December 2024: The
average temperature of 8.6°C for December 2024 was 2.5°C above the 30year
average of 6.1°C for Bristol. It was the joint 5th warmest with 2023
since temperature records for the city began in 1884. The total rainfall for
December was 47.6 mm, 46.8% of the 30 year average of 101.8 mm for the
month. It was the driest December since 2016 when 30.3 mm was recorded. Both
the average minimum and maximum temperatures were equal 5th warmest from
data starting on 1931. The average pressure of 1022 mb in December 2024 was
the highest for the month since 1027 mb was recorded in 2016. It was the
highest of any month since 1028 mb was recorded in February 2023. It was a
dull month with restricted sunshine only amounting to 16.5% of the maximum.
The maximum wind
speed gust of 52 mph on the 7th December was the highest for the month since
2007 when 53 mph was recorded. The highest daily minimum temperature of
12.8°C recorded on the 1st was the 3rd highest for December since the data
started in 1960.
Autumn 2024: It was
the coolest summer since 2015. It was still the joint 34th warmest, with
1921, in 134 years of complete data for the city of Bristol. With an average
temperature of 17.4°C it was 0.3°C below the 30 year average (1991-2020) of
17.7°C. The average maximum temperature of the summer of 21.4°C was 0.5°C
below the 30 year average. The average minimum temperature of 13.7°C was
0.1°C above the average temperature.
The summer rainfall was below average with 139.5 mm for the 3 month total.
It was the 24th driest in 143 years of data. The 30 year average summer
rainfall is 212.7 mm so 2024 was 66% of the average.
Annual 2024:
The annual rainfall for Bristol in 2024 was 1153.4 mm this makes it the 10th
wettest year since this data started in 1853. The wettest year was 2012 with
1315.4 mm. The 30 year average for the city is 913.8 mm so 2024 represents
126% of the average. The annual average temperature for 2024 was 12.4°C.
That made it the equal 4th warmest with 2020, and 0.8°C above the 30 year
average of 11.6°C. Continuous average temperatures for Bristol started in
1891. It was the dullest year from records starting in 2005 with only 37% of
the maximum sunshine recorded.
To
view a full report of the Bristol Annual Weather report 2023 and a discussion of trends
etc click here. This is a Word created .doc document
which is produced annually for a Bristol Naturalist Society
publication. Please acknowledge the source if quoting any of the contents.
Thank you.
The
2024 Annual summary is here:
http://www.bristolweather.org/weather2024annual.htm
For the full monthly summary please go here:
http://www.bristolweather.org/weather2024
December.htm
The
Meteorological site is situated in an urban housing area approximately one
mile to the south of the Centre of Bristol.
This area is in a district called Totterdown.
Statistical correlations with the Bristol
Meteorological Office site, that was
less than two miles to the North and was
situated on top of a City Centre office block, were generally good with
rainfall and barometric data particularly close.
The site of the station is approximately 34 metres above sea level with the
manual instruments mounted in a Stevenson screen. The screen is sited
centrally in a small concreted garden area. A Snowdon
rain gauge is mounted correctly in the ground but does not have the full open
space required around it. A Davis
Vantage Pro2 Plus automatic weather station (AWS) was
added in May 2005 and this is mounted 4 feet above a concrete shelter. The
wind data is gathered automatically from a Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus anemometer which is
sited 3.3 metres (10 feet) above the house top.
Manual observations are still taken at approximately 09:00 hours GMT every
day for rainfall and cloud cover. Rainfall manually recorded in the Snowdon rain gauge is entered for the previous day. The
wind data is constantly logged and automatically reset at 24:00 hours GMT
every day (in the summer BST -1 hour. The Davis rainfall tipping bucket was recalibrated in November 2005 and is now
consistently under 3% under recording (an improvement from installation in
May 2005 when 10% was more
typically the norm).
Since the arrival of the Davis
Vantage Pro2 Plus equipment in May 2005 temperatures, humidity and barometric
pressure are recorded from the new equipment. These figures will be more
accurate and will be taken at exactly 09:00 GMT (in the summer BST -1 hour)
as the data is now logged to a computer.
By default the Davis
equipment records every parameter for the 24 hour period 00:00 to 23:59 BST
or GMT. Data analysis will enable manual data extraction of temperatures and
rainfall to 09:00 GMT (adjusted in the summer). Due to the 0.2 mm (tipping
bucket) measurements of precipitation recorded by the Davis equipment the
Snowdon rain gauge will still be used due to its greater accuracy (see
above).