August 2011 day by day

August 4th: the warm snap ended for most as heavy rain moved up from the SW during the night and across the south; Plymouth (Devon) saw 31mm in the 12 hour period to 06Z on the 4th, & higher amounts on Dartmoor. It was a very muggy night in places though with temperatures not falling below 18C locally. However the 5th saw 25.6C reached in London's St James Park again.

August 7th: The first week ended about 2C above the CET England average, so it was rather warm in fact. Nevertheless the week ended very wet in places as a low pressure area lay off eastern Scotland there was copious rain in parts of Eastern Scotland for about a 36 hour period. Lentran reported 61mm in 24 hours to 21Z on the 7th. The heavy rain  closed roads in Angus, Fife and the Borders, and in the Highlands, water stopped traffic on the A9 at Drumossie. There was overnight flooding in part of the campsite for the Belladrum music festival near Beauly, in the Highlands. There was also heavy rain in places acreoss the south too as thuundery showers moved up from the SW during the afternoon and evening with Brighton ( E Sussex) seeing some torrential rain and localised flooding in places mid evening in a thunderstorm. A man was taken to hospital suffering from electric shock after a bolt of lightning hit his house in Bowmans Drive, Battle (East Sussex), early on the 8th. 

August 10th - it was very wet in Scotland today. Gt Cumbrae Millport (central Glasgow) recorded 57mm in the 24 hrs to 21Z today. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency declared five flood warnings for Tayside and two for Sutherland with 14 flood alerts in place. In Kilsyth, water was pumped from homes and a school in Park Road. In Central Glasgow ScotRail said there was a restricted service at Queen Street with further disruption at Dalmarnock and the Cathcart rail service in the south of Glasgow also withdrawn.

August 11th: The wet weather continued in places through the night, especially across north west Wales & eastern Scotland; by 06Z today Capel Curig in North Wales reported 56mm in the last 24 hours and Leuchars (in eastern Scotland) 49mm but it had dried up somewhat in SW Scotland. It was a mild night though with several places (Southend, Essex and Crosby, Liverpool) not falling below 17C.  

August 15th: Mid month and overall so far its been a rather dull & rather wet month for most, though temperatures are just above the average still.

August 17th: A rather nondescript past week really with no weather events of great note. Things look like livening up a bit though in the next 5 days. After a cold night for August in the north west ,Thursday may be wet and chilly in parts of the south Midlands and Wales with an inch of rain possible, then the weekend looks set to see a very warm thundery plume run across the south in particular. We may see some quite hot weather in the south & east on Sunday with temperatures reaching 27-30C and some thundery outbreaks as well giving localised heavy downpours, more especially in the SE. I'll post an update in a few days to highlight some of the extremes we may see as a result of this.   

August 18th: The likely remains of ex tropical storm Franklin brought flash flooding to parts of Dorset today as an inch (25mm) of rain fell in less than an hour. Portland (Dorset) reported 53mm in the 6 hours to 12Z. Dorset Fire and Rescue Service responded to more than 100 incidents in two hours with operations cancelled as part of the ceiling collapsed at the Bournemouth Nuffield Hospital in Lansdowne Road and part of the roof at ASDA in Bournemouth also collapsed. There was 2ft to 3ft (0.6m to 0.9m) of water near Castle Point shopping centre and Bournemouth's Lower Gardens were submerged. Poole's Dolphin shopping centre shut for a time as drains and manhole covers lifted in a number of streets. There was also flooding in other areas as well, including Wimborne and in central Southampton, roads were closed as well, there were also reports of a car being washed away in Ringwood. Unfortunately the Met office did not issue any flash alerts of the poor conditions, which caused some criticism.

August 21st/22nd: The flash flooding predicted in parts of the south didn't really materialise (prompting further criticism) but there were a few storms overnight on the 21st/22nd as very warm air covered the south east and low pressure moved NE. It was very warm in places though and Shoeburyness (Essex) reached 26.4C.

August 25th/26th: South Wales saw some of the worst weather in this period. On the 25th residents in Newbridge, Caerphilly, reported what looked like a "tornado" as a tree fell and tiles were blown off roofs. Dave Johnson, a local residsent said that around 16:45 BST in Tynewydd Terrace there was a mini-tornado or a whirlwind that lasted for about 30 seconds, followed by hailstones. South Wales fire service were called to Crown Street in Crumlin after a flat roof was blown off a building during a thunderstorm as well. On the 26th parts of Port Talbot, Neath and Baglan in South Wales were hit by flash flooding. Two supermarkets in Neath were closed temporarily as rain came through the roof with the local Tesco also temporarily closed. Further south in SW England, Plymouth (Devon)and Truro (Cornwall) saw local road flooding as well ; three ground floor flats in St Austell St were flooded in Truro after torrential rain at about 1300. It was very wet also acoss parts of NE England where 30-35mm of rain fell in a few hours near Whitby. Later in the day an observer Tom Singleton, captured pictures of a waterspout and three funnel clouds from the western side of a storm system that ran down the Fylde coast across the eastern Wirral (Lancs). However, the 25th was also the coldest day of August, when Loch Glascarnoch (Highlands) fell to 1.4C early on the 25th. 

August 28th: It was very wet in the far north and NE of Scotland as wrap around fronts lingered in these areas from a slow moving depression in the northern North Sea. Wick (Caithness) reported 66mm in the 24 hours to 21Z but some places saw more like 80-100mm in a 27 hour period from 21Z on the 27th. It was pretty showery in many other places though, with a funnel cloud reported in Jersey (Channel Isles).

August 30th: As the month draws to a close it has not been too cool overall, in fact the Midlands was slightly warmer than average. The theme overall has been dullness though, with just about everywhere seeing just 65-85% of the expected sunshine. It's been wet too in places, though not in the central strip generally or indeed Northern Ireland. Scotland fared least well though, where it was generally a cool, wet & dull August, always an unholy alliance. Here it was notably very wet in places with 200-300% of the expected rainfall in some central & northern areas. Sadly September does not look like starting much better either for most!