Rain leaves us pining for hot summer of ’76
THOSE of us able to remember the summer of 1976 have had an extra reason this week to reflect on how much things are changing in the UK. From June through to August, we had uninterrupted blue skies, with temperatures regularly over 86F (30C) and – the downside – a severe drought.
Compare and contrast, as they used to say on O-level papers in 1976, with this June. Below average sunshine in most places and twice the usual amount of rain down the east coast from Scotland to Dover. Some areas are provisionally reporting their wettest June since records began in 1910 – including Essex and Middlesex with 4.5in (112mm) of rainfall, except for Shetland, where it has been drier and sunnier than average. Four decades ago today, Cheltenham in Gloucestershire set a new July record when it nudged 97F (36C). Today it will be lucky to manage 64F (18C).
While there may be fewer showers than of late, we will all continue to be at the mercy of a low pressure weather system blowing cool air and precipitation in from the Atlantic.
As the week develops, a band of rain will settle over the UK, probably centred on the Midlands, with a wet Birmingham stuck at 64F (18C) on Monday. Further south, though, the humidity may start to return, with temperatures up to 72F (22C) at Wimbledon by Tuesday. This change is being caused by a ridge of high pressure pushing in from way down south in the Azores, but it is a halfhearted affair.
Those Atlantic lows will continue to dominate, bringing “mixed” weather – for which read plenty of rain, but with sufficient gaps in between to tempt us to hope, and even dream of 1976.