Create your ideal August (With conditions)

[baddie]

I did a thread for March, April, May, June and October, now this is one for August

My go at it :
July has been often hot and sunny with frequent thunderstorms, with temperatures frequently exceeding 30c, though during the last few days, Low Pressure has dominated and has now moved to the East with quite a large area of HP slowly edging its way to the West.

The first few days of August will be cool and showery with a NW-ly flow, and these showers can be heavy with hail and thunder interspersed with sunny spells. Temperatures in the first few days are only around 17c, but by the 4th, the Area of HP dominates the weather, though it starts cool with variable cloud, but then winds turn from Westerly to Easterly on the 6th, bringing 4 days of unbroken sunshine and temperatures reaching the mid-20s by day but cool by night. The 10th sees a slack area of LP to the West, and it turns very warm-hot for a couple days (Though nowhere gets to 30c), and heavy thunderstorms break out on the 11th, mainly in the SW and Midlands. Winds turn SW-ly on the 12th, with further scattered thunderstorms, though by the 13th, the LP finally reaches the country and brings a cool and very wet day, and clearing to the ESE on the 14th, with a ridge of HP following bringing a cool but dry day on the 15th. Temperatures are back below 20c again

The 16th-22nd is a changeable period with a mix of weather fronts and dry interludes. The 16th sees a mix of bright spells and showers after a damp morning, but the 17th and 18th are dry and bright/sunny with average temperatures and only isolated showers. After a bright start, the 19th is cool and cloudy with a weather front coming down from the NW, and brings an unseasonably cool, wet and windy day widely on the 20th, with temperatures not getting above 15c. Following the front, sunshine and showers follow, with this theme persisting for 2 days with cool temperatures, but there is another area of HP to the West, killing off most showers by evening on the 22nd

By the 23rd, the area of HP now dominates the weather, sending all the Autumnal weather up North, and as luck would have it, the BH weekend (23rd-25th) is dry, sunny and pleasant though with average-or-slightly-below-average days and cool nights. Winds become Easterly or North-Easterly on the 26th and for the last 6 days, though this time, there is more Low Cloud during the mornings, which clear to sunny afternoons (apart from the far East), but some mornings also feature no cloud at all. Temperatures are around or slightly above average, though warm in the West (perhaps mid-20s there), but nights turn quite chilly, with temps falling into the single digits

August was quite Northerly/Easterly for the time of year, and it was a cool month overall, with temperatures about 1c below average, but the negative anomaly was due to cool nights with days often pleasant. 30c isnt reached in this month at all. However it was a very sunny month too, widely exceeding the 200 barrier, and sunshine totals about 25-30% above average, making it the second sunniest August since 1995. Rainfall is around average, but wet spells were only confined to the first 3 days, 11th-14th and 19th-22nd with fine weather in between.


Notice that this is largely September 2015 synoptics in August?

Edited January 15 by baddie

[Thundery wintry showers]

My August continues on from a warm and sunny but at times showery and thundery July, and ends up as generally the driest and most anticyclonic of the three summer months.

It sees a cool showery north-westerly on the 1st, most of the showers in the north and east. Then high pressure dominates from the 2nd to the 8th, gradually migrating eastwards around the vicinity of the British Isles. Dry sunny weather dominates with moderate warmth for a time, then becoming hot on the 8th/9th with temperatures into the low 30s in the south-east and touching 30C in the north of England, high 20s in much of Scotland.  

A thundery breakdown follows, starting in some areas late on the 9th, and establishing over much of the country on the 10th with some notable storms. Fewer showers and thunderstorms on 11th, then high pressure re-asserting from the 12th to 15th with dry sunny weather and moderate warmth (generally low 20s Celsius). Hotter weather and scattered thundery downpours from 16th to 18th with weakening high pressure, thunder most widespread on 18th with temperatures back to the high 20s Celsius, 30C locally.

Another high pressure cell pushes in from the west between the 20th and 23rd resuming dry sunny weather and temperatures back down to the low 20s Celsius, but creeping into high 20s again by 23rd, with a further hot day (high 20s/low 30s) and thundery breakdown on 24th. We see cooler but mainly dry bright weather on 25th, then a north-westerly between the 26th and 28th, with thundery showers especially in the east on 27th. Then high pressure comes in from the west and after a couple of cool nights it warms up again, with dry sunny weather for most.

Basically I took August 1995 synoptics as the base to build from, added in a few thundery outbreaks and made the high pressure spell post-27th another sunny one rather than a cloudy one.

For much of the country, due to the thundery outbreaks rainfall would probably not be that far below normal averaged over the UK, but with considerable local variations and a somewhat below-average number of rain days for most regions. Temperatures, probably a top 5 hot August but not quite as hot as 1995 over the UK or Central England, and not quite as hot as 1997 and 2022 in east coast counties (but hotter than 1995 near the east coast of England due to easterlies not being quite as dominant). Sunshine wise, probably slotting in close to August 1976 for the UK as a whole, ranking 3rd or 4th and behind only 1947 and 1995.

Edited January 15 by Thundery wintry showers

[baddie]

 Thundery wintry showers That sounds like July 2014 - Repeated hot spells, and very thundery. 

[cheeky_monkey]

you cant go wrong with August 1995 its almost as close as you can get to a perfect summer month for the UK..If you like cool and dry then Aug 1981 is a good shout

[Metwatch]

Would love to experience an August 1995 that would be my idea of a perfect August. Also include the thundery heatwave of August 2020 and August 2022 heatwave in a month like Aug 1995 and August 2003's record.