Climate summaries

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

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UK last month

August 2022

The weather during August was dominated by high pressure during the first half of the month, and the second week became very hot. The high pressure eventually moved away to leave more showery conditions, with thunderstorms in places on some days, though the final week was drier once more. It was another drier than average month, and there was plenty of sunshine, especially early on.

The provisional UK mean temperature was 16.7 °C, which is 1.5 °C above the long-term average. It was warmest relative to average in eastern and southern England, particularly for maxima which were up to 4 °C above average in places. It was provisionally the UK’s fifth warmest August in a series from 1884. Rainfall ranged from near average to only 20% of average, with some parts of England and Wales particularly dry, though the south-east was generally not as dry as in July; the UK had 54% of average. It was a sunnier than average month in all areas except the far north-west, with an overall sunshine figure of 128% of average, making it the UK’s fourth sunniest August in a series from 1919.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 34.9 °C was recorded at Charlwood (Surrey) on the 13th. A minimum temperature of 0.3 °C was recorded at Tulloch Bridge (Inverness-shire) on the 17th. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 UTC on the 17th, 146.2 mm of rain fell at Holbeach (Lincolnshire). A wind gust of 49 knots (56 mph) was recorded at South Uist (Western Isles) on the 20th.

Regional values for August 2022