Climate summaries

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

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UK last month

August 2020

August started off with low pressure and showery, mostly cloudy weather. Between the 6th and 13th the weather turned warm or hot and sunny in most regions, with some thundery outbreaks, and temperatures widely exceeded 30 °C in the south and locally 35 °C in the south-east. The weather turned more unsettled mid-month with showers and longer spells of rain. From the 19th to 28th the weather was often wet and windy with depressions heading in from the west, and Storms Ellen and Francis brought especially wet and windy weather to most of the country on the 20th-22nd and 25th. It turned cooler and quieter during the last few days.

The provisional UK mean temperature was 15.9 °C, which is 1.0 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average. Mean maximum temperatures were mostly between 0.5 and 1.0 °C above average, but were slightly below average in eastern coastal parts of Scotland, and more than 2 °C above average in parts of the south-east. Mean minimum temperatures were widely between 1 and 2 °C above average except in northern Scotland, and August’s UK mean minimum temperature was the third highest in a series from 1884. Rainfall was 135% of average and sunshine was 88% of average, and it was a cloudy and wet month over most of the UK, but it was drier and sunnier than average in north-west Scotland.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 36.4 °C was recorded at Heathrow and Kew Gardens (London) on the 7th. A minimum temperature of -0.4 °C was recorded at Loch Glascarnoch (Ross & Cromarty) on the 24th. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 GMT on the 13th, 103.8 mm of rain fell at Hollies (Staffordshire). A wind gust of 70 knots (81 mph) was recorded at Needles (Isle of Wight) on the 25th.

Regional values for August 2020