July 2022 Heatwave - 40.3c (All Time UK Record High Temperature)

[danm]

Enough time has now passed for a dedicated thread for this remarkable event. 

On 19th July 2022, we exceeded 40c for the first time in the UK, smashing the all time UK temperature record across a vast swathe of the country, only 3 years after the previous all time record was set in July 2019. 

Coningsby in Lincolnshire topped the list at 40.3c, with several sites in the Greater London area not far behind:

 

What is remarkable is by how much the previous temperature record (38.7c) was broken by, and how many different weather stations broke it, across such a wide geographical area. 

 

I thought it was interesting to put into context just how extreme 40.3c was for a country as far north as the UK, when you consider the all time record high temperatures in parts of the world that tend to be warmer, or much warmer than us in the Summer. 

Miami - 38c

New York City - 42c

Los Angeles - 45c

Mumbai - 42.2c

Rome - 41.8c

Hong Kong - 41.5c

 

Looking at the charts from the day, we say a patch of 24c 850's, which again is remarkable:

[Mcconnor8]

If I remember correctly the highest 850 values arrived in the South East overnight on the 18th so if they had occurred 12 hours later there probably would have been an even higher max around 41/42 instead, but the minimum values we got as a result were record breaking by a long way in some areas and definitely worth mentioning too.

[Harry233]

Remember that spell very well. I recorded my highest temperature during that spell as well but it was only a rather cool high of 32.0.C, (con of being in Scotland) the next highest temperature was 31.1.C which was previously recorded in both July 2013 and June 2018. Also recorded my highest July minimum which was 18.7.C, didn’t quite beat the low of 19.3.C which I recorded in August 2004. Beautiful spell of weather during a very good summer. Hope to see more of it in the future.

[Metwatch]

Only from Meteociel, so there might be more stations, but from what I can see, only one station in Spain and 4 in France were hotter than Coningsby on that day alone!

[WeatherArc]

This is one of the most insane vids I've seen from that heatwave, yes this is London not California.

 

One of my main weather interests is fire weather, i never thought a wildfire in the UK could be used as a textbook exhibit of what extreme rate of spread looks like.

This is what months of drought, dead/dry litter and underbrush plus gusty winds can do. The fire created its own localised weather conditions, increasing the wind and helping it to absolutely rip through that bone dry vegetation. Humidity was likely sub 20%.

This is where England's lack of true large forests is a good thing, a fire moving at this speed in a forest would be impossible to contain and would burn for days (such as the 2022 wildfires in the Gascogne national park, France or the 2021 Dixie fire in California) Thankfully this was within parkland in London so fuels were pretty limited and the threat of spot (ember) fires was very low, still if fire weather like this can happen in the uk it should be a slight wake up call. 

[cheese]

39.8C was recorded at Bramham in Leeds. The wind was genuinely hot like a hairdryer. There was hardly a soul to be seen on that day. We also had two consecutive lows above 20C. 
 

It was a surreal experience.

Edited February 6 by cheese

[Geordiesnow]

That video is incredible and must of been scary to see how quickly it's spreads.

Another thing I'm interested in is why did the models got the Maxes so wrong by quite a large amount. We had forecasts suggesting 42 even 43C being suggested by both UKMO and GFS models yet despite wall to wall sunshine and exceptionally dry conditions in eastern areas it only reached 40.3C(just imagine the reaction if we didn't reach 40C despite the forecasts). I think the saving grace with this plume was that it was largely a 2 day event but the warning signs are there and it's only likely to get worse in the years to come(if not here, just in the northern hemisphere in general).

[raz.org.rain]

 cheese I remember that, it's happened a few times here. When it gets really hot and the breeze is like sitting in front of a fan heater.

 WeatherArc the problem is that it doesn't take a large amount of forest for wildfires to spread so easily. Over the past few years we've seen how quickly wildfires can spread in moorland environments. Even in rural urban environments, crop harvests could probably allow a wildfire to spread pretty easily.

 

[Derbyshire_snow]

Was just so glad that it did not hit 43c that it was showing on some of the BBC forecasts i think it could have been a serious health emergency had that occurred.

It hit over 40c on the local weather station just to the east of Sheffield and made really ill.

What i will never forget is the searing gale force blasts of wind that made you feel like you was being blasted with a hairdryer it was horrible.

Tempretures never dropping below 20c at night so no respite ot was horrible.

[cheese]

 raz.org.rain it was similar on that record breaking day in July 2019 with a hot wind, but still a few degrees cooler.

[lassie23]

I think it will hit 43c this July

[NUT]

I guess the air was so dry with this 40 degrees.........epic (or othwerwise) think we got 32 as max in my part of Scotland but I guess because the air was so dry which io why the vast majority had a nothing breakdown? Was more or less gone the next day. Guess too cause Devon and Cornwall was closer to that upper low from Portugal which is why they got the storms and no one else almost er............got anything (think NW Highlands got something though)

[Derecho]

12 hours ago, Geordiesnow said:

Another thing I'm interested in is why did the models got the Maxes so wrong by quite a large amount. We had forecasts suggesting 42 even 43C being suggested by both UKMO and GFS models yet despite wall to wall sunshine and exceptionally dry conditions in eastern areas it only reached 40.3C(just imagine the reaction if we didn't reach 40C despite the forecasts).

I remember this day as it all happened still as I was still working as a meteorologist at this point. It is a day that will stick in my mind for the rest of my life, seeing the obs come in was jaw dropping.

Anyhow I remember the hottest temps in the south were always going to be a bit earlier in the afternoon so Cambridgeshire / Lincs was the most favoured area to beat the record as the hottest air cleared here a little bit later.

During that Tuesday morning, there was some high cloud over Lincolnshire / South Yorkshire and if that hadn't been there I think an official station would have recorded 41C during that afternoon. I also remember the very hottest area in the model forecasts (somewhere near Worksop) had a lack of nearby official stations so somewhere in that area could have seen a max temp above that seen in Coningsby.

I remember the UKV had the highest maxes with some going for 42C but fell back into line 3 days beforehand (see below). The EC underplayed the maxes for quite a while even when bias corrected (EC undercooks maxes by 2-3C in the summer generally). GFS overcooked the maxes which is what the BBC was based upon.

Edited February 6 by Derecho
Further details

[A Face like Thunder]

Neighbouring Nantwich was the hot spot in the NW of England on both 18th and 19th July, with 37.7 or 37.8 recorded on both days, so right on 100F. I recall giving blood on the 18th and going to the dentist on the 19th and was so pleased that the premises were both air conditioned. But getting to and from the sessions was a nightmare and I was pleased that I didn't have to go out otherwise. Windows were kept closed and curtains drawn until after sunset, and the nights were little better than the days. A remarkable if short-lived time in weather history. 

Edited February 6 by A Face like Thunder

[WeatherArc]

 raz.org.rain Agreed, i hope more attention is put towards wildfires of all types whether its crops, forest or moorland. I'm just concerned with the lack of funding/training our fire services have, rural services have made good progress but we are still years behind the continent (esp in the aircraft and uniform department) my fear is we have a year with the heat of 2022 and the dryness of 1976 and we lose large portions of forests and moorland in Wales and Scotland.

The government over recent years has encouraged multinational companies to buy up sheep farms and replace them with pine plantations, im not against planting new forests (the uk is the least forested country in Europe so we need many more of them) but pine forests can burn quite easily, its completely natural but we would need to be prepared for an increased threat. 

 

 

 lassie23 Difficult to say, i remember having a debate on this site last year on what the theoretical max temp in the uk could be, 38+ requires a very warm/dry airmass combined with very low soil moisture levels. The rainfest we had in December lowers my confidence, however if we begin to enter an extended dry period from this or next month onwards things could get interesting, parts of spain are already in drought conditions, less modification of an airmass as it heads northwards. 

[CryoraptorA303]

This is a day I'll never forget. Here it got to 38.4°C and it was excruciating. However, it was also extremely dry air, extraordinarily dry air for the UK, so overall it was less unbearable than July 25th 2019 when it got to 36.0°C here but with very high humidity later in the afternoon so it was extremely oppressive. August 2020 was also a strong rival for unbearability as despite it ranging from 32-35°C here and not being quite as insanely hot, it was very humid, especially at night, and lasting a week also took a toll. Overall July 25th 2019 is my worst climatic day, while July 19th 2022 is a close second.

The hottest air was above the UK at the middle of the night - were the heatwave 8 hours behind schedule then we could've seen 42-43°C in central England, probably Pershore, Wellesbourne or Cambridge. Maybe even somewhere like Coventry or Benson could've seen the highest overall reading. London would've also reached 42+. Even the borders might've been looking at 37-38°C, and Wales would've likely gone over 40°C as well. The next day would've probably seen Faversham or the East Anglian coast getting to 35-36°C again as well.

I remember some earlier runs were going for a more August 2003-esque path and had the epicentre of the heatwave in Kent with East Malling or Faversham likely taking the final record.

On 07/02/2024 at 23:52, WeatherArc said:

my fear is we have a year with the heat of 2022 and the dryness of 1976

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe January-June 2022 actually beat 1976 for dryness. The difference was in 1976 it'd been hot and dry since summer 1975 while 2021 wasn't a dry year and saw very wet months interspersed with the dry ones. February 2022 was wet as well although it was wettest in the north and the south was much closer to average rainfall. I remember from March to early September at my location it barely rained at all and the July-August period was exceptionally dry. I think it only rained on a single day for 10 minutes here in July, and August wasn't much better. It must've rained at least once as we did record rainfall but I don't remember it. Apart from a single thunderstorm that apparently moved through in August it was exceptionally dry and hot and is the east coast's hottest on record.

Many may bemoan it here but 2023 was a blessing for the water sector. After 2022 they needed significantly above average rainfall for a long period to recover. If I recall, in Devon and Cornwall where high rainfall is the norm, they were still struggling in Spring 2023 and things weren't back to normal until July. 2022 did a lot of damage and 2023 was needed to compensate, although for some things the heavy rainfall would've made it even worse.

Everything may be waterlogged now, but it doesn't take much for that to change. After winter 2019/20 which was very wet, by May it was already bone dry again from the persistent warmth and dryness, and some fields here became outright desiccated as the extremely dry and warm May went on. All we really need is a significantly dry and warm spring month for us to have dry soil and less evapotranspiration moderating temps going forward. The heavy drought in Iberia will also be a factor as we'll now be receiving automatically warmer and less moderated air from the south. If we also have a dry spring and enter summer with dry soil then that'll be setting the stage for completely unmoderated plumes to hit us.

Edited February 18 by CryoraptorA303

[MattStoke]

 Mcconnor8 Yep. I've seen people saying this spell saw the absolute maximum temperatures possible in the current client, however, it could have been a few degrees higher like you said.

[raz.org.rain]

 MattStoke I believe the maximum temperature fell a degree or two below it's theoretical potential on that day due to a change in wind direction? It could have reached 42° under sustained conditions. I believe some unofficial stations recorded higher temperatures too. Truly a very odd experience, it reminded me of being in Greece in midsummer. Certainly didn't think that would be possible here for a long time.

[Billy Hicks]

I worked as a steward at the Royal Albert Hall at the time and we'd just started the BBC Proms season. The previous year while the building was closed we'd completely upgraded the air cooling of the building (after summer 2018 and July 2019 had been quite uncomfortable for some customers) and to everyone's huge relief it worked perfectly on this day, lots of happy customers thanking us for what could have been a difficult evening otherwise.

2022 is one of those wonderful years where I remember both a hot summer and a heavy snowfall in the winter, along with 1995, 2003, 2013 and 2018. Pity the summers of 2009 and 10 weren't better!

[Stabilo19]

Remember this very well!

I flew back from Barcelona late morning and it was hotter in Gatwick than Barcelona

Arrived at Victoria underground station and it was actually cooler underground than above - which is unheard of in mid summer!

Finally arrived back in Tottenham early afternoon and the heat combined with the strong winds was phenomenal. 

[Scorcher]

 cheese Bit of a push to call Bramham Park 'in Leeds'. It's only just west of the A1.

I know Leeds council has very weird boundaries that encompass a lot of rural areas (and make the population of the city higher than it should be) but I've participated in several Total Warrior events at Bramham Park and it couldn't be much more rural. 

In some ways it makes that temperature even more impressive though as it's properly out in the countryside. 

 A Face like Thunder Nantwich reached 38.4C I believe on the 19th.

[cheese]

 Scorcher yeah it's definitely rural, but with the lack of any official weather station in Leeds proper, I'm happy to refer to Bramham as the (un)official Leeds weather station. The Met Office need to pull their finger out and open some weather stations in urban areas.

Edited March 24 by cheese

[Summer18]

It was an astonishing period of weather, I’d been on holiday in Cyprus a few weeks earlier and those few days did actually feel hotter. As others have mentioned what I remember more than anything is how warm the wind was, proper Saharan heat. 

It got to 39.7c in the shaded area in my back garden and the most amazing thing about this spell is how many stations up and down the country smashed the previous all time record.

Just a shame it ended with a whimper here with no storms! 

[Scorcher]

 cheese Agree about the urban sites. Something I've been saying for years as we are an overwhelmingly urban society so we should have more official urban sites to reflect that.

Large swathes of the country have very few stations- especially in the west of England. The east does a bit better (south of the Humber) due to the number of former air force bases.

[cheese]

 Scorcher they even closed the Church Fenton and Linton on Ouse stations for some reason. It’s ridiculous. 

Edited March 28 by cheese