July 2018 merely third warmest - Kitchen Garden Magazine

Despite the prolonged heatwave, provisional data from the Met Office suggests that this July has been only the third-warmest in the UK

It comes, however, hot on the heels of the UK’s warmest-ever May and its second-warmest June – and all three of the warmest Julys have occurred in the last 35 years.

The provisional statistics show that July 2018, with a mean average temperature of 17.2°C, stands behind July 2006, at 17.8°C, and July 1983, at 17.3°C. In terms of maximum average temperatures, July 2018 ranks second, behind 2006. At 22.5°C, this July’s average daily maximum was brought down by the rain and high winds at the end of the month.

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On the basis of average daily maximum temperatures, it was the second-hottest July for England, the third-hottest for Wales, and the fourth-hottest for Scotland, though only the eighth-hottest for Northern Ireland.

On July 26, Faversham in Kent saw temperatures reach 35.3°C – the UK’s highest July temperature since July 1, 2015, when Heathrow saw a peak of 36.7°C – the July record. The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK was 38.5°C, at Faversham, on August 10, 2003.

Although July was largely a dry month, it was only the 16th driest on record for the UK overall since 1910. England was the driest country, receiving just over half of its average rainfall for the month, but the other UK nations were much closer to normal. The dry spell was most prolonged in East Anglia and southeast England, where places including Heathrow and High Wycombe experienced 58 dry days in a row (a ‘dry day’ is defined as one with less than 1mm of rain). Broom’s Barn, near Bury St Edmunds, went 51 days with no rain at all.

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Find out more at https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2018/july-2018-statistics

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Steve Ott

Steve Ott is editor of Kitchen Garden magazine and started his career as a professional grower, producing everything from cut flowers to vegetables. He has been growing fruit and veg all his life and spends most of his spare time in his garden in the East Midlands. He loves to experiment with crops and varieties he has never grown before and when he isn’t gardening is to be found out in the countryside bird watching and walking his dog Ted.