Nick H

Since the war 1958, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1985 and 1993 did not record 30C.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/net...images/map6.gif Well, it isn't even an official site according to the Met Office's own site. It was not released until well after the month ended. No one has ever heard of this site before. I cannot remember this site ever having recorded the highest daytime temperature before and I've been following weather records for over 30 years, let alone the highest annual temp. It just happened to be the only site that recorded 30.0C or higher other than the rooftop Clerkenwell station. It is 0.4C degrees higher than Coningsby in Lincs which in turn was about 0.4C higher than all other stations in Lincs/E Anglia that day.

So still we have to go back to the 19th century to find a summer months ending in "8" that was more than 0.5 deg C above the 30 year mean.

It may be surprising that June 13 has yet to record a temperature of 30.0C or greater, but let's not forget 1. the seas are by no means warm at that date 2. there is a historical pattern that the second week of June is somewhat unsettled 3. 30C is a totally arbitrary temperature 4. the facts that July 24 has never seen a temperature higher than 32.6C, nor July 14 no higher than 32.3C and August 30 has only recorded an even 30.0C once on the British mainland, in 1906 at Maidenhead (in times which as you know I believe produced unreliable records and at a site long since defunct) are in many ways, far more remarkable than the June 13 anomaly. Incidentally, TORRO has flagged the Bawtry 1906 reading as either being from a "rather sheltered site" or "more than 2C above adjacent stations".

Is it the station at the National Oceanographic Centre? It's a rooftop site, so it's non-standard and shouldn't really be used in reporting daily records. I don't know if Mayflower Park is still used, that one used to crop up a lot in weather reports in the 1970s and 1980s.

Oh, of course they'll never change it. To do so would put question marks against the whole CET record, and they don't want to destroy 350 years of records obviously. I've said on here before I have little confidence in any of the older records, for the simple reason of the primitive equipment and recording conditions that existed up til recently. Raunds is another one which is a joke. When did Northants last record the highest temperature?

The other one is South Yorkshire. There is a long standing "record", which to be honest I can't/don't really accept, from September 1911 at Bawtry which apparently recorded 36C that month. When was the last time any South Yorkshire site recorded 30C+ in September? When was the last time South Yorkshire recorded the highest temp in the British Isles? What kind of synoptical set up results in temperatures in South Yorkshire being higher than in the south-east when we're talking about temps in the mid-30s? I just cannot see the Doncaster region as a hotspot. You can go slightly further north to the Vale of York, where it is not unsual to see Church Fenton, Dishforth, Leeming, Linton-on-Ouse and Topcliffe recording high summer temps, the topography and altitude is different to South Yorkshire. Sorry, I've never bought that one. I only really think temperatures from about 1945 are worth trusting.

Well the latest picture looks like cumulus.

For those who believe in this kind of stuff (and you shouldn't), and didn't read Philip Eden's column in the Telegraph yesterday, no summer month of the 20th century ending in "8" ever produced a summer month more than 0.5C above the 30 year mean. All summers of the 20th century ending in "8" were poor.

15.6C.

Thanks. Just looking at Heathrow's June records, in 2006 it had 6 consecutive days at 26C or higher; in 2005 it had 8 consecutive days at 26C or higher. In 2004, the highest June temp was 31C, in 2005 it was 33C, in 2006 32C - all before the final third of the month. Nothing like that in late August recently.

That would be the latest date on which the highest temperature of the year was recorded since Cromer registered 32.8C on the 26th of August 1964. It seems to me that the second half of August rarely produces heatwaves lasting anything more than a couple of days. When was the last time we had a hot spell (i.e. high 20s at least) in the latter half of that month lasting, say, 4 -5 days? We did reach 32C a couple of years ago on the last day of the month but the heat didn't last very long. Even in mid-June you can get a good string of days with high temps. In recent years, it appears that the first half of September has become more reliable than the second half of August for summery weather.

Smoke has a specific meteorological defintion, normally when an inversion occurs. More than likely this was being referred to, and not the emissions from the moor.

Not much. Spelling "elusive" as "illusive" in their summer forecast does not inspire confidence. Their data sections, though, are excellent - best on the web imo.

I think that's an error. 26.6C was recorded at Clerkenwell on Friday and Alex Deakin's Friday review on the BBC website shows that. But Weather Online only shows a maximum of 25C at Heathrow. The hourly readings to 1 dp don't show anything near 27.4C. I think the 27.4C reading comes from Wednesday 7 May, and it was subsequently revised. Philip Avery mentioned it on the Radio 4 forecast on Wednesday evening after the midnight news but by Thursday morning's News Briefing he altered Wednesday's warmspot to Herstmonceux.

Yes, Cotton in the Elms near Tamworth in Derbyshire is an oft-cited claimant to the title of furthest in the UK from the sea, being 70 miles away from the Wash. Nottingham is 55 miles from Boston. You must have been on the whacky stuff, Botty

An impressive diurnal range at Altnaharra today. 2C at dawn and already up to 23C at noon.

20.1C - warm, sunny, still and glorious.

Great shots of Chesil beach, I love Dorset - along with South Wales it has the best coastline in the country in my opinion. Far better than the North Sea coast dumps.

Well we just had the most northerly March since 1970 and we could only get 0.2 below average, which is of course classed as near average. It wasn't even as cold as March 2006. Can't help but think that if we'd had those synoptics 20 years ago we'd have been looking at a much colder March, but of course we live in different times now.

It's disappointing that despite the last 10 weeks blowing consistent northwesterlies and northeasterlies, what we end up with is a February over 1deg C above the long term mean, March just below, and April probably just above.

I do find these forecasts to be of limited use. For example, this year's summer forecast includes the assessment "The risk of exceptional rainfall, as seen last summer, is assessed as very low at this stage". This may well be a legitimate predicition but it actually adds very little value given that last summer was the wettest since 1912.

9.5C

You've got to love this, haven't you??? And then, in the very next sentence,

Mr Data did a similar exercise for the number of days washed out in Test matches played in England. It is in the Historic Weather section but on first glance I couldn't find it. I remember commenting that it showed a marked fall in number of washouts after 1981 - the last year when we played on uncovered wickets.