Chilly and wet first half of August in the Anglia region

The Anglia region has suffered its coldest start to August for many years and the summer weather is still on the showery side.

The Met Office says that provisional figures show mean temperatures have generally been below average for August by about 1°C, but central southern England has seen the greatest differences compared to the 1981-2010 average.

For south-east and central southern England the period 1-13 August 2017 has been the coldest since 1987.

For the first 16 days of August, the Anglia region have seen average maximum temperatures of 20.7°C which is 1.3°C below the normal for the time of year.

Night time temperatures have also been lower than normal averaging 11.8°C.

The highest temperature so far achieved in the region during the first half of August was 24.6°C recorded at Cavendish in Suffolk on the 15th.

The Anglia region has also seen 50% more rain in the first half of August than normal.

The regional rainfall total up to 10am on 17 April was 41 mm (1.6 inches). Normally during that period the region would get 29 mm of rain (1.1 inches).

The wettest place in the region so far this month is Bedford which has seen 68 mm (2.7 inches) of rain.

Sunshine has also been in relatively short supply.

The average daily sunshine in August for the Anglia region is 6.2 hours but so far this month we have seen only 5.8 hours per day on average.