This December the highest maximum air temperature, usually the warmest day, was a very mild 14.2 C occurring late evening on the 17th.  This was followed by 12.7 C and 12.6 C on the afternoon of the 1st and 24th respectively.  Christmas Day was a mild 12.0 C, the warmest Christmas Day at Armagh for eight years, that is, since the 25th of December 2016 (13.3 C).  New Year’s Eve (31st December 2024) was also relatively mild, with a maximum temperature of 11.8 C.  The turn of the year saw a change to much colder conditions with a maximum temperature of 7.1 C on the 1st of January, 3.5 C on the 2nd, and much lower temperatures later that week and into the second week of January.  

The two highest minimum air temperatures, usually the warmest nights, were 10.4 C on the 1st and 10.2 C on the 25th.  These mild nights were followed by a minimum air temperature of 9.8 C on the evening of the 30th, though attributed following normal meteorological conventions to the 31st.

The lowest minimum air temperature, usually the coldest night, was -2.9 C on the early morning of the 10th.  This was followed by -2.4 C on the morning of the 3rd and then by -1.1 C shortly after the time of observations on the 3rd and therefore assigned to the 4th.  The average minimum air temperature this month was 4.5 C, approximately 2.1 C above the corresponding most recent (1991-2020) 30-year average (2.4 C).

The wettest day was the 6th, with 16.0 mm (0.63 inches) of precipitation associated with the arrival and passage of a rapidly moving depression called storm Darragh, the fourth named storm of the 2024/2025 season. This gave heavy rain and strong winds reaching gale force at Armagh in the small hours of Saturday 7th December.  Strong winds continued at Armagh all that day and into Sunday 9th December, causing tree damage in the Observatory grounds and power outages across Northern Ireland and farther afield.  The second wettest day was 7.2 mm on the 31st, accompanied by strong winds approaching gale force.  This was followed by 6.5 mm on the 5th. 

Snow and sleet were observed on the morning of the 19th, and a rainbow was seen on the afternoon of the 20th. 

There were 1214.1 hours of strong sunshine this year, making 2024 slightly duller than average with approximately 96% of the 140-year (1881-2020) long-term average at Armagh (1261.6 hours) and 95% of the most recent (1991-2020) 30-year average (1281.2 hours).  

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Mark Bailey at the Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh, BT61 9DG.  Tel.: 028-3752-2928; mark.bailey@armagh.ac.uk;

URL: http://climate.arm.ac.uk/.


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