August so far: wet, wet, wet…

After being spoilt with an abundance of sunshine and warmth through June and July, with temperatures above normal, August has seen a change to wetter weather – especially since the end of last week.

For the first two months of the summer, the jet stream spent most of the time to the north of the UK, taking low pressure and rain towards Iceland and Scandinavia, leaving us under the influence of high pressure.

However, recently, the jet stream has moved to the south of the UK, bringing us the remnants of Hurricane Bertha last weekend and heavy downpours this week. It’s also turned cooler – something that is likely to persist for the rest of August. 

Today, the Met Office released some provisional figures showing that the UK has had almost all of its average August rainfall in the first 13 days of the month.

Up to the 13 August, the UK has had 86.1mm of rain, just a few millimetres short of the 89.5mm that would normally be expected during the whole month.

Looking at individual countries, Scotland has been the wettest so far, with 104 per cent of its average August rainfall up to the 13 August.

Sunshine has been close to average for this point in the month, with 48 per cent of the full-month average.

Temperatures have been above average so far by 0.3C, although this trend is likely to be reversed for the rest of the month, with next week looking distinctly cool in northerly wind.

If you’re wondering what to expect in the coming days, check out the Channel 4 Weather website. I’ll also be posting updates on Twitter – @liamdutton