Dave Wiseman's Weather Blog

August 2010 Day by Day

Last Updated on Monday, 30 August 2010 12:27 Written by Dave Wiseman Tuesday, 03 August 2010 08:38

August 1st: After a rather wet dull July for many in the north & west with the dullest ever July in Northern Ireland, will August be any better? The initial prospects don't look very hopeful, especially in the north & west it has to be said. The SE looks likely to be drier, brighter and not far off average though, temperature wise.

August 4th: Thunderstorms developed widely across the south & SE in particular today as a cold front with triple point associated low pressure moved east across the area. They gave some heavy rain too with flooding reported near Haywards Heath & Wivelsfield causing a rail disruption in the area with many train cancellations in the peak afternoon rush hour period. Uckfield town centre was particularly badly affected. Up to 48mm was said to have fallen in 1 hour, according to sources.

August 12th: It was very wet in the Manchester area today with 51mm of rain reported at Woodford in the 24 hours to 1800. Localised flash flooding was reported.

August 13th : As a slow moving occluded front moved south, thunderstorms and localised flash floods caused road closures and disruption in parts of Kent with Deal the worst affected area. Affected roads included The Strand, High Street, Marine Terrace and Canada Road. with the fire service receiving more than 30 calls about flooding in Deal from 1700 onwards. One resident said that at the peak of the flooding, the water was waist high with 25mm estimated to have fallen in an hour in a few places. 

August 14th: With low pressure continuing to sit across England with a slow moving associated wraparound occlusion in place it was a very showery day in many places with plenty of thunderstorms about as well. The wettest place was Manston in Kent with 35mm in 24 hours to 18Z. The heavy rainfall caused local flash flooding in eastern parts of Kent. Kent Fire and Rescue Service were called to the Westwood Cross centre in Thanet after six inches (15cm) of water flooded the shopping area with many shops suffering water damage.

August 15th: It been a cool dull start to the month with temperatures about a degree below the average across England and Wales. Whilst rainfall has been near average sunshine has been just 60% of the expected average, the deficit greatest across the north west.

August 20th/21st: A very active period weatherwise across the country as a warm very moist tropical maritime airflow brought deep low pressure across the far north west close to NW Scotland and slow moving waves ran across the country further south especially across Wales and central parts. In the strong WSW'ly gradient in the far NW close to the centre of the low pressure it was very windy later with a gust of 70mph reported at Altnaharra, Sutherland, around 0200 on the 21st, the strongest of the month. The warm moist air gave copious amounts of rain on upslopes too, Shap in the Lake District reported 51mm & Capel Curig (N Wales) reported 49mm in the 24 hour period to 18Z. However the cloud broke in the east of England during the day allowing temperatures to lift and Weybourne (Norfolk) reported 26.4C, remarkably the highest temperature of the month- that is still below 80F. As the cloud filled in again temperatures did not fall substantially in the tropical flow and many locations in the south and east didn't fall below about 19C. Weybourne's minima was 19.5C. Earlier in the day a pulse of the heavy rain across SW Wales became thundery due to its instability at medium levels and gave flash flooding in the Swansea area with the fire brigade responding to at least thirty emergency calls. Up to 30mm is thought to have fallen in an hour in places.

August 22nd/23rd The very unsettled period continued as a developing low pressure area with some very warm & moist troipical air wrapped into it swung up across the SW and then out into the southern North Sea by noon on the 23rd. It gave substantial rainfall across parts of the south with around 40-50mm falling in parts of the Isle of Wight & Hampshire overnight on the 22nd/23rd, Thorney Island (Hants) reported 41mm. It was quite breezy in places too with Langdon Bay nr Dover (Kent) reporting a gust of 52mph.

August 24th: Almost at the end of August now and it is worth noting is has not been a cold one with the central England mean temperature (CET) about average at 16.1C. It has however been a very wet one with rainfall totals quite likely to exceed 200% of the August average in many areas by the end of the month, especially as there is likely another 25-35mm to come quite widely in the south tomorrow. It has been dull too, with only about 65% of the average sunshine across England & Wales so far, Probably not an August that will be going down too well with the holidaymakers who decided to take stay and take UK vacations. At least high pressure looks set to dominate for a few days over the Bank Holiday, even if it will not be very warm.

August 25th: A very wet day in the south as low pressure stalled in the SW approaches and its warm front pushed very moist semi tropical based air into the south and south west. Some parts of Cornwall saw as much as 40-50mm in places early in the day, Scilly reported 43mm in the 24 hours to 18Z and unofficially Carnkie near Wendron reported 60mm. In Falmouth, Market Strand was closed at about 10.30am because of water flowing down the street. In Devon fire crews were called to pump out flooded homes in Dartmouth. South Wales was very wet too, the Mumbles (Swansea) saw 60mm fall and at Tyn y Waun at the top of the Rhondda Valley, 63mm of rain fell in a 24 hour period with local flooding reported; the main areas affected were Baglan, Briton Ferry, Neath, Port Talbot, and Port Eynon and Reynoldston in Swansea. It was a cold day in Wales too, Velindre (near Brecon) reported its coldest August day since 1972 with a maximum temperature of only 13.5C. Further very heavy rain moved into the far south coastal counties in the late afternoon and was especially heavy in parts of Hampshire with 20-30mm falling in a few hours with further incidents of  local flooding in East Sussex and Kent, where the fire service was called out to deal with floods at several locations in Herne Bay and Ramsgate.

August 26th: A cold night in parts of Scotland with Altnaharra (Sutherland) falling to -1.3C, the lowest temperature officially recorded in the UK this August. It was locally very wet in the east too with Wattisham (Suffolk) reporting 48mm in the 24 hours to 1800Z

August 30th: A cool bank holiday for many but at least it was dry! A few places even started frosty on the grass too with Pershore (Gloucs) and Woodford (Cheshire) falling as low as -2C at 5cm.

August 31st : Overall it was a rather wet and dull month for many in the south, though the north fared better with nearer average rainfall. Temperatures however were not far off the August average in fact for most; the perception it has been very cool probably stems from the lack of sunshine and the lack of any heatwave this month. The south & east fared worst, East Anglia being especially wet (compared to the average) this month, in a complete reversal of the fortunes we saw earlier this year.