Summer 2019 climate statistics: largely warm and wet
Author: Grahame Madge
16:27 (UTC+1) on Mon 2 Sep 2019
Summer 2019 in the UK was record-breaking with a maximum temperature of 38.7 C at Cambridge University Botanic Garden logged on 25 July. That was the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK.
However, one temperature record can’t tell the full story of a season overall. So how did Summer 2019 compare with previous summers?
Tim Legg, of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre, provides more detail. He said: “Overall Summer 2019 was the twelfth warmest on record since 1910 across the UK, but unusually this summer was also relatively wet. Previous hot summers have been largely dry but this summer was 7th wettest overall in the UK in a series dating back to 1910.”
Meteorological summer includes June, July and August. Locally, the wettest counties relative to average summer rainfall were Cheshire, Northumberland and Derbyshire. Compared with the average summer rainfall between 1981-2010, these counties saw 179%, 174% and 173%, respectively.
Scotland was very wet overall as it recorded its second wettest summer, only surpassed by summer 1985.
Tim added: “The picture for each of the three months was different depending on where you were in the UK. Southern England and Wales endured the heaviest rainfall in June, whereas Scotland and northernmost parts of England saw the heaviest rainfall in August.”
The mean temperature for the UK for summer 2019 was 15.2 C, which was 0.8 C above the long-term average between 1981-2010.
The UK sunshine figures overall were close to average, but some locations received more sunshine. Compared with average, Kent was the sunniest county with 736 hours of sunshine (116% of average).
| Mean temp | Rainfall | Sunshine | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area | Actual temp C | Anomaly C | Actual mm | Anomaly % | Actual hours |
Anomaly % |
| UK | 15.2 | 0.8 | 335.5 | 139 | 511.7 | 101 |
| England | 16.3 | 0.8 | 260.5 | 135 | 569.7 | 102 |
| Wales | 15.1 | 0.7 | 364.8 | 128 | 518.9 | 100 |
| Scotland | 13.4 | 0.9 | 448.7 | 147 | 423.0 | 99 |
| N. Ireland | 14.5 | 0.6 | 356.4 | 140 | 456.7 | 107 |
| Mean temp | Rainfall | Sunshine | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area | Actual temp C | Anomaly C | Actual mm | Anomaly % | Actual hours |
Anomaly % |
| UK | 15.8 | 0.9 | 136.5 | 153 | 173.6 | 107 |
| England | 17.0 | 0.9 | 82.0 | 118 | 203.4 | 112 |
| Wales | 15.9 | 0.9 | 139.3 | 130 | 176.3 | 105 |
| Scotland | 13.8 | 0.8 | 222.1 | 191 | 127.6 | 95 |
| N. Ireland | 15.1 | 0.8 | 157.9 | 162 | 150.4 | 111 |