August was not the anticipated summer month. It started with a very wet and humid period until the 6th, this day being the wettest with a total of 37.7mm; a record amount for an August day since my records began. There was a drier interlude from the 14th to 20th with temperatures near the average, the 19th being the exception when the thermometer soared to 27.1°C, the warmest of the month. The remainder of August was very changeable. The mean temperature was 0.4°C above the long-term average, principally due to the cloudy nights retaining some of the daytime warmth (+1.1°C) whereas the lack of sunshine meant the average maxima was below the long-term average (-0.7°C.). The total rainfall was 79.1mm, which is 130% of the long-term average.
The total rainfall for the summer was 233mm, which is 132% of the long-term average. The mean temperature for the summer was 0.3°C above the long-term average. Analyzing the statistics I find that the mean maximum was -0.3°C due to the variable weather but the mean minimum was +0.8°C because of the increased cloud cover. The mean temperature for this season has seen a gradual increase since my records began in 1984, except for the cold summers of 1993 and 1996. The average in the 1980’s was around 9.4°C but has risen to almost 10.4°C this year.
With the installation of an advanced weather station I now have much more information and analysis of that data. Consequently the layout of the ‘Current Statistics’ and ‘Daily Statistics’ pages has been revised to include the additional information on UV values, Solar Radiation, Humidity and hours of Sunshine.
