Oh we don’t like to be beside the seaside! Britain sunseekers are drenched by heavy downpours and thunderstorms 12 months on from a record-breaking dry spell when nation’s beaches were bliss
- Yesterday between 25 and 30mm of rain fell across parts of north-east England
- Last July the mercury in England hit 40C for the first time with droughts declared
- Bournemouth and Brighton beaches were packed with sunbathers
This time last year Britons were flocking to the beaches and sunbathing in 35C heat.
Resorts such as Bournemouth, in Dorset, and Brighton, in East Sussex, saw their shorelines packed with a sea of deckchairs and parasols as sunseekers slathered on the sun screen.
Sunbathers could be seen enjoying the hot weather on the golden sands with forecasters indicating more was to follow.
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But the picture couldn’t be any different 12 months later, with beaches left deserted as heavy downpours and storms caused people to say away from the coast.
Storm warnings in some locations where also in place in what should be the height of summer – although forecasters are predicting the weather could soon make a turn for the better.
The sweltering heat came on the back of July’s heatwave with the 19th marking a significant day in the UK’s history as the mercury hit 40C – the first time the temperature had ever been recorded.
The Met Office declared July as England’s driest month on record since 1935.
It caused 11 of the Environment Agency’s 14 areas in England to be plunged into ‘drought status’ with hosepipe bans in some areas only being lifted in December.
The blistering heat and little rainfall also caused some of Britain’s reservoirs to vanish with river levels being recorded at 30 per cent of normal levels.
Wayoh Reservoir in Entwistle, Bolton, and the Thruscross reservoir, in the village of West End, near Harrogate, Yorkshire, were just some of the areas were water levels were partially depleted.
The National Drought Group – made up of senior decision-makers from the Environment Agency, government, water companies, and farming and environmental groups – feared drought conditions would continue beyond spring this year.
Yet fast-forward 12 months and the picture is vastly different as last year’s images of sun-soaked Britons on packed beaches are replaced with people under their umbrellas sheltering from the rain.
Only yesterday central England and Wales was warned to prepare for thunderstorms.
Between 25 to 30mm of rain fell across parts of the north-east of England on Wednesday, while areas in London saw around 20mm, the Met Office said.
‘Overall, temperatures look like they will recover to at least average, or a little above, however any prolonged dry or hot spells appear to be unlikely.’
It is in strong contrast to June when the forecaster said it could not rule out 40C when it predicted the the odds of a hotter than average summer in the UK had now more than doubled.
Will Lang leads the Met Office’s National Weather Warning Service and told a news conference at the time that we might be in for record breaking temperatures over the next two months.
He said: ‘Extremes such as 40 degrees are by definition unlikely, but not impossible.
‘Given we have an increased probability of hot weather overall for the summer, it does increase the risk of extreme high temperatures,’ he added.
While that has yet to materialise, extreme heatwaves have hit Europe and temperatures of up to 48C have swept across the continent.
Climate change has been blamed for the extreme heat which sparked devastating wildfires in Greece and the Gran Canaria.
Researchers believe temperatures of over 40C, seen for the first time in the UK last year, will become increasingly common unless greenhouse gas emissions are curtailed.
