AT last, a mild month, the first since March, but it was no more than 0.5C (1F) above normal. Still, this was enough to make it the warmest August for three years. In fact, temperatures were very respectable until about the 21st. Alas, that’s all the month had to its credit.

Unlike the previous three, with relatively decent spells, albeit brief, towards their end, August went downhill. Over the final ten days, maxima dropped by around 4C (7F) and the 30th was the coolest day since early June. The following night was the coldest in August going back to 1999, and for more than 30 years in some parts.

Torrential downpours causing flash flooding can be anticipated on a few days in any summer. We’d already received our ration this year, yet they figured on no less than seven days across the region during August. At least they tended to be localised and well scattered. So, places hardly a couple of miles away from the deluges caught nothing, and most of us endured just one or two.

With the week from the 8th providing the only dry slot, it was another wet August and the fifth such month on the trot. Generally, there was about one and a half times the usual rainfall, though, compared to the past eight Augusts, amounts were pretty typical. A few spots that missed the heaviest showers did stay on the dry side.

This was our sixth disappointing summer in a row, and arguably the poorest, with no redeeming features. It was the dullest for over 20 years and 0.5C (1F) colder than average overall. Worse still, daytime temperatures were 1C (2F) below and the chilliest since at least 1998.

The hottest day of the summer was widely the coolest for 25 years. That for 2012 to date is at the end of May. A peak not in June, July or August is a rare event, but it happened just two years ago.

Rainfall totalled 150-200 per cent of that expected. Even so, many areas have suffered wetter summers during the last eight and this season’s accumulations were near the mean over this period. However, for some up in the Dales, it was the soggiest for three decades or more. The five months from April were probably the wettest for 140 years.

August’s figures at Carlton-in-Cleveland: Mean Maximum: 20.2C, 68.5F (+0.2C, 0.5F) Mean Minimum: 12.1C, 54F (+0.5C, 1.0F) Highest Maximum: 23.4C, 74F, 9th and 15th Lowest Minimum: 2.8C, 37F, 31st Total Rainfall: 92mm, 3.6ins (+21mm, 0.85ins) Wettest Day: 30.2mm, 1.2ins, 29th No of Rain Days, with 0.2mm (0.01ins) or more: 19 (+5) (Figures in brackets show the difference from the 29-year mean, 1983-2011)