Climate summaries

Overview of weather across the UK for previous months, seasons and years

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UK last month

July 2024

The start of July continued June's theme of cooler than average weather, but with the addition of more wet weather. Temperatures were consistently and persistently below average across the UK for the first two weeks. Low pressure across the UK led to unsettled weather, and several frontal systems brought bands of rain. Areas of southwest, southeast and northeast England had already received more than the average July rainfall by mid-month. Temperatures increased in the third week of July, with temperatures in the upper 20s across southeast England, reaching the 30s in some areas. Heathrow and Kew Gardens (Greater London) both saw 32.0°C on the 30th, the highest temperature of the year so far. The temperature remained above average to the end of the month, and felt occasionally muggy especially in the southeast. In the north of the UK, temperatures at the end of the month were above average as well, although not quite as high as in the south. Scattered showers in the penultimate week cleared slightly in the last few days of the month, although areas of south-west Scotland and northeastern England experienced some wet weather.

By the 15th, the mean temperature for the UK was -2.0°C below average, and all four countries were around 2°C below the average temperature. This was provisionally the coldest start to July since 2004. However, the warm end to the month led to an overall mean temperature of 14.8degC, with an anomaly of just -0.5°C. July rainfall was average for the UK (82.4mm, or 100% of the long-term average July rainfall), but wetter than average for areas in southern England, which saw 129% of the average rainfall. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were slightly drier than average. The wet start to the month saw counties including Bristol, Buckinghamshire, and Tyne and Wear all experience over 100% of their monthly rainfall by mid-month. Sunshine duration overall was below average, with the UK experiencing 153.7 hours of sunshine, 89% of the average July sunshine hours.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 32.0°C was recorded at Heathrow and Kew Gardens (Greater London) on the 30th. A minimum temperature of 1.7°C was recorded at Tyndrum (Perthshire) and Tulloch Bridge (Inverness-shire) on the 31st. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 UTC on the 9th, 75.7mm of rain fell at White Barrow (Devon). A wind gust of 50 knots (57 mph) was recorded at Needles (Wight) and Brizlee Wood (Northumberland) on the 4^th and 5^th.

Regional values for July 2024