SSEN's Weather Watch for July 2021

Looking back at June reveals most areas from Wales and the Midlands northwards had a dry month, with less than a third of the usual rainfall in some areas, but south-east England was very wet with more than double the average rainfall for some locations. The UK overall had 59% of average June rainfall.

Wind speeds were way down on average, especially across France and Germany, where it was the least windy June since at least June 1961.

The Met Office map shows the rainfall as a percentage of the long term average for June 2021 - some heavy downpours and thunderstorms caused localised flooding.In contrast to June, most places have had a cloudy, wet start to July, apart from the far north of Scotland which has fared better.

Further wet spells and thundery showers are predicted for England and Wales well in to the second week of July. Showers will also break out across Northern Ireland, Ireland and Scotland too, but these should be less heavy and less frequent.

For the middle and end parts of July we should find a change to mostly fine, dry weather. This time more likely for England and Wales, with occasional showers still impacting Scotland and Northern Ireland at times. It's going to be difficult to pin down the detail at this stage, but we're expecting a change from wet to mainly dry for most parts around the middle of the month.

Temperatures will start a little on the cool side for the time of the year. Values should recover to slightly above average in most regions from mid-month, although a major heatwave seems unlikely.

Instead, we'll probably find day temperatures persistently reaching 25C in London, 21-22C in Cardiff and 18-20C for Glasgow.The Speedwell graph in our summary page image shows the forecast high temperatures for Dublin over the next two weeks.

Continuing the trend of the spring and early summer, wind speeds are expected to be down on average, especially so for Scotland.

We'll return with our August prospects and a mention of the hurricane season prospects for the tropical Atlantic in a couple of weeks.