Quarterly average wind speed in the United Kingdom 2010-2023

Wind speed averages in the United Kingdom are generally highest in the first and fourth quarters of each calendar year – the winter months. Since 2010, the UK’s highest wind speed average was recorded in the first quarter of 2020, at 11.5 knots. During this period, 2010 was the only year that had the greatest wind speeds outside the winter months, with an average of 8.4 knots in the third quarter. In 2023, wind speeds ranged between a low of 6.9 knots in the second quarter and 9.2 knots in the first quarter. With few exceptions, UK wind speeds generally average at least eight knots annually. 2015 marked the year with the highest average wind speed in the UK (since the beginning of the reporting period in 2001), reaching an average of 9.4 knots.

Wind power

The UK has some of the best wind conditions in Europe for wind power. By 2023, there were 39 offshore wind farms operating across the UK, by far the most in Europe. Meanwhile, offshore wind power additions in the UK reached nearly 1.4 gigawatts in 2022.

Quarterly rainfall

Another weather phenomenon, UK rainfall also tends to be heaviest in the winter months. The average rainfall in the fourth quarter of 2023 was 457.7 millimeters, with figures in 2011 spiking to 738.6 millimeters. That year, precipitation levels in some parts of Scotland were the highest in one hundred years, while southern parts of England kept remarkably dry.