Countering the 'Driest July in England' Hype
Here’s the data from the Met Office’s England and Wales Precipitation database. I had to use the Wayback Machine to access it. They seem to have changed the address of the old website access. Maybe it’s available elsewhere, I don’t know. Whatever, the Met Office don’t seem to be very keen to refer to their own data.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220115150136/https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadukp/data/ranked_monthly/HadEWP_ranked_mly.txt
You will notice that, up until 2021, there were no 21st century dry Julys in the top 20. Of the top 5 driest July months on record in England and Wales, four occurred in the 19th century. 1911 was the odd one out. It is extremely unlikely that July 2022 will come anywhere near the drought conditions experienced in 1800 and 1825, before alleged man-made global warming supposedly ruined the climate of the British Isles. 2022 might make the top 20 or might displace 1911 in the top 5 (unlikely), but that does not prove anything about the supposed effect of climate change upon summer precipitation in England and Wales (and I can tell you, Scotland has not experienced a particularly dry July - neither has Cumbria!)
Update:
Here’s the data for summer:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadukp/data/ranked_seasonal/HadEWP_ranked_seasonal.txt
The driest summer since 1766 is 1995, the second driest 1976. 1800 comes in at third. The only 21st century summer which makes the top 20 is 2018 and it’s way down the list. So much for the ‘hotter, drier summers’ narrative.