Climate summaries

Overview of weather across the UK for previous months, seasons and years

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UK last month

September 2020

September began with a ridge of high pressure, but westerlies dominated from the 2nd until the 12th bringing areas of rain interspersed with brighter showery weather, though high pressure increasingly influenced the south at times. It turned hot in places, especially south-east England, around mid-month, and the 16th to 21st was settled with high pressure and plenty of warm sunshine for most parts of the UK. The weather turned much cooler and more unsettled from the 22nd, and it was very wet and windy in Norfolk on the 25th. With clear skies and slackening northerly winds further west from the 25th to 27th, frost developed overnight in some places.

The provisional UK mean temperature was 12.9 °C, which is 0.2 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average. Mean maximum temperatures were mostly up to 1 °C above average, but nearer 1.5 °C above average in parts of south-east England. Mean minimum temperatures were mostly up to 0.5 °C below average. For most of the UK it was a dry sunny month, with 77% of average rainfall and 117% of average sunshine, but rainfall was above average in Norfolk and in parts of western Scotland.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 31.3 °C was recorded at Frittenden (Kent) on the 15th. Minimum temperatures of -5.0 °C were recorded at Altnaharra (Sutherland) on the 24th and at Braemar (Aberdeenshire) on the 27th. In the 24 hours to 0900 GMT on the 13th, 88.4 mm of rain fell at Glen Nevis (Inverness-shire). Wind gusts of 58 knots (67 mph) were observed at Weybourne (Norfolk) and Donna Nook (Lincolnshire) on the 25th.

Regional values for September 2020