Some of those could of course just be Scottish fans who are just supporting that team against England but then, that is a topic for a different forum on this site.

Edinburgh can get some really interesting weather - you were one of the worst (best) affected cities in the UK during the beast from the east. It is also usually a lot sunnier, drier, and generally more pleasant than cities further west such as Glasgow.

It's just an unfortunate fact that the specific synoptic setup that gives most of the UK a decent summery spell (winds from an easterly quarter), is exactly the same setup that gives Edinburgh really gloomy conditions. I only lived there for 5 years but noticed it time and time again. A heatwave associated with southerly, or westerly winds would be better but very often a SE'ly or easterly is at play.

What annoyed me most about the weather in Edinburgh was the wind. It always seemed to be windy. Did my head in. Must be the effect of the Pentlands & the Forth creating a vast wind tunnel. 

I do get the feeling that this year is one to match 1976 though.  

I think we should set sights lower to start with. 1976 was pretty unique, and the 1975-1976 drought was a multi year phenomenon.

It would be good as a first step to beat 2013 for the summer as a whole. We’re not there yet but a couple of weeks of hot weather could get us there so long as August isn’t a washout. If we beat a single month summer like 2013 then we also beat 1997, 1994 and 2005.

Next in sights would be to get into the cluster of very good years that had 2 top notch or 3 pretty good months: working back in time - 2006, 2003, 1995, 1990, 1989, 1984, 1983. The whole of July would need to be very dry and sunny and the CET at least at 18.5C I think.

We are then and only then into the realms of the blockbusters: 1975, 1976 and 1995.

Of course, it is only sunnier and more pleasant here than other places such as Glasgow if we are in a more typical zonal pattern with the wind from the SW, which is something which we appear not to be capable of getting these days (even a straight westerly isn't always good for us though as the bad weather from the west can still reach us in those situations as a result of that being funnelled through the Forth-Clyde Valley from the west if the winds are strong enough).

Another fact as well (as you have said) is that we are prone to any sort of east or NE sea breeze if there is the least bit of an easterly component to the general radiation and that is true, even if the general wind direction is actually from the SE or even the SSE.

As you have said though, a heatwave with the wind having more of a westerly component to it (the wind would need to be from the SSW for that to really happen) would be much better for here, as was shown during the summer of 2013 when the temperatures actually reached the upper 20s on a regular basis as a result of that in this part of the world (what we are seeing just now is more of a repeat of July 2014 than any repeat of the summer of 2013).

As for the effects of the Pentland Hills, that can make thing rather gusty if the winds are coming directly from the south but if there is an approaching weather system coming in from the west, that quite often shields us from getting very much in the rainfall from that whilst the winds are from the south even though some other places (including places which are even further to the east of here) might already be getting a lot of rain from that. When will then happen is that unless the weather system in question is rather weak, we will eventually some rain from that in the end, but only as this weather front has passed through with the wind having changed direction.

Interestingly, up until this point summer 2013 had been pretty mediocre. June 2013 was a pretty forgettable month for quite a lot of areas. It was only at about this time in early July that summer 2013 started to properly blossom.

Keep this weather going for another week and I'd say for the most part we have already bettered 2013.

June 1995 wasn't a bad month overall here though at least. While there were a number of cool & cloudy days in the first half of the month with the occasional bit of rain, I don't remember any especially wet days where I live and there were some warmer and sunnier days during the first half of it as well. The first big heatwave of that summer commenced, oddly enough, at literally the same point of the month as the current heatwave began; around or just after midsummers' day.

I think the main difference between 1995 and 1976 was that in the latter year, the first really hot spell (from all I have read) came earlier than in the former. My 1995 was a fairly cool month overall here and that month was memorable for me in that it saw the latest ever date that I can remember seeing snow fall in my location (May 12th). That, incidentally, was only a week after we had had a mini-heatwave with temps here approaching the mid-20s!

This summer is just the stuff of my dreams.

No rubbish Spanish plumes and Tm air masses, just enjoyable sunshine and warmth.

Certainly in terms of the CET summer series and comparing 1976 and 1995, as superteacher suggests it was June 1995 which prevented that summer from surpassing 1976 as the warmest in the CET summer series since 1659.

I posted earlier a brief analysis of the Top Five summers in the CET summer series by month, and the numbers tell the story:

1) 1976  17.77 (June 17.0, July 18.7, August 17.6)

2) 1826   17.60 (17.3, 17.9, 17.6)

3) 1995   17.37 (14.3, 18.6, 19.2)

4) 2003   17.33 (16.1, 17.6, 18.3)

5) 2006   17.23 (15.9, 19.7,16.1)

The main points regarding 1976 and 1995 are:

1) 1976 was consistently very warm overall throughout the three summer months. Interestingly, none of the three summer months broke any records in the monthly series, although at the time July 1976 did stand second hottest at 18.7 after 1783 with 18.8.

2) 1995 had an incredible July, and record breaking August with 19.2C, which still stands today. It was June 1995 at 14.3, which is ranked only joint 185th in the monthly series, that prevented 1995 from being the warmest summer in the CET series. Indeed, it would only have taken a relatively modest 15.6 in June 1995 to enable that summer to record an overall 17.8 and therefore surpass 1976.

What is also remarkable, from a general perspective, is that four of the five highest ranking summers have occurred from 1976 to 2017, a period of 41 years. Given the CET summer series covers 358 years up to 2017, this really is quite remarkable. It will be even be more remarkable if the summer of 2018 challenges for one of the top positions in the CET summer series.

It's certainly unusual for someone from Glasgow, not to have experienced much in the way of wet weather since I would have thought that Glasgow was a place where it rained for most of the time on average.

Not in 1995 it didn't, at any point in the summer as far as I can remember. June 1995 did see some rain but I don't recall any days which I would have described as being notably wet. Any fronts that passed over Scotland must have been fairly weak affairs as I recall it being a mainly dry month here, even during the often cool and cloudy early part of it.

July and August '95 also saw very little rain. The only days during those two months that I can clearly recall there being any notable rainfall here were 11th and 14th July as a result of two thunderstorms, and then one day of light drizzle on and off on the 28th. Other than one or two cloudy but dry days as well, it was sun, sun and more sun. August was probably our driest and sunniest month overall in 1995 as I struggle to remember there being any notable rainfall here that month. I do think though that it turned somewhat cooler right at the months's end.

Manchester Summer Indices

1976 301
1995 298
1983 278
1955 277
1911 274
1984 271
1959 269
1975 268
1949 267
1989 262
2013 260
1947 255

2018 254 (up to 2nd July)

1933 251
1901 249
1921 249

My suggested punishment would be that they can't leave the fire until they've extinguished it - using only their todgers.

What kind of arsewitted mentality has people setting fire to highly-flammable grass/heathlands in the middle of a drought?

Anyway, I can hear the Law of Sod waking from his slumber, and getting ready to take his morning ablutions from the sky just as the schools break up for summer - and then hardly stop until September.

On current form, it is very close to joining some of the great summers Kevin.

Unless it encompasses the second half of July and most/all of August, it's a bit of a waste.

Saying that, the conditions for my youngest's sports day this morning were perfect (even if the thing itself was a 'barely-competitive, certainly not a celebration of individual athleticism' travesty of a sports day)

That would take too long in extinguishing the fire - roll them in it - may be more effective!! Seriously tho' it's sickening. The military are still up there? They could have some target practice!

Not a waste at all as it's happening during the longest days of the year. 

It'd be perfect obviously if it lasts during the school holidays. 

The EC ens has started showing a bit of a breakdown after the 15th of July, but I'll believe it when I see it within the 7-day range. 

That list shows just how poorly the North West has done in summers of the last 2 decades, compared with the SE. How our warm summers in recent years have really been Tm / South Westerly affairs. The blocked summers of the 2000s, until this year, were those grim negative AO washouts like 2007 and 2012.

Its the combination of meridional flow with a lack of Greenland - Arctic high that seems to have flicked the switch this year.

One thing I’ve noticed is that planes flying overhead during the day have not been leaving contrails.  Is this because the air is drier, even at such altitudes?

Indeed. There will be proper diagnostic studies on this summer, but often these blocks are part of planetary waves and many originate from areas of strong and anomalous tropical heating.

The lack of synoptic noise of the current pattern points to such a case and is promising in terms of persistence, but we'll see. 

Yes, the air at altitude has been very dry for much of the time which gives the deep blue sky. We did have more humidity over the weekend and there were quite a few contrails yesterday too down here. A good resource for seeing the humidity (and loads of other parameters) is https://earth.nullschool.net/

You can use the menu to show temperatures, humidities etc at different pressure levels all over the world, both in the past and the next few days from model runs.

Sure, but July and August are the high summer months, and August in particular is the month many people take their holidays. If June is good but Juy and August are poor then the summer as a whole will not be remembered fondly.

So, I’ll give myself a pat on the back for figuring that out!