With a Bank Holiday upon us, we have been looking at the history of
weather conditions on August Bank Holiday Monday over the past 20 or
so years in Coventry and Warwickshire.

Although much maligned, we haven't had any significant rain on Bank
Holiday Monday for 10 years locally!

The warmest August Bank Holiday Monday in recent years came in 2005
with a maximum temperature of 23.9°C - we have to go back to 1991
(24.5°C) to find a warmer one than this in the past 20 years.

The sunniest August Bank Holiday Monday in recent years was in 2001
with 12.5 hours of sunshine.

On this day in 1986, a Bank Holiday Monday, ex-Hurricane Charley
dumped 46.5mm of rain on our region and with that rain, the day's
maximum temperature was only 13.1°C.

Just some interesting data from the archives to show that the weather
isn't always so bad on this BHM.

Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry UK
www.bablakeweather.co.uk

Last year's August BH weekend was glorious and came at the end of a hot,
sunny spell which started on the previous Tuesday (21st). The seven days
(21st - 27th) which included the BH weekend recorded 82.2 hours of sunshine
which averaged out at 11.7 hours a day. Such a contrast to this year's dull
and wet August.

The temperature peaked at 29.4°C on Saturday the 25th (which was also the
hottest day of the year), and there was 13.1 hours of sunshine. On the BH
Monday itself things had cooled somewhat but it was still a pleasant day
with a max of 22.5°C and 8.5 hours of sunshine. The whole month of August
2007 recorded a very respectable 252 hours of sunshine.

August BH Monday 2006 was cool and breezy with a max temperature of only
18.5°C making it the coldest day of what generally was a cool and unsettled
month after a very hot and dry July.

August BH Monday 2005 was warm with a max of 25.5°C and occurred during a
very warm end to a what was a warm August and that lead into a warm and
sunny start to September.
________________
Nick.
Otter Valley, Devon
83 m amsl
http://www.ottervalley.co.uk