Island has sunnier than average start to year
GUERNSEY has had a sunnier than average start to the year, according to Met. Office data.
Both Guernsey and Jersey have seen more hours of sunshine during the first four months of this year than the long-term average.
This has been reported to be the case for nearly everywhere in Europe, according to the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites’ Climate Monitoring Application Facility, which used the average sunshine hours from 1983-2017.
The Guernsey Met Office official average time uses the last 30 years of data, which currently spans from 1981-2010.
The average hours of sunshine in Guernsey for the first four months of the year is 468.9 hours, compared with this year’s number of 510.6 hours.
‘It’s not higher due to a particularly dull January this year where we only saw 37.5 hours of sunshine,’ said a Guernsey Met. Office duty observer.
The sunniest January to April period was in 2003 when there were 595.6 hours of sunshine, making this year only the 23rd sunniest period.
‘So, sunnier than average, but not as sunny as in the past,’ they said.
Guernsey monthly sunshine totals were 37.5 hours for January with a long-term average of 61, 150.5 hours for February with an average of 84.4, 149.2 for March with a 127.6 average and 173.4 for April which was lower than the long-term average of 194.7.
The total number of hours of sunshine so far this year is 607.4 hours for Guernsey and 618.4 hours for Jersey.
