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

July 2019

July began with a cool, showery north-westerly flow over the UK, but for most of the first half of the month high pressure was close to the south and west and this brought mostly dry weather with plentiful sunshine for much of England, especially the south-west, and also south Wales, but elsewhere cloud was more variable. The second half was generally more unsettled with frequent westerly and south-westerly winds, but with an exceptionally hot spell from the 22nd to 26th which saw record-breaking temperatures in many parts of the country, including a new record for the UK as a whole, and also widespread thunderstorms.

The provisional UK mean temperature was 16.4 °C, which is 1.2 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average, making it the equal 8th warmest July in a series since 1910, though not as warm as July 2018. The mean minimum temperature was the equal 4th highest in the series. Mean maximum temperatures ranged from over 1.5 °C above normal in the south and east to around 0.5 °C above in some western coastal areas. Mean minimum temperatures were over 1.5 °C above average in much of the north and east, but less than 0.5°C above in the south-west. Rainfall was 114% of average, but was very variable across the country, with below-average rainfall over most of Wales and the south-west, but more than twice the normal amount from Manchester to Leicestershire. Sunshine was 100% of average, and amounts were above normal over the south-west but below normal over most of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 38.7 °C was recorded at Cambridge Botanic Garden on the 25th. A minimum temperature of -0.4 °C was recorded at Altnaharra (Sutherland) on the 8th. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 GMT on the 11th, 80.4 mm of rain fell at Fettercairn (Kincardineshire). A wind gust of 50 knots (58 mph) was recorded at Berry Head (Devon) on the 29th.

Regional values for July 2019