July 2011 Summary

Summary:
July 2011, like June before it, was colder than average, particularly the third week, and there was once again a complete absence of any hot weather. It was, however, drier than recent Julys, and unlike June before it there were quite well defined dry and wetter spells.

Temperature: Minimum:
The night of the 20th/21st June saw the temperature drop to 8.3 degs C, making it the coldest ever June night at this location.* Previously this had been 9.4 degs C in 2007.
The highest night-time temperature was 16.2 degs C, on the nights of both the 4th/5th and 25th/26th.
This gave an average minimum of 13.25 degs C, the second coldest of the last 8 ahead of July 2007's 13.01 degs C.

Temperature: Maximum:
The lowest daytime temperature recorded this July was 15.1 degs C on the 20th. This was the lowest ever July maximum at this location.* Previously 15.7 had that title in 2008.
The maximum was 23.5 degs C, reached on the 24th, giving an average of 20.76 - the coldest ever July at this location, beating 2007 [20.82] into second place.
The temperature exceeded 20 degs C on 23 days, the lowest number of times of the last 7 Julys, equal to 2007 and 2008.
From Saturday the 16th to Friday the 22nd, [a typical holiday week], the temperature never exceeded 20 degs C at all.
For the second summer month in a row the temperature did not exceed 25 degs C, a figure that has not yet been exceeded in 2011 in any month.
The warmest spells were from the 11th to 13th, and 24th to 30th.

*It should be noted that a new, more reliable thermometer was in use this month, which may read maximum temperatures around 0.5 to 1 degree lower than the previous one.
This may slightly affect comparisons described in this section.

Rainfall:
58.1 mm of rain fell during the month, making it the driest of the last four Julys. This compares to 75.1 mm in July 2010 and 85 mm in June 2011.
The wettest day itself was the 5th, with 12 mm, and there were 15 completely dry days, 6 more than in June.
The month started with a continuation of the dry spell that began on June 26th, there was no rain until the 5th. It became mostly dry again from the 9th to the 14th, with only 0.6 mm of rain.
The second wet spell of the month ran from the 15th to the 20th - coinciding with the first half of the cold week already mentioned above.
From the 21st to the 30th, another mainly dry period saw just 1 mm of rain.

Thunder:
None was heard during the month.

* - Since at least 2003.