Category: Commentary

Saturday brought another glorious day with many hours of sunshine that boosted the temperature to a maximum of 25.1C at 14.47, 0.4C down on the Friday maximum but almost 3C above the July average.

The UV level was again in the ‘very high’ category, almost the highest this month.

This morning dawned with unbroken strong sunshine that totalled over two hours by 08.00. This boosted the minimum temperature from a low of 14.8C at 05.45 (0.7C cooler than Saturday) to the highest reading of 21.8C at 08.00, the warmest start to the day since 19th June.

It is not surprising that after the very hot and dry weather that the humidity reading at 08.00 was down to 68%, the driest start to the day since 1st July 2015.

Analysing the data for the first six months of the year I find that the January to June average this year was the second highest since records began in 1984. But it is more interesting to note, and relevant, that the three highest January to June averages have occurred in the past ten ears.

Friday produced another summer’s day with 8 hours of strong sunshine, mostly in the morning. The thermometer rose to a maximum of 25.4C (3C above average) at 12.55 which was 4C down on Thursdays maximum. Shorty after midday thin cloud started to partly obscure the strength of the sun, hence the maximum at this time of day rather than later in the afternoon when the heat usually builds up.

It was another dry day. The evaporation from ground sources and plant life recently has been between 4 and 5mm per day of equivalent rainfall lost to the atmosphere, with the total this month of 28mm, almost equal the rainfall in June.

The thermometer slowly dropped to a minimum of 15.5C overnight making it the warmest night since 22nd June, which was 4C above the July average.

With the ground so dry and high reading 24.6C at 08.00.

This morning brought intermittent sunshine as broken cloud but up after dawn.

Under the waning influence of the high pressure yesterday produced another blistering day with the thermometer just tipping the scale at 30.0C at 15.02C, which was 7.7C above the long-term average. This just beat the Wednesday maximum of 28.6C.

There was minimal wind strength with the strongest gust late afternoon at 15mph. Another dry day with the only precipitation this month of just 0.2mm of moisture that fell midday on Monday.

The UV level fell just a little but at 7.1 was still in the ‘Very High’ category as it has been all this week.

Another very mild night followed with the thermometer slowly falling to its lowest point at 05.22 this morning with a minimum of 13.1C, which was 1.5C above the July average.

This morning dawned with intermittent strong sunshine totalling 1.6 hours by 08.00, by which time the thermometer had recovered to 17.9C, a very warm start to the day.

Thursday 6th:
Today the thermometer peaked at a maximum of 29.9C at 15.02. This was the hottest day since the June record of 32.2C on the 21st of June.

June was a memorable month for a number of meteorological reasons; not least the breaking of temperature records at this station that was started in 1984.

On the 19th the mini heat wave boosted the thermometer to a thirty-three year record for this station with a maximum of 31.4C. Just two days later, at the peak of the hot weather, the temperature soared again to a maximum of 32.2C. This was 12.5C above the long-term daily average.

The average minimum temperature was 11.74C being 2C above the long-term average with a similar value of +1.9C for the daytime average.

Although the warmth gradually dissipated after this time it was a record breaking month with the mean temperature 1.95C above the long-term average breaking the previous record set in 2006 by 0.1C.

Living at these latitudes and in our unique position geographically, being close to the continental land mass and large areas of water, we are used to wide fluctuations in the day to day and day to night temperatures. On the 18th there was a variation of 19.7C between day and night time extremes yet ten days later, on the 28th, the variation was just 2C.

Turning to the rainfall, it was another below average month, the fifth this year. The total was 35.0mm, being 64% of the long-term average or a monthly deficit of 20mm. The last six months have produced a deficit of 79mm (or over three inches) compared to the long-term average.

We have also experienced five consecutive years of below average June rainfall totals following the extreme amount of 127.9mm in 2012. The record of 143.2mm was set in 1998 and by contrast in 1995, a very dry month with just 12.5mm.

It is important to remember that much moisture from ground sources and plant life evaporated during each day with in excess of 5mm of equivalent rainfall on two days. The total evaporation for the month was 96.8mm; almost three times the total rainfall for June.

Strong sunshine amounted to 128 hours being 10 hours below the average for the last three years when this instrument was installed.

Solar energy was just above the seven-year average with a figure of 102%.

The UV levels have varied throughout the month from 2.9 (low) during the miserable day on the 28th to 10.4 (Extreme) that occurred briefly on the 24th. This latter level has only been recorded once before, in June 2011, since this instrument was installed in the autumn of 2009.

Not surprisingly, the average soil temperature (17.7C) at a depth of 5cm was 2.4C above the average for this thermometer that was installed in 2014.

I think the quotation from Gertrude Jekyll, the influential British horticulturist, garden designer, artist and writer who created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, is appropriate to describe the past month. “What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfilment of the promise of the earlier months and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.”