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graphs      CLIMATE-UK.COM'S  REVIEW  OF  THE  BRITISH  METEOROLOGICAL  SCENE
     MONTHLY  SUMMARY
     No. 632     For  AUGUST  2008
           DULLEST SINCE 1912;  FREQUENT RAIN;  COOL DAYS AND WARM NIGHTS
Text Box: A cyclonic type persisted from the 1st until the 22nd. A southwesterly type followed for a week, with high pressure over the near continent, but a thundery breakdown arrived on the 31st. Mean sea-level pressure was between 5 and 9mbar below normal over the British Isles, and only the Augusts of 1992 and 1917 were more cyclonic. A northward moving depression brought heavy rain to Scotland and Northern Ireland on the 1st and 2nd, while England and Wales had heavy showers, with thunder and hail locally, and sunny intervals. The showery regime continued for the next few days, although a vigorous disturbance tracking along the Channel brought torrential rain to Jersey where 71mm fell at the airport, and an unofficial 78mm at nearby St Lawrence, mostly within four hours. On the 4th Prestwick (Ayrshire) logged 14.3h of bright sunshine - the month’s highest. On the 6th and 7th, with low pressure in the Southwest Approaches, it became warm and humid in East Anglia and the Southeast with 26.7°C recorded at Broadness (Kent) on the 6th, but it was again cool and wet over much of Scotland and Northern Ireland, although the far north of Scotland escaped the rain. A vigorous Atlantic depression became slow-moving near northwestern Britain over the next few days, delivering heavy rain to most regions with 59mm at Capel Curig (Snowdonia) on the 9th, 101mm at Fair Isle on the 10th, and 51mm at Lough Fea (Co Londonderry) on the 11th. A further depression deepened to 982mbar as it cross the British Isles on the 12th and 13th, bringing widespread rain and strong winds. Lee-on-Solent (Hants) logged a gust of 52kn. On the 15th a weak ridge resulted in a dry and mainly sunny day over much of England and Wales, but it was rather cold at night with minima of 0.7°C at Braemar (Aberdeenshire) early on the 14th and 0.5°C at Altnaharra (Sutherland) on the 15th. The next Atlantic depression became slow-moving over Ireland on the 16th, and torrential rain resulted in extensive flooding and several landslips in Ulster. Text Box: At Portglenone (Co Antrim) 85mm fell, most of it in 18 hours. Yet another depression, at one point below 970mbar over mid-Atlantic, tracked slowly across central Britain on the 18th and 19th with further widespread rain. Capel Curig collected 58mm on the 18th and Salsburgh (Ayrshire) 57mm on the 19th. The wind gusted to 50-52kn on both days at Mumbles (Glamorgan). The next few days were cool and showery with prolonged heavy rain in eastern Scotland on the 20th/21st. On the 21st the temperature climbed no higher than 10.4°C at Loch Glascarnoch (Wester Ross) and 11.3°C at Tain (Easter Ross). Overnight 22nd/23rd Tyndrum (Perthshire) dropped to 1.5°C. From the 24th to the 29th a southwesterly airstream brought persistently cloudy skies to most of the UK, although significant rain was confined to the north and west. Dew-points were high, and overnight minima were widely between 15 and 18°C. The sun broke through on the 30th which was a generally warm day with a high of 26.9°C at Kew Gardens (London). Thunderstorms broke out widely on the 31st; Chalfont St Giles (Bucks) collected 51mm in afternoon storms, while 32.3mm of rain fell in less than 20mins in a torrential downpour at Hampstead (London); a funnel cloud was observed at the same time. Mean temperature was within 1degC of the 1971-2000 norm in all regions, but daytime temperatures were consistently below normal (widely the lowest since 1993), while night-time temperatures were substantially above (the highest since 2004). Averaged nationally it was the wettest August only since 2004, but locally in central Scotland and Northern Ireland new records were established. Sunshine duration was the lowest in almost 130 years of records with the sole exception of August 1912. Eskdalemuir's monthly aggregate of 41h is on the face of it lower than the national August record of 44h in 1912 (also at Eskdalemuir), but the change from Campbell Stokes recorder to electronic sensor means that the two figures are not comparable.
                                                                                                                                             
                       TEMPERATURE                                SUNSHINE                             RAINFALL