Record hot to record cold in a July of extremes (original) (raw)
While this year’s July may not have broken any monthly records – it was book-ended with some localised daily records at both extremes of the temperature spectrum.
The month started with the highest recorded July temperature in our UK climate records with 36.7C recorded at Heathrow on 1 July.
Then on the last day of the month, we saw the opposite extreme – with a number of stations across the UK breaking their lowest recorded July temperature.
Some of these stations have fairly long records – below we’ve highlighted those stations which broke their July low record which have observations going back for 30 years or more.
| STATION | COUNTY | PREVIOUS RECORD | PREVIOUS RECORD DATE | YEARS OF DATA | TEMP 31/07/15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALICE HOLT LODGE | Surrey | 3.9 | 03/07/1984 | 64 | 3.5 |
| KEELE | Staffordshire | 5.2 | 16/07/2001 | 63 | 5 |
| EXETER AIRPORT | Devon | 3.3 | 01/07/2011 | 50 | 2 |
| CHIVENOR | Devon | 5.7 | 07/07/1996 | 38 | 5.6 |
| PERSHORE | Worcestershire | 3 | 04/07/1965 | 36 | 2.7 |
These temperatures came about after several days of a northerly airflow which brought colder than average air over the UK. Clear skies allowed temperatures to drop rapidly overnight across many spots, leading to some of the localised records.
None of these new station records came close to breaking the all-time UK record for July of -2.5C which was set at both St Harmon (Powys) on 9 July 1986 and Lagganlia (Inverness-shire) on 15 July 1977. It’s worth noting here that lowest daily temperature records exclude stations above 500 metres above mean sea-level.
Other extremes for July 2015 are:
- The wettest day was recorded at Cambridge Botanic Garden on the 16th, with 87.1mm of rain recorded in 24 hours. This is significantly more than the whole-month average for July at that station, which is 50.7mm.
- The strongest gust was recorded at the Needles on the Isle of Wight on the 26th, with 60mph.
- The Sunniest day was on Fair Isle, Shetland, on the 26th, with 16 hours of sunshine recorded.
- The coldest temperature recorded during the month was a chilly -0.6C at Katesbridge in Down, Northern Ireland on 15 July – although this wasn’t a record for that station.
- The warmest temperature was 36.7C recorded at Heathrow on 1 July – you can read more about that on our blog.
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