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meteorological conditions 1957
I am indebted to the Director of the Meteorological Office of the Air Ministry for
the following summary of the main features of the weather during 1957.
January Mild. Mild by day and night. Less rainfall than average. Sunshine exceeded
the normal quota by about 30%.
February Wet and mild. Mildest February since 1946. More than twice normal quota of
rainfall. Sunshine, however, was above average.
March Exceptionally mild, dry. Not quite as sunny as normal, but mildest March
on record. Rainfall about 40% less than normal.
April Very dry. April was very dry, and only 9 millimetres of rain was recorded.
This is 24% of the normal rainfall for April Temperatures were a
little above average. Sunshine was 20% more than usual.
May Rather dry. Sunshine a little above average. Rainfall deficient by about
40%.
June Warm and very sunny. Sunniest June at Kew for more than 75 years. A total
of 291 hours of sunshine. There was half the normal quota of rainfall
July Wet. Cloudy and wet with 90% of normal sunshine and 50% more rain than
normal. Thunder on seven days.
August Rather cool cloudy and wet. Marked lack of warm days. The first few days
were sunny and warm the rest of the month was cool cloudy and wet.
Rainfall exceeded normal by 76% 10% less sunshine than normal.
September Again cool, cloudy and wet. Rainfall above average by 28%. Sunshine
deficient by a quarter of normal monthly quota.
October Fairly dry and mild. Only 68% of normal rainfall. Dry first half of month.
November Stormy at first then mostly dry. Most of rain fell in first 5 days and
monthly rainfall total was about average for November.A little more
sunshine than average. No fog.
December Dry mild and sunny. In spite of some hard frosts (with persistent fogs)
in the first week of the month and some heavy rainfalls (nearly an
inch at Kew the second week) London had approximately 25% less than
normal December rain and 25% more than normal sunshine. Christmas
was bright dry and rather mild.
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