Highest ever January temperature recorded in the UK hits 19.6C
The UK has enjoyed its hottest January day ever recorded, according to official data.
The village of Kinlochewe, Scotland, which is home to fewer than 100 people, recorded a high of 19.6C on Sunday January 28, with various neighbouring areas in the northernmost regions of the Highlands also in excess of 18C.
The previous record for a January day was 18.3C, which had occurred four times, most recently on January 16, 2003.
The high is a result of a rare situation that sees isolated spots near mountains hit with a narrow blast of hot air.
Britain is currently experiencing a southerly wind, bringing warm air up to the British Isles from the Azores.
Most of the country experienced an unusually warm winter’s day, but in the more mountainous regions in the north, a weather phenomenon known as the Foehn Effect amplified the mild weather even further.
The Foehn Effect is where air rises up a mountain, heats up in the mild, dry conditions higher up, and then travels down the other side of the slope, bringing the extra heat with it.
This convection pattern is taking the already mild air from off the coast of Africa, heating it even further above the Lochs of Scotland, and then a heated plume is travelling downwards.
Foehn Effect
The Foehn Effect only causes small pockets of unusual heat and is hard to forecast, with the record-breaking temperatures catching meteorologists off guard.
Kinlochewe, for example, has seen its temperature soar thanks to the Foehn Effect. Last week, temperatures in the village were mild at around 9-12C, but is now the hottest place in the UK at almost 20C.
However, two weeks ago, the village was frozen, with its maximum daily temperature being just above zero, at 0.6C
A Met Office spokesman told The Telegraph that the warm southerly wind was expected to stop tomorrow, but a warm south-westerly wind is due to hit the UK in the middle of next week, with temperatures of around 14C expected.
Sunday’s temperature is a January record for the UK and also a winter record that includes December and February, for Scotland.
The warmer weather comes on the back of dire weather across the country, including in Scotland, as storms Henk, Isha and Jocelyn battered the UK this month.
Ten storms have hit the UK so far this season, bringing with it floods, extreme winds that have injured and killed people.
Scientists found that last year was the hottest on record globally, according to various sources including NASA and Copernicus.
The Met Office said last year was provisionally the second warmest year on record for the UK. The average temperature in the UK in 2023 was 9.97C, slightly cooler than 2022, which remains the only year since records began in 1884 to break the 10C mark, with 10.03C. The heatwave year of 2022 included the first time ever that Britain saw temperatures reach in excess of 40C.
