Climate summaries

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

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UK last month

August 2021

The first half of August was broadly unsettled, with plenty of rain between the 5th and 13th. The second half was drier, except for the 20th and 21st, with high pressure developing by the 23rd and remaining near northern UK thereafter. Scotland, especially the west, was often warm by day, whereas further south warm days were much fewer. Many areas were drier than usual for the month, with less than half the average total rainfall in some places, and the wettest areas were south-east England, eastern Scotland and Northern Ireland. Western Scotland fared well for sunshine, though many other areas were duller than average, especially central and eastern England where some stations had their dullest August in records going back 60 or more years.

The provisional UK mean temperature was 15.0 °C, which is 0.1 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average. Maxima were above normal over Scotland and Northern Ireland but below normal for most of England and Wales, while minima were slightly above normal in most areas. Most parts of the UK had less rainfall than average, with below half the average amount in parts of the English Midlands, Lincolnshire, East Anglia, and western Scotland. The UK overall had 73% of average August rainfall. Sunshine was above average for western Scotland, but below average for most other areas, with only around 60% of average for much of the Midlands, East Anglia, central southern England, and Shetland; the overall figure was 79% of average.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 27.2 °C was recorded at Tyndrum (Perthshire) on the 25th. A minimum temperature of 0.3 °C was recorded at Braemar (Aberdeenshire) on the 31st. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 UTC on the 9th, 74.2 mm of rain fell at Spadeadam (Cumbria). A wind gust of 51 knots (59 mph) was recorded at Needles (Isle of Wight) on the 9th.

Regional values for August 2021