August completed the picture of a poor summer. Everybody,
nationwide, has been commenting on the lack of sunshine and sustained
settled weather, and the statistics have borne this out. Actually,
August started ‘well’ with the 2nd proving a warm day with the month’s
maximum temperature of 26.8C. Coincidentally, the same date last year,
saw that month’s highest of 25C!.  During the month, there were a
handful of warm days when  strong sunshine was able to make an impact,
but far more memorable were three dismal days in the second half when
the maximum temperature was only ‘saved’ by the following morning’s
bright sunshine lifting this by reading time (10.00am) These three days
actually stayed below 14C.  Overall the month worked out  about 0.6C
cooler than last year, and the nights could often be cool too, with a
minimum of 4.5C on 19th.
13 days with measurable rainfall had another five added which
were not completely dry, but there were only two appreciable falls,
notably 23.1mm on the 3rd.   The month’s total was actually not that
high..61.2mm, and this was lower than 2010 when 75mm was recorded on 16 days.

The summer as a whole was not particularly wet here. There
was a total of 176.1mm falling on 42 days, compared with 171.1 (32 days)
last year. 2009 with 291.8mm (52 days) makes a strong contrast. The
average temperature for the three summer months was less than 15C, which made this year over 1C cooler than last year, 0.75C cooler than 2009,
and 0.5C cooler than both 2007 and 2008.   The statistic that shows that
if April is sunny and warm, the summer will be poor, was proved correct!

Peter at Pottlelake