A very average British summer - and a new local record
It has been an unusually cold end to summer here in Yorkshire. Around dawn on 31st August at RAF Leeming temperatures fell to 2.6C, with a widespread frost on the ground. This is the coldest August night time temperature recorded at Leeming since records began in 1947 - marginally colder than the previous record set in August 2003.
Mean August temperatures at the station were below normal at 14.8C, compared with the average of 15.6C. Rainfall was well below normal at 30.6mm compared with the average of 59.8mm. And Sunshine was also below average, with 142.5 hours, compared with the average which is 160.0 hrs.
As readers of this blog will know, expectations of a long hot summer were heightened by one private weather forecasting company, Positive Weather Solutions, who predicted the possibility of a new UK record temperature. You can read my article on the subject, discussing the various summer forecasts that were issued in the spring by clicking here
As it turns out, despite the media hype which surrounded the forecasted 'barbecue' summer, it has turned out to be a very average summer, with temperatures both locally and nationally no where near record levels.
Leeming's figures show mean summer temperatures (June, July and August) were slightly below average, coming in at 15.1C, compared with the average of 15.4C. Summer in North Yorkshire was a little wetter than average, with 161mm of rain compared with the average of 148mm. And sunshine amounts were normal - 504 hours, compared with the average of 499 hours.
From a UK perspective, provisional figures for summer just to hand also show it has been close to the long term average, see table below.
It would seem that the rule that it is statistically very unlikely that a cold winter is followed by a hot summer has once again been proved to be correct.
Hello, I’m Paul Hudson, weather presenter and climate correspondent for Ö÷²¥´óÐã Look North in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. I've been interested in the weather and climate for as long as I can remember, and worked as a forecaster with the Met Office for more than ten years locally and at the international unit before joining the Ö÷²¥´óÐã in October 2007. Here I divide my time between forecasting and reporting on stories about climate change and its implications for people's everyday lives.
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