It’s just bad reporting by the Met Office. They say “first time since 1961” but what they actually mean is first time on record, and the digital records go back to 1961. 

I work in communications, and I reckon the accuracy and clarity of the Met’s comms leave a lot to be desired at times!

Originally Posted by: Rob K 

Some huge temp differentials across pretty small distances.

The hottest two places I can find (per XC Weather) are Bournemouth Airport and Woodvale (between Liverpool & Southport), both at 28c.

Yet within 50 miles of these, there's places struggling to get to 20c (Portland, Leek), whilst London City is at 27c and Stanstead 20c.

Is cloud the issue? We've had unbroken sunshine all morning, but I can see a lot of cloud to our east.

Originally Posted by: Saint Snow 

Cloud and if you are unlucky, worse, fog and mist and general North sea rubbish! Then there are some areas which have had their murk interrupted by showers.

16.6c here, dry, misty, around 2-3 miles visibility.

Looking on Wunderground it looks toasty West of the M6, Preston 25C, then declining 21C Blackburn, 19-20C Burnley and 17-18C by the time you get over these parts.

Met Office going for 30c in their text forecast for Yorkshire which is laughable, although the automated forecasts have never shown more than 22c and that was factoring in sun since this morning. 

Originally Posted by: Tim A 

Picking brains chaps.

How does this past 7 days CET wise rank with any of the hottest 7 day periods on record.

I.e. How does this compare with the likes of July 2006, August 2003, August 1995, June/July 1976.

This most recent one - it must be well up there give the fact we had so many nights over 20C and 21C.

Originally Posted by: Hungry Tiger 

Picking brains chaps.

How does this past 7 days CET wise rank with any of the hottest 7 day periods on record.

I.e. How does this compare with the likes of July 2006, August 2003, August 1995, June/July 1976.

This most recent one - it must be well up there give the fact we had so many nights over 20C and 21C.

Originally Posted by: Hungry Tiger 

Good question, and I'm sure the data are there somewhere but whilst we have records for warmest day, warmest month and warmest year we nobody bothers keeping note of weeks let along concurrent 8 day periods. I don't think August 1995 or July 2006 would come close as there was only 1 day anywhere near 35C in either of them, and the maxes were more often between 30 and 33. Nights in 1995 were not that hot either. And both were more extended hot months rather than very intense hot weeks.

So it's between this event and 2003 / 1976. My instinct is that while 1976 might get close on a CET basis given the heat this time was really in the SE for most days, it would be behind 2020 if we looked at a single sight e.g. Heathrow, Herstmonceux, Kew or the SE region. 1976 was also longer, so the heat wasn't so concentrated in a short period of time. 2003 on the other hand was just over a week long and might pip this one because we also had high humidity and warm nights, as well as the record day. Would be interesting to see.

Originally Posted by: TimS 

Odd day today. I walked outside just now and it was properly hot, not as much as yesterday but nearly. But my closest station London City airport is showing just 27C. Just a very muggy and stuffy 27C.

Originally Posted by: TimS 

Odd day today. I walked outside just now and it was properly hot, not as much as yesterday but nearly. But my closest station London City airport is showing just 27C. Just a very muggy and stuffy 27C.

Originally Posted by: TimS 

Looks like some parts of Devon could be the hottest areas..
Exeter currently at 29c

Originally Posted by: marco 79 

1-7 July 1976 had a CET of 23.54C. That will take some beating! The last five days of June were all also above 22C!

The best spell of 2003, 4-10 August, comes in at a 'mere' 22.3C.

2006 had a seven day spell averaging 21.9C.

The provisional for the last seven days is 21.7, this could be too low though and time to improve on last Thursday's figure today given the warm nights.

Originally Posted by: Chidog 

So, was this heatwave "the one"? No I don't think so. Not yet.

I'd been thinking over the last 3 or 4 years that sooner or later we would have a heatwave in the UK that is extreme both in severity and duration. Not just because of some statistical supposition based on climate change and the shifting of the bell curve, but because the models have shown a number of such events, at least once or twice per summer and across multiple runs not just one freakish ensemble perturbation.

Compared with some runs even earlier this summer, this heatwave while certainly unusually hot fell quite a long way short. I think that is reflected in the fact that we still didn't get to anything like the duration or countrywide nature of the heat of July 1976 or for that matter August 2003 (let alone the month long heat of 1976, 2006, 1995, 1997).

2018 was not the one either. It was persistently very dry and sunny, and pretty warm/hot, but without any real sustained period of major heatwave. There were some runs in late July 2018 which if they'd come to fruition would have sent that summer squarely into the record books with a very hot August, but they never came to pass. Instead it got cooler and wetter.

Areas where August 2020 fell short in terms of synoptics / airmass:

- Pressure was never that high meaning there was always a lot of cloud around
- the source airmass, while hot, was nowhere near as hot as in say June or July last year. France's canicule this year was decent but nothing special. We spent several days in 850s of upper teens, which is enough for very hot weather, but I have seen many runs taking us to 21 or 22C and staying there for a few days
- on most days the hot air never made it that far into the UK. Contrast with 2018 when the hottest place was Porthmadog 3 days in a row. This was largely an event of the far South East
- it wasn't combined with a long standing drought

Either those runs that occasionally turn up on the models are just makebelieve, or "the one" will happen at some point in the next decade. This feels like it was a warm up.

Still, it is great finally to get some proper hot weather in August. It's been so long, August has become a real anomaly among months.

Originally Posted by: TimS 

So, was this heatwave "the one"? No I don't think so. Not yet.

I'd been thinking over the last 3 or 4 years that sooner or later we would have a heatwave in the UK that is extreme both in severity and duration. Not just because of some statistical supposition based on climate change and the shifting of the bell curve, but because the models have shown a number of such events, at least once or twice per summer and across multiple runs not just one freakish ensemble perturbation.

Compared with some runs even earlier this summer, this heatwave while certainly unusually hot fell quite a long way short. I think that is reflected in the fact that we still didn't get to anything like the duration or countrywide nature of the heat of July 1976 or for that matter August 2003 (let alone the month long heat of 1976, 2006, 1995, 1997).

2018 was not the one either. It was persistently very dry and sunny, and pretty warm/hot, but without any real sustained period of major heatwave. There were some runs in late July 2018 which if they'd come to fruition would have sent that summer squarely into the record books with a very hot August, but they never came to pass. Instead it got cooler and wetter.

Areas where August 2020 fell short in terms of synoptics / airmass:

- Pressure was never that high meaning there was always a lot of cloud around
- the source airmass, while hot, was nowhere near as hot as in say June or July last year. France's canicule this year was decent but nothing special. We spent several days in 850s of upper teens, which is enough for very hot weather, but I have seen many runs taking us to 21 or 22C and staying there for a few days
- on most days the hot air never made it that far into the UK. Contrast with 2018 when the hottest place was Porthmadog 3 days in a row. This was largely an event of the far South East
- it wasn't combined with a long standing drought

Either those runs that occasionally turn up on the models are just makebelieve, or "the one" will happen at some point in the next decade. This feels like it was a warm up.

Still, it is great finally to get some proper hot weather in August. It's been so long, August has become a real anomaly among months.

Originally Posted by: TimS 

I think a couple of official stations have made it to 28C, Exeter airport had 29C on a METAR too but seems nowhere will make it an eighth 30C day.

Originally Posted by: Rob K 

A disappointing end to the heatwave as the models suggested that East Anglia could hang on to 30-31C heat today but it's been nowhere near. eg Norwich airport topped out at 24C.

I think a couple of official stations have made it to 28C, Exeter airport had 29C on a METAR too but seems nowhere will make it an eighth 30C day.

Originally Posted by: Rob K