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