Summer 2018 Analysis

Summer 2018 Analysis

(Local Analysis)

Hot Points

• Based on Local Records, it was the sunniest summer on record.
• Hottest Summer on record.
• Driest on record
• 2nd Sunniest June on record
• 2nd Sunniest July on record
• Slightly sunnier August than 2017, not as sunny as 2016.

The Summer started off relatively warm right from the beginning in my area, 23 Celsius was recorded at the beginning of June. Around 5 degrees centigrade above average for my area. After a few days of good sunny weather at the beginning of June, temperatures dropped off a little bit, bringing cloudier and cooler weather temporarily. Temperatures dipped around the 3rd/4th of June to around 14-15 Celsius, but they shortly recovered up into the 20s by mid-month. 

Barely any rain was recorded in the month of June for my local area, and the threat of a drought was increasingly on people's minds after a relatively dry May.

Mid June brought sustained heat that would keep the temperatures above 18 Celsius for the remainder of June. A high of around 27 Celsius was recorded near the end of the month. Grass was beginning to turn brown in colour, the first time I've witnessed such vivid brown grass in ages.

In Local records, June came out as the second sunniest on record, not as sunny as June 2010, which is still the sunniest June on record in local records.

June came out as the 4th warmest June in local records.

JULY

July started out on a cool note, with around 20 degrees recorded at the start of the month, but it was still pretty sunny. However shortly after this cool blip, things heated up a lot. On the 5th temperatures hit 27 degrees Celsius. For the whole month of July, the temperature did not go below 20 degrees Celsius. It was a very hot, and dry July. and a very sunny July. Although not as sunny as 2006.

We hit our first 30 Celsius of the season on around the 22nd of July where we hit 32 degrees Celsius. Which was the latest time it has hit 30 degrees since the summer of 2015. 

2017, it hit 30 Celsius in June, and in 2016, around mid July. However the 32 Celsius was the hottest temperature recorded for more than 20 years.

We finally received rain in a very, very heavy thunderstorm towards the end of the month, a lot of flashes, and rain which cleared the air nicely for a bit

For our local area it was a near July to 2006, however it was .2 degrees cooler than 2006, making it the second hottest July on the local record.

AUGUST

However beginning August, the hot weather remained, despite the storm previously. At the start of the month the temperature was around 27-28 Degrees Celsius, it dropped to 24 for a bit, before reaching a high of 29 Celsius again for 3 days in a row.

After that hot weather. cooler weather returned with temperatures hovering around 23 Celsius for a few days, then dropped further to go under 20 Celsius on around the tenth. The first time the temperature went below 20 degrees since the early-mid part of June.

Things began to continually cool down as the month progressed, however it still remained pretty warm throughout the middle of August. A peak of around 25/26 Celsius was achieved  in the late middle half of August.

After that peak of temperature, the weather declined, it became cooler, and cloudier, temperatures generally remained below 20, but still the high teens for the remainder of the month, towards the last few days of August temperatures recovered again, but only to a mere 20 degrees. It was still relatively cloudy, and wet.

August heralded the end of the 'drought', however it was still a relatively warm August for this area due to the hot weather at the beginning.

This August was hotter than the August of 2016 (A relatively pleasant August), and this August is on par with the August of 2004 for my local area in terms of mean temperature.

So on the records, it is the joint 3rd Hottest August on record, 2003, and 1997 were hotter.

It wasn't an overall cloudy August as it had 179.4 hours of sunshine, which is slightly sunnier than last August but no where near the sunniest on the local record (2016) with 208.3 hours of sunshine.

So overall it has been a memorable summer for a near-drought, high temperatures, great thunderstorms, excessive sunshine. One of the best summers of the 21st Century.

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*Local Record Figures only go back to 1997. 
*Previous Summers May have been hotter, drier, cooler or wetter. But Local Records only cover 1997-Present

Thank you, anything helps :)