July’s record hot and cold

The curtain has fallen on the month of July and it has been a pretty interesting month, with a range of weather thrown at us.

Early in the month, the wind blew from the south, pumping up unseasonably hot air from the north of Africa.

However, to end the month, the wind came from the north, bringing unseasonably chilly air from all the way from the Arctic.

Between this burst of hot and cool has been sandwiched a few weeks of unsettled weather, with low pressure bringing cloud, wind and rain.

July 2015 – wet and cool

After the burst of heat at the beginning of July, the rest of the month was unsettled with spells of rain, wind and cool air.

This was thanks to the jet stream, which had generally been to the south of the UK, putting us in the path of areas of low pressure.

July’s rainfall for the UK as a whole has been 34 per cent above normal, with Scotland the wettest nation relative to average, with rainfall 43 per cent above normal.

It was also been distinctly cool, with mean temperatures (an average of day and night temperatures) for the whole UK 0.6C below normal.

July – record heat and cold

Embellished within the colourful tapestry that July’s weather has provided, there has been record heat and cold.

A heatwave at the beginning of the month saw hot and humid air lift temperatures to 36.7C at Heathrow airport on 1 July, making it the hottest July day on record for the UK.

This beat the previous July record of 36.5C, reached at Wisley in Surrey on 19 July 2006.

The end of the month saw record cold, as a northerly wind brought chilly air all the way from the Arctic.

A few places experienced their coldest July nights on record, as temperatures dipped under clear skies.

Most notably, Exeter airport in Devon dropped to 2C early on 31 July, beating the previous record by 1.3C.

Keele in Staffordshire, Pershore in Worcestershire and Chivenor also had their coldest July nights, although only just beating the old records by 0.2C, 0.3C and 0.1C respectively.

What about August?

The final month of summer is underway and the changeable theme looks likely to continue for at least the first half of the month.

As I wrote in my blog at the end of last week, August is not always the most reliable summer month for good weather.

In fact, seven Augusts in the past decade have been wetter than average – four of them significantly so.

So, whilst there will be some occasional days of warmth and sunshine, a heatwave is looking unlikely, with most of us seeing at least a little rain at some point.

Don’t forget, you can get the latest forecast on the Channel 4 Weather website. I’ll also be posting regular updates on Twitter – @liamdutton