Summer just past

 It has been a hot summer with some records broken of course.
Here the highest temperature reached was 37.3C on the 19th.
This was quite a jump on previous record of about 32C!
It was only one day though and honestly don't quite understand why such a huge fuss was made about 'dangers' since high 30s temperatures are common enough in southern Europe where people apparently enjoy it on holiday.
The cause was a pocket of very hot air direct from North Africa and it was less moderated since France in particular was already hotter and drier than normal.

A more significant issue is how dry it has been - building on a dry winter, every month has been below average with only February anywhere near normal.
By mid September we had still had less than 250mm well below half normal.
The result has been scorched up grassland though occasional showers meant it didn't really get as brown as 1976 and some areas to the south of the moors and further west were much less scorched than here towards the coast.

September has gradually built up a more respectable total of about 66mm in fact slightly above normal and the immediate worry of failing water supplies has receded but grass growth can't make up for several weeks when there was almost none.