Sunshine hours in Southampton for 2011.

[billdango]

This might be of interest to some forum members.

In spite of last years dreadful summer in Southampton we still had 1.775 hours of sunshine[av about 1.800 yearly].

The sunniest place on the south coast that year was Bognor regis with 2.010 hours.

Southampton had a shortfall of about 100 hours during the 3 summer months so I suppose the above total is not bad really.

rgds billdango

P.S how did other forum members cities do?

[rburrena]

Where do you find this information?

[stephenprudence]

Not entirely sure for my location as I don't collect sunshine hours data, but I'm pretty sure it was low as usual, probably around 1500

The highest sunshine amount on record here is 1800-1900 hours, but the average is 1600 hours --> that shows how little annual sunshine we get here, that's quite scary really, and definitely 1500 hours for a lowland area must be amongst the lowest in Europe. I imagine parts of Norway and Sweden get more sunshine hours than that in parts.

[Nathan]

Well according to the map on the Met Office website we had more than 1800 hours, so I expect we were similar to what Bognor Regis had...

[Adam D]

This might be of interest to some forum members.

In spite of last years dreadful summer in Southampton we still had 1.775 hours of sunshine[av about 1.800 yearly].

The sunniest place on the south coast that year was Bognor regis with 2.010 hours.

Southampton had a shortfall of about 100 hours during the 3 summer months so I suppose the above total is not bad really.

rgds billdango

P.S how did other forum members cities do?

1300 here.

I must admit that when I looked at the stats for your area during last summer it really did not look that bad Bill and I couldn't understand why you were moaning so much

[Nathan]

Here's the map from the Met Office website for 2011 sunshine values...

Along with the LTA sunshine values...

[The Codfather]

No supprise for Darlington then.....

[Adam D]

Look at the poor, old north west of Scotland, sheesh!

[Conifers]

Annoying that the two maps don't use the same scale, so it's very difficult to make comparisons between them

[billdango]

Not entirely sure for my location as I don't collect sunshine hours data, but I'm pretty sure it was low as usual, probably around 1500

The highest sunshine amount on record here is 1800-1900 hours, but the average is 1600 hours --> that shows how little annual sunshine we get here, that's quite scary really, and definitely 1500 hours for a lowland area must be amongst the lowest in Europe. I imagine parts of Norway and Sweden get more sunshine hours than that in parts.

Most of Sweden is similar to the uk but because of the longer summer days many parts of sweden can get 1.900 hours plus.

Most of Northern and Western france actually gets less hours then the south Coast of the uk.

The same applies to Germany and the low countries.

Once you travel south of Brittany the sunshine hours rise dramatically i.e Royan 2.500 hours,Pau 1.800 hours, biarritz,1.900 hours.

But Bilbao and Santander in Northern Spain only get about 1.600 hours.

The sunniest places in the uk are comparable with south Island ,New Zealand.

For comparison, Eastbourne 1.940 hours,Southsea 1.880 hours,Ventnor i.o w.1.925 hours,and Jersey 1.945 hours.

This may seem a boring discussion to some but iff you are growing Cacti or Agaves outside knowing these things can be important.

rgds billdango.

[JakoMonster]

Any idea of how many sunshine hours in the Goring, worthing, sompting, area ? i presume it would be the same as eastbourne ? not sure though, my area like the rest of the west sussex coast is very sunny, this winter we have had loads of sunny days.

[billdango]

Any idea of how many sunshine hours in the Goring, worthing, sompting, area ? i presume it would be the same as eastbourne ? not sure though

I would think there is very little difference between them as the whole extreme South coast averages about 1.800 to 1.900 hours plus.

I would think that Worthing at least must be almost the same as Eastbourne with at least 1.900 hours yearly.

rgds billdango.

[Adam D]

Annoying that the two maps don't use the same scale, so it's very difficult to make comparisons between them

Very true.

The anomoly chart for the year overcomes that though and would show that some places (including the south coast) were well above average.

[Nathan]

A lot of south coast resorts claim to be the sunniest place in the UK, when in thruth it changes from year to year. The south coast in general in the sunniest part of the UK & an area stretching from Weymouth to Eastbourne, including the Isle of Wight, gets the most sun.

The Met Office state that coastal resorts of Hampshire & Sussex (& I.O.W) are the sunniest, but some resorts get quite worked up over it...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weath ... shone.html

[Conifers]

Most of Sweden is similar to the uk but because of the longer summer days many parts of sweden can get 1.900 hours plus.

Most of Northern and Western france actually gets less hours then the south Coast of the uk.

The same applies to Germany and the low countries.

Once you travel south of Brittany the sunshine hours rise dramatically i.e Royan 2.500 hours,Pau 1.800 hours, biarritz,1.900 hours.

But Bilbao and Santander in Northern Spain only get about 1.600 hours.

The sunniest places in the uk are comparable with south Island ,New Zealand.

For comparison, Eastbourne 1.940 hours,Southsea 1.880 hours,Ventnor i.o w.1.925 hours,and Jersey 1.945 hours.

Latitude and summer daylength doesn't make any difference. Everywhere on Earth gets 4,383 hours of sunlight per year, measured at cloud top level. What is recorded at ground level depends on cloud cover, not latitude or anything else.