The UK in July
Mike Hulme on last month’s weather
DAYTIME TEMPERATURES
It will not surprise anyone
that daytime temperatures during July were below average, although it was only
in the east that they departed significantly from the July normal. Northern Ireland and the far west of Wales
and Scotland were slightly warmer than normal.
Lowestoft, Skegness and Scarborough on the east coast, however, were
almost 3C short of a typical July - more like May in fact. Over the country as a whole this July was not
as cool as that of 1988, and rather similar temperatures to 1998. The year continues at about 0.7C above the
long-term average.
RAINFALL
Rainfall was quite variable
during July, with the middle two weeks almost rainless everywhere. The southern and eastern coastal regions
were the wettest in relative terms, rainfall often reaching 40% or more above
average. The far west, and most of
Scotland, however, were exceptionally dry, with Tiree in the west and Aberdeen
in the east both recording only about 20% of usual July rainfall. Six of the last seven July's have been drier
than average in the UK.
SUNSHINE
Unless you lived in the far
west of the UK, sunshine totals during July were very disappointing. The country averaged more than 10% below
normal with some eastern coastal locations - for example Lowestoft - barely
reaching 3 hours of sunshine per day, about half its July average, one of the
cloudiest July's on record. Only
western coastal locations like Anglesey, Tiree and Stornoway recorded above the
norm. Despite this cloud cover, July
produced the sunniest day of the year so far - the 21st, when over
12 hours of sun was recorded across the country. Four days later - the 25th - barely 1 hour was
recorded.
Dr Mike Hulme is a research
climatologist at the University of East Anglia
(more details at website at
www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~mikeh/)
July 2000: Cool in the east, dry in Scotland
Daytime Temperature: 0.7C below average; Rainfall: 18% below average; Sunshine: 9% below average.
[all average figures are
based on the 1951-80 average]
Mean monthly extremes:
Warmest Bristol 20.7C
Sunniest Bournemouth 226 hours
sun
Wettest Guernsey 77mm
Coldest Lerwick 12.7C
Cloudiest Lerwick
79
hours sun
Driest Tiree 14mm