High Heaton Weather and Air Quality – January 2025

Weather

January in High Heaton was a cold month. The average temperature was 2.8°C, 1.5° below the January average; over the last 30 years only 2010 and 2021 were colder.  From 2^nd to 12^th it was especially cold with daytime temperatures not exceeding 3.3°C, and falling well below freezing on most nights. The month’s lowest temperature of -3.9°C was recorded at 5.30am on Sunday 12^th.  There followed a brief period of milder weather during which the month’s maximum temperature of 11.7°C was recorded at 2pm on Thursday 16^th.   The cold conditions returned on Sunday 19^th with a daytime maximum of 0.3°C. The temperature was generally around, or slightly below, average for the rest of January, and during this period storm Éowyn arrived!  Reported as the worst storm for a decade,  the maximum wind speed I measured was 56mph at 3.15pm on Friday 24^th which equalled my previous highest reading on 29^th January 2016 (the maximum gust during storm Arwen in November 2021 was 53mph). Éowyn caused some disruption but not much damage in our region.  Snow fell and settled in the early hours of Sunday 5^th, and by 8am it was lying at a depth of about 6cm. However, it soon turned to rain and the snow disappeared. This was the wettest day of the month with a total precipitation of 31mm.  The total for the month was 63mm which compares to the January average of 51mm. 

Air Quality

January was a relatively poor month for air quality. The PM2.5 concentration was above the WHO’s target of 10µg/m³ on 18 days, and on five of those days it exceeded the UK’s target of 25µg/m³. The worst day was Saturday 18^th when the concentration was 39µg/m³ and the particles were visible as a sandy deposit on cars and windows. The average concentration was 13µg/m³ which is the highest value for three years. In terms of the Air Quality Index, we were at level 4 (moderate AQ) on two days and in bands 1, 2 or 3 (good) on the other 29 days.

                                                                                                               John Telfer