Autumn comes early to south of England after wet and warm summer

After a cold and sunny spring, followed by a sunny summer in some parts of the country, we are already seeing signs of Autumn in the south of England, experts at Forestry England said today.

Met Office data shows that the south and south-east of England has been particularly wet this summer with around double the average rainfall in places.

The damp recent weather, coupled with above average sunshine, means that signs of Autumn, such as conkers ripening and fungi appearing on forest floors, is already occurring.

Mike Pittock, Head of Environment and Planning for South District says: “At Alice Holt we are already finding ripe blackberries in the undergrowth, our rowan trees are full of big juicy berry-like fruit, and lots of fungi is popping up on the forest floor. These are signs that we would expect to see in mid-September.”

“The abundance of rain means all the trees are looking lush and green, but the acorns, conkers and sweet chestnuts are ripening, getting ready for their time to fall.”

It comes as the Met Office said that this summer has so far been around one degree warmer than average, potentially putting it in the top 10 warmest UK summers on record.

The forecaster said this will particularly come as a surprise to people in London and the south-east of the country who have endured more rain and “duller” season than usual.

However, relatively high temperatures in Scotland and Northern Ireland have helped elevate this summer towards the top 10 on mean temperature.

In a statement, the Met Office says while it is still a few days off announcing a definitive ranking at the start of September, the UK’s mean temperature for summer was around one degree centigrade higher than average at 15.4C (59.7F).

Northern Ireland has so far had one of its warmer summers with a mean temperature of 15.0C (59F). And the Met Office said Scotland’s figure was 13.8C (56.84F), which qualified as “notably warm”.

Amid last month’s heatwave, Northern Ireland broke its all-time record with a top temperature of 31.3C (88.3F).

The Met Office’s outlook up until Monday - the second-last day of summer - reads: “Often cloudy, cool with some light rain or showers for northern and eastern coastal areas. Elsewhere, dry with sunny spells. Warm in the west.”

Dr Mark McCarthy, of the National Climate Information Centre, said: “Obviously there’s still time before the month and season is over, but summer so far is certainly looking drier and warmer than average.

“That’s despite some of the wet, dull conditions we’ve seen in the south-east in particular.

“Some of the flooding seen in London in July has seen some individual stations report almost twice their normal summer rainfall but the north and west of the country has experienced plenty of sunshine through June and July, although most of the country has been duller than average through August.”

Additional reporting by PA