1st - 5th    The month continued the pattern from the end of June, starting with high pressure over the continent drawing up a tropical continental airmass that brought hot and humid air from the south. This saw the 1st become the warmest day yet recorded at this site, 29.8°c (85.6°f), but with that humidity came variable amounts of cloud and which then set off the first thunder and lightning of the year, a 30 minute spell just before midnight.

   We still had the humid flow from the south on the 2nd, but a cold front associated to low pressure (LP) west of Eire brought some rain in the afternoon. The 3rd was then a lovely day as HP (1027 MB) began to build over the UK and without the humidity it was a glorious 24.6°c and sunny.

   But overnight into the 4th saw a warm front arrive that had pushed north out of France, heralding a return to humid conditions along with thunder and lightning. That thunder and lightning commenced at 0100 Hrs and lasted throughout the night and which gave several bursts of heavy rain, totalling 10.0 mm. HP again tried to build behind the warm front and a murky morning cleared to a sunny and breezy afternoon, with the HP lasting into the afternoon of the 5th before a little rain arrived.

  6th - 8th    It then became fresher with LP from the Atlantic moving across the UK and the 6-7th saw cloudy skies and a mix of showers and spells of light rain with the 6th having seen a drop in temperature to just 15.5°c.

   As the LP tracked away north-east it dragged down a much cooler north-westerly flow on the 8th and the 9th then started on the cool side at just 5.8°c (42.4°f).

  The surface pressure chart for the 8th 

  9th - 10th    Two decent days then followed as HP built from the south west, with the LP of previous days now over Norway. Pleasant enough on the 9th, but the 10th saw 22.5°c before the HP gave way.

  11th - 14th    LP in the Atlantic tracking north-east to Faroe brought rain (6.9 mm) on its trailing frontal system during the evening of the 11th and overnight into the 12th. This was followed by another area of LP in the Atlantic on the 13th which had a long associated wave front which extended over the southern section of the UK. This gave a damp day and along with the 14th sunshine was at an absolute premium and temperatures fell back below 18°c.

  15th - 16th    High pressure then briefly returned and we had two decent days. The 15th was the sunnier day, but the 16th was warmer, reaching 22.3°c and the last day in July to reach 20°, but LP to the south-west was filling and moving north.

  17th - 23rd    Low pressure then became the dominant feature and the days became drab, cool and with limited sunshine, summer was on hold, but now entering the second half!

   LP moved north through Eire overnight 16/17th and there was a little thunder in the early hours, but little rain. Some of the following days also became windy as HP over France pushed north, causing a 'squeeze' with the LP now sat north of Scotland and the 18th was notably fresh, only reaching a poor 15.9°c. There were spells of heavy rain in the early hours of the 19th, (credited back to the 18th) which gave 11.1 mm.

   Another area of LP from the south west on the 20th would control the weather through to the 23rd. It slowly tracked north, positioning itself west of northern Scotland and then maintaining position until weakening on the 23rd. This saw the drab weather continue, sunshine remained at a premium and the odd light shower or spot of rain was the order of the somewhat cool days with the three days of 22nd-24th all between 15-16°.

  24th - 25th    Two slightly quieter days followed as the 24th saw a slack pressure gradient replace the LP with a ridge of HP on the 25th giving a fine day and some welcome sunshine. However, the temperature only reached 17.9°c which was actually the warmest day during the last eleven days of the month.

  26th - 31st    In fact the last ten days of the month only had a mean temperature of 11.96°c and after the 20th only one day was warmer than 16.5°c, with seven below 16°c - and the cool changeable weather continued.

   The ridge of HP gave way overnight into the 26th with rain arrived during the afternoon. That LP was slow moving and centred over northern England on the 27th which with 14.4 mm of rain was the month's wettest day.

   The 28th remained dull and damp due to an occlusion trailing of the LP now centred over Denmark and now with a NNW'ly air flow it became decidedly cool and a maximum temperature of just 13.1°c (55.6°f) is the lowest July maximum yet recorded at this site.

   There was a slight improvement 29-30th, which whilst remaining cool in the NNW'ly flow did see some sunny intervals as HP attempted to ridge in from the Atlantic. However, the 29th continued its run of being the only July day in my 7 years of records that is still to record 20°c.

   The month then closed with LP in the Atlantic squeezing the HP south, giving a dull day with outbreaks of drizzle.

   Rainfall totalled 78.5 mm for the month, with rain recorded on 23 days of which 16 were 'Wet days' (1.0mm +).

   The Mean Temperature for the month was 14.05°c      --      The Mean Max' was   18.12°c     --      The Mean Min'   9.99°c.

   We had 0 Air Frosts in the month (year 42)                --      Grass frosts totalled 0 (year 92).

   The 1 foot soil temp ranged from a low of 14.7°c on the 25th        to      a high of 16.9°c on the 2nd     --      with a monthly mean of 15.9°c

   The 1 meter soil temp ranged from a low of 12.5°c on the 1st      to      a high of 13.6°c on the 16-19th     --     with a monthly mean of 13.3°c

COMPARISONS:-

   * July 2015 rainfall was 68.7% of the July average for 2007 - 2014

   * July 2015 was 0.97°c colder than the July average for 2009 - 2014 and 1.05°c colder than the local long term average 1981-2010

      YEAR TO DATE
                                 
                                  * 2015     To Date                   TEMP      7.79°c         --         RAIN    656.8 mm

                                  * 2014  Jan - July                   TEMP      9.48°c         --         RAIN    800.1 mm

                                  * 2013  Jan - July                   TEMP'     7.59°c         --         RAIN    513.6 mm

                                  * 2012  Jan - July                   TEMP'     8.16°c         --         RAIN    601.3 mm

                                  * 2011  Jan - July                   TEMP'     8.58°c         --         RAIN    668.9 mm

                                  * 2010  Jan - July                   TEMP'     7.50°c         --         RAIN    314.2 mm

                                  * 2009  Jan - July                   TEMP'     8.67°c         --         RAIN    650.7 mm

                                  * 2008  Jan - July                   TEMP'                    --         RAIN    723.7 mm


                                This makes the Jan' to July period of 2015 0.54°c colder than the average for 2009-14 and with 107.6% of average rainfall for 2008-14