The UK in August
Mike Hulme on last month’s weather
DAYTIME TEMPERATURES
For the 7th
successive August, daytime temperatures in the UK were above the long-term
average - despite what has been claimed by some educationalists wanting the
school year to start earlier because of poor holiday weather. For most of the country August was warmer
than June or July. The hottest day
occurred on the 25th, just before the Bank Holiday weekend. Skegness was particularly warm, reaching
nearly 2.5C above the norm, whereas Lerwick just failed to reach its average
August daytime temperature of 14C. The
year 2000 remains about 0.7C warmer than average.
RAINFALL
For the third successive
month, rainfall across the UK was below average, but the wet winter and spring
mean that there should be no danger of water shortages. Only the west of Scotland - in contrast to
July - and some isolated locations with heavy storms - for example Bristol and
Belfast - recorded more rainfall than usual during August. The driest spell of the month occurred
during the 4th week and the 19th was the wettest day of
the month. Only the 23rd was
dry everywhere.
SUNSHINE
The sun returned to Britain
in August after a disappointing June and July, making it the 6th
successive August with sunshine totals above average. Only the far north of Scotland, and a few upland areas, failed to
reach average sunshine levels. The 3rd
and 4th weeks were definitely the best for sunshine and the week
beginning 20th August was the sunniest of the year. Scarborough, for example, averaged over 8
hours of sunshine a day, compared to an average of just under 6 hours. Year 2000 sunshine levels are now slightly
above average again.
Dr Mike Hulme is a research
climatologist at the University of East Anglia
(more details at website at
www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~mikeh/)
August 2000: Warm, dry and sunny
Daytime Temperature: 1.0C above average; Rainfall: 21% below average; Sunshine: 16% above average.
[all average figures are
based on the 1951-80 average]
Mean monthly extremes:
Warmest Bournemouth 22.1C
Sunniest Folkestone 265 hours
sun
Wettest Eskdalemuir 159mm
Coldest Lerwick 13.9C
Cloudiest Lerwick
115
hours sun
Driest Guernsey
12mm