The UK in July

 

Mike Hulme on last month’s weather

 

 

DAYTIME TEMPERATURES

July was a month that started hot and ended hot, but which endured 10 rather cool days in the middle.  Overall, July was slightly warmer than average ensuring that the yearly 2001 temperature to date remains close to average.  The southeast was the warmest region in relative terms, locations like Lowestoft and Folkestone ending up almost 2C warmer than their monthly average.  In contrast, the northwest and Scotland – as in June – ended up with rather disappointing temperatures; Anglesey and Stornoway, for example, were 1C colder than usual.  The hottest days were at the start of the month, with both the 2nd and 3rd averaging a nationwide average daytime temperature of 22.3C.  By the 14th, temperatures had cooled, however, to an average of only 15.6C, after which they again recovered ending the month several degrees above average.

 

 

RAINFALL

Rainfall totals over the UK in July were quite varied, although when averaged for the country as a whole the month turned out rather wet - 9% above average.  But there were dry locations throughout the country; for example, Leuchars, Morecambe and Folkestone were all substantially drier than average.  At the other extreme, Bournemouth and Ross-on-Wye recorded totals more than 50% above their monthly norm.  This variability reflected some localised downpours during the middle two weeks.  July 18th was the wettest day of the month with nearly 8mm of rainfall as a nationwide average.

 

 

SUNSHINE

Sunshine totals were close to average for the UK during July, more so in the south than in the north.  Indeed, the far north of Scotland was not very impressive, managing on average less than 2 hours sunshine per day.  By contrast Folkestone, with an average of more than 9 hours of sunshine per day, completed an impressive hat-trick of records among the 20 locations monitored here, being the warmest, driest and sunniest location.  The sunniest weather, as with temperature, occurred during the first and last weeks of the month, the 24th July recording a UK average of 8.5 hours of bright sunshine.  In contrast to July of last year which was cool, dry and cloudy, July 2001 was on the warm side, slightly wet, but sunny.

 

 

Dr Mike Hulme is a Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at UEA

(more details at website at www.tyndall.ac.uk)

 

 

July 2001: A rather average month; cool in the north

 

Daytime Temperature: 0.4C above average;          Rainfall:   9% above average;      Sunshine:  5% below average.

 

[all average figures are based on the 1951-80 average]

 

Mean monthly extremes:

 

Warmest          Folkestone                                      22.4C

Sunniest          Folkestone                                      297 hours sun

Wettest          Eskdalemuir                          99mm   

Coldest          Lerwick                                             13.8C

Cloudiest          Lerwick                                   91 hours sun

Driest           Folkestone                                      14mm