Four seasons in one month as hail, rain and sunshine all arrive in July
JULY 2021 really gave us all four weather seasons from searing heat to hailstones.
Afternoon temperatures averaged 23.7c nearly 2c above normal while night time figures were logged at 14c which made it the warmest July since 2018. Rainfall was very variable depending on the number of thunderstorms you received.
In Mountsorrel I recorded 72mm of rain which is 20% above normal but nearly half of this 32mm fell in one spectacular downpour on the 7th which saw 32mm falling in 1 hour!
Dean in Hinckley recorded 62mm, the expected figure for the month but some locations would have received much more if you caught several downpours!
The total sunshine figure measured by Dave Mutton in Cosby was 180 hours which was very close to normal for this time of year. Winds were generally light but they gusted up to 40mph around the showers and thunderstorms.
July started in a very showery nature with frequent downpours that caused some local flooding. And after a dry second week the heat really began to hit us in week three.
A high pressure from the Azores arrived and brought with it extremely hot air which then settled over us for seven days. The heat was so intense the MET office issued an extreme heat warning. Temperatures by day reached up to 30.7c that Dean in Hinckley recorded on the 18th while nights were extremely hot with temperatures not falling below 18.2c at Mountsorrel on the 19th!
We all sweltered for 7 days in the unrelenting heat and with all that energy thunderstorms began to develop.
On the 20th a spectacular storm affected Kibworth with a staggering storm that produced 72mm of rain in just 1 hour.
That a staggering five weeks of rainfall falling in just an hour! With the rain fell giant hailstones that measured 5cm across.
These were the biggest hailstones to fall on Leicestershire in more than nine years. These caused extensive damage to property and cars in the village with the huge stones penetrating plastic conservatory roofs and garages and completely smashing car windows!
Fortunately the storm was very localised and confined to Kibworth itself but the memories of this will stay with people for a long time!
The heat finally subsided but the heavy showers returned as storm Evert arrived on the 30th. This produced a huge amount of rain in the city with 20mm falling in just one hour or nearly two weeks rainfall and this caused flooding in the Narborough Road area as well as at the h LRI.
So all in all a very exciting weather month but as global warming continues we can expect these extremes much more frequently!