[I forgot to do this at the turn of the month. Given no-one seems
to have noticed, is it worth me continuing these monthly
reviews in future?]

Although much cooler than July, the first eight days of
August were moderately warm and largely dry with sunny
periods. From the 9th until practically the end of the month
August was consistently cloudy, cool by day although
moderately warm by night, and rain fell frequently and
often heavily in the eastern half of the UK.

More is available at:
Charts: http://www.climate-uk.com/monpre/0608.htm
The Monthly Review is at:
http://www.climate-uk.com/monthly/0608.htm
Graphs: http://www.climate-uk.com/graphs/0608.htm and
http://www.climate-uk.com/graphs/200608.htm
Not The Long Range Forecast is at:
http://www.climate-uk.com/page4.html

The mean sea-level chart shows that the Icelandic Low was almost
absent (a residual centre of 1010mbar is centred between SE
Iceland and Faeroes); the main low centres are 1007mbar over
northern Quebec and 1007mbar in the southern Baltic. The Azores
high was (perhaps surprisingly) displaced a little to the NE of its
usual position and was centred 1023mbar at 41N 24W.
1027mbar, but the usual strong ridge to France and central
Europe typical of high summer was weaker than usual. There
was, however, ridging northwards towards Greenland around
long.20-30degW, beneath a strong upper ridge in the same
longitude. A marked upper trough was positioned around
long.20-30degE.

The main features of the sea-level pressure anomaly field
illustrated the displacement of the upper ridge/trough pattern.
with below normal pressure over the eastern seaboard of
North America and in the western Atlantic, above normal
pressure from the Azores to Greenland, and much-below
normal pressure over much of Europe.
The main centres we
+4mbar over mid-Atlantic (59N 29W)
-8mbar over NE Poland/W Belarus
-7mbar near SE of Nova Scotia
+5mbar east of Novaya Zemlya
Over the British Isles pressure anomaly ranged from -1mbar
along the west coast of Ireland to -4mbar along the east
coast of England. The anomalous flow was markedly northerly.

CET (after Manley) 16.3°C (+0.1 degC wrt 1971-2000)
making it the coolest August since 1999 by this measure
CET (after Hadley) 16.1°C (-0.1 degC) making it the equal
coolest (with 1999) since 1998 by this measure

E&W Rain (provisional): 88.5mm (122% of 1971-2000 mean)
wetter than Aug 2005 but not as wet as Aug 2004

E&W Sunshine (prov): 161.9 hr ( 82% of 1971-2000 mean)
making it the dullest August since 1986 ...
(bear in mind strict comparisons cannot be
made since the change from CS recorder to KZ sensor).

CScotT: 15.0°C (+0.3 degC)
ScotRain: 68.9mm ( 99%)
ScotSun: 121.4hr ( 77%)

NIT: 15.1°C (+0.3 degC)
NI Rain: 73.3mm (110%)
NI Sun: 120.5hr ( 74%)

Rainfall totals ranged from 210.2mm at Capel Curig (Snowdonia)
and 200.1mm at Fylingdales (N.Yorks) to 17.7mm at Portland
(Dorset).

Percentages ranged from 310 at Margate (Kent) to 36 at Portland.

Sunshine totals ranged from 255.9hr at Shanklin (IoW) and
241.5hr at Bognor (Sussex), both presumed CS recorders -
to a mere 61.4h at Kirkwall (Orkney) and 64.7h at Stornoway
(W.Isles), both KZ sensors.

Percentages ranged from 106 at Shanklin to just 43 at Stornoway.

(c) Philip Eden