The Summer of 2022

By Paul Homewood

It’s been a summer of record breaking hype, if little else.

We have been hearing for weeks that this summer has been unprecedented, how it “proves” global warming, and how it is a template for the future.

It turns out after all that it was none of these things, and was in fact no hotter than 1976:

Average mean temperatures were actually below those of 2003, 2006 and 2018:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-and-regional-series

Statistically, this summer tied with 1976. (The Met Office have previously stated that “Usually we will only quote statistics to the nearest 0.1C as differences smaller than this could result from small numerical differences arising from the statistical calculations”.) This summer finished at 15.72C, while 1976 was 15.70C

Summers like 1899, 1911, 1933, 1947 and 1983 were only a fraction of a degree cooler.

More significantly, daytime temperatures this summer were significantly below 1976. It is, of course, daytime temperatures which have dominated stories of the heatwave.

In contrast night time temperatures are artificially raised by the UHI effect, which is not taken into account by the Met Office.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-and-regional-series

There have of course also been a lot of overhyped claims about the drought, again with the intention of persuading the public that it was caused by climate change.

But as we can see below, there have been four drier summers in England & Wales – 1995 was the driest, followed in order by 1976, 1869 and 1983: