I’m a little older and remember 1959, not because of the heat but the length of the sunny dry spell.  My dad was a retained firefighter and was constantly out on shouts that summer, mainly grass fires.  I had the very important duty of listening for the fire siren while playing in the garden.  There were no alerters in those days, just the old air raid siren at the Town Hall.  

The hotter the better used to do it for me, but these days I prefer the comfort of mid 20’s and sunny.  So if the next two months are a repeat of the last two, it might well be the best summer of my life. 

You don’t say which part of the world you’re from though.

Yes, I'll add my location to my profile. North London in 1976 and Cambridge/London now.

Thanks I recall 1995 being great there were a few free gay festivals taking place in London and the weather was fantastic. 1994 was pretty decent of I recall. Be interesting to see how this one pans out considering May was pretty decent as well.

Off topic but I notice Nepal has had more rainfall in a day than my yearly total to date of 379.6mm.

https://eldoradoweather.com/climate/world-extremes/world-temp-rainfall-extremes.php

Last two months have been unremarkable in terms of high temperatures but excellent for sunshine, bar the middle third of June which spoiled things somewhat. Had the poor days been more evenly spread it wouldn’t have been noticed as opposed to coming all at once to give the “permacast hell”.

Breakdown for June:

1st-10th: 90.6hrs
11th-20th: 38.3hrs
21st-30th: 110.1hrs
Total: 239.0hrs

489.1 hours sun combined for May and June making them the sunniest since 1940 with 1921 and 1936 also being marginally sunnier.

Both May and June beat the previous highest monthly total, in my 11 year records, of 235.5 hours in May 2009.

The week ending 1st July clocked up a total of 91.2 hours making it the third sunniest week I’ve recorded behind 102.9 hours for 20-26 May 2012 and 92.4hrs for 28th April – 4th May 2011. It was more than was recorded during the entirety of June 2007 and July 2012.

Overall June was the sunniest locally since 1970 but, reflective of the deterioration in June since then, failed to make into the top 10 since 1884.
I’ve calculated the next four Junes need to be this sunny to offset the ridiculous deficit recorded between 2007 and 2017.

Also following a total of 31.1 hours for July already, we now only need another 41 hours sun to beat the whole of summer 2012’s revoltingly inadequate total.

I’m kind of disappointed. I’d imagined the city was living through hell on earth while the rest of us baked!

“Le mois de juin aura été le 5eme plus chaud mesuré en France depuis le début des relevés, avec une anomalie de +1.7°C derrière 2003, 2017, 1976 et 2005.”

5th warmest on record after 2003, 2017 (who knew), 1976 and 2005. This despite being pretty wet.

If you go further south from there into Edinburgh though, you will then be entering a city which IS living through hell whilst the vast majority of the rest of the UK baked.

Yes, the temperatures here have been above average overall during this summer so far. However, there hasn't been anything all that spectacular about the temperatures in this part of the world whatsoever. All too often, easterly winds have kept things much cooler here on the east coast to the extent this has even resulted in the maximum temperatures being below average at times whilst the rest of the UK has been experiencing those really high temperatures.

This means that even when the really hot weather has been reaching Scotland, this part of the east of Scotland has always still managed to miss out on that as a result. I read somewhere on this forum, a comment from a member who believed that one good thing about this summer was the manner in which this heat has been more spread out away from those more traditionally hot areas in the likes of SE England and central London and the vast majority of the UK, that has been true.

However, that just serves to make the fact that this heat has never really reached this part of the UK feel even worse. To me, you have to be part of something in order for that to actually mean anything and so with that heat never really managing to reach us in the east of Scotland, the comment about that heat being more spread out across the UK means absolutely nothing to me.

Yes, last month has been sunnier than average here but that is only because of the number of sunny afternoons and evenings which we have had. In fact, the most of the mornings have actually been rather dull and overcast in this part of the world due to that easterly muck being around. The result of this is there has only been one occasion during this summer so far, where we have managed to string together two back to back sunny mornings and so far, we have yet to have anything more than that. Yet it seems as though the rest of the UK is always starting off on a sunny note, just about every morning.

For me as well, it does get rather depressing after a while when you're always waking up to grey skies every morning even if the afternoons have then ended up being sunnier, and especially when you are seeing that the rest of the UK is starting off on a much sunnier note. To make matters worse as well, there has been quite a number of mornings during this summer so far when even the likes of Aberdeen has been starting off on a sunny note whilst we continue to be stuck with that easterly muck here in Edinburgh.

If that wasn't the case, then I'm sure that you would be hearing a lot more from Richard on that subject than what you are hearing. The fact that the mornings have generally been sunnier in Aberdeen on average than what they have been in Edinburgh means that Richard has absolutely nothing to moan about when it comes to sunshine, and that is why he has been fairly quiet on that note. I think that if Richard stayed here in Edinburgh though instead of Aberdeen, I think that it would be a completely different story.

All in all, this adds up to yet another reason why although Edinburgh is a good city to visit for other reasons such as its big festivals, it has to be the most boring parts of the UK when it comes to the weather, where all of the interesting weather which is around will generally always be elsewhere.

3.5 means recently planted / young specimen trees start showing visible signs of stress. Roadside weeds likewise: the stinging nettles are t happy right now.

If this keeps going for a couple more weeks it could be good for people afflicted by Japanese knotweed. I had some in my French place and although I’d been poisoning it regularly with some encouraging results, it finally bit the dust in the drought of July 2015.

Some of the lawns round me no longer have any green on them at all. I've been watering parts of mine every now and again but they still look poor.

Needed to buy some more plants but not bothering until it starts raining again. March was too cold and snowy for gardening, April too wet, and the months since too dry !

Sums up my garden this year too. Oh well the roses are doing fantastic, best year so far.

I have to say I'm starting to get a tad concerned with some areas of my lawn.

I enjoyed so much looking at the parching landscape every day and the last time I see all the nettles dead was in August 1995 so you can see the ground base that normally appear in the Autumn and Winter months.  

I think what is so amazing this year, certainly where I live, is that we went from winter to summer and missed out spring.  I wonder if other notable summers were preceded by such a great May, with two hot and sunny Bank Holidays and much of the same in between.  

The desiccating wind is the feature of this summer and I assume that it speeds up transpiration drying out the sub surface soil moisture quicker than otherwise.

So far we have missed the large scale fires that people further north have to fight but I think that sooner or later some dxchhead will try to light up some of the heathlands in this region with devastating results. Maybe arson needs a lock up and throw away the key sort of penalty?

The vegetation here is very dry and farmers or growers without irrigation must be more than concerned by now. Not quite Historic yet but another week or two and we are entering that sort of territory I think.

As far as our garden goes the lawn was left to its own devices two months ago when we last had some proper rain. Baskets get water as do pots and some borders. Our water bill in September will certainly be historic and I will have to agree a staggered payment with Wessex Water as the lump sum will be too much for one payment. The joy of having a water meter. The alternative will be to cut everything back to tidy the garden and leave it in desert mode for the duration. 

On our sandy soil the lawn is usually like straw at some point in the summer, but this year it was fully parched by the end of June. Saves on mowing! We've only been watering the containers, the veg patch and the borders we had bothered to plant - I've been recycling the bath water for the latter. This is the first summer we have had a water meter.

Despite the sandy nature of the soil it still seems to be like concrete. I was trying to dig a hole to put a new washing line in yesterday and even with a post spade it was very hard going. Even nearly a foot down I still found no trace of moisture under the lawn.

Yes, those dry winds, along with very strong sunshine putting out very high UV levels and at peak times some half a KW of energy per square metre, has dried out the countryside at an alarming rate.  

Many of the fires in this region have been started deliberately and helicopter crews fighting the major blazes in Lancashire have spotted arsonists setting more fires. Those that are caught should be locked up - after they have been sent to the fires to assist in putting them out! 

Have left our lawns to their own devices and am just watering the borders, veg patch and tubs - tho' the transpiration rate is so extreme - after a few hours you wouldn't know I'd watered! Think I'm fighting a losing battle atm tbh! As for the water bill here - I think that may be higher than usual, lol! 

Satellite view mid May versus beginning of July!

Bloody Columbia fans in their replica shirts get everywhere...

May 1976 was quite good if I remember rightly. In fact this summer has mirrored 1976 on virtually a daily basis imo. The middle of July that year had a few cloudy days, (but mainly fair weather cumulus) and a couple of soft summer rain showers, but then reloaded for the end of July and August.