During July, Cheshire received more than twice the average rainfall for the month (219%). Other counties in central and northern England, including Lancashire, Staffordshire Derbyshire and Leicestershire, also received more than one-and-a-half times the month’s typical rainfall for July.

Following on from a largely wet June, northern England and the Midlands have now received more than the season’s usual rainfall, with August still to go.

Tim Legg, of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre, said: “With an all-time temperature record it would be easy to assume that this summer has been hot, but the statistics for the season so far tell another story. There have been several periods of intense rainfall as separate areas of low pressure brought well above average rainfall to some parts of the UK, causing issues particularly in Lincolnshire in June and part of northern England during the last few days of July.”

Conversely, some parts of western Britain have been much drier than average so far this summer. In particular Pembrokeshire has only received about one third (31%) of July’s usual average rainfall, and during the first two months of summer it has only received just over one half (53%) of the summer’s average rainfall.

Map showing the rainfall amount across the UK in June and July 2019 as a % of the 1981-2010 average. Parts of central and northern England have already had more than 130% of the 1981-2010 average, despite being partway through the season. You would normally expect a total of around 66% of the average at this point in the season.

The Cambridge University Botanic Garden recorded an all-time high temperature of 38.7 °C on Thursday 25 July. Across the UK, the average temperature for July has been 1.2 °C above the long-term average for 1981-2010. However, parts of Eastern and North East England have been even warmer at around 1.6 °C above the long-term average. In these areas last month is likely to well within the top ten warmest Julys since 1910.

July 2019 climate statistics
Area Maximum temperature Minimum temperature Mean temperature Precipitation Sunshine duration
Act deg °C Anom 8110 deg °C Act deg °C Anom 8110 deg °C Act deg °C Anom 8110 deg °C Act mm Anom 8110 % Act hours Anom 8110 %
UK 20.7 1.3 12.0 1.1 16.4 1.2 88.9 114 173.2 100
England 22.4 1.4 12.6 1.0 17.5 1.2 68.1 109 201.6 104
Wales 20.4 1.2 11.7 0.5 16.0 0.9 54.8 59 185.2. 103
Scotland 18.4 1.3 11.2 1.6 14.7 1.4 132.5 134 130.7 93
N Ireland 19.3 0.8 11.8 1.1 15.6 1.0 86.7 107 128.7 91

‘Act’ – refers to the actual average value in the units given

‘Anom 8110’ – refers to the anomaly relative to a 1981-2010 baseline climatology given as a difference (temperature) or as a percentage (rainfall and sunshine)