Last month was the UK’s fifth sunniest January on record, despite the country experiencing rain, snow and the most powerful windstorm in over a decade.
An average of 61.8 hours of sunshine were clocked up across the UK, according to provisional figures from the Met Office.
It means three of the top five sunniest Januarys on record have occurred in the past four years, with 2022 (63.0 hours) and 2023 (62.2 hours) ranking just ahead of 2025.
The top spot is held by January 1959, which saw an average of 69.7 hours of sunshine, while 2001 (66.5 hours) is in second place.
Met Office scientist Emily Carlisle said: “While many will remember the impactful wet and windy weather from Storm Eowyn, it’s a mark of how unusually bright other days were that January 2025 will go down as one of the sunniest on record for the UK.
“We chiefly saw this as a result of frequent high pressure over the UK, bringing clear skies for many but also below average temperatures with little cloud to trap any warmth near the surface.”
Met Office records for sunshine begin in 1910.
Northern parts of the country enjoyed the clearest skies last month, though all four UK nations saw an above-average amount of sunshine.
Scotland and Northern Ireland had their fourth and seventh sunniest January on record respectively, while Wales had its 10th sunniest and England its 11th.
A cold snap early in the new year helped pull down the mean average temperature for the month, which was 3.0C.
This is 0.9C below the January average for 1991 to 2020, but would have been considered as average if measured against the Met Office’s previous benchmark period of 1961-1990.
“This upwards shift in the long-term average temperature is consistent with global patterns as a result of human-induced climate change,” the Met Office said.
January 2025 was a month that included a typical mix of UK winter weather conditions, with rain, snow and a named storm.
But we also saw some clear and crisp winter sunshine, especially for those in the north.
So how sunny was it for some?
— Met Office (@metoffice) February 3, 2025
The lowest individual temperature recorded last month was minus 18.9C at Altnaharra in the Highland region of Scotland on January 11.
This was the lowest UK temperature measured anywhere in the UK since February 2021, and the lowest temperature for the month of January since 2010.
Last month also saw much of the UK battered by Storm Eowyn, which was the country’s most powerful windstorm for more than a decade and saw a gust of 100mph recorded at Drumalbin in South Lanarkshire in south-west Scotland.
The storm caused power cuts, school closures, widespread travel disruption and damage to trees and buildings, while bringing heavy rain and snow.
