Climate summaries

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

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UK last month

August 2019

August opened with a weak ridge of high pressure, which brought some warm sunshine but also some scattered thundery showers in some places. The weather then turned more unsettled and breezier with some showers and longer spells of rain, and deep depressions brought bouts of wet and windy weather especially to Scotland on the 9th, 14th and 16th. There was a hot sunny spell in most central and southern areas between the 21st and 27th, which extended to most of the country between the 24th and 26th, setting new record temperatures for the late August bank holiday. A thundery breakdown followed, and the last few days were cooler with some heavy persistent rain over much of Scotland and Cumbria.

The provisional UK mean temperature was 15.8 °C, which is 0.9 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average. Mean maximum temperatures were mostly about 1.0 °C above normal, but were over 2 °C above in the east of East Anglia. Mean minimum temperatures were about 0.5 °C above average in the south, but over 1 °C above in most areas from the Midlands northwards. Rainfall was 153% of average, and large areas of Scotland, Cumbria and Northumberland had over twice the normal rainfall, but it was drier than average in East Anglia and Kent. Sunshine was 107% of average, and it was generally sunnier than average in central and eastern England and in the east of Northern Ireland, with close to or slightly below average sunshine elsewhere.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 33.4 °C was recorded at Heathrow (Greater London) on the 27th. A minimum temperature of 2.0 °C was recorded at Katesbridge (County Down) on the 13th. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 GMT on the 31st, 69.8 mm of rain fell at Tyndrum (Perthshire). A wind gust of 73 knots (84 mph) was recorded at Needles (Isle of Wight) on the 10th.

Regional values for August 2019