I agree completely.

I also see that tomorrow's max over much of NW England is due to be 19c. If so, that'll be the first time in a very long time (first half of May?) that the temp hasn't hit 20c here.

I seem to remember last Friday was quite cold. Maybe around 16C / 17C. 

Another dire day here. Just horrible. Virtually sunless again making it 3/4 days with under an hour of sun  These synoptics never used to bring such poor cloudy conditions, especially in the east.

Really depressing and so dark and dull first thing this morning it feels like late October already 

Sounds vile. 

A max of 16.0C here last Friday. Quite a shock to the system!

Yes agree with the few posts above that summer has ended. I always feared when we had that breakdown in weather on the 28th July, if that would be it. We did get a few more days namely the weekend 4/5th August which were very nice. Unfortunately that was the last of the blue sky proper summer days with decent temperatures. It has been very overcast in general of late and the rain has also increased. It does feel autumnal with the heavy cloud , darker for sure.Was hoping we would get a 1995 August, but its way of the mark here in  gloucestershire at least.Currently its worse than 2016, sort of similar to 2013. Its a shame how the proper summer weather just fizzled out.

The question for me now is will it be like a lot of recent summers where after a lull in August, the warm/hot weather fires up again in September? Personally I hope so, coolness in September I find to be really tedious.

It's been fine here as far as I'm concerned. The past 2 days have been very cloudy but the month as a whole certainly hasn't. Leeming has nearly 70% of the August average sunshine which is good going halfway through the month. I suspect August will be warmer, drier and sunnier than average here. 

I think the weather earlier in the summer has just raised peoples expectations to unrealistic levels. 

You do a little bit better from a NW/SE split though. I really don't think it is an expectations thing here. We have been plagued by cloud and drizzle this August and it has felt more like early autumn than late summer other than 2 or 3 days early on. It has been much more typical of our usual gloom. It doesn't help that the forecast is for much of the same either.

I'd rate the months so far:

May 8/10, June 9/10, July 7/10 and August 5/10.

Let's hope for a 9/10 September!

Yes a little bit disappointing here compared to earlier in the summer. Nothing terrible, or extremely unsettled, just a bit “meh”. Basically just consistently cloudy so far this month it seems. 

HOWEVER, it would make a terrible terrible August to make this summer anything other than 9.5/10 here IMO, the weather was that good earlier on. 

Being not as positive as you, I'd rate summer 8/10 overall. Because July overall was just decent and August as you said is mehhh. I would need every summer month to be mainly hot and sunny to give even a 9!

I’ve often been accused of being too positive ! 

Unfortunately it’s perfectly possible we won’t see another summer as good as this for the rest of our lives. Or maybe just one or two. I’m 31. Not sure how old you are? :D 

May has been more of a summer month than August this year. In fact this a theme of recent summers here - even in better summers August consistently ends up being a bit bobbins. 

I'm 32 so I can't use that as an excuse. I'm just a miserable sod . An 8 is a good score for me!! I'd give 1995 a 9/10. It made a difference that the best spell came in the main summer months to me that year. Maybe 1976 would have got a 9.5 if I had lived through it.

This year has been winding down slowly since June. It's just taken the shine off what seemed to be heading for the best summer ever. Those endless sunny days in June . 21C drizzle just doesn't do it for me any more!

I'm 46 and both 1976 and 1995 felt a fair way better than this one - principally because of the timing. We lost the 'peak summer' weather in the last week of July here and it's been pretty average since (predominantly grey with some rain, some nice days, and the odd 'proper summer' day thrown in)

I'd rank this with 1983 and a few others that perhaps don't statistically hit the heights of this one but, due to a combination of timing and what I actually did in those summers, get extra points (84, 89, 91, 03, 06)

I guess a difference between you and I is that the school summer holidays mean absolutely nothing to me. May is as much of a summer month as August is.

Understandably for most people late July and August really matter, I get that completely. 

I think sometimes we get a little too hung up on calendar months but in reality Summer 2018 started at the end of April and continued right through May, June, July and in Eastern Scotland and England at least the first week of August. Since then there’s been a clear change in the weather pattern to generally average conditions, although it’s still drier than average in the East, which was always going to seem disappointing in comparison to what came before.

I think it’s worse for the English as your summer holidays come so ridiculously late. Scots, Irish and European schools break up early to late June and return mid August so kids there enjoyed the summer at its best.

Summer 2018 is and always be remembered as one of the best and most unique summers of my life and there still time yet for it to pull a 2006 or 2011 and produce a glorious sunny September.

I would say the change here came mid July.

I personally just like to have those really hot days at the peak of summer in July and into August and it just never happens. That's just the way it is with our Westerly junk magnet positioning though.

Having said that, June this year was probably my favourite month ever and my little boy isn't in school yet so our holidays are always in May/June and September so I shouldn't complain.

2018 CET so far stands at 17.6 (Jun/Jul)....that needs Aug to pull in 18.2c to beat it....which atm looks unlikely...

I should add that a pretty key point I missed off that I wanted to make was that, even with the summers I've listed that were memorable (and more than acceptable) to me, it averages at about one every six years. Even taking just the 'super summers' (76, 83, 95, 18), that average dictates a one in every 11/12 year 'super summer'. I'd hope I've enough miles left in the tank to squeeze at least another couple out!

French school holidays are similar to England: mid July until start of September. I think the same is true of other central and Southern European countries. Northern Europe, particularly Scandinavia, seems to do things much earlier. Probably making the best of the very long daylight hours.

In the USA and Canada they break up late June or early July to end of August or early September a full 2 months holidays.  That what I wanted when I was in school because that time I used to go to Cyprus from around 16-22th July to early September, find it too late and rather have 3 half term scrapped to add the summer holiday then I would gone there from late June to early September.  

Today in London it has turned very cool now the 3 hour rain storm has passed through

Weekend looking pretty cloudy now too

That might be true this year but it wouldn't have been true in years like 2007 or 2012 when the best summer weather came in August.