An historical perspective of the climate statistics

for Coventry during August 2012

Temperature

With a mean monthly temperature of 17.1ºC, August 2012 has become the
warmest August in Coventry since 2009 (17.2ºC), just 0.1ºC above the
city’s 30-year climatological normal (1981-2010).

August has been the warmest month of summer 2012, though with
temperatures barely much above average, it has followed the recent
trend for a disappointing ‘high summer’ month in Coventry. Only one
other August month (2009) has recorded mean monthly temperatures above
normal since 2004. So a cooling trend during this late summer month is
evident, with six out of the past eight years recording a mean August
temperature below the 30-year average. This local cooling follows five
consecutive ‘warm’ August months in our region between 2000 and 2004.

After the first eight months of the year, the running mean annual
temperature for 2012 is 0.2ºC lower than the city’s 30 year average.

• 31st on this day, the grass minimum temperature fell to 1.1ºC early
morning, the lowest such value in Coventry since 1993 (0.8ºC).

Rainfall

With just 57.8mm (92%) falling in Coventry during August 2012, the
city missed out on some heavy showers at times in our region, with
Leamington for example, recording over 100mm of rain during the
month.

Even so, the annual rainfall total for 2012 so far is still 19% above
average for Coventry; remarkable considering the environmental drought
declared in our region as recently as April! Remember, the first
three months of 2012 had recorded just 79.4mm of rainfall, making it
the driest first quarter of any year in Coventry since 1892 (74.4mm).
This time last year, we had recorded just 66% of the expected rainfall
total for the first eight months of the year in Coventry, the highest
rainfall deficit for this period in the city since 1976..

Thunder was heard on four days during August 2012, the highest number
of August thunder days since 2006 (9).

Sunshine

Remarkably for the second year in succession, we recorded less
sunshine during August (139.6hr), 75% of the 30-year average in a high
summer month, than we did during March 2012 (174.4hr), the first month
of spring!

Even so, this has been the sunniest August in Coventry since 2009
(166.4hr).

It is the third month in a row in Coventry to record a sunshine total
below the city’s 30-year sunshine average, and the fourth in five
months, though even May only managed to exceed the average by 1%.

Not only has there been a sign of recent cooling during August (as
suggested above), it is notable that only three August months have
recorded more sunshine than average in Coventry since 1998 (2003, 2005
and 2007).

Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry UK
www.bablakeweather.co.uk