13 fun facts about Summer

Who knew there were so many?!

Published 19th Jul 2016

Finally the weather is getting better, so to celebrate we thought we'd share some summer facts with you.

1. Driest summer The driest UK summer was 1995, with only 103mm of rainfall.

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2. Wettest summer The wettest UK summer was the summer of 1912, when 384mm of rain fell.

3. Hottest summer The hottest day in a UK summer was on 10th August 2003 in Faversham, Kent where the temperature reached 38.5 °C. The warmest ever UK summer was in 2006 when daytime temperatures averaged 15.8 °C.

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4. Sunniest summer The sunniest summer on record was 1976, where there was 669 hours of bright sunshine.

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5. Coldest summer The coldest summer was in 1922, when average daytime temperatures for June, July and August were just 12.3°C. The coldest temperature ever recorded during a UK summer is -5.6 C on the 9th June 1955 in Dalwhinnie and again on the 1st and 3rd June 1962 in Santon Downham in Norfolk. On 2nd June 1975 snow forced several cricket matches to be cancelled in the UK.

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6. Summer months Roman politician Marc Antony named the month of July in honor of Julius Caesar.

August was named for Julius Caesar’s adopted nephew Gaius Julius Caesar Octavius, who held the title 'Augustus'.

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7. Sol - new summer month In 1902 a new calendar and extra month were proposed by railway worker Moses B. Cotsworth. He thought it would be better to have 13 months of 28 days, the extra month was called Sol, named after the summer solstice. Needless to say it didn't catch on.

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8. Cricket Maths The frequency of a cricket's chirps is related to the temperature of the air so why not use this method to work out the temperature?

Count how many chirps there are over 25 seconds then divide by 3 and add 4 to tell you the temperature in Celsius. Magic!

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9. Dog Days The 'dog days of summer', (3rd July and 11th August) are named after the Dog Star (Sirius) in the Canis Major constellation (Big Dog). Sirius was blamed for the hot temperatures by the ancient Greeks.

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10. Manhattanhenge In May and June each year the sun creates an amazing phenomenon when the sun lines up with the roads of Manhattan in New York often nicknamed Manhattanhenge.

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11. Milton Keynes Henge Milton Keynes' main road Midsummer Boulevard was purposely built in an orientation so that it would line up with the sunrise on the summer solstice in June. When the sun rises it then shines down the road and reflects in the glass of the train station.

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12. Summer Solstice The word solstice comes from the Latin words sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still). The summer solstice is day with the longest period of daylight (except at the north pole where it is 24 hours).

The summer solstice is often referred to as Midsummer and celebrated around the world.

In Alaska they celebrate the longest day with a baseball game which starts at 10.30pm. They then play throughout the night without the need for artificial light. This is known as the Midnight Sun Game, a tradition that started in 1906.

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13. Summer Expansion Many roads and bridges expand in the summer heat, in Paris the Eiffel Tower grows by six inches in the heat.

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