There may be showers and slightly cooler weather due across much of the UK this weekend, but even that should not dampen the hopes of those wondering if the recent warm weather makes this summer one of the hottest on record.

Official figures show summer 2014 is unlikely to reach anywhere close to the exceptionally warm conditions of 1976, 2003 or 2006. Nevertheless, the data shows this year is already ranking amongst the warmest summers of the last century while the past month ranks as the eighth warmest July in Britain's national records, equal with 1933.

According to Met Office data in both June and July the mean UK temperature was 1.3C (2.34F) above average. This placed July as the joint eighth-warmest since equivalent records were first collected in 1910, with a day-and-night UK average of 16.3C (61F).

There were 228 hours of sunshine, 133% of the usual average for the month, making the Commonwealth Games summer the 10th sunniest on record, albeit some way from the 256 hours seen in 1955. It was the sixth sunniest July in records from 1929, while the sunniest day was in Glasgow on 9th.

However decent the overall picture, said Mark Wilson of the Met Office, the summer arguably felt all the better for coming after a series of significantly damper ones, notably 2012, the wettest for a century.

"The key message was, it was generally warmer and drier than average, just not by exceptional amounts," Wilson said. "It's not absolutely record-breaking but it's doing pretty well. Having said that, July being the joint eighth-warmest since 1910 is not bad going, especially given the recent few summers of quite poor weather."

Rainfall has been below the norm at 76% of the average in June and July, though nowhere near scarce enough to cause droughts. The Met Office said it had arguably felt drier than it actually had been because a good deal of the rain has come in intermittent, tropical-style thunderstorms which dumped huge quantities of water in a short time, such as this week's mini-flood in Brighton, which saw half of July's average total rain fall in about an hour.

There was not a single recorded temperature above 30C in June, while the peak for July was a relatively modest 32.3C in Gravesent, Kent, on the 18th.

By contrast, the notably steamy summer of 2003 produced a record high when Faversham, Kent, sweltered in 38.5C on 10 August. More atypical still was the famous drought of 1976, in which parts of London saw 16 consecutive days of 30C-plus temperatures while some areas saw 45 days without any rain.

The statistics suggest that last summer was arguably better, with July 2013 proving the third-warmest on record, and a series of consecutive days where temperatures exceeded 28C.

Judging by the latest forecasts, however, August is shaping up to be some way from 1976 conditions. After the weekend rain the skies will largely clear – at least until Tuesday – but peak temperatures will reach a decidedly more British 22C or so.