UK Weather - Summer 2011

[Simon Culling]

As we have now started the meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere, I will start a new thread.

The CET for the first 4 days of June is running at 15.5*C, which is 2.3*C above normal. We have had some welcome rain this weekend (in the form of elevated thunderstorms and associated showers), but many places have not had that much. Reports of up to 55mm locally in Wiltshire, but most places have had just a few mm's except N Ireland, which has had a soaking today (Sunday 5th).

It was also warm on Saturday 5th and with NE winds the SE of England and particularly the south coast was the place to be. The highest temperature of 28.1*C was recorded at Solent MRSC (near Southampton), with 27.3*C at St James Park (London) and 27.0*C at Heathrow. An exceptional 27.0*C was also recorded at St Catherines Point, which is a lighthouse on the southern end of the Isle of Wight.

It was cooler here in Milton Keynes as the NE winds were gradually bringing colder air inland from the North Sea, so we only reached 22*C, but it was a glorious sunny day. Cooler today (Sunday) and we only reached 16*C depsite a sunny morning. Light rain in the afternoon and some welcome moderate rain in the evening, but cool at 10*C by early evening.

[Simon Culling]

Quite a lot of rain o/night Sunday into Monday morning (5th/6th June) in the SE of England, particularly in Surrey and SW London. Its a bit difficult to see where it came from as there was no obvious frontal zone or area of thunderstorms. The Met Office chart does show a convergence line running N-S through London and with outflow from massive thunderstorms over Germany and E France advecting NW to the UK (as a SE flow) and meeting the N flow over much of England and Wales it is plausible that this provided the lift to release any potential instability.

In the 24 hours to 0900GMT 41mm fell at Southwell (SW London), 39mm at Warlingham (Surrey) and 34mm at Kenley Airfield (Surrey).

Here in Milton Keynes we had 10mm which my grass very much appreciated and it was still raining slightly this morning and just 8*C.

[Manukau heads obs]

have you seen this new service from the Met office Simon?
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/pws/ ... eathermap/
and also
http://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/

[Simon Culling]

Yes Brian. The invent pages have been available for about 6 months now and the radar and weather elements (temperature, wind etc) are very good indeed. There are about 125 synoptic stations (there are approx 95 AWS climate stations not shown) in the UK displayed on this system so it gives a good overall picture of the weather over these islands. It has been on beta test for quite a while as I have said, but I don't think it is a permanent thing....we might have to pay for it at some stage.

The WOW site only started up a couple of days ago and will combine Met Office sites with private sites who volunteer their information. Not many have signed up yet and the pages are very slow to load. Early days yet. It is a collaboration with the Royal Meteorological Society.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releas ... -to-launch

[Manukau heads obs]

yup, I have been part of the WOW development
about 70 stations now sending data to WOW auto

[Simon Culling]

Hello Brian. The WOW initiative from the Met Office is an interesting development and if they get the quality control right it will become a very useful site indeed. It is only in its infancy, so I am sure there are many more developments to come.

We have had a number of chilly mornings so far in June. On the 1st (last Wednesday) it was a cold start in southern England with minimums of 0.2*C at Santon Downham (Suffolk), 0.8*C at Exeter Airport (Devon) and 1.5*C at South Newington (Oxon). Yesterday morning (Tues 7th) it was the turn of northern England, with an o/night minimum of -0.3*C at Ravensworth (N Yorks) and 2.1*C at Redesdale (Northumberland).

The record low temperature for England in June is -5.6*C at Santon Downham on the 1st and 3rd in 1962, and for Wales it is -3.2*C at Bala on the 1st in 1975.

[snowstormwatcher]

Drought has been declared in eastern england with the driest spring since 1990 and some areas having the driest spring on record.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/ ... DM20110610

[Simon Culling]

Hello Snowstormwatcher, the irony is that as soon as drought is declared the weather appears to have changed (albeit perhaps briefly) allowing weather systems in from the Atlantic to deliver the first proper rain for ages.

The cool weather has continued for the last few days with the June CET falling to 13.6*C (+0.1*C) by the 10th and will certainly be below average by today. Its 11:30 in the morning here and raining steadily at just 11*C which is a little nippy for mid June.

The frosts have also continued, especially in the northern half of the UK, with the night of the 9/10th being the coldest, with lows of -1.9*C at Altnaharra, -1.5*C at Kinbrace and -1.4*C at Cromdale, all in the Scottish Highlands. Saturday morning (11th) saw frost recorded again in Scotland, but also further south in Wales, with a minimum of -0.8*C at Bala in the centre of the country.....also a low of -0.9*C at Dalwhinnie (Scottish Highlands).

Daytime temps have also been low, with a number of places seeing sub 10*C maximiums, e.g 8.4*C and 9.5*C on the 5th and 9th respectively at Altnahinch Filters in Northern Ireland and 9.3*C yesterday (11th) at Braemar, where the Queen has her Scottish castle. Even in the south, the mercury only reached 10.8*C at Liscombe in Somerset on the 10th.

It was so cold that there was fresh snow on the summit of Snowdon in Wales (at 1085m or 3560ft).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-nort ... s-13731216

[Simon Culling]

The cool theme continued yesterday (Sunday 12th) with a further slight frost over favoured places in England and Wales. A minimum of -0.6*C was recorded at Bala (Wales) with -0.2*C at South Newington (Oxon) and +0.2*C at both Shobdon Airfield (Herefordshire) and Santon Downham (Suffolk). This was ahead of a frontal system that brought rain to the whole of the UK with the heaviest rain in the SW and Wales. Totals were not large per se, but in the context of the low level of recent rainfall, they were noteworthy. In the 24 hours to 2100GMT yesterday (21hrs local time) 43mm fell at St Athan (South Wales) and 37mm at Plymouth (Devon), with 20mm+ over much of the S+W of England and S Wales.

Here in Milton Keynes iit was cold o/night (mins at local stations between 3-5*C) and a cloudy, breezy and damp day with rain from 8:30am thru until the evening (approx 8-10mm), and an afternoon temperature of just 11*C. Not good for cricket, but the plants appreciated it.

CET for June up to the 12th was down to 13.0*C (-0.6*C), quite a shift in 2 days. This figure is from the Hadley Centre website and the eagle eyed amongst you will notice these two figures do not add up. No wonder some have a suspicion of the global warming datasets.

[Simon Culling]

The weather has been fairly nondescript over the UK in the last week (and on the cool side) and the CET for June was at 13.3*C (-0.6*C) up to yesterday (20th). There has been rain at times and it has been rather breezy, with daytime max temps in the range 15-20*C. We did have a brief T-storm on Saturday (18th) afternoon.

The models are hinting at a transient ridge for the weekend and early next week with warm southerlies and the possibility of the mercury hitting 30*C. They also show a potentially very thundery end to this short hot spell for Monday night into Tuesday.

Further ahead, they are hinting at a reduction in the heights over Greenland with a hope of the blocking pattern coming to an end. This will push the jet stream further north over the Atlantic and allow the Azores high to ridge more into Europe and bring us some warm sunny summer weather. However, we have had these indicatons before and it has not materialised.

[Simon Culling]

The warming up has started, with the max temps yesterday (Saturday 25th) being 24.3*C at Cambridge NAIB and 24.0*C at St James Park in London, the highest temperture in the UK since the 4th June

Today, Sunday, at 2pm it is already 25*C over much of central and eastern England and 27*C in the London area, with 29-30*C likley to be reported from here later this afternoon. It is generally sunny, but fog patches are rolling in across the southern coast so it is a lot cooler there, e.g. 15*C at Portland Bill (Dorset) and 16*C at St Catherine's Point (on the Isle of Wight).

The Met Office is still going for a thundery breakdown via a Spanish Plume type scenario, but with the storms being rather scattered in nature and no large MCS expected. They do talk about the possibility of large hail in their advance warning for Monday afternoon onwards.

The rolling CET for June was 13.6*C (-0.5*C) as at the 25th, but this is likely to move into positve territory over the next couple of days before it cools down again.

[Simon Culling]

Have been in Crete for the last week or so, and have not been able to update.

Sunday (26th June) was a warm and sunny day (max of 29.2*C at St James Park, London), but the Monady was hot, with a high of 33.3*C at Olympic Park South and 33.1*C at Gravesend (both East London). 33.0*C was also reached at Santon Downham (Suffolk) and 31.6*C at Waddington (Lincs). Some thunderstorms did break out on the Tuesday (28th June) over southern and eastern England, but only gave 10-20mm of rain, although a suprising number of buildings were struck by lightning.

Since then the weather has been mostly warm and dry, but has turned more unsettled in the last couple of days as a low pressure has slowly apporached the west of the UK (992mb just to the west of Eire at 1200GMT). It has been wet in Scotland - particularly yesterday, with 20-40mm in the east and a few thunderstorms.

CET for June ended up at 13.8*C (-0.4*C) and the provisional for July (up to the 6th) is 16.0*C (+0.5*C). June has been the first month below average since January.

Models still hinting at a height reduction over Greenland by the middle of the month, with the weather becoming warm and settled, but this has been there for sometime now and has not happened. Not holding my breath.

[Richard]

Enjoy reading your reports Simon,onya mate

[Simon Culling]

Thank you for your kind comment, Richard. I in turn enjoy following the many reports on this Forum about NZ weather and there do appear to be quite a few similarities. You appear to be getting some 'weather' at the moment after a long spell of not too much happening......apart form the earthquakes in Christchurch of course, which received a lot of coverage here in the UK.

Here in the UK it has been a showery few days, with a lot of heavy downpours on Friday and Saturday (8th + 9th July) in a gentle SW then W flow, as the low transferred slowly NW across the country to be halway between Scotland and Norway (at 1005mb) by 0600GMT this morning (Sunday 10th). The rainfall was so heavy in the NE of Scotland that it washed out play on day 3 of the Scottish Open (a precursor to this weeks Open at Sandwich) causing landslides and flooding on the course at Castle Stewart. The TV news reported that 'nearly 8cm of rain fell in two and a half hours', although the nearest MetO station at Lentran (probably 15km to the SW) recorded 33.4mm for the 24hr period ending 2100GMT on the 9th - the rain at the course occured in the early hours of the 9th. Inverness Airport recorded thunderstorms for nearly 3 hours in the early hours.

The showers produced a couple of weak tornadoes on Friday (8th July), one at Bognor Regis on the south coast and the other at Westhoughton, near Bolton (Lancs) in the NW. The latter was videoed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ma ... r-14087092

[Simon Culling]

The weather has been fairly quiet this week over the UK and mostly on the cool side and with the bulk of the rain in the northern half. Today has been sunny and warm in the east, with the mercury topping 25*C in the London area and eastern England. The nights have been cool in the north, with a nip of frost on Wennesday (13th) morning and a low of -0.8*C at Kinbrace ( N Scotland) and 1.1*C at Fyvie Castle (NE Scotland).

The CET (for July) as of yesterday (14th) was 15.7*C (-0.2*C) and will fall further in the next few days as it becomes much more unsettled and windy, with quite a lot of rain forecast, especially for Scotland. The EWR up to the 13th was 26mm compared to the average of 62mm (1961-1990 - Hadley Centre is still using these old averages).

[Simon Culling]

A miserable weekend of weather over the UK as a low moved slowly SE over Scotland to be centred near Newcastle by 1800GMT on Sunday (17th) and at 984mb. This brought rain to all areas with a gusty W wind to England + Wales. The worst of the rain was over Scotland and northern England with some large two day totals. In the 48 hours to 1800GMT on Sunday (17th) 74mm fell at Capel Curig (N Wales), 71mm at Eskdalemuir Observatory (S Scotland), 60mm at Spadeadam (Cumbria) and 54mm at Albermarle (NE England). With some flash flooding reported in Cumbria on Sunday afternoon, it is likely higher totals fell locally in this area....probably in excess of 100mm over the weekend.

Here in Milton Keynes, Saturday morning was wet and cool with 4 hours of mod-heavy rain which deposited between 18-25mm in local rainguages, but the front swept away to the east (to give a rainy afternoon for the golfers at the Open at Sandwich, Kent) to give a breezy and sunny but cool (max 18*C) afternoon. I went to the Battle Proms at Blenheim Palace (the ancestral home of Winston Churchill) in the evening and I was glad of my coat! There was a Spitfire fly-by (they have the best sounding engines in the world - a proper throaty growl) and if the photo's come out I will post a couple. Sunday was cool (max 19*C) and showery and windy in the afternoon (up to 35mph).

[Orion]

The Spitfire fly-past would have been fabulous. Saw and heard one doing a 'Victory Roll' over the local airport on September 15, 1990 (fiftieth anniversary, Battle of Britain) - unforgettable.
Enjoy reading your posts - thanks.

[Simon Culling]

Hello Orion. Watching a Spitfire fly is a wonderful experience, especially as there are not many left in working order. The photos are not brilliant, but I only have a cheap digital compact and the plane was moving rather quickly. Hope they bring back some good memories.

[Orion]

That classic silhouette! Thanks.

[Richard]

Neat photos Simon,people looked well wrapped up in the crowd.

It seems that often when the UK has a dry spring that come mid summer it becomes wetter and again this season seems to be going the same way again.

[Simon Culling]

Hello Richard. It was a little chilly at the Battle Proms in the heart of rural Oxfordshire. The local MetO site at Brize Norton was showing 18*C (in some late sunshine) when we got there around 7pm and only 13*C when it finished at 11pm, with a 5-10kt wind throughout.

The weather has remained generally cool and unsetlled this last week in the UK, but not a lot of rain over England + Wales. There have been plenty of showers, so the rainfall distribution has been patchy, but a number of funnel clouds were photographed through the middle of the week.

The CET is at 15.5*C (-0.5*C) as of the 23rd and the EWR is on 62mm as of the 22nd, slap bang on the average total for the month, but not a lot of rain is forecast for the week ahead.....just dry and rather cloudy weather in general, although some areas (if they are lucky!) will get some decent sunshine.

Friday night (22nd/23rd) was cool for the time of year, with minimums of 6.4*C at South Newington (Oxon) and 6.8*C at Santon Downham (Suffolk). Average minimum for mid July in rural England is approx 10-11*C. Last night (Saturday into Sunday) was even cooler, but I don't have the figures yet.

I'm sure this all seems rather humdrum compared to the exiting weather in the South Island at the moment.

[Simon Culling]

The dry and rather quiet weather continues in the UK and it has been rather cloudy overall. The CET to the 30th is 15.6*C (-0.4*C) and the EWR is at 63mm as at the 29th, a mere 1mm above average.

We did have a cool morning for the time of year on the 25th with a nip of ground frost in sheltered places. The air minimum was 2.8*C at South Newington (Oxon), 3.7*C at Pershore (Worcs), 3.9*C at Benson (Oxon) and 4.6*C at Shobdon Aerodrome (Herefordshire). In N Yorks at Copley, even though the screen minimum was 6.6*C, the temperature fell to -0.4*C on the ground.

It was also cool locally yesterday morning (Saturday 30th) with minimums of 4.3*C at Woburn (Bedfordshire) and 5.3*C at Church Lawford (Warwickshire).

It has warmed up today, Sunday, and was rather humid on the golf course this afternoon. We are forecast to have a warm and humid week, with the mercury likely to hit 30*C by midweek in and around London, but most of the precipitation is forecast for the north again. Not looking favourable at the moment for any storms here in the still rather dry south.....the fairways are very hard at the moment and the ball does run along nicely.

[Simon Culling]

CET for July has been calculated as 15.2*C (-0.8*C), making it the second cooler than average month and only the third this year. EWR was 65mm, just 1mm above average.

The hot and humid weather duly arived on Monday, with temperatures peaking yesterday (Weds 3rd Aug), with maximums of 30.3*C at Gravesend, 30.1*C at London Heathrow, 29.9*C at Santon Downham (Suffolk) and 29.2*C at Sutton Bonington (Nottinghamshire).

Convergence line thunderstorms broke out on both Tuesday and Wednesday over central England and gently moved away N-NE to the North Sea. Radar estimares give spot totals of approx 50mm over East Anglia yesterday afternoon and evening, but the highest guage totals I could find (24hrs to 2100GMT on Weds 3rd) were 26.2mm (22.6mm in one hour) at Leconfield (East Yorkshire) and 23.0mm at Houghton Hall (Norfolk).

We even managed a couple of storms here in Milton Keynes on both Tuesday and Wednesday, with some local small scale flooding around the city. There were some photogenic Towering Cumulus in the early afternoon yesterday, but I could not get any time away from work matters to photo them.

Edit: A weather station in the village of Howden (E Yorks) reported 41.9mm between 0600-1800 on the 3rd, with a powerful gust front hitting the nearby village of Dunnington. See press article

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9175821 ... unnington/

[stepr]

There is much difference around the UK this summer. for some it has been very wet, for others it has been dry.

Personally living on the coast in western UK it has been fairly dry and warm overall so far.

for this location (near Liverpool, UK)

20.4C has been the average maximum temperature (June-July) with rain approx. 65% below average for the rolling year so far. Night minimum temperatures have been slightly below average, 12.3C the running average so far (June-July).

The warmest temperature has been 28.9C thus far this year, with the warmest minimum being 18.6C

I've yet to run August (not worth doing so until the month has finished), but August so far is similar in temperature but wetter in general. Still we should see a deficit relative to average, in terms of rainfall, and also summer temperature averages corresponding to average or just above overall.

[Richard]

A big welcome to you stepr, its great to some more UK weather readings.