Eastbourne is famous for its sunshine and is regularly one of the country's sunniest spots, with beautiful beaches and countryside to enjoy.
Record-Breaking Sunshine
Eastbourne's main claim to meteorological fame is that it is the sunniest place on the British mainland with an average of 1831 hours per year.
Our sunshine averages 5.02 hours per day, the only place with over five hours.
Sunniest UK Resort
Eastbourne topped the sunshine league for 2011 with the highest number of sunshine hours, according to leading weather expert Philip Eden, a renowned meteorologist who manages his own websites weather-uk.com and climate-uk.com
In June 2010 GMTV confirmed that Eastbourne is the sunniest place in mainland Britain in live weather reports from the Wish Tower beach. To find out more go to our press releases using the links from this page.
Sunshine Records in Recent Years
In April 2011 the sun hours recorded for the month was 273.9, which is just short of the April record of 274.3 set in 1893.
The Halifax Quality of Life Survey 2007 named Eastbourne as the sunniest place in Great Britain.
April 2007 was the warmest in Eastbourne since records began in 1867. A record maximum temperature of 24°C on 15 April 2007 beat the previous record of 23.4°C in 1870. The average maximum temperature during April was 17.1°C which significantly exceeded the 135 year average of 12°C.
273.8 sunshine hours were recorded which was just short of the highest ever of 274.3 hours recorded in 1893. The average sea temperature was 11.8°C compared to a 135 year average of 8.4°C.
In 2006 the total sunshine hours for the year in Eastbourne were 1,922.5 which is above the annual average of 1,848 hours since 1950.
2003 was a record-breaking year for Eastbourne with 2,161.5 hours of sunshine for the year with a daily average of 5.9 hours. The 108 year long term average of 1,873.0 sunshine hours was exceeded by 288.5 hours. BBC News reported sun worshippers enjoying Eastbourne’s beaches as early as mid April 2003.
The hottest temperature officially recorded in Eastbourne was August 1990 when it reached 32.6C (90.6F).
UK Sunshine National Record
Eastbourne holds the UK national record for maximum duration of sunshine in a month - 383.9 hours in July 1911.
View Sunshine Statistics
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Weather Records Summaries - monthly figures from 2001 to date showing average sun hours per day, annual summaries from 2006 to date, and a download of annual figures from 1950 - 2006 showing total sun hours and average hours per day
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Monthly Weather Reports - our daily records of sun hours, from September 2006 to date
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2005 Annual Report - includes charts of average daily hours of sunshine in Eastbourne from 1892 - 2005, and total annual sunshine hours from 1962 - 2005
You are at: www.eastbourne.gov.uk/sunshine
