Meteorology-based musings about east London and beyond
The mean temperature for July so far in Wanstead stands at 22.2°C, that’s 4.6°C above the 1961-90 average. Far too hot for many it would seem. And, with many regions in England now officially under drought conditions, far too dry. So where has the climate of my childhood got to? A look on the excellent … Continue reading Want the climate of the Eighties? Move 275 miles north →
The temperature of 37.3°C recorded at Santon Downham, Suffolk, represents a new June maximum record for the UK just a day after a new record of 36.7°C was recorded at Merryfield, Somerset, It is also now the 6th hottest day ever recorded, beating the 1990 record set at Cheltenham. The top 10 list below shows … Continue reading Another day, another June record (again) →
Britain’s capital is often the location of the UK’s hottest weather but a look back to 1911 shows it is often elsewhere the mercury is highest. The highest temperature record has been broken three times in my lifetime. Before the first occasion in August 1990 you’d often see press articles speculating: “Will the UK ever … Continue reading Wanstead and the UK’s top 10 hottest days →
I noticed the first drops of rain from this event riding back over Wanstead Flats from the Holly Tree around 10pm, thoughts of Messi’s majesty in Argentina’s win against Austria fast being replaced by watching clouds bubbling overhead. Reaching home the drops didn’t come to much and I wondered if the action would miss us, … Continue reading Hours of thunder on June 23, 2026 →
It’s 10 years tonight that this station recorded over 60mm of rain in 24 hours. It remains the largest daily fall at this station since records began in 1960. Rainfall rates touched over 60mm/hr during the early hours of June 23rd. The closest station at the waterworks at Redbridge Roundabout recorded a similar amount. The … Continue reading The Brexit deluge, 10 years on →
Years on from this blog and there’s still no 30C on the 13th. This site came close last year with 29.8C.
This winter since the turn of the year has been remarkably snowy for locations above 500m. Which, in the UK, means few of us would have noticed. A pattern of predominant SE’ly winds feels like it has been locked in for weeks and has brought endless rain to many parts of the country. And much … Continue reading The magic 500m snow line →
Below is a number of GIFs that illustrate snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere during the late winter of 1947. This part of the British Isles saw snow cover from late January to mid March. The animation suggests there was snow cover in the London area for an astonishing 51 consecutive days. A superb account … Continue reading Winter 1947: 51 consecutive days of lying snow across London and SE…
The opening week or so of 2026 has already seen 30 per cent of frost hours recorded locally in an average year. The temperature at the site in Wanstead has been -0.1C or lower for nearly 64 hours, already more than half of what was recorded here in the whole of 2020. The mean for … Continue reading Hours of frost →
The mean temperature for 2025 finished 12.2C, 0.2C above the most recent 10-year average and just 0.01 warmer than 2024. The average maximum finished 16.7C, 0.5 above average and 0.6C up on 2024. The average minimum finished 7.7C, 0.1C below average and 0.8C down on 2024. There were 42 air frosts, 9 above average and … Continue reading 2025 averages in Wanstead →