Thursday gave us 8.7 hours of strong sunshine that boosted the temperature to 19.4C, 1.2C below the August average but with light winds again it was a very pleasant end to the season of summer, meteorologically.
There was a brief shower, amounting to 0.6mm, around midday, which brought the total for August to 59.3mm. This is 7.3mm below the August average.
The past night was not as cold as the previous one, but still cool, being 3C below the August average with the thermometer dropping to 8.4C.
Today dawned with glorious sunshine boosting the temperature at 08.00 to 10.9C as a modest ridge of high pressure promises a fine autumn day.
August summary
With a very wet start to the month, followed by a cool period, then ending in a dry week with very warm days, it was a variable month.
The wettest day was on the 2nd when 15.1mm of rain was recorded, being a quarter of the month’s total. Two weeks followed that brought changeable weather that included rain on many days but no great quantity until the 20th with 9.3mm. The rainfall for August totalled 59.3mm, which was 7.3mm below the 33-year average, making it the driest August since 2013.
There 12 wet days, described meteorologically as days when at least 1mm of rain is recorded. Interestingly, the trend for wet days in August has risen from about 9 days in the 1990’s to 11 during the past few years.
Evaporation from ground sources and plant life totalled 72.3mm. This loss of moisture into the atmosphere usually far exceeds the rainfall total in a summer month but this August it was only 13mm in excess.
The end of the first week felt more like autumn with maxima 6C below the 33-year August average on two days; 15.4C on the 9th was the coolest day in the month.
This summer month redeemed itself with seven consecutive dry days from the 23rd – 29th when the thermometer soared to 27.8C on the 28th, the warmest day of the month being some 7C above the long-term average.
The last day of August dawned with the morning feeling like the start of autumn as we experienced the lowest temperature of the month when the thermometer dropped to 6.6C being 5C below the August average minimum.
We enjoyed 143.6 hours of strong sunshine, which was down 20 hours on the total for 2016 but twice the total for the dull August of 2015. There were three glorious days when the sunshine total rose into double figures, the sunniest was a total of 12.29 hours on August 10th. The flip side was the very wet day on 2nd August when no sunshine was recorded.
September 1st is meteorologically the first day of autumn. George Eliot wrote, “My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns”. We look forward the colourful autumnal leaf displays as the season progresses.