View NW from Swaines Green on a cloudy July day (photo: Roger Emmens)

Weather News

A traditional English summer

July was frequently cloudy and occasionally damp, but actually was more like an average July than in recent years.

Surprisingly, given that so many days seemed to be grey, July was more like an average summer month. In fact it was almost exactly average: our mean temperature of 17.8°C was only 0.2°C above the 36 year average in our records. Any warmer and sunnier interludes were short-lived, before the weather became cooler, duller and wetter again. And so the cycle continued, with no fixed weather pattern remaining established for long.

However, there was a brief surge in temperatures in the last two days of the month: the maximum recorded on 31st of 35.9°C was our record temperature for July. Once again, however, the heat was short lived and the following day was much cooler again. Despite this peak, the average daily maximum across the month as a whole at 22.9°C was still only 0.6°C above the 36 year average.

Despite the changeable conditions, rainfall across the month was a total of 40.9mm, which is some 75% of the 35 year average for July. At least the rain came more or less spaced out across the month, so that our gardens didn't get too dried out.

Below is the summary data for July 2020.