Hampshire and Portsmouth area notch up one of its wettest summers as the rest of the UK enjoy stunning sunshine

Despite a few sunny spells, overall the county has been swamped by 245.2mm of rainfall, or 49 per cent more than average, as homes and businesses were blighted by flooding.

But despite the dismal summer across the Portsmouth area, the Met Office has insisted that overall, the UK has recorded one of its hottest in recent years.

Weather experts said that this year’s season has been one degree warmer than average, potentially putting it in the top 10 warmest UK summers on record.

The Met Office says although it may surprise those who have endured a far wetter and ‘duller’ season than usual in the south-east, relatively high temperatures in Scotland and Northern Ireland have helped elevate this summer towards the top 10 on mean temperature.

READ MORE: Southern Water vows to investigate flooding woes

In a statement, the Met Office says while it is still a few days off announcing a definitive ranking at the start of September, the UK’s mean temperature for summer was around one degree centigrade higher than average at 15.4C.

Northern Ireland has so far had one of its warmer summers with a mean temperature of 15.0C

And the Met Office said Scotland’s figure was 13.8C, which qualified as ‘notably warm’.

Amid last month’s heatwave, Northern Ireland broke its all-time record with a top temperature of 31.3C (88.3F).

It could still be close as to whether this summer hits the top 10.

The Met Office’s outlook up until Monday – the second-last day of summer – reads: ‘Often cloudy, cool with some light rain or showers for northern and eastern coastal areas. Elsewhere, dry with sunny spells. Warm in the west.’

By contrast, there has been an average across all areas of Greater London of 220.2mm of rain – 48 per cent more than the long-term summer average, though still short of records.

West Sussex recorded 250.9mm of rainfall, 52 per cent above average, while Surrey notched up 240.3mm, or 54 per cent more than average.

Dr Mark McCarthy, of the National Climate Information Centre, said: ‘Obviously there’s still time before the month and season is over, but summer so far is certainly looking drier and warmer than average.

‘That’s despite some of the wet, dull conditions we’ve seen in the south-east in particular.

‘Some of the flooding seen in London in July has seen some individual stations report almost twice their normal summer rainfall but the north and west of the country has experienced plenty of sunshine through June and July, although most of the country has been duller than average through August.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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