Weymouth Weather
Weymouth weather enjoys a micro climate, the weather is amongst the finest in the country with constantly high sunshine records and an impressive average temperature. Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour are some of the finest sailing waters in the UK and water sport enthusiasts regularly visit the area to enjoy the excellent prevailing winds and flat waters.
Sunshine
The average annual sunshine is 1768 hours 24 minutes; once again Weymouth excelled itself, greatly exceeding the annual average by recording 1919 hours and 42 minutes. Sunshine this century has exceeded the 30-year annual average in every year. The sunniest day was June 3rd with 14 hours and 54 minutes.
Rainfall
The average annual rainfall in Weymouth is 751.7 millimetres, 2006 has continued the trend to stay below the 30-year average with a total of 688.0 mm, January, April, July and August were very dry, whilst October and November extremely wet. The wettest day was June 25th with 37.9 mm.
Wind
The prevailing wind for Weymouth is from the southwest, 110 days the wind came from the west, 71 days came from the east, 122 from the north, 102 from the south and 23 days were calm at the 0900 observation. Gale force winds, i.e. wind at a speed of 34 knots or more, for a period of 10 minutes, or for gust exceeding 43 knots occurred on only six occasions, gusts occurred more frequently but not for extended periods. The highest being 69 knots, (80 M.P.H) on 3rd of December. Property was damaged on Friday 2nd December.
Temperatures
Max
2006 was one our warmest years, with all months June to December recording higher than the 30-year average, 1989 and 1990 in recent years were slightly warmer at 14.1 and 14.2 degrees C. The highest maximum recorded was July 3rd at 27.9 oC.
Min
Minimum temperatures during every month except February were above the 30- year average; with September, October, November and December being well above average.
Air frost
The air temperature dropped to zero or below on 13 days, compared with 22 days last year, these were all in January, February and March. Lowest air temperature was –2.6 oC on 25th January.
Ground frost
Occurred on 52 occasions throughout the year, during January, February, March, April, November and December. The lowest ground temperature was -3.9 oC on 25th January.
Sea
The sea temperature is measured in Weymouth Bay from the Pleasure Pier, (and is mainly recorded for the convenience of the bathers, whether they be local or visitors), the temperature of the water in the bay varies considerably from day to day depending on tide and wind, the rate of cooling and warming is a lot slower that of the air temperature, and in the winter is often a lot warmer than the air temperature. The temperature is measured 1 metre below the surface. The sea temperature in January and March was below the 30-year average, the rest of the year the sea temperature was above the monthly average. The sea was warmest at 20.5 oC on 20th July and coolest at 5.4 oC on the 5th January.
Thunder
Very little thunder or lightning was heard or seen this year, 4 occasions during once in August, twice in September and once again in October all occurrences were either single 'claps' or very short time scale.
Hail
Hail was virtually non-existent with one shower seen by this observer during March.
Snow
Snow, a rare phenomenon in Weymouth was noticeable by its absence, slight flurries occurred in February and March the precipitation was so light no measurement could be made.
Fog
Fog is 'wet air', not to be confused with haze, which is 'dirty but dry air'. When assessing visibility, fog reduces visibility to 1000 metres, whilst thick fog brings visibility down to 400 metres. Fog at the morning observation was rare only occurring twice. Fog and heavy coastal mist did develop on several occasions during the day, during December the coastal mist lasted from the 23rd to the 26th