Thanks for the tip and speaking of SW that would give Lower Stoke very hot air from the main land Kent or near southerly winds as long it not tampered much from the small water area between Sheerness and Isle of Grain.  They reached 29C yesterday as the wind was westerly so probably around 30-31C in Lower Stoke as they have no weather station at all even online not found.  

Yes, thankfully this areas has cloud from the NW instead now.  (At least it is warm)

Indeed. The irony was that those toward the east were moaning at the time that if only we could have a flow from a westerly quadrant, they'd be fine. As it turns out, all the westerly flow has done is add cloud for the western two-thirds of the country, too.

When we had the NE flow for what seemed like an entire week or so, it only brought in low cloud/mist/murk overnight (at least here in Suffolk 30miles from the coast).

It quickly burned away each morning though.  There were no complaints from me having that NE flow; took the edge of the temperatures and felt far more comfortable than it does right now.

And another thing...

When forecasters/TWO'ers talk of 'the north west', I'm never sure whether that includes this region (as in "less settled with more chance of rain in the north west, where temps will be cooler")

I'm in North West England, I know that much, and we get BBC North West (and used to get Granada). But when it's a more vague 'the north west', I don't know if the person is talking about my region, or the fringes of Ulster and far west of Scotland, or setting the boundary somewhere in between.

They did this on BBC Radio One this morning. They said it would be hot and sunny for many today but it would be cooler with showers in the north west but what does that mean?!

They're talking about that vague area known in media circles as "outside London".

Given BBC news (well, TV anyway) is based in Salford maybe NW means somewhere to the North and West of Manchester.

Based on the current maps the bad weather seems to stretch through North Lancs and Cumbria.

THIS!!!

BBC Radio is very guilty of this. 

In a UK perspective the NW doesn't mean us IMO, if I hear NW (when talking about the UK), I presume Glasgow, Belfast etc.

31c in Doncaster in the SE today and only about 20c ,cloudy/windy in Settle/Malham etc. See it works.

Yes, for those of us in Leeds terms like NW and SE in a UK-wide context mean nothing because we are in the middle, and much of the time I don't know what side we fall on - though in my experience during summer heatwaves we will typically fall on the 'right' side of the divide (i.e today it's been over 29C in Leeds while in Keswick it's a baltic 19C).

I used to live in Manchester and visit frequently. NW always a bone of contention. Difficult to explain to locals when they clearly have got the wrong end of the stick! This year has reminded me very much of 1976, a summer I spent virtually every night in the garden of the Red Lion in Withington. Does it still have a garden and bowling green Joe?

I have never known anything like this month with high temperatures being accompanied by heavily clouded skies. Utterly pointless having these temperatures if the sky looks as ugly as it does on a poor 16C day.

So far five days this month have reached 25C but few have produced anything like the decent amounts of sunshine that should accompany these temperatures. In fact just one of the five days has managed more sun than cloud: 

8th – max: 25.2C, sunshine: 4.5 hours

14th – max: 25.1C, sunshine: 11.2 hours

15th – max: 25.2C, sunshine: 6.8 hours

22nd – max: 27.6C, sunshine: 6.3 hours

23rd – max: 25.7C, sunshine: 4.4 hours

We seldom see such high temperatures here so to see them ruined by crap cloudy skies is beyond infuriating. I will rescind the comment I made yesterday about being disappointed to miss out on so many 25C days. I never imagined that the sun hours would have been so pathetic so glad to have missed them.

For once I picked the correct time to go on holiday because the last fortnight here has been tripe with four days of permacast hell from the 9th to 12th and no day since the 14th managing 7 hours of sun. This rubbish does not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as 1976 and 1995.

Just a shame there is no real sign of improvement. If these woeful sunshine levels continue we’ll be looking at the most extreme collapse between first and second half of summer on record. So far a vile 2007/2012 type average of only 3.5 hours sun per day for the second half compared to an excellent 8 hours for the first.

Foolproof!

If you think being unsure of which bit of the North West you come from is confusing, how do you think I feel stuck in the middle?!!!  

I live in North Notts in the East Midlands, just to my North is the South Yorkshire border and just West is the North Derbyshire border. I’m often referred to as a Northerner and weather forecasts for the East usually apply!  

No wonder half the time I don’t know whether I’m coming or going!  

You are a classic mid-eastern! 

The humidity is sickening there at the best of times.

Summer in the SE - and this is in an east-facing bedroom with the window open all night!

(I was in a west-facing room, window closed, with the portable air-con running all night; it didn't get anywhere near the 16C I'd set though!)

Looking at what happened yesterday, what's already happened this morning (cloud encroachment from the west and the sky quite dark on occasions with rain not too far away) and the forecast this is death by a thousand cuts. Warm, undoubtedly, but ever more cloudy with rain a more prominent part of each day's forecast. The end of the week now looks unsettled with a theme of rain being not too far away now taking hold bit by bit.

Not so much a complaint but a regret. 

And the frustrating irony of it all is that we are the region to be shortly hit with a hosepipe ban. Where's the justice in that?!

And now a downgrade to a thunderstorm warning for Friday. Ahh well.

At least I've got the sunshine today. Oh no, of course, I'm in the NW when it suits! Loving the warm cloud.

Ask the SE-centric media

Indeed although its not bad here warm but cloudy! 

We were planning to spend a few days with my sister in St Ives in Cornwall starting tomorrow but unfortunately we cannot now make it. Looking at the webcams of the beach and harbour though it seems it was raining earlier. Temp only 19C and quite cloudy.

In this part of Dorset it is 25C. More of a gloat I suppose.