Met Office figures show that, with a mean temperature of 17 °C, July 2013 was the third warmest in the national record going back to 1910, behind 2006 (17.8 °C) and 1983 (17.3 °C).
This July’s heatwave was more notable for its duration than its intensity, although it is not particularly unusual in a historical context. The last year in which 30 °C was not recorded at any station was in 1993. However, this July stands out in contrast to the run of unsettled summers from 2007 to 2012, and was the most significant UK heatwave since July 2006.
Through the month we saw high pressure sitting over the UK bringing a prolonged period of high temperatures between Saturday 6 July and Thursday 24 July, when a maximum of 28 °C was recorded at one or more locations on each of those 19 days.
The last time the UK saw such a long period of hot weather was August 1997 which also had a 19- day run of high temperatures. The highest temperature for July 2013 was recorded jointly at Heathrow and Northolt on 22 July (33.5 °C). (Although this high temperature has already been surpassed in August, with 34.1 °C recorded at Heathrow on 1 August.
July 2006 still stands as the hottest month on record in the UK with a mean temperature of 17.8 °C and also saw the record July temperature of 36.5 °C at Wisley (19 July 2006).
The heatwave broke on 22 July with thunder and some very heavy downpours. The wettest day in July was in Cumbria, when 79.8mm of rain fell at Carlisle on 28 July (97.4 mm on a 48 hour rainfall total between 0900 GMT 27 July to GMT 29 July 2013).
Looking at the individual countries, the hottest day in Scotland was on 20 July (30.5 °C) at Glenlee, with Castlederg in Northern Ireland and Porthmadog in Wales recording their highest temperatures on 19 July (30.1 °C and 31.4 °C respectively). England’s hottest day was also the aforementioned UK’s hottest day (33.5 °C on 22 July Heathrow and Northolt).
July’s UK rainfall total was 64mm, with Scotland receiving near normal levels at 83.1 mm and the whole of England drier than average at 52.3 mm (but with Northern England registering above average rainfall with 75.8 mm and Southern England below average at 39.8 mm). Wales (58.0 mm) and Northern Ireland (78.2 mm) were slightly drier than average.
Statistics:
| Mean Temperature | Sunshine hours | Rainfall | ||||
| July | Actual | Diff from Avg | Actual | % of Avg | Actual | % of Avg |
| degC | degC | hours | % | mm | % | |
| UK | 17.0 | 1.9 | 250.7 | 145 | 64.1 | 82 |
| England | 18.1 | 1.8 | 274.1 | 142 | 52.3 | 83 |
| Wales | 17.2 | 2.0 | 288.9 | 161 | 58.0 | 63 |
| Scotland | 15.2 | 1.9 | 205.8 | 146 | 83.1 | 84 |
| N Ireland | 17.0 | 2.4 | 227.3 | 162 | 78.2 | 96 |
Official blog of the Met Office news team 
Reblogged this on FishTweed.
The UK has warmed by a statistically insignificant 0.3C in the last 241 years according to your own data:-
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/
Nice factual report with not a hint of global warming hyperbole. Well done MET-O!
A bit more context with non-editorialised, purely factual information about the rest of the world would have been good though. For example, you could have mentioned that the July global lower troposphere anomaly fell 0.12C from the June figure according to UAH.
The cold up-welling ocean water along the South American coast spreading out westwards along the equator indicates we might be in for a third consecutive La Nina later in the year too.
TB, thanks for your input. The Met, when covering certain topics is capable of communicating in a satisfyingly unbiased manner. Strangely, of late, the Met does not seem to have a voice wrt replies to comments. I am continually provoked by the Met’s public statement,
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2009/science-community-statement
Which I find of continuous annoyance.
Whilst I agree with ‘this’ post, I ask readers to ‘trammel’ through earlier posts to see for themselves the devolution of responses.
The Met and the UK media generally DO NOT cover world wide events equally wrt warm and cold.
Where is the coverage of this being the coldest Arctic summer on instrumental record?
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/meant80n.uk.php
From that link, in minutes, you can view all years from 1958.
The world currently is facing a deficit of NH grain production due to ‘cold and wet’ conditions, whilst the media reports mainly of warming.
Strange.
Third warmest on record eh. Then why did the Met Office predict a cooler than average July only at the end of June. If you can’t even predict temperatures for the next few weeks why can anyone have confidence of you predictions for the next 90 years you appear so confident about.