UK seasonal weather summary – summer 2010

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 621 KB
• Volume: 65
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0043-1656
• DOI: 10.1002/wea.676

✦ Synopsis

The largely settled weather patterns of early summer were gradually replaced by a more changeable Atlantic influence. Only June saw spells of fine, warm weather in all regions. In July the dullest and wettest weather was in the west and north, but by August it was rather more widely spread -though Northern Ireland and southwest Scotland had a fairly dry and sunny August.

The UK mean temperature was 14.6 °C, 0.6 degC above the 1971-2000 average, having been 1.5 degC above average in June, 0.7 degC above in July and 0.5 degC below in August. Frequent cloudy conditions in the second half of summer meant that daytime maximum temperatures were rather low; it was the coolest August for the UK since 1993.

It was the driest June across the UK since 1995, with 56% of normal rainfall. The dry first half of 2010 raised concerns over water supplies, particularly in western areas. However, the situation eased during July which was very wet across a broad swathe of the west and north with around twice the average. In marked contrast, drier than normal conditions continued across much of eastern England. In August it was the turn of many of these eastern areas to be very wet, with around twice the average rainfall in East Anglia and parts of the east Midlands. There was some localised flooding in both July and August.

The sunniest month of the summer was June, with 127% of normal; it was particularly sunny over southwest England and south Wales. However, both July (82% of normal) and August (88%) were dull over much of the country.