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Mercury peaks as hottest day ever recorded

Sun © Lykaestria at the English language Wikipedia
“After a run of fairly unpredictable and wet summers I think it is easy to forget the good summers we have experienced, some in the fairly recent past.

As the heatwave continues across much of the United Kingdom the James Hutton Institute has recorded the hottest day since it started keeping records in 1954.

The mercury peaked at 28.9oC in late afternoon on Thursday 18 July marking the highest daily air temperature ever recorded at the meteorological site at Invergowrie, Dundee. This beat the previous highest temperature of 28.7oC recorded on 21 August 1995.

Perhaps surprisingly until the new top temperature of 28.9oC was recorded only one other day during the recent spell of hot weather, 12 July 2013, had made it into the top 10 hottest days on record at 27.4oC. However it was pushed out of the top 10 again following Thursday’s recording.

Dr Roy Neilson, who manages the MET site, said: “After a run of fairly unpredictable and wet summers I think it is easy to forget the good summers we have experienced, some in the fairly recent past”.

Top 10 hottest days recorded at the James Hutton Institute in Dundee

Temp oC Date Year
Top ten hottest days
28.9 18 July 2013
28.7 21 August 1995
28.5 2 August 1990
28.3 22 July 1955
28.3 11 August 1955
28.3 12 July 2005
28.2 5 June 1982
27.8 14 June 1959
27.6 8 June 1975
27.6 17 July 2006

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July 19, 2013

Printed from /news/mercury-peaks-hottest-day-ever-recorded on 01/02/23 10:02:51 PM

The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.