August weather

August’s weather was dominated by high pressure during the first half of the month, and very hot weather in the second week. The high pressure then moved away to leave more showery conditions, with thunderstorms in places on some days, although the final week was less wet. It was another drier than average month, with plenty of sunshine, especially early on.

The provisional UK mean temperature was 16.7 °C, which is 1.5 °C above the long-term average. It was warmest relative to average in eastern and southern England, particularly for maxima which were up to 4 °C above average in places. Provisionally, it was the UK’S fifth warmest August in a series from 1884.

Rainfall ranged from near average to only 20 per cent of average, with some parts of England and Wales particularly dry, although the South East was generally not as dry as in July; the UK had 54 per cent of average. It was a sunnier than average month in all areas except the far north-west, with an overall sunshine figure of 128 per cent of average, making it the UK’S fourth sunniest August in a series from 1919.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: a maximum temperature of 34.9 °C was recorded at Charlwood (Surrey) on the 13th, and a minimum temperature of 0.3 °C was recorded at Tulloch Bridge (Inverness-shire) on the 17th. In the 24 hours ending at 9 am UTC on the 17th, 146.2 mm of rain fell at Holbeach (Lincolnshire). A wind gust of 49 knots (56 mph) was recorded at South Uist (Western Isles) on the 20th.