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graphs      CLIMATE-UK.COM'S  REVIEW  OF  THE  BRITISH  METEOROLOGICAL  SCENE
     MONTHLY  SUMMARY
     No. 583 For    JULY    2004
CHANGEABLE AND CLOUDY THROUGHOUT.  COOL FIRST HALF BUT CONSISTENTLY RATHER WARM LATER.
Text Box: A cyclonic/northwesterly pattern prevailed until the 13th, but southwesterlies and southerlies occurred more frequently from mid-month onwards. The last few days were anticyclonic. The month opened with a deep depression located west of Scotland and a brisk westerly flow covering the UK. Over the next few days the depression drifted slowly eastwards across Scotland while troughs embedded in the flow affected the rest of the country. All regions had showers, often heavy and thundery (notably in Wiltshire and Hampshire on the 2nd), with brief sunny intervals, and it remained generally cool. A flat ridge affected most areas on the 5th and 6th bringing longer sunny periods although scattered sharp showers occurred on both days, nights were cold, but the 6th was rather warm with the temperature reaching 24ēC in the south. A depression over Biscay deepened dramatically on the 7th (reaching 990mbar over Brittany), and heavy rain spread northwards across much of England and Wales during the day and the following night. Upwards of 25mm fell widely with 63mm at Guernsey airport, while at Wittering, Cambs, 53mm fell in a thunderstorm on the afternoon of the 8th following 57mm the previous night. The depression tracked across northern France and the Low Countries, and a strengthening north-easterly flow resulted in an unseasonably cold day on the 8th across northern England the north and west Midlands, Wales and the West Country. Sennybridge in Powys reported a high of 9.6ēC and a few long-standing sites (Shawbury, Watnall) established new low maximum records, but midday temperatures were not as low as those of 9 July 1993. Scotland and Northern Ireland escaped the rain and some places were very sunny: Tiree in Argyll logged 16 hours of sunshine on both the 7th and 8th but Altnaharra recorded an air minimum of -0.3ēC early on the 8th. A cool and showery northwesterly type held sway from the 9th-12th with daytime temperatures typically between 14 and 19ēC, but a weak ridge gave a brighter day on the 13th.
Text Box: From the 14th-20th the flow backed southwesterly and it became somewhat warmer especially in the south and east where maxima of 22-24ēC were common, but the weather remained just as disturbed as ever with a general shortage of sunshine, widespread showers and local thunderstorms, although amounts of rain in parts of southern England and also in the north and east of Scotland were small. It was very warm and humid in the Southeast on the 22nd with 27.6ēC at Charlwood in Surrey, but thunderstorms, locally severe, broke out in the Midlands and eastern England later in the day. A dry and mostly sunny interlude followed, but rain returned to many parts of the UK on the 25th and there were still a few residual showers the next day. The last five days of the month were generally warm especially in southern Britain where maxima of 25-29ēC were common and 29.9ēC was reached on the 29th at Heathrow. There were, however, scattered showers and local thunderstorms on the 29th and 30th. Mean maximum temperature ranged from near normal in northern Scotland and southeastern England to about 2 degC below normal in parts of northwest England and north Wales. Mean minima were generally zero to 1 degC below average. The second half of the month was much warmer than the first half: in London, for instance, maxima of 22ēC or more occurred daily from the 14th-31st. The Central England Temperature of 15.8ēC was 0.7 degC below the 1971-2000 mean. Rainfall varied widely with less than 40% of the long-term average locally in northern and eastern Scotland including a total of just 19mm at Leuchars in Fife, but more than double the average in parts of East Anglia, the east Midlands and Lincolnshire, and also in the Channel Islands. At Wittering the month's total of 153mm was the highest in the Peterborough/Stamford district in July since 1880. Sunshine aggregates were near average in coastal districts of Scotland and eastern England, but below normal elsewhere; at Aviemore the total of 81 hours was 42 per cent below. Taking the country as a whole it was not quite as dull as July 2002.
                                                                                                                                         
                       TEMPERATURE                                SUNSHINE                             RAINFALL                                                       
                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                 
                   
No. of days with grass minimum below 0ēC
                      Highest and lowest totals    
Maximum fall in 24 hrs (beginning 09 h)
                Highest and lowest totals    
Days with snow or sleet
 
Days with fog (Vis <220 yards at 09 h)
 
     
Difference from average
   
Difference from average
             
Days of no sunshine
                      on record for month                         on record for month        
                                                                                         
           
Highest maximum
   
Lowest minimum
         
Maximum duration
       
First year of record
         
Days of no rainfall (0.1 mm or less)
         
First year of record
         
Days with thunder
     
       PLACE  
Mean Maximum
   
Mean minimum
             
No. of air frosts
       
Total for month
                   
Total for month
                   
                               
% of average
                   
% of average
                 
                                                                     
                                   
Highest
   
Lowest
 
Year
             
Highest
   
Lowest
 
Year
       
             
Date
   
Date
         
Date