Five days above 30C makes 2022 hottest year on record

The Guernsey Met Office annual report showed that the temperature went above 30C four times in July and once in August.

‘To put this in some context, since 1947 (when records began at the airport) and up to and including 2021, we only recorded 15 occurrences of a maximum temperature of 30C or more,’ said senior met officer Peter de la Mare.

On 18 July, Guernsey had its highest July temperature on record and the second highest temperature officially recorded in the island.

‘Very hot weather coming up from Spain created the recipe for excessive temperatures,’ Mr de la Mare said.

‘It should be said, thanks to the cooling effect the surrounding sea gives us, temperatures were not as high as nearby France where temperatures of 40C or more were recorded as against our max of 34.2C.’

Overall for the year, Guernsey’s average temperature was 12.8C, well above the 30-year average of 11.7C.

The summer average temperature was 18C, again well up on the 30-year average of 16.2C.

Back at the start of the year, despite a wet start to January, winter 2021/22 was the 10th warmest.

The dry weather started early in the year, with a 10-day dry spell starting from 17 March, and spring 2022 was the sunniest for 10 years and the warmest for five.

May’s rainfall was the lowest since 1998.

May was also the first month of the year to break the 20C mark, with a maximum temperature of 23.8C.

June started off with its lowest ground temperature since 2006 of 1.6C on the first. However it quickly began to heat up to become the fifth warmest on record, with an average temperature of 15.7C.

A recording of 34.2C took the title of highest July temperature ever recorded and was only 0.1C away from the highest temperature ever recorded in Guernsey.

That Monday was also the warmest night for 16 years.

The 30C mark was reached on four separate days in July, the most for any month on record.

Aside from breaking temperature records, 1.4mm of rainfall meant that it was the driest month for more than 50 years with Sunday 10 July being the sunniest day for 45 years, with 15.4 hours.

August carried on the record-breaking streak by becoming the warmest August, with a mean temperature of 19.3C.

However it was also subject to 41.5 hours of fog, the highest for 25 years.

As autumn arrived, more rain fell in September than in the previous four months combined and dull skies saw it become only the second month of 2022 to observe below average sunshine.

With 100 hours of sunshine, it was the sunniest November for 16 years, but 153mm of rain meant it was also the wettest for 12 years.

December was the most polarising of the months with a bright and dry first two weeks descending into a wet and windy end.

Sunday 18 December was the wettest day last year, with 24.1mm.