Durham Weather : August 2020

The weather in Durham in August 2020 was disappointing overall after starting out really well. It was typical of the summer really. There were no long settled spells as such at Durham, although some very warm weather was experienced in the south of the country, culminating with 36.4C recorded at Heathrow and Kew Gardens.

The 11th August (mean 24.0 degC) and 12th August (mean 25.1 degC) were the warmest recorded for those particular dates on the Central England Temperature series. The 12th August 2020 is actually the warmest CET day, narrowly edging 1st August 1995 (24.9) into second place.

Thunderstorms were extensive across the country after that, but we escaped most of them in Gilesgate, although there were some near misses, with torrential rain.

It was actually pretty dry up to the 17th (12.2mm, 8 days with rain). The temperature reached 28.0 degC on the 7th, which averaged 21.3 degC. This was the high for the month.

Then from 17th it turned really wet and temps declined markedly, with 22.8mm on 17th and rain every day from the 13th to 30th.

The last week of the month was very wet, with 12.5mm on 23rd, 12.8mm on 25th, 13.8mm on 27th and 29.8mm on the 28th August. There was a cloudburst in Durham on Sunday 23rd which dropped 9mm in 10mins in the early afternoon. This was right in the middle of the wet spell.

Here is the chart for Tuesday 25th August. It was very wet and windy. The pressure was very low for August, falling to 986.4mb and the northern flank of this depression gave us the heavy rain driven in from the East.

This last week has become progressively colder and wetter, culminating in 13.8mm on 27th and 29.8mm on 28th. Total for the month is now 127.1mm .

Maximum temp on the 28th was only 13.5 degC with a keen NE wind. The 29th was cooler still at 12.7 degC.

As is frequent in August, the last few days can be quite cool, and the monthly minimum was 5.3 degC on the morning of 31st. This was a really nice late summers day.