Climate summaries

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

Those interested in climate change and predictions of future climates should also visit the Climate Change pages.

UK last month

August 2023

August was a rather mixed and unsettled month, continuing the theme of July, although to a slightly lesser extent. Low pressure systems mostly dominated the weather, with any brief spells of high pressure bringing settled weather generally short-lived in nature. Summer warmth was mostly confined to southern and eastern areas, with only one really hot day on 10th when temperatures reached the mid to high 20s quite widely. There were some notably cool spells; on 5th August maximum temperatures struggled to reach even 15°C across many eastern areas. Any periods of dry weather were also fairly brief. Two named storms, Antoni on 5th and Betty on 18th to 19th brought unseasonably wet and windy weather to many parts of the UK.

Maximum temperatures for the month overall were near average, with minimum temperatures slightly above average across the north and west. The UK monthly mean temperature was 0.2°C above average. The rainfall pattern was variable but generally near average with the UK recording 95%. Sunshine was slightly below average with 92% and it was dull across some western areas, with only 79% of average sunshine hours for Wales and south-west England, and 85% for Northern Ireland.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 28.4°C was recorded at Wellesbourne (Warwickshire) on the 10th. A minimum temperature of 1.4°C was recorded at Altnaharra (Sutherland) on the 6th. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 UTC on the 19th, 83.0 mm of rain fell at Trassey (County Down). A wind gust of 68 knots (78 mph) was recorded at Berry Head (Devon) on the 5th.

Regional values for August 2023