High Heaton Weather and Air Quality – July 2026

Weather

Although it was the driest, sunniest, and second warmest July on record for England overall, no records were broken in High Heaton. Nevertheless, we had an exceptionally warm and dry month. The rainfall total was 26mm, which is 42% of the average for the month. It was the driest July for 20 years, but we had five Julys with less rainfall in the previous 15 years. The wettest day was Sunday 26th when 18mm was recorded. There was a spell of 20 days in the middle of the month when less than 1mm fell. The average temperature for the month was 17.2°C, which is 1.2°C above the mean, making it the sixth month in succession with above-average temperatures. There have been only four warmer Julys in the last 35 years, the most recent being in 2022. We met the official definition of a heatwave (three successive days at or over 25°C) from Wednesday 8th to Friday 10th. The month’s maximum temperature of 28.6°C was recorded during the heatwave at 2pm on the 9th. The temperature also exceeded 25°C on Wednesday 29th. On the night of 28th/29th the minimum temperature was 18.2°, the warmest night of the year so far. It was not until the last day of the month that the temperature dropped into single figures, and it did so for less than an hour. The minimum temperature was 9.8° at 4am on the 31st.

Air Quality

The average PM2.5 particle concentration was 7.0 µg/m3, so we were within the WHO target of 10 µg, but on eight days that value was exceeded with the worst day being Wednesday 15th when the concentration was 26 µg/m3. However the Air Quality Index was in one of the ‘good’ categories (levels 1, 2, or 3) on every day of the month.

John Telfer