There is no doubt that 2018 will be in our minds and memories for many years to come as it has produced so many fascinations on the weather scene that it's kinda difficult to remember them all at once and I am making this blog post as a source for you to learn all the amazing things 2018 had to offer in not only the UK and Ireland, also other things like Atlantic hurricanes. I will be providing lots of weather trivia based upon the extremes or records set during 2018.
UK
Lowest Spring/March maximum temperature on record for the UK with -4.7°C at Tredegar, Wales on March 1st beating the previous record of -4.6°C at Cassley, Scotland on 2nd March 2001.
Second warmest April day on record with a maximum of 29.1°C at St. James' Park on April 19th (behind only 29.4°C at Camden Square on Easter Saturday 1949; 16th April 1949) smashing the previous April 19th record of 25.6°C back in April 1893.
Sheffield had its warmest April day on record with a maximum of 26.4c on 19th April 2018 (records back to 1883) beating its previous record of 24.8c on 16th April 2003.
Bradford had its warmest April day on record with a maximum of 24.3c on 19th April 2018 (records back to 1909) beating its previous record of 23.9c on 15th April 1949.
Rothamsted had its warmest April day on record with a maximum of 26.8c on 19th April 2018 (records back to 1914) beating its previous record of 26.1c on 16th April 1949.
Woburn had its warmest April day on record with a maximum of 27.1c on 19th April 2018 (records back to 1915) beating its previous record of 26.1c on 16th April 1949.
Wisley had its warmest April day on record with a maximum of 28.3c on 19th April 2018 (records back to 1915) beating its previous record of 27.8c on 23rd April 2011.
Cranwell had its warmest April day on record with a maximum of 26.3c on 19th April 2018 (records back to 1916) beating its previous record of 25.3c on 23rd April 2011.
Kenley Airfield in Greater London recorded an air minimum of 15.9c on 19th April 2018 which was a new record high April minimum for the UK beating the previous record of 15.2c at Inverailort on 15th April 2007 and at Eastbourne on 23rd April 2011.
Warmest London Marathon on record with a maximum of 24.1°C at St. James' Park on April 22nd beating the previous record of 22.7°C at the same station in April 1996.
Warmest Early May Bank Holiday on record since it began in 1978 with a maximum temperature of 28.7°C at Northolt on May 7th, easily beating the previous record of 23.6°C on 3rd May 1999.
May 2018 was the equal second warmest May on record in terms of overall mean temperature for the UK back to 1910 with a mean of 12.1°C behind only May 2008 which had a mean temperature of 12.2°C.
May 2018 was the warmest May on record in terms of mean maximum temperature for the UK back to 1910 with a mean maximum of 17.2°C beating the previous record of 16.9°C in May 1992.
May 2018 was the sunniest May on record for the UK back to 1929 with 246.0 hrs sunshine beating the previous record of 241.7 hrs in May 1989.
June 2018 was the warmest on record for Northern Ireland and Wales back to 1910.
June 2018 was the equal third warmest on record for Scotland (behind June 1940 and 1970).
June 2018 was the equal fourth warmest on record for England (behind June 1976, 2017 and 1940).
Porthmadog, Wales recorded a maximum temperature of 33.0°C on June 28th making it the warmest June day in Wales since 2000 when 33.7°C was recorded. This made June 2018 one of a couple to successfully reach at least 90f (32.2°C) since the end of the millennium along with 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2017.
Northern Ireland had one of its warmest days on record on June 28th with a maximum of 30.5°C at Derrylin and Thomastown, only 0.3°C short of the record of 30.8°C set on 30th June 1976 and 12th July 1983.
Until it was suspected an ice cream van influenced this temperature and was thus disregarded, Motherwell, Scotland recorded a new maximum temperature record all-time for Scotland with 33.2°C beating the previous record of 32.9°C on 9th August 2003. This is now disregarded though.
June 2018 was the fourth driest June on record for the England & Wales Precipitation (EWP) series back to 1766 with only 15.8mm being recorded.
The average daily maximum temperature for the UK from 1 June to 16 July 2018 is 20.9°C. To emphasise how remarkable this is, the average daily maximum temperature for Summer 1976 (of course the hottest ever recorded) was 21.0°C.
July 2018 was the equal second warmest on record for the UK back to 1910 with 1983 at a mean temperature of 17.3°C. Only July 2006 was warmer at 17.8°C.
July 2018 was also the second warmest on record for the UK back to 1910 in terms of mean maximum temperature with a mean maximum of 22.6°C beaten by only 2006 with 23.2°C.
July 2018 was the second warmest on record for England (only 2006 was warmer), third warmest on record for Wales (only 1983 and 2006 were warmer), fourth warmest on record for Scotland (only 2006, 2013 and 1983 were warmer) and sixth warmest on record for Northern Ireland (2013, 2006, 1983, 1989 and 1995 were warmer).
For SE England, it was the warmest July on record back to 1910 in terms of mean maximum temperature with a mean of 26.2c beating the previous record of July 2006 which had a mean max. of 26.1c. This also made it the warmest mean maximum temperature on record for any month in the region back to 1910.
For the CET, it was the third hottest July on record back to 1659 with a mean of 19.1°C behind only July 2006 at 19.7°C and July 1983 at 19.5°C. This was only the 4th time in the entire series a monthly CET of at least 19.0°C was recorded, the other time was August 1995 at 19.2°C.
Despite being exceptionally dry most of the month, Northern Ireland had nearly bang on its average July rainfall in July 2018 and that was all down to torrential downpours on one single day, July 28th which recorded a daily rainfall of 89.8mm at Aldergrove.
It was the second sunniest July on record for England back to 1929 with a total of 273.9 hrs of sunshine only beaten by 2006 which had 291.9 hrs of sunshine.
The maximum temperature of the Summer was 35.6°C on July 27th at Felsham, Suffolk. A temperature of 35.0°C or more in the UK has only occurred in 1900, 1906, 1911, 1923, 1932, 1948, 1957, 1976, 1990, 1995, 2003, 2006, 2015 and 2018 since 1900 showing how difficult of a figure it is to achieve though notice the decrease in rarity from 1990 onwards.
May to July 2018 was the warmest on record for the CET back to 1659 with a mean temperature of 16.1°C beating the previous record of 16.0°C back in 2006.
May to July 2018 was the sunniest on record for NW England & N. Wales back to 1929 with a total of 763.8 hrs of sunshine absolutely obliterating the previous record of 704.3 hrs in 1989. This total also beats the sunniest Summer (June-July-August) on record for the areas which was 1976 with 681.5 hrs of sunshine.
Summer 2018 (June-July-August) was the fifth warmest on record for the Central England Temperature (CET) back to 1659 with a mean temperature of 17.27°C. This made it only the tenth Summer in the entire CET record to have a seasonal CET of at least 17.0°C {others being: 1976, 1826, 1995, 2003, 2006, 1846, 1983, 1947, 1933}.
April-August 2018 was the warmest such period on record for the CET back to 1659 with a mean of 15.0c beating the previous record of 14.7c set in 1976 and 2003.
Storm Ali resulted in a maximum wind gust of 79 kts (91 mph) at Killowen, Northern Ireland on 19th September 2018 which was the strongest September wind gust over Northern Ireland since 106 mph at Ballykelly on 16th September 1961 during ex-hurricane Debbie.
Donna Nook, Lincolnshire recorded a maximum of 26.5c on 13th October 2018 which was a new October 13th record and the latest on record that 26.0c has been achieved in the UK.
Ireland
January 2018 was the wettest January on record at Malin Head since its records began in 1885.
18th March 2018 is the latest known ice day in Ireland on record.
It was the driest May/June combination on record in May/June 2018 for Dublin Airport (records back to 1939) with 23.9mm easily beating the previous record of 44.8mm in May/June 1970.
Mt. Dillon recorded 25.5mm of rainfall in the hour 1500 to 1600 UTC on 8th June 2018 along with a drop in air temperature from 24.6c down to 16.0c - nearly a 9 degree drop in an hour.
Shannon Airport recorded a record breaking run of 18 days with a maximum temperature successfully reaching 20°C or more from May 23rd to June 9th which broke its previous record of 15 days from June 2nd to 16th 1970 for so early in the season. Its second record was 13 days from May 28th to June 9th 2016 which is a more comparable record because it incorporated some of May unlike the 1970 record.
Shannon Airport recorded a maximum temperature of 32.0c on 28th June 2018 which made it the warmest day on record at the station for any month since its records began in 1938. This was the highest temperature on record for any synoptic station in Ireland. This was the highest June temperature in Ireland since June 1976 and for any month in Ireland since July 2006. This also made it only the third June to record a maximum of at least 30c in Ireland since at least the 1940s - other two instances being 1995 and 1976.
Malin Head subsequently recorded the sunniest (known at least) days on record of all-time in Ireland with 16.4 hrs on the 27th June 2018 and then 16.5 hrs on the 28th June the next day. The same station recorded 16.4 hrs of sunshine again on 3rd July (and 16.2 hrs on 2nd July).
28 June-4 July 2018 was the sunniest 7-day period on record at Dublin Airport (with records back to 1939) with 107.4 hrs of sunshine beating the previous record of 104.6 hrs from 23-29 June 1995. 27 June-3 July 2018 also bet this record too with 106.6 hrs and this 7-day period comes in second place for the station.
From 21 June to 4 July 2018 (14 days), Dublin Airport recorded 203.5 hrs of sunshine which is more than 10 hours of sunshine than what the average May records at the station; May is its sunniest month of the year on average.
Though there were variations during the period, the warm spell or heatwave generally lasted from 24 June to 14 July and the sunny spell began on 21 June. This was the longest such spell of weather in Ireland since 1995. The sunny period was a total of 24 days and featured extraordinary sunshine totals for Ireland (stats are not in for the UK yet). Valentia Observatory and Cork Airport on top for sunshine from 21 June to 14 July 2018 (24-day period) with totals of 273.3 (11.4 hours per day on average) and 270.9 hours (11.3 hours per day on average) respectively. Don't know if that's record breaking but surely it must be near record breaking because those kinds of totals would be mad in a 30 or 31-day period, never mind 24 days - not even a full month!
2018 had 22 days of reaching 25c or more at Carlow (Oak Park), the third most on record (records back to 1967) at the station behind only 33 such days in 1995 and 23 such days in 1976.
2018 had 74 days of reaching 20c or more at Carlow (Oak Park), the third most on record (records back to 1967) at the station behind only 85 such days in 1995 and 77 such days in 1975.
The 21 June-14 July 2018 absolute drought (minimum 15 consecutive days with 0.2mm of rain or less) at Dublin Airport was the joint 4th longest on record with 24 days.
The 2018 partial drought at Dublin Airport was the second longest in its records with 53 days, only beaten by the 1972 partial drought which lasted for 58 days.
Cork Airport had its driest Summer (June-July-August) on record in 2018 with a rainfall total of only 109.5mm (records back to 1962) beating its previous record of 114.0mm in Summer 1995.
Phoenix Park had its second driest Summer (June-July-August) on record in 2018 with a rainfall total of only 75.3mm (records back to 1829), 38% of its average Summer rainfall. This was only beaten by Summer 1995 which recorded 65.1mm of rainfall.
May to September 2018 was the driest such period on record for Dublin Airport (with records back to 1939) with a rainfall total of only 155.7mm beating the previous record of 181.8mm in 1995. *NOTE these figures are using midnight to midnight which are not the standard of studying climate so these figures would differ somewhat using 0900 to 0900 but nevertheless, the record still stands either way you do it.
Cork Airport and Sherkin Island's mean sea level pressure (MSLP) observation of 1041.3mb on 24th September 2018 made it the joint highest September MSLP on record of all-time in Ireland with Malin Head on 11th September 2009.
20 September 2018 was the third coldest September day on record at Cork Airport (records back to 1962) with a maximum of only 10.3c, under the rain from Storm Bronagh.
22 September 2018 was the equal fifth coldest September day on record at Cork Airport (records back to 1962) with a maximum of only 10.5c.
Mullingar subsequently broke its September record low twice in September 2018 (records back to 1943) with -1.1c on the 24th and -1.6c on the 29th, both beating its previous record of -0.1c on 18th September 1952.
Valentia Observatory's MSLP observation of 1043.9mb on 22nd October 2018 made it the highest October MSLP on record of all-time in Ireland beating the previous record of 1043.0mb at Malin Head on 31st October 1956.
Gurteen recorded a daily mean temperature of 2.2c on 27th October 2018 which was the second coldest October daily mean on record at the station (records back to 2008) only beaten by 1.9c on 27th October 2012.
Dublin Airport recorded an air minimum of -4.7c on 30th October 2018 which was a new October record low for the station (records back to 1939) beating the previous record of -3.3c on 25th October 2010.
Casement Aerodrome recorded an air minimum of -4.3c on 30th October 2018 which was a new October record low for the station (records back to 1958) beating the previous record of -4.1c on 16th October 1993.