January 2026 began on a chilly note with a few brief wintry showers, yet some lovely sunshine too. Perfect for a first morning walk around the garden to showcase how it looked at the beginning of this new year, with first daffodils and snowdrops brightening the scene.
As light snow fell after multiple short hail showers, the garden and landscape began to take on a different look, as the ‘wolf’ full moon approached. This created a very noisy type of snow to walk across, which Fiona very aptly described as creating a ‘crumping’ sound.
Well worth climbing up to the shepherd’s hut in the afternoon, to catch the stunning views and light.
The rising moon was initially almost as golden as the sun, before cloud and snow flurries blurred its appearance.
There followed 3 more days with heavy snowfall, yet some lovely light as well.
In the end, nearly 8 inches lay across most of the fields.
Days were taken up with feeding the sheep, and clearing snow from the PV panels, and once it had stopped falling from sections of the yard and paths around the house.
A tiring and tedious job, but necessary to limit ice formation which quickly follows any snow compaction, with temperatures dropping to at least minus 11/12 on a couple of nights. 
Quite a special beginning to 2026, and coming hot on the heels of a Met Office news item in mid-December which forecast that this coming year would rank as one of the hottest ever (with the small print caveat of ‘since records began – in the mid 1800’s’).
I took more than enough photos to fill 2 month’s worth of garden views, but we never know if we’ll ever see such light and snowy scenes again in our time here. 
The snow lingered for a total of 8 days, and we were worried that Storm Goretti would bring another serious layer, which it did to other parts of the UK.
Fortunately, only about another inch fell here overnight, but the temperature then dropped the following evening after some melting had taken place, and the snow layers refroze, becoming incredibly noisy and crunchy to walk on, recorded on this short video.
Thereafter, we had generally grey skies, and slightly milder conditions for the next 10 days. Flowers emerged from their snow/ice blanket, and in the main looked surprisingly unscathed.
As the cold left the land, more snowdrops and crocus soon appeared.
We still enjoyed occasional spectacular dawn colours.
Though a fair few all grey affairs.
But as the days lengthen more obviously, there’s more than enough colour around the property to catch the eye.
The month closed with no honey bees seen around the garden at all – a reflection of the strong winds and frequent rain towards the end of the month. Yet there have been brief windows of opportunity, and plenty of suitable flowers open. 
This hasn’t happened in the last 5 Januarys – we’ve always had bees emerge at some point.
The upside of this is many snowdrop flowers will last longer than in recent years. Will any of the hive’s still have live bees to emerge in February?
What has been a remarkable feature of the latter part of the month, despite the winds, rain and a (British named) Storm Chandra which blew in around January 26th, is the birdsong. Beginning with the limited whistling of Nuthatches, but taking off when a Mistle Thrush began singing from the tops of the Ash trees, around the 23rd. Joined by another, and then on the 28th, a song thrush in the garden. Truly amazing bird song for hours on end.
The month’s weather records ended with 262.8 mm or rain (of which about 7 inches fell as snow), 5 dry days, 7 days of frost to minus 7 Deg C, and a PV output reading of just 63.86 which ranks as the second lowest in the 15 years we’ve owned the panels. A month full of delights!
The Met Office summary for the month paints it as not being an exceptional January, although Northern Ireland had one of its wettest every Januarys, and it was a windy month. However, hidden in the text (later changed by them and now highlighted in bold!) is acknowledgement that the month was about 0.5 Deg C colder than the rolling 30 year average – perhaps the honey bees, like us were well aware of this.
Records from previous Januarys are shown below, with maximum and minimum readings highlighted:
2014: 332.3 mm rain, 2 dry days No frosts/snow PV N/A
2015: 204.5mm rain, 6 dry days, snow and frosts, PV N/A
2016: 296.5 mm rain, 2 dry days, Some hail, PV 62.31 KWH
2017: 123.1 mm rain, 10 dry days, Frosts to minus 8 no snow PV 79.46 KWH
2018: 191 mm rain, 5 dry days, No frost snow records, PV 72.23 KWH
2019: 120.6 mm rain, 9 dry days, 4 frosts 3 days snow PV 66.27 KWH
2020: 206.2mm rain, 5 dry days, One frost. Light snow one day PV 79.68 KWH
2021: 218.8 mm rain, 9 dry days. Frosts and snow, PV 79.6 KWH
2022: 86.1mm rain, 13 dry days, No recorded frosts or snow PV 77 KWH
2023: 290.5 mm rain, 8 dry days, PV 96.6 KWH
2024: 227.9mm rain, 11 dry days, 10 frosts PV 87.79 KWH
2025: 197.51 mm rain, 12 dry days. 10 frosts 2 days of snow, PV 79.58 KWH
2026: 262.8mm rain, (incl.5 days snow), 5 dry days, 7 frosts to -7, PV 63.8 KWH