Hello and welcome to a look back at our weather in January 2021 – We cover the Western Isles and take a look at the rest of the UK’s weather further down in the blog.
January was notable for the lack of big atlantic storms with winds struggling to get above 40 mph. It was dominated by airfrosts with 9 in total. It was a sunny January compared to normal. It was icy on many days and we had 3 days with snowfall.
Stornoway airport Met Office site stats.
Stornoway Airport had recorded 44.1 hours of sunshine during January. The sunniest January since 2010 which had 48 hours of sunshine.
There was 110.4 mm of rainfall in January the driest since 2017 which had 67.6 mm of rainfall.
SEPA rainfall Gauges in the Western Isles
Due to a cyber attack at SEPA we have no data.
Daily Records
We had two daily records during the month of January.
On the 9th January we had the joint warmest day. 8.5C recorded at Stornoway Airport. Not often Stornoway records the highest temperature in the UK.

On the 19th January we also recorded 4.2 hours of sunshine which on this date made it the sunniest place in the UK.

Weather Warnings year to date
We had Seven weather warnings during the month of January. 5 for snow and Ice and two for Ice.
The total number of weather warnings to date for the year for the Western Isles stands at 31.
Yellow – 7
Amber – 0
Red – 0
A further break down of the warnings.
Wind – 0
Snow and Ice – 5
Rain – 0
Thunderstorms – 0
Wind and snow – 0
Ice – 2
The highest and low temps of the month
Stornoway 8.7C and South Uist 8.7C
Stornoway -2.6C and South Uist -1.9C
January for the UK from the Met Office
Coldest January in the UK since 2010
This Met Office map highlights this

Sunshine was well above average for the month across the Western Isles

It was Scotland’s 4th sunniest January since 1919
With rainfall large parts of the Uist and Barra where well below average for rainfall

more here from the Met Office https://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/
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