Oh UK weather, you could do better. Summer is over, a bit of an autumn nip in the air first thing. How was summer 2015, here's the stats.
Meteorological summer is over, the nights are drawing in. I did put my heating on briefly yesterday, but that was just to check the boiler, honest. Looking back there was that really hot bit early in July. The south of Britain hasn’t done too badly but for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland it’s been a bit disappointing, not awful but just not reliable.
The Met Office has just released their figures for the summer months of June, July and August 2015.
This year saw the highest ever July temperature of 36.7C (98F) at Heathrow on 1st of the month. The all-time UK record is 38.5C (101F) back on 10 August 2003, Brogdale, near Faversham (Kent). The 1st was also the hottest day of the year for Wales and Scotland with the day before 30th June seeing the top temperature for N.Ireland
Highest summer temperatures
England 36.7C Heathrow, Gt London
Wales 29.2C Colwyn Bay Clwyd
Scotland 29.4C Kinloss, Moray
N.Ireland 26.0C Peatlands, Co. Armagh
This episode of heat and humidity was thanks to a brief surge of air coming up from the south from Spain, acoompanied by thudnerstorms For much of the summer, there was a westerly flow off the Atlantic that never seemed to give way. This kept much of the weather on the cool side (although SE Britain faired okay in this setup) and brought with it rain and showers and often blustery winds
Sunniest places June 9-11th
England 16.3 hours Copley Durham
Wales 15.7 hours Valley Anglesey
Scotland 16 hours Dunbar and Glasgow
N.Ireland 15.5 hours Armagh
Coldest
N.Ireland had a very cold night early in June when Katesbridge (which a bit of a cold spot) dipped down to -1.9C overnight. Resallach in Sutherland, far north of Scotland also fell to -1.9C that night but it was a surprise to get an air frost in Co. Down
Wettest
Not surprisingly in the westerly flow it was western Britain seeing the most rainfall, although some of the thunderstorms crossing Britain this summer dumped a whole lot of rain. Often areas seeing the most rain don’t have a rain gauge nearby but Treherbert in Mid Glamorgan recorded 89mm of rain on the 1st of June, that’s 3.5”. August has been particularly wet for southern England bringing a rather damp school holidays.
What's next?
For a look ahead in September, here's the monthly forecast http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=monthly;sess= and if it's just the next few days you are interested in, take a look at the 7 day forecast for your location.
http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=uk7dayx2;sess=
