Cycling Weather: December 2011

Happy New Year!

Well the weather for the last month of 2011 has not been bad at all considering the season in the northern hemisphere. Up to 30 December the average temperature in the UK had been 4.7 °C, 0.5 °C above the 1971-2000 average according the Met Office. 

The temperature was actually a whopping 5.0 °C warmer than December 2010 so I'm not surprised it feels less chilly this year. This was reflected in the lack of ice and and only one snowfall in my area. I have not bothered with my studded tyres so far, where I'd had them on for most of last December if I recall correctly. But with relatively warmer weather can also come wetter weather so what precipitation did I have to contend with?

I have cycle commuted to work 12 times over the month - 24 trips and 100% of my commutes to work (I only work 3-4 shifts per week and took some annual leave as well!). Each return trip had one half in the morning and the other in the evening. In that time I have encountered rain four times on two different days and have been snowed on once during a morning commute.

I work this out to be a grand total of 20.8% commuting trips that were wet in some way. None of this was particularly heavy or uncomfortable rain/snow and some of it did not even last for the whole commute. A rain jacket (and goggles for the snow) was all I needed to add to my normal cold weather cycling gear and I was toasty and dry. Let's see what 2012 brings.