Missing the sunshine? Here's how Northampton sizzled in July two years ago

Wondering where summer has gone? Well, our friends at Northamptonshire Weather have been looking back to how different things were in July in the last two years.

Back in 2018, the county was in the middle of a sweltering 37-day dry spell which left parks parched.

And 12 months ago, we were all braced for a heatwave which saw temperatures soar to a stonking 38°C.

Aerial pictures taken by a drone above Northampton's Racecourse showed the extent of the mini-drought which lasted deep into July during a crazy 2018 weather-wise.

Weather-watcher Jamie from Northamptonshire Weather said: "Forecasts of dry, hot and mostly sunny weather were commonplace during that spell.

"Land across the county was parched as, apart from a few scattered showers, the county went without widespread rainfall for some ten weeks.

"The summer of 2018 was memorable for the heat, lack of rainfall and days on end of blues skies and sunshine.

"Yet all that came after a memorable cold spell late February and early March of 2018 when The Beast from the East hit the county.

"It was a year of weather extremes with our hottest ever April day, flash floods, a heatwave and prolonged dry spell — and who can forget the images of snow at the beginning of March!"

Back in 2018, the Chronicle & Echo showed how the heatwave had affected parks in the town with a unique bird's eye view of the Racecourse.

Aerial photographers Profile Photography flew a camera above the park to see the full extent of the sun's damage to the grass.

Peter Kennedy, who piloted the drone, said: "I've been living in Northampton for 30 years but I've never seen anything like this. It's just so dry."

Yet all that sizzling weather followed a winter which saw the Beast from the East bring sub-zero temperatures snow to the county in March.

Fast forward to 2020 and we've had Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis bring destruction to the county on successive February weekends, record-breaking temperatures in May and June, a 31-day spell without rain and now .. well, this!

Top temperature recorded at the Met Office weather station at Pitsford has been a relatively chilly 20.4°C back on the first day of the month — three degrees or so below July's average.

And the longest period without rain was three days over last weekend until Monday.

The only hope .. Met Office forecasters say things should brighten up by the weekend with temperatures returning to "normal for the time of year" by next week.