What a drip! Wet summer squelches on

Little sunshine until holidays end

IT will go down in history as the summer that never was – a dull and damp affair that entered the record books for all the wrong reasons.

Scotland’s summer began badly with the wettest June ever and will finish with a procession of downpours, thunder and even showers of hail.

The only bright spot on the horizon will emerge later this month – just as children are preparing to go back to school.

As we enter August, Met Office forecaster Grahame Madge has dismissed the chance of a last hurrah to greet the end of the school holidays.

He said: ‘This week does not look great. There’s quite a lot of rain forecast for Scotland, right up to the weekend.’

Scotland suffered its dampest June on record – shared with 1938 – with 156mm (6.14in) of rainfall, 75 per cent above the average for the month, according to the Met Office.

There were the occasional sunny days. On July 24, Scotland was the hottest spot in the UK, when 24.5C (76.1F) was recorded at Tyndrum, Stirlingshire.

However, for much of the month, soggy Scotland had to endure pictures showing tennis fans sweltering under the heat of SW19 at Wimbledon.

July weather statistics expected to be published today will almost certainly show that we endured higher than average rainfall and below average hours of sunshine.

Scotland is being badly affected by the erratic behaviour of the jetstream, which normally acts as a summer buffer to rain-bearing weather systems coming in from the Atlantic. This year, the jetstream has been flowing unusually far to the south, which means we are vulnerable to a succession of low pressure systems bringing rain.

Mr Madge said one such system in the upper atmosphere is creating a ‘messy picture’ into today. He added: ‘Tuesday

‘Strong winds arriving’

will be showery, with some hail and thunder, but yet another area of low pressure makes landfall on Wednesday.

‘Scotland should start reasonably bright but as the day goes on, all parts of the UK will suffer a lot of rain.

‘The centre of this low pres sure system approaches the UK in the early hours of Thursday. As a result, a lot of rain will affect the north of Scotland, while areas further south will endure showers, which will be heavy at times.’

He added: ‘Friday looks the same, with strong winds arriving at the end of the week.’

The weekend offers little respite from the squally conditions. The picture will be one of sunshine and showers, while it is forecast to deteriorate further early next week.

A north/south split will emerge, with rain and high winds forecast for the north of Scotland.

Only after the middle of next week do we begin to see a more settled weather pattern, which could last until the end of the month.