It's been the coldest day for over a month, a high of just 20.9, and that's a couple of degrees below average! Heck, it'd even be slightly below average in the 61-90 period and *that's* quite remarkable these days.

And the best bit? No need for aircon tonight as the cloud and breeze means it's only 21C upstairs. Utter bliss, frankly. 😁

However some areas of Edinburgh just about reached 22 C and another mostly sunny day so quite pleasant.

It looks like we were warmer than a lot of eastern England! 

According to roostweather.com, the average daily maximum at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh during this month so far is 19.62°C which is 0.33°C above the 1991-2020 July average for there.

According to that same source, the average daily maximum at Edinburgh Gogarbank which has seen more 20+°C maximums in recent days due to it being more sheltered from those pesky North Sea winds is 20.32°C but the comparison against the 1991-2020 July averages isn't given there although my own python scripts show that average to be exactly the same, and to be 0.92°C above the 1991-2020 July average. That has been quite a good test for my scripts as this shows that they have still worked very well in this instance.

I have also checked Swanston's web pages and discovered that the figure which you have just quoted is the average daily maximum at Swanston during this month so far. As a result of its more inland location, I would have expected that average to be more or less on par with the average at Gogarbank and higher than the average at the botanic gardens, so I was surprised to see that the actual daily maximum at Swanston is actually slightly lower than than the average daily maximum at the botanic gardens albeit very similar to it.

Here, you were replying to a post which mentions a 30°C average daily maximum but you actually have to go all the way back to this very same month in 2022 to find the last 30+°C maximum to be recorded here in Edinburgh (I was down in Hawick at the time and had to endure temperatures of around 35°C while I was there, which didn't feel good at all), and that should tell you a lot about how different a world it is up here.

As for this month so far, Edinburgh's highest temperature of this month so far is only 27.3°C as recorded at the botanic gardens on 8 July 2026. At the other stations, the hottest day of the month so far was on that same day at all of those other stations, with the maximum temperature on that day being 26.8°C at Swanston and 26.93°C at Gogarbank.

Back on topic, I can report that today's maximum temperature was 21.97°C at Edinburgh Gogarbank, 21.0°C at Swanston and 21.17°C at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

Once those peak temperatures were reached though, those pesky winds from off the North Sea then duly returned and the temperature has now dropped back to around 18°C more generally but only 17°C at the botanic gardens.