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