Overview
After a record-breaking June, July 2026 did not rewrite daily HadCET England extremes — but as a whole month it ranked second-warmest since 1772, behind only 2006. Three interactive charts place every July day against the full Central England series. Click around on them and see how temperatures have differed over time.
One thing about this July is it never got cold. The coldest mean temperature all month was on the 19th at 16.4°C. That's the warmest coldest July day in the 250 years of data.
Methodology
Data was downloaded directly from the Met Office HadCET dataset
(meantemp_daily_totals.txt, maxtemp_daily_totals.txt,
mintemp_daily_totals.txt), the longest instrumental temperature record in the world.
All July readings (days 1–31, years 1772–2026) were extracted for mean, min, and max series using
Python. A LOESS smooth was fitted to annual July means for each measure. The interactive charts
were built in JavaScript using D3.js, with Delaunay triangulation for efficient nearest-point
detection on hover and click.
Findings
- Monthly mean: July 2026 ranked 2nd of 255 Julys (19.5°C), behind only 2006 (19.8°C).
- Daily mean: Peak day was 10 July 2026 at 23.7°C (16th warmest July day); five days exceeded 22°C, including a 6–12 July window averaging 22.3°C.
- Daily maximum: 10 July 2026 at 32.4°C ranks 8th among hottest July days; the series record remains 19 July 2022 at 37.3°C.
- Daily minimum: Warmest 2026 July night was 12 July at 16.2°C; the series warm-night record is 20 July 2016 at 19.6°C.
- The coldest recorded July daily mean in the series: 20 July 1836 at 8.7°C.
Takeaways
Open climate data lets you separate two different kinds of extremity: a single-day spike that rewrites the books, and a month that never tops the daily list but still ranks near the top of 255 years when averaged. July 2026 was the second kind — and HadCET makes that distinction checkable within hours of the month closing.