Weather news
More crazy record-breaking weather!
A review of the weather in August 2022
What a month of trying weather! The heatwave and drought persisted until near the end of the month when the drought broke in dramatic fashion.
Firstly the temperatures. August had the second warmest mean temperature (20.3°C) in our 38 years of records after 1997. It recorded the third highest day maximum, 32.9°C, beaten only in 2003 and 2020. The persistence of the heat was reflected in the highest ever average day max of 26.5°C – this was also the first time that every day in August had a maximum temperature above 20°C. The warmth persisted overnight too, with our equal second warmest average day minimum at 15.1°C, and our third highest overall month minimum at 10.2°C.
And then there’s the rain… We had just five days of rain in the month; only 2003 had fewer. But that doesn’t tell the whole story…
The first rain of any substance came on 17th. It was a day when a long line of thunderstorms passed very close to Epping, with nearby thunder rumbling for the best part of three hours; but we only caught the tail end of all this, with a brief downpour giving us 6.2mm – the most rain since 6th June. By contrast, however, Loughton and Buckhurst Hill were deluged – there were flash floods making Epping New Road nearly impassable at Buckhurst Hill, and both Loughton Station and Buckhurst Hill Waitrose were closed due to flooding. A rain gauge at Loughton recorded more than 60mm of rain!
But our turn was to come on 25th August. Thunderstorms began around 3am, and rain continued until lunchtime, eventually delivering 48.0mm of rain, our wettest ever August day, and the third wettest day on record. To give you an idea, the previous wettest August day in 1985, and equalled in 1987, was 38.1mm, so we logged almost 10mm more than the record!
The outcome was that, almost unbelievably, the total rainfall for August 2022 was actually above the long term average! We recorded 57.6mm, exactly 1mm more than the long term average. Despite this, our year to date rainfall totals up to the end of August are the lowest on record by some margin.
Perhaps surprisingly, with the long period of hot, dry weather thanks to high pressure remaining in charge, we had an average August in terms of barometric pressure; but our winds showed the lowest monthly maximum gust (20mph) and the lowest average day maximum gust (13.7mph) in our records (albeit such wind records only cover 14 years). Unsurprisingly the prevailing wind direction was in the south-east quadrant – usually the hottest and driest direction in summer.
So as we head into Autumn, will the pattern change and turn wetter? Check back with us next month and find out!
| Measure | Unit | Minimum | Average | Maximum | Average min | Average max | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relative humidity | % | 27 | 69 | 97 | |||
| Temperature | °C | 10.2 | 20.3 | 32.9 | 15.1 | 26.5 | |
| Wind source (most common/highest gust) | Sector | ESE | E | ||||
| Wind speed | mph | 1.9 | 20 | 13.7 | |||
| Rain daily accumulation | mm | 1.9 | 48.0 | 57.6 | |||
| Barometric pressure | hPa | 1000.7 | 1017.1 | 1029.3 | |||
| Solar irradiance during daylight | W/m² | 294 | 997 | 800 | |||
| Sunshine (sunny if irradiance > 120 W/m2) | Hours | 10.2 | 12.0 | 316 |