Guernsey Press

Hot weather set to continue until the weekend at least

TEMPERATURES are set to climb again this week, peaking at 27C on Friday.

Published
It has been a great summer for beach-goers and apart from a slight risk of a thunderstorm on Saturday night, there is no end in sight to the hot and dry weather. (Picture by Luke Le Prevost, 31121581)

It is because high pressure is building across the UK, bringing more of the sunny, warm, dry conditions we are becoming used to.

That high pressure ridge will remain over most of the UK until at least the end of the week, and could even persist into the middle of August.

The island has had weeks of back-to back sunshine. So far in August there have been 64 hours of sunshine – above the average of 53 hours.

Last month there were more than 300 hours of sunshine – an average of 10 hours a day.

‘July was an extraordinary month for both temperature and rainfall, or lack thereof, breaking a number of records,’ a Guernsey Met Office spokesman said.

The 18th of the month saw a temperature of 34.2C, the highest July temperature since records began in 1843 and the second-highest officially recorded.

‘We also noted four days with 30C or higher – the most occasions for any month on record,’ they said.

‘With a mean temperature of 18.7C this was the warmest month since July 2006 and we also noted the warmest night on the 18th for 16 years.

‘We also set a new mean daily range temperature record of 8C for July.’

With just 1.4mm of rain for the month, it was the driest July on record and the driest month overall since June 1976. It was also the sixth-driest month since records began. The only completely dry month was June 1925.

‘From the start of this year to 31 July we have recorded 267.2mm of rain,’ the spokesman said.

‘The 30-year average is 425.0mm. For the same period in 1976 we recorded just 174.2mm.’

The August record for lowest rainfall was set in 1955, with 3.8mm.

So far this month there has been just 0.2mm of rain, when the island would normally have expected to see 14mm.

There is a risk of a thunderstorm on Saturday night, but it will still be warm.

‘The hot weather looks to continue through the weekend before cooling down into next week,' said the Met Office.