The UK has already seen nearly its entire ‘normal’ rainfall for August in the first half of the month.
Figures up to the 13th of August show there has been 86.1mm of rain so far in the UK, just short of the 89.5mm long-term (1981-2010) average.
Looking at individual countries, Scotland has already seen more than its full-month average with 121.4mm of rain so far compared to the average of 116.7mm. The Inverness and Moray areas have been particularly wet, with significant flooding from ex-hurricane Bertha on 10 to 11 August.
Rainfall for England and Northern Ireland so far is just under the full-month average, while Wales has been the driest relatively speaking – with 83.2mm of rain making up 77% of its full-month average. Normally at this stage you would expect about 42% of the average to have fallen.
With regards to temperatures and sunshine, the month has been much closer to average so far.
The UK mean temperature is currently 15.2C, which is 0.3C above the full-month average.
UK sunshine hours are at 77.8 hours, which is 48% of the full-month average – so just ahead of where we’d expect after 13 days of the month.
While these figures are interesting, they don’t tell us where the month will end up overall – we’ll have to wait until the full-month figures are in before deciding where this August fits in to the records.
As we head in to next week there should be a good deal of drier weather but with northerly winds bringing in cooler air it will feel colder than of late, especially at night.
This will feel noticeably cool in the wind, so people heading out in the evening may want to take a few extra layers.
