THE first half of September has been the UK's driest for more than 50 years, weather experts said.
Figures to September 15 show there has been 6.7mm of rain across the UK, which is just seven per cent of the September average of 96mm, the Met Office said.
Forecasters would normally expect about half of the average monthly rainfall by this point in the month.A spokesman said this made it the driest first half of September for the UK in available records back to 1960. It is also the driest start to September for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not for England - 1997 and 2003 were drier.
Looking at individual countries, Scotland has seen 13.5mm of rain so far in September - just 10 per cent of the month's average. Wales has been the driest with less than 1mm of rain up to September 15. Northern Ireland has had 1.2mm of rain, while England has seen 4.1mm.
The UK mean temperature so far has been 13.9C, which is 1.3C above the full-month average. Day-time maximums have been particularly high, with a UK average of 18.4C which is 1.9C above the average, while night-time minimums have been closer to average at 9.6C, which is 0.7C above average. In Scotland the temperature has been 12.6C, 1.7C above the September average.
Sunshine has also been slightly above normal with 70.8 hours for the UK - about 57 per cent of the full-month average - and 57.1 hours for Scotland - 54 per cent of the full-month average.
The figures have come about after a prolonged spell of settled and fine weather, dominated by high pressure. This has blocked the usual low pressure systems that move in from the west and bring unsettled conditions. Instead there has been little rain, generally warm conditions and slightly above average levels of sunshine.
The spokesman said: "While these figures are interesting, they don't tell us where the month will end up overall.
"A few days of wet or cold weather could drastically alter the statistics, so we'll have to wait for the full-month figures before making any judgements."
He said while the rest of this week should be dry and warm for many areas, some sharp showers may develop in places.
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