I think 'least bad' is more accurate than 'best' for those two abortion-bucket summers.

In Greece school holidays are from early June until mid-September. 

Anyway 9.5/10 for this summer for me. 

Incredible sunshine, lack of rain and lack of extreme heat, simply the best summer I ever experienced including 95.

It'd have been 10/10 if Aug was like MJJ, but even Aug is nice in the SE. 

That's how they used to do it in Scotland, we used to break up last Friday in June and return usually 20th-26th August, 7-8 weeks. They year after I left they cut it to 6 weeks and created half terms in February and May which Scottish schools never bothered with. 

August has completely ruined the summer here. It’s been a total nightmare.

May was excellent but spring not summer. 9.5/10.

June had a poor middle but otherwise excellent. 8/10

July was a month of two halves. 6/10.

August I’m struggling to see how it deserves to score anything at all. An unmitigated disaster due to the appalling evening/weekend weather. Absolutely sick to death of enduring days like today where it’s fine until 5pm then the cloud and rain appears and doubly sick of enduring grey skies and rain every single weekend. It looks like yet another cloud infested horror coming up which is just unreal.

Five grey weekends on the trot is a dire run which hasn’t been seen in summer since July/August 2011. Yes, not even 2012 sunk this low. Yet again it’s back to the scenario of feeling like you may as well be enduring life trapped in a sterile grey housing block in the Soviet Union when there is never any opportunity to do the things you enjoy in life. ZERO quality of life.

I keep track of the number of steps I walk which is a good proxy for how good conditions are for getting outdoors and the number of steps this summer are no better than the last few which says it all. Could well drop to the lowest since 2012 with yet another weekend of filth coming up.

Not a single mostly sunny weekend day in the whole of the second half of summer and only two opportunities now left to avenge this. So far this month sits in an exclusive club of only five in my records not to record a mostly sunny weekend day. That’s some condemnation given the toxic summers of the past decade. It currently sits in 2nd place to the abomination of July 2012 and it really says a lot when even the like of June 2007 and June 2012 don’t feature.

Sunniest Weekend Day:

July 2012: 5.9 hours

August 2018: 6.0 hours

August 2007: 6.5 hours

July 2015: 7.5 hours

July 2016: 7.6 hours

The average daily weekend sun hours are also rating amongst the worst on record for a summer month. Many Novembers and winter months do better than this catastrophic disaster.

Average Daily Sunshine at the Weekend:

June 2007: 1.27 hours

July 2016: 2.48 hours

August 2007: 2.74 hours

August 2018: 2.90 hours

July 2008: 3.00 hours

July 2012: 3.04 hours

What is most shocking is that will drop even further. Rather than a long overdue fine weekend they keep on getting worse. Don't think it would be possible to sink as low as June 2007 but second place on the list of horrors seems achievable.

The very best of the weather came before that but to my mind it was pretty good right up to the first week of August when it was still warm (low to mid 20s) with a reasonable amount of sun. Since then it's just gradually fizzled out without any clearly defined 'breakdown' so now we have a standard NW'SE split with essentially average conditions across the entire country.

And even though August isn't exceptional like MJJ, I think in the South at least it will verify very warm with below normal rain and wind and probably slightly above normal sunshine.

And even with the more zonal Aug, I think the MJJA mean heights will show more blocking this year than 1976 and 1995!

This is not a moan about the summer as it has been terrific down here. It does feel like its getting away from us now though. The last week has seen the return of the westerlies and proper rain at times.

Thurs 9th - 16.6mm

Fri 10th - 15.6mm

Mon 13th - 9.6mm

Today - 4.2mm.

The evenings are drawing in. The ground is wet and the temperature is sub 14c. The change is now tangible..even down here now. 

Yep - 4.6mm today here in a pretty short space of time. There's a definite early autumnal feel about now, as you say. Cropped golden fields, a bit of leaf fall, some browns in the tree canopies. The next few days look very nice indeed. I must say that I am loving it. Everything has that end of term feel about it.

Personally I don’t mind this late season weather too much as long as it is not all wet and windy or endless grey.

Boo! 

I am a snow and t-storm fan but as I grow older I enjoy nice summer weather more and more. This summer for me was pure joy and the best summer of my life and I am sad it's slowly coming to an end.

The problem with that though, is that we have now reached the halfway point of August and yet, the total for this month so far which I've just quoted is only just over a third of the 1981-2010 average.

Furthermore, today's total was still less than 10 hours and so, the fact that this was still enough to make today the second sunniest day of the month so far shows just how poor a month this has been in terms of the number of hours of sunshine.

Of course, there has been many recent months which have been dull up until this point but where, a number of sunny days afterwards have been enough to completely turn that around and make it a sunnier than average month.

However, the immediate outlook is still very poor with a lot of cloudy weather ahead, and the fact that it is now getting darker at nights makes that even less likely this time anyway, due to the resulting reduction in the amount of available sunshine over time.

It is therefore at times like this, when I can really end up hating the fact that we are now coming towards the end of what has been a classic example of a front-loaded summer.

In northern France on hols at the moment and the cloudy days at about 23 are a joy, the moment the sun came out a few days back and was annoying me whilst sitting outside, I was straight inside to the bar.

Why anyone wants annoying heat when they can have average autumnal/ spring weather makes me scratch my head as well!

Nice/ average is good uncumfortable isn't imo.

I don't care about the heat - if every day was 25C and sunny then I would be a happy chappy indeed. That's what we had in late June and early July, pure perfection - not too warm but warm enough with azure blue skies, a slight breeze and low humidity. Can't get much better than that. 

I can understand avoiding the midday sun but if you avoid the sun all the time then I would say that's a bit strange. 

There were long periods this summer when it was uncomfortable to be outside between 10 am and 5pm. Many days at work were spent sitting still with a fan on full pelt. Many weekends were frustratingly spent indoors (true siesta type stuff).

We spent a few days in the north of England and Scotland last week. It was wonderful to actually be able to sunbathe in temps of 20c without sweating. We came home with decent tans ! 

Yes its been a great summer for stats. Yes its been a real feel good summer. IMO you still can't beat a bright and warm / partly cloudy summers day with a light breeze and temps of 21-24c.

c

Sunbathing is one thing I don't see many people doing when it's 20C! 

Partly cloudy days in the low 20s are okay too, but nothing will ever beat a deep, clear blue sky. I remember talking to someone in July and they summed it up for me - being able to open the curtains every day to see blue sky instead of cloud was just amazing. It's not the temperatures per se but the sunshine that has an uplifting effect on people's moods. The UK is an exceptionally cloudy country and you don't always realise it until you experience a summer like the one we've had, or until you spend extended periods of time abroad.

If you could add another 50-80 hours of sun onto the amount of sunshine we already get then our summers would be pretty good imo. The only places in the UK that get more than 50% of possible sun during the summer (July and August usually) are along the south coast (lucky you in Folkestone ).

Also, this July in Leeds was slightly warmer than an average July in Paris, and I doubt anyone would say Paris has hot summers. Air con isn't common there either because average highs of 25-26C are not usually considered warm enough to warrant it.

1st to 7th August is the first time since July, 2006 Aberdeen Airport recorded plus 20c maxes for 7 consecutive days (Jul, Aug avg is 18c). Plus the average max for July in Aberdeen was warmer than any month bar July 2006. Added to the whopping 15 days with 14 hours or more sunshine since May, and many more with 10 or more I haven't heard anyone I know up there moan about the summer this year. 

I can think of one chap...:-)

You know it's over when everyone is reminiscing 

Absolutely spot on !!!! that was our thoughts too get up in the morning to azure blue skies, then sunshine right till dusk, truly amazing !!!

I also agree with LL.

I'm surprised there's so many weirdos who hate the sun and warmth.