Coolest summer since 2015

If you felt like the summer of 2024 has let you down with its lack of warmth, you wouldn't be wrong. The UK has experienced its coolest summer since 2015, according to provisional statistics.

Despite a warming world surrounding us, filled with record-breaking temperatures, wildfires and droughts, the UK has defied that trend for the summer of 2024.

Mean temperatures for the UK this summer came in at 14.37°C, 0.22°C below the long-term average. Scotland and Northern Ireland had even lower temperatures than the average.

Perhaps interesting to note is that the statistics are relative to the 1991-2020 climate average, though 14.37°C would still come in as warmer than average if compared to the 1961-1990 average.

This still places 2024 as a warm summer in a historical context, but is important to observe that even within the overall warming trend, there will still be fluctuations of natural variability.

For the UK however, June and July were below-average in terms of temperatures, while August was only slightly above-average. While there were some hot spells, they were only short-lived.

Regardless of the slightly higher temperatures through August, the month was wetter than average and did see Storm Lilian bring gales and driving rain to parts of the UK on the 22nd.

This storm season will be noted as one of the stormiest on record, having reached the letter "L" for the first time since storm naming began.