llyn Peninsular 124.2mm (wet)
Trawsgoed, Ceredigion 194.2mm (wet)
Aberporth, near Llangrannog 102.2mm (average)
Llanwnnen 189.4mm (101%)
Pembrey Sands, Carms 70.2mm (dry)
Milford Haven, Pembs 80.6mm (rather dry)
Nottingham (Watnall) 73.6mm (average)
Shawbury, Salop 83.6mm (rather wet)
Coleshill 62.8mm (average)
Coventry, Bablake School 77.6mm (125%)
CL, Warks 63.8mm (112%)
Pershore, Worc 52.4mm (average)
Hereford 52mm (rather dry)
King's Newnham EA gauge (near Rugby) 63.0mm
National Resources Wales (NRW) rain gauges Dec 2024
Llyn Cefni, Ynys Mon 128.2mm (average)
Bethesda Quarry (Gwynedd) 229.6mm (rather wet)
Cwm Dyli (Snowdonia) 554.6mm (wet)
Abersoch (Llyn Peninsular) 131.6mm (rather wet)
Bow Street (near Aberystwyth) 152mm (wet)
Pontrhydfendigaid (near Tregaron, Ceredigion) 197.6mm (rather wet)(
Rhos Ymryson (near Gorscoch and 5 miles NW of Lwn) 193mm (rather wet)
Cellan (2 miles NE of Lampeter) 129.6mm (rather dry)
Pencader (Carms) 185mm (average)
Abergorllech (Brechfa Forest, Carms) 203mm (average)
Rhydargaeau (Carms) 183.6mm (average)
Garnswllt (near Ammanford, Carms) 164mm (average)
Felinfoel (near Llanelli, Carms) 109mm (rather dry)
Southgate, Gower 74.3mm (dry)
Maenclochog (near Preselis, Pembs) 183mm (average)
Tenby (Pembs) 104.2mm (rather dry)
COL stations rainfall Dec 2024
Llansadwrn 173.6mm (128%)
Ludlow, Salop 65.6 mm (79%)
Alvechurch, Worc 97.7mm (118%)
Warstock, Brum 86.6mm (112%)
Alcester (Great Alne) 90.4mm (162%)
Cosby, Leic 83mm (132%)
Hinckley 78mm
Towcester, Northants 60.3mm (87%)
Sunshine totals Dec 2024
Aberdaron 19 hrs (very dull)
Aberporth 19.8 hrs (very dull)
Llanwnnen estimated 20 hrs (55%)
Nottingham 32.2 hrs (dull)
Shawbury 22.6 hrs (very dull)
Coventry, Bablake School 24.4 hrs (46%)
Shobdon, Herefordshire 28.8 hrs (very dull)
COL stations sun Dec 2024
Alvechurch 21.7 hrs
Warstock (Brum) 23.3 hrs
Cosby (Leic) 26.2 hrs
Towcester (Northants) 31.3 hrs
2024 annual summary
Dull, mild and wet
Another very wet year most of Midlands, at Coventry 2023/24 the wettest back to back years with over 1800mm. Most of West Wales rather less wet with respect to averages. Coventry had it's wettest year since 1912 (939.6mm) and dullest since 1993 (1359 hours). At Llanwnnen 38 air frosts was the least recorded (beating 41 last year).
Rainfall totals 2024
Coventry 934.2mm (135%)
Church Lawford 822.2mm (122%)
King's Newnham (EA) 835.4mm
Llanwnnen 1491.5mm (114% of historical Lampeter average and 106% of the 2006-24 average here)
Sunshine totals 2024
Coventry 1376 hrs (90%)
Llanwnnen 1011 hrs (75%) = dullest in estimations since began 2013.
