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graphs      CLIMATE-UK.COM'S  REVIEW  OF  THE  BRITISH  METEOROLOGICAL  SCENE
     MONTHLY  SUMMARY
     No. 595       For     JULY    2005
                 COOL AND UNSETTLED EARLY AND LATE;  HOT SPELL MID-MONTH
Text Box: The month divided neatly into four contrasting sections; a cyclonic/westerly first week, a strongly anticyclonic second week, a mainly northwesterly third week, and a cyclonic/northerly last ten days. Taking the month as a whole, pressure was 2mbar above normal over the Norwegian Sea and 3mbar below over Benelux, resulting in a weak northeasterly anomalous flow over the UK. The weather remained changeable until the 7th, and a vigorous depression, 980mbar off NW Scotland on the 3rd, brought gales to exposed locations with gusts to 60kn. All areas had some rain - heaviest in eastern England where Cromer (Norfolk) had 54mm on the 3rd/4th, and Loftus (N.Yorks) 54mm on the 5th/6th. There was also a paucity of sunshine: Wattisham (Suffolk) recorded a weekly total of just 16.4h. It became very cool for a few days with a maximum of 10.9°C at Thorncliff (Staffs) on the 4th and a minimum of 2.2°C at Loch Glascarnoch (Wester Ross) on the 7th. Pressure rose steadily over the next few days and a large anticyclone settled over the UK from the 9th-14th. Much of northern Britain became very warm and sunny from the 8th, southern regions joined in a few days later although parts of East Anglia and Kent remained cool and cloudy until the 12th. The temperature approached or reached 30°C daily from the 10th-14th; in Scotland and Northern Ireland the 11th was the hottest day, and the high of 30.3°C at Aberfeldy (Perthshire) was higher than anything there in the August 2003 heatwave and therefore probably the highest in the district since 1976. Over England and Wales it was hottest on the 13th and 14th with 30.9°C at Heathrow airport on the latter date the highest recorded under standard conditions. By this time, however, westerly winds had brought cooler and cloudier weather to Scotland. Weak cold fronts crossed the UK on the 15th followed by a more active front on the 18th, finally introducing a cooler and cloudier northwesterly flow to much of the Text Box: UK. It was briefly sunny and hot again on the 17th with 29.4°C at Charlwood (Surrey), but thereafter most parts of the UK were cloudy with temperatures close to or slightly below the seasonal norm although the English Channel coast stayed fine and rather warm. Amounts of rain, however, were very small, and much of southern, central and eastern England had no measurable rain from the 6th or 7th until the 23rd, and at Topcliffe (N.Yorks) the dry spell extended to 20 days. Two depressions crossed southern Britain during the latter part of the month bringing widespread heavy rain and some thunderstorms; 50mm fell at Hereford on the 23rd/24th, and 73mm at Milford Haven on the 27th/28th. A tornado caused 20 injuries and extensive property damage in southwest Birmingham on the afternoon of the 28th, and another caused some damage in Peterborough the same day. The last ten days of July were remarkably cloudy and cool in Scotland and northern England with maxima typically between 12 and 15°C throughout. A high of 10.9°C was logged at Boltshope Park (Durham) on the 27th and at Salsburgh (Lanarkshire) on the 29th, while Kirkwall (Orkney) registered only 19 hours of sunshine from the 16th-31st, and Woodford (Gtr Manchester) just 18 hours from the 18th-31st. Thanks to the cloud-cover, overnight minima were not particularly low, except on the 31st when Braemar (Aberdeenshire) logged 0.6°C. Both mean maxima and mean minima were within a degree of the 1971-2000 average in all parts of the UK. Thanks to the very wet last week, rainfall totals were above normal over England and Wales excepting the northwest, and exceeded twice the long-term mean in Pembrokeshire and along the east coast from Norfolk to Northumberland. Northern Ireland and much of Scotland had a dry month with less than a quarter of the normal amount locally in southwest Scotland and around Perth. Sunshine aggregates ranged from 30 per cent below normal at some sites in northern Scotland and East Anglia to 10 per cent above on the Hampshire coast.
                                                                                                                                         
                       TEMPERATURE                                SUNSHINE                             RAINFALL        
                                            &nb