ABOVE average rainfall, sunshine and temperatures was the hallmark of last year s weather as recorded by Rothamsted in Harpenden. A review of the year s weather revealed that rainfall was above average although the number of days on which rain fell was fe

ABOVE average rainfall, sunshine and temperatures was the hallmark of last year's weather as recorded by Rothamsted in Harpenden.

A review of the year's weather revealed that rainfall was above average although the number of days on which rain fell was fewer than in 2008.

The total for 2009 was 764.2mm compared with the average of 703.6mms and rainfall of more than 0.2mm or more was recorded on 195 days compared with 231 in 2008.

The most on one day was 39.6mm on February 9 which was due to snow melt rather than precipitation and the wettest month was November with 146.1mm.

The driest month was September with 15.9mm and of the past 12 months, five had below-average rainfall.

Hours of sunshine were above average, totalling 1737.2 hours, and the sunniest month was May with 242 hours. The annual average is 1537.7 hours.

And the year was also slightly warmer than average following a trend of the last five years when both the mean maximum and the mean minimum were above average.

The hottest day was June 29 when temperatures reached 27.8 degrees and the coldest night was January 7 when temperatures dropped to -8.8 degrees. There were slightly fewer ground frosts with 105 in 2009 compared with 112 in 2008.

Blob* The final month of 2009 was relatively sunny with well above average precipitation, some of which fell as snow during the middle of December.

Rainfall was above average at 105.2mm with the wettest day December 29 with 17.91mm. Sunshine was well above average at 72.4hours compared with the average for the month of 48.1 and the largest amount of 6.7 hours was recorded on December 10. There were eight days without any sun at all.

Both minimum and maximum temperatures were slightly below average with the highest 11.87 degrees on December 5 and the lowest -8.38 on December 23. There were 15 air frosts and 16 ground frosts.