Marlborough’s weather man, Eric Gilbert has confirmed what we’ve all felt and that this July was the sixth warmest on record with a mean temperature of 1.4C above the 30-year average.
It was the eighth month in succession where the the temperature has been above the long term average mean. A very warm July it may have been, but still some way behind the the record 3.2C above average that we enjoyed in 2007.
The second half of the month was particularly warm with three days recording temperatures above 28C, peaking on the 24th when 28.8C was realised.
And dry too. Even with all the recent thunderstorms we’ve enjoyed the total rainfall was only 78% of the long term average at 47.2mm, which was a fraction of July 2007’s record of 127.2mm but still considerably more than the driest July in 1999 when a meagre 10.1mm fell.
More than a third of the month’s rainfall fell on a single day – 7 July – when 17.6mm landed. Overall not good for the gardens as short bursts of intense rain tend to run off the dry earth rather than soak in.
For the record, the sunniest day was 10 July when we enjoyed 13.4 hours of direct sunshine, and the overall solar energy was 17% more than in recent years.
For more information about the weather in our area go to www.windrushweather.co.uk.
