Very Surprising Admission From The BBC About This Summer
Yesterday, the BBC carried an article saying this summer has not been ‘the hottest on record’ as they had predicted, but rather has been the coolest since 2015
It is not a long article so I reproduce it in full:
The UK has seen its coolest summer for nine years, according to latest statistics from the Met Office.
It has also been a season of contrasts, with the north-west of the UK cool and wet, while the south and east have had a more typical UK summer.
The hottest day of the summer was 12 August, when temperatures in Cambridge reached 34.8C. Although we did see some heatwaves recorded in the south, any periods of heat have been fairly short-lived.
This year bucks the trend of the warm summers we have seen in recent years. The last time the UK had a cooler than average summer was back in 2015.
The coolest and wettest weather this summer has been in the north-west of the UK
Temperatures on the low side
Summer – in weather and climate terms – incorporates June, July and August.
The three key indicators for assessing a season’s weather are temperature, rainfall and sunshine amounts.
The statistics from the Met Office show that overall, summer was cooler than average. The mean daily temperature (the average across 24 hours) across the UK was 14.37C, which is 0.22C below average.
The daytime maximum temperatures were more notably cool than the night-time minimums, with cloudy skies often keeping overnight temperatures up.
The long-term trend for higher temperatures is continuing due to climate change, although individual years will see ups and downs in temperature.
Five of the top 10 warmest summers on record in the UK have all occurred since 2000.
Average rainfall
How wet it has felt for you depends very much on where you are, but looking at the summer as a whole, rainfall comes in at 241.3mm, which is just five percent below average.
For Achnagart in Highland it was the wettest summer on record with more than double the monthly average falling during August. It was particularly wet elsewhere in western Scotland and north-west England.
In contrast, much of Wales and the rest of England had a notably dry summer, with parts of the Midlands receiving only a third of their expected rainfall.
Sunshine in short supply
If you feel the blue sky days have been lacking this summer you would be right if you have been anywhere other than central-southern England, eastern England and parts of eastern Scotland.
These areas have seen up to 25 percent more sunshine than expected, whereas for the rest of us, it has been decidedly dull.
Things did pick up in the second half of the summer when the jet stream shifted north, bringing drier and warmer weather for many of us.
What about autumn?
September last year brought a record-breaking seven consecutive days that reached 30C or more but it is unlikely we will see such as prolonged spell of heat this year.
Although September started with 30C at Wiggonholt in West Sussex, there have been some thundery downpours too.
Over the next few days, high pressure is never far away, so although things will turn a little fresher, with a few showers, there will still be some drier and warmer weather to be enjoyed too.
It is interesting to note the last line about high pressure bringing warmer weather, when we usually see the BBC ‘attributing’ warmer weather to ‘climate change’.
It should not be forgotten that this year was confidently predicted to be the ‘hottest on record’.
Then we had a cold March, which the Met Office subsecuently said was in our imagination, and that March was in fact warmer than usual.
The first 18 days of June were also unseasonably cold, and many people, myself included, had to put their heating on.
This latest admission by the BBC was totally unexpected, but I would still bet they will find a way by the end of the year of claiming 2024 was hotter than usual, and no prizes for guessing what they will blame.
Their claim that five of the last ten warmest years in the UK have occurred since 2000 is grossly misleading, as it has been shown many times that if you cherry-pick years and tamper with data you can show anything you desire.
See the BBC article here bbc.co.uk
Header image: Walking Tractor
About the author: Andy Rowlands is a university graduate in space science and British Principia Scientific International researcher, writer and editor who co-edited the 2019 climate science book, ‘The Sky Dragon Slayers: Victory Lap‘
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Trackback from your site.
Jerry Krause
| #
Hi Andy,
The BBC article was brief but you article certainly was not.
Have a good day
Reply
Andy Rowlands
| #
I presume that is not a compliment?
Reply
S.C.
| #
When a well known propaganda outlet suddenly issues a fact-based analysis, it almost seems too good to be true. My grandmother had a saying about such things…
My suspicions are on edge and I can’t help but wonder what giant whopper they are trying to set up now.
Reply
Andy Rowlands
| #
Good point!
Reply