Summer 2012 in Coventry

With a mean summer temperature of 15.7ºC (0.8ºC below normal), this
has been the coolest summer in Coventry since 1993 (15.5º C), though
both summer 1998 and 2011 recorded the same mean seasonal temperature.

Summer 1993 is the only summer in our records to record a lower
seasonal mean temperature than summer 2012 in the past 24 years,
though prior to this, cooler summers had been much more common in
Coventry.

Only 41 days (out of 92) recorded a maximum temperature of 20ºC or
more during summer 2012, compared to 50 in 2011, 69 in 2006, 73 in
2003 and 78 in 1893.

The maximum temperature only exceeded 26ºC on three days during summer
2012, compared to four days in 2011, 22 days in 2006 and 31 days in
1976.

Summer 2011 was the driest summer (138.4mm) in our region since 2003
(127.4mm) – just 76% of the city’s average summer rainfall over the 30-
year period from 1981-2010.

What a contrast a year later, with summer 2012 amongst the wettest on
record with 299.6mm of rain falling in Coventry (165%)!

This was our wettest summer since 2007 (364.6mm); only three summers
have been wetter than 2012 since 1870 (1912, 1922, 2007).

There were just 30 ‘dry days’ during summer 2012, compared to 50 in
2011 and 73 in the summer of 1976.

The summer 2011 sunshine total of 509.2 hours was 11% below the city’s
30-year climatological normal, making this the dullest summer in
Coventry since 2000 (491.6hr).

However, there was even less sunshine during summer 2012 in Coventry,
with just 405.3 hours of summer sun recorded, 29% below average.

This has been the dullest summer in the city since 1968 (394.1hr);
only 10 summers have recorded less sunshine than 2012 since 1894.

Remarkably, this has been the sixth summer in succession to record
less sunshine than the city’s 30 year average; only three summers have
recorded more sunshine than normal since 1996 (1999, 2003, 2006).

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