The Statistics for Last Year
A brief look back at the climate statistics for last year (2011) in Coventry:
| Average annual temperature | 11.1°C | (+0.9°C) |
| Average maximum | 15.1°C | (+1.1°C) |
| Average minimum | 7.1°C | (+0.7°C) |
| Total Rainfall | 460.2mm | (66%) |
| Total Sunshine | 1537.5 hours | (100%) |
| Days in 2011 with: | ||
| Air Frosts | 24 | |
| Ground Frosts | 105 | |
| Fog | 5 | |
| Thunder | 3 | |
| Snowfall | 5 | |
| Snow lying | 0 | |
| Gales | 0 | |
| Hail | 6 | |
| Hottest Day | 28.7°C | 27th June |
| Coldest Day | max 1.3°C | 29th January |
| Warmest Night | min 17.0°C | 10th Septembert |
| Coldest Night | min -5.0°C | 31st January |
| Wettest Day | 18.1mm | 7th May |
| Sunniest Day | 14.1hr | 3rd May |
Brief comments on the climate statistics for 2011 ·
With a mean annual temperature of 11.1ºC, which is 0.9ºC above the 30-year average for Coventry, this has been the warmest year in the city since temperature records were first kept in the city in 1895, equalling the mean annual temperature of both 1990 and 2006.
In the past 26 years, only 3 years have recorded below average (1971-2000) temperatures in Coventry (1993, 1996 and 2010).
Looking in more detail at the records, we find that of the top forty warmest years in Coventry since 1895, 24 of these have been in the past 30 years (since 1981).
There were 24 air frosts during 2011, the lowest incidence of air frost in Coventry since 2002 (18).
Last year, 2010 was the driest year in Coventry (622.4mm) since 2003 (488.0mm), with an annual rainfall total 7% below normal.. This dry theme has continued right through 2011, with eleven of the twelve months recording rainfall totals below the city’s 30 year climatological records (1981-2010); only February bucked this trend.
So we find by the end of the year that 2011 has become the driest year in Coventry (460.2mm) since 1921 (440.9mm). With reliable annual rainfall records dating back to 1895 in Coventry, only two years have recorded less rainfall than 2011 (1898 and 1921).
With 1537.5 hours of sunshine during 2011, this has been the dullest year in Coventry since 2005 (1523.4hr).