August’s summer soakers look set to become the norm
That hackneyed TS Eliot quote about April being the “cruellest month” is always trotted out in periods of wild weather, but what about August being the wettest? Certainly it is statistically the wettest month of summer.
Remember last year’s deluge? Near my neck of the woods in Derbyshire there was 173 per cent more summer rainfall recorded than the previous average between 1981 and 2010. In Scotland, the past 10 Augusts have consistently remained the wettest summer month. No wonder the Prime Minister packed up his bell tent early and scuttled back to Downing Street.
Sadly this soggy trend looks set to continue. A key statistic from the State of the UK Climate Report is that over the past decade summers have been 13 per cent wetter, and winters have been 12 per cent wetter as a result of climate change. And six of the 10 wettest years in the UK since 1862 have occurred since 1998.
The tail end of Storm Francis this week has seen 60mm (2.4in) to 90mm falling in parts of Northern Ireland and South West Scotland while it has pelted it down throughout the country. There have been reports of flash flooding and caravans being hauled to safety from a waterlogged Pembrokeshire campsite.
Mercifully, things look better this weekend before striking up again on Tuesday. This bank holiday weekend is forecast to be largely settled, sunny and cold – the coldest, perhaps, on record. That particular accolade belongs to the Shetland Isles where 10.1C (50.2F) was recorded in 1979 on the sort of summer’s day where you play Frisbee in mittens and drink whisky for breakfast.
Still, for all those hunkering down in a rented cottage this weekend, at least no one will make you quarantine indoors off the back of a wet weekend in Wales – the weather will do that just fine.