The hot spell of July 2005 in south-east Devon

[knocker]

Between 7 and 17 July 2005, much of the south-western peninsula of England experienced settled dry*, often hot, weather.
Some very high temperatures were observed, especially inland, although some unusually high temperatures were also
recorded at seaside resorts in parts of east and south Devon.

 

This paper is focused on southern and eastern Devon and centred on the Teignbridge district.

 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1256/wea.283.05/epdf

[Man With Beard]

Very interesting seeing as I was working in Newton Abbot at the time. I would have thought the 2013 spell would have exceeded this though? I seem to recall Plymouth being up to 30C on several days.

[cheese]

^^ Plymouth's record high in July is only 31C, so I find that hard to believe. It's not a good place to be if you like hot weather.

[knocker]

Very interesting seeing as I was working in Newton Abbot at the time. I would have thought the 2013 spell would have exceeded this though? I seem to recall Plymouth being up to 30C on several days.

 

The article was written in 2006.

[damianslaw]

July 2005 whilst good overall wasn't a patch on July 2006 or 2013, nor 2014 for that matter. However, summer 2005 overall was a very good one, consistently better than 2003 and nearly on a par with 2006 (in some respects better, given August was warmer and sunnier).

[Scorcher]

July 2005 whilst good overall wasn't a patch on July 2006 or 2013, nor 2014 for that matter. However, summer 2005 overall was a very good one, consistently better than 2003 and nearly on a par with 2006 (in some respects better, given August was warmer and sunnier).

 

September was also very nice that year, it certainly had a very warm start. October was also one of the warmest on record with a remarkably late warm spell in some areas late in the month. It was a great few months for those who like warm conditions, certainly after the first half of June, leading all the way to mid November when there was a sudden and dramatic turnaround to colder conditions. It was my A-Level year and I recall having a fantastic tan from the second half of June!

[Summer of 95]

That July spell was pretty good here too, certainly on a par with the 10 day warm spell of July 2013. But because summers were different back then it didn't get heralded as a "scorcher" like the 2013 one, was just seen as a perfectly normal occurrence for July.

Sadly the month was ruined by a dreadful last 10 days which were horribly cloudy and cool, nearly as awful as those of July 2015. That spell at the height of summer let down the whole summer which was otherwise perfectly respectable.

[Interitus]

Very interesting seeing as I was working in Newton Abbot at the time. I would have thought the 2013 spell would have exceeded this though? I seem to recall Plymouth being up to 30C on several days.

 

The maximum for Plymouth in the 2005 spell was, as mentioned in the article, 26.8°C

In 2013 the maximum was 29.6°C with five days warmer than the 2005 maximum in total.

Must be remembered that Plymouth is 'round the corner' and not as sheltered as Torbay and areas to the east of Dartmoor and is just a little further from the body of heat over the southern UK.