I would say that this has been the case here in Edinburgh as well because although we did get some rain during the first couple of days of this month, it has since dried up yet again and now, we have gone into yet another four day (and counting) dry spell.

The only downside is that it's been dull for most of the time, but even that has been slowly improving over time during recent days. In addition to that, there has only been one day so far this month (namely, 1 August) where the temperature at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh has failed to reach the 20°C mark. On those other days where we have gone above 20°C at that station, the temperatures have actually been on a par with what SE England would expect to get on most days during a relatively poor summer with temperatures which are no better than average.

That in turn is in complete contrast to what happened during August of last year (2017) where we didn't even get a single day during that entire month where the temperature exceeded or even reached 20°C at any of my three local stations here in Edinburgh.

On the other-side of Atlantic - Calgary, Canada could break the August daytime max record now:

https://www.accuweather.com/en/ca/calgary/t3a/daily-weather-forecast/52479?day=5

What's interesting is that the NE and most of eastern USA hasn't been that hot or SE Europe - yes warmer but not boiling !

https://www.accuweather.com/en/ca/calgary/t3a/daily-weather-forecast/52479?day=4

Saskatoon as well:

https://www.accuweather.com/en/ca/saskatoon/s7k/daily-weather-forecast/50338?day=4

https://www.accuweather.com/en/de/berlin/10178/weather-forecast/178087 

Utterly fed up with this weather. Yet another day in the low 30s, impossible to do anything outside that involves any kind of physical effort. Our house is one vast storage heater, with the internal wall surfaces radiating heat at night while the breeze drops to nothing and humidity zooms up. The garden's a mass of dead foliage and the house is full of flies, ants and now wasps. Our summer archaeological digs, highlight of the year, have ended because it's too hot and the ground is so hard that it can only be dug with a mattock. I've had one decent night's sleep since late June; the rest of the time lying in greenhouse conditions with a fan desperately trying to drag cooler air in.

Bah humbug.

While I sympathise with all the people who don't like the heat, it really hasn't been extreme this year (mostly high 20s and low 30s for most) and without very warm nights or very high humidity.

What will happen if we ever get a summer with frequent mid 30s and warmer and more humid nights?

Temperatures 19-24 C

Nights 9-15 C

Limited sun 1-4 hrs a day

Regular sprinklings of rain

No discomfort

Frequent mid 30s heat wouldn't happen in most places. 

Yes, if you enjoy being under the grip of yet another permacast hell for most of the time, then this is the place to be and to be honest, a lot of people of there would probably find that rather depressing after a while.

The fact that we are just getting 1 to 4 hours of sunshine just now at this time of year is absolutely abysmal since that is more in line with what I would be expecting to see closer to the winter solstice when the amount of available sunshine is limited anyway, as a result of the days being so short at that time of the year.

Furthermore, the fact that days are now shortening over time means that it is at the beginning of this month when we have the maximum available sunshine due to the days being longest at the very start of the month. This means that it is at this time of the month that we should be getting our sunniest days of the month so that the fact that the sunshine totals during this month have been so poor up until this point in time, is even more disgusting as a result.

Hmm....that limited sun's a bit of a downer. My perfect spring/summer's day is around 21/22C, sunshine, with perhaps some intermittent cloud for some shade. I will happily be out in shorts and t-shirt on a 16C May sunny day.

I've had many holidays in southern Italy and it's a lot more pleasant there, despite being hotter. Houses - frantic activity at 6am - all windows flung open, housework done, cross-street shouted gossip etc. then mid morning everything shuttered up until 4 or 5pm, businesses closed, with only crazy tourists walking around in the afternoon. Matera at 40C was something else, though.

My bedroom is currently 27C and I am literally sweating typing this out in my living room (which is 29C). Completely still outside - the rain will hopefully be here soon - just started!

It can happen in the SE in an extreme month/summer in the future.

This summer had no extreme heat!

Disappointing end to the hot spell - we deserved a major thunderstorm but got 4 splashes of rain and two rumbles of thunder. Excellent double rainbow, though.

Most heatwaves are SE based so any thunderstorms from France had a hard time to move in here and often passed or clipped eastern Kent like yesterday for eg.  Unlike the 80's and 90's we have nationwide heatwaves follow by nationwide over night thunderstorms that move all the way to Scotland. I do not see this setup since the 2000 came and then it all changed.   We could had got this chance with mid to high 40's in Portugal and Spain to low 40's in France with possible 38-40C here, 36-38C in the midlands, 34-36C in Yorkshire and low 30s all the way up to Scotland which they would get a new record by reaching 34C possible.  Then we would have a over night thunderstorms chances.  

Now today is much cooler but no rain in Letchworth and it very dry here.  

Just to reiterate the point the aggregate max at Aberdeen Airport for the first seven days of August is currently 22.7c. Which is about the average for Heathrow Airport at this time of year. It's also the first complete 7 day run of +20c maxes since 2013, I think. 

How are wet weekends and evenings usable? Completely useless from my point of view. The outlook is just horrendous with rain every day which will take the total since mid-July to over 100mm and put this summer well on course to be wetter than average. It’s deeply concerning that it no longer seems possible to get a drier than average summer

There hasn’t been a mostly sunny weekend day since 14th July. If we don’t get one before the end of the month this will go down as the worst second half of summer since 2012 without question. Even then we had one good Sunday (19th August).

Just because the outlook is wet according to the latest forecasts, doesn't mean to say that it actually will be wet as is being forecast. Here in Edinburgh, today was the perfect example of that because we were supposed to get some heavy showers during today and yet, all we got was a light passing shower which wasn't even enough to dampen the ground. Because of that, today will therefore, go down as yet another technically dry day which it wasn't supposed to be according to the forecasts.

Because of that, what's the betting as well that this weekend's wet weather either gets downgraded in coming forecasts, or fails to occur at all in the manner in which is being currently forecast?

this summer served up a 31 and 21 day absolute drought. There hasn’t been a summer in my lifetime in NE Scotland (1979-2008) That came remotely close to that level of dryness, rain was far more frequent in both summers of 2003 and 1995 and there were gloomy wet weekends in both those summers. To even try and compare 2018 to the absolute washout of 2012 is ludicrous. There was only one day with more than 10 hours sunshine in August 2012 and it reached 20c on just two days the whole month. If weekend weather is so important move to shift work, the more random days off improves the likelihood of nice weather on your rest days.

Thus far 2018 has been a sunnier and warmer summer than 2013 and 2006, and despite your protestations July 2013 managed just 5 hours more sunshine than 2018 did, with a comparatively  dull June with just 138 sun compared to 212 hours for June 2018. August 2013 managed just 133 hours for the month, so far 2018 is up to 45 hours to the 7th. 

I put my hoodie on this morning when I left the house. The cool-down is here (and I'm not talking my funky clothing choice)

I went all out with the big coat this morning! There was a proper autumn chill in the air

You big girl.

Well to be fair, I had left my jacket/hoody at work and couldn't be bothered getting a different one so stuck on my coat. Just making excuses now. It must have been colder in Lowton 

Cool sunshine I would have no problem with, but this is just tedious.

Note in diary. Holiday in June

Alan