That's it, can't hold it back now. It's uncomfortable this evening with 24 C & 50% H at 10.30 pm. Looks like being a tricky night to sleep in - although the DP is 12 C so it could be worse. And at least I no longer have to work under glass tending to tomato plants.

Okay, I've had enough of this summer now. Currently 18 C with 95% humidity giving a dewpoint of . . . 18 C. I'm sweating like a cornered nun on a hot car bonnet, but my elderly mother is suffering even more.

Portable air-con. It's the only way to get through this sort of crud!

I wouldn’t say I want it to end but I’d like a little respite.  A good thunder storm with a bit of a cool down to mid 20’s will do.  I love this kind of heat on holiday when you have nothing to do but relax and you have a pool, the sea and air con.  But it’s too much when you have to go about your everyday business and work in it and being hot, sticky, lethargic and headachy is no fun.

Imagine how unbearable it would be in them there tomato greenhouses!  

There is another way, Ian.  Ice bricks.  You can build a huge cube of ice made from dozens of ice bricks.  Build a tower of ice on a large tray in the middle of the worst affected rooms.  This would prove surprisingly effective for days on end, and would bring relief to you and your elderly mother.

Ice brick moulds are available on the internet.  I presume you have a freezer? 

Go for it.  You will need gloves to handle the ice bricks, so that they don't stick to your hands.

I feel there  is scope here for one of your cartoons here!

I have to say what a beautiful morning it is but I just know it’ll feel different this afternoon!  

Mmm, that doesn't sound like air-con, as that does exactly the opposite.

I'd wager you've got a "swamp cooler" instead, which actually increases humidity and aren't really much cop in our maritime climate.

(AC - uses refrigerant to chill the air, lowering humidity as well. Generates waste condensate which should be vented outside, along with the warm exhaust from the compressor.

Swamp cooler - uses a fan to evaporate water, increasing humidity and lowering the air temperature by evaporative cooling)

I'd be happy to see the thermostat turned up another notch! Still not reached 35C here this summer which is disappointing to say the least. Slept like a log last night and don't have air con. 

Yup, some people are like that - we've a guy in the office who sleeps no matter the temperature, even when the rest of us are all hot and bothered. As a very fair-skinned Brit who has northern (England) ancestry I'm just not built for hot weather, hence the air-con. That said, mine was really struggling last night and it took something like 6 hours to reduce the ambient temperature from 33C (as it was when I got in) to 25C.

I will hopefully be getting proper split AC installed next year, the sticking point being the need for a dedicated 20A feed and outside cut-off switch - both of which will be very expensive to install due to the ancient electrics (and full 1970s fuse-board) in my house.

Incidentally here it's back to the "no wind, high teens dewpoint" scenario that I detest so much. It was much better when we had an easterly feed, not only were temperatures lower but there was some wind to provide an element of natural AC to the house.

For me 28-29C by day and a min of 15C would be ideal.

One of these days I may invest in proper ac, ideally solar powered so I’m not just compounding the heat problem by chunking our more CO2.

I do find that it makes the air too moist and I don’t rate it for lengthy use, especially as I’m a fresh air freak.  Bedroom window open even in the coldest winter!  

A minor moan but the level of cloud here since Thursday has been pretty annoying - and today we have been particularly unlucky as a thin long line of cumulus has decided that it's going to say right above us and not move at all. First we get plagued by low cloud on a morning and now we get plagued by cumulus on an afternoon. We just can't win here.  I want my clear skies back.

I'm guessing there's a convergence zone above us as I can't see any other reason for this happening.

Been the best first half of summer that I can remember and it started at the beginning of May.

However, I do love thunderstorms and from this point of view it has been a disaster this year so far, worse than I have ever known. I have posted an article on the decline of thunder around this area as you are probably aware but we are into mid July and still nothing.

Yesterday was an example, we had heavy rain, it went really dark about 7.30pm and nothing regards to thunder and lightning. 

That is very poor fare indeed and very disappointing when you consider what this summer has generally been like.

What's the betting as well that we now end up returning to proper summer weather after I travel back up to Edinburgh on Monday?

I'm in two minds about thunderstorms. As much as I wouldn't mind seeing a good overnighter, I'm worried that a thundery breakdown could upset this stunning pattern we have at the moment. I'd hate to see a brilliant hot and thundery spell give way to another boring below average August.

I always felt that this part of summer was important. What we have had for the first half of summer was stunning but it is so easily forgotten when the end of July and August are poor. 

We have had worse weeks but it has been the poorest week of summer so far. It's had more of a typical feel to it than we have had for a long while as if something has changed. Showers that haven't been forecast catching us out, a blustery westerly at times, a ridiculous amount of cloud.

Looking at the next couple of weeks it looks like the weather will be ok. Maybe touching 25C some days, maybe capped at 22C other days with lots of cloud around and some sun. Some summers though that would go down as a good week but this summer it feels like more of a fizzling out whilst the party goes on down south. 

I think we need the coming weeks to exceed the forecast but based on this week, I can see it going the other way.

Just arrived back from Italy to find that this month has turned into a huge disappointment despite such a promising start. Looks likely to compare poorly to 2013 and 2014 now never mind the all time greats.

Following a truly exceptional 80 hours sunshine in the first six days, the past 15 while I was away produced a pathetic, well below average 64 hours. Poor even by the past decade standards.

Ordinarily I might have been glad to miss such crap but incredulously all the best weather fell at the weekends. Three weekend days saw 25C reached (8th, 14th and 15th). Given it is practically unheard of here to even get three 25C days in a month never mind all at weekends, it was beyond infuriating to miss out on that.

Yesterday evening I left Amsterdam in glorious sunshine but soon ran into cloud and it was pretty much total cloud cover the whole way up. Landed in dire depressing gloom at Dyce and yesterday was a horrible cool, cloudy day with a max of only 16.4C and drizzle in the evening.

Today at least looks a bit more promising however, despite a lot of blue sky visible at the moment, the sun remains stuck behind a cloud.

More specifically, confined to South East England.

Woken up to more cloud and drizzle this morning.

I do hope I'm wrong but I'm getting the feeling now that this summer is beggining to slip away for us northern folk. Copious amounts of drizzle this morning, where did that come from? I don't recall it being forecast. This coming week with a mainly westerly flow looks like being plauged by cloud and weak fronts while the south basks in 30C+. In absolute terms not a bad week, certainly no proper breakdown but it does seem like a more 'normal' NW/SE split is emerging. I want my easterlies back!

It’s so frustrating and annoying to hear others raving about the fantastic weather when you’re not getting any of it!  So I sympathise with those further North.  This morning it doesn’t feel like we’re in the grip of a classic summer as it’s overcast and fresher, although I know heat and sunshine have not been constant during other great summers.  So there’s still hope.