Well, despite last summer being very good until late July, just about every outdoor event we did was spoilt by rain. My son's 1st birthday in mid June - showers. Daughter's birthday trip to the zoo (July 29) - torrential rain all day, marking the end of the decent summer of 2018 IMHO. Camping trip to Devon, August 15-18 - gale force winds and heavy rain caused the tent to collapse on the first night! And then Carfest on August 26 which was a total washout, temperatures barely struggling into the teens and nonstop heavy rain from first thing in the morning until about 7pm.

 

August was really crap last year, at least in the south.

Looking at each day individually, it was 'unsettled' - especially in comparison to the extended period of settled weather we'd had May-July. 

When the wet spells coincide with your events, it makes a real difference to how we perceive the overall weather. It's no good having dry days with sunshine when you're stuck in work, only for the Sat-Sun period to be miserable. 

 

. I think people have very high expectations, or just like to moan.

I try to be realistic and objective.

It has been genuinely awful here.

It poured down the entirety of last weekend, one of the worst I can remember. The M62 (even on the Yorkshire side) was like a log flume. Monday was nice. Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday we were plagued with torrential convective showers. 

Today is nice, tomorrow is nice also. Sunday onwards looks crap again.

I know you'll take great joy in this  - but Manchester really is very badly (or well placed) for summer downpours. We are perfectly aligned for convective showers of the Irish Sea, whenever the wind is from a westerly quarter. We are also well enough inland and close to high ground to face the full brunt of afternoon downpours. Merseyside and West Lancs get off lightly in comparison.

Manchester is a wet city in terms of number of rain days compared to other English cities (note not especially in terms of volume of water), but even for here the past week has been absolutely terrible. 

I think the weather has been ok. Generally usable and overall a good July. Yes there was 85mm of rain here but most of it came in intense spells so it wasn't raining much of the time.
The caveat is that I was in Dublin last weekend where it was a comfortable 21c with sunshine so didn't experience the horrendous weather Saturday and Sunday.

Obviously a nightmare if you have been caught up in the flooding this week though. We had some very heavy showers but nothing like what happened in the Leyburn area and South Manchester. There has been good spells of  warm sunshine .

Yet another dire weekend of grey overcast rubbish - five weeks in a row of this. The last mostly sunny weekend day was 30th June. It's just beyond depressing. I just watched a laughable forecast on the BBC showing a sunny day with no sign of the masses of cloud currently on the satellite.

It's never this grim in winter. Only in this vile season do we have to suffer this perpetual grey horror weekend after weekend and even the worst of Septembers such as 2017 produced far more useable weather than this utter hell of a season.

Really appalling start to August with hardly any sunshine and set to get even worse next week. Nothing remotely decent on the horizon even for one day.

I have been looking on with abject horror at the weather down in NW England this week. I thought the weather was bad enough when I was down there to fly in and out of Manchester Airport but to see all the flooding in Bramhall where I was only a few weeks ago, on the way to the airport, was horrific and that even that doesn't compare with the events in Whaley Bridge.

This is yet another awful, awful summer. It will be the 11th wetter than average out of 13 for the UK. A wretched run of shockingly bad rubbish 

Its turning into a very good summer down here after an iffy first 2 weeks in June.

Its unusually quite cloudy this morning but it remains warm at 21.1c.

Another dry and warm week down here in continental Kent with temps typically 22-25c and just the slight risk of a shower.

Manchester Summer Indices 

1954 143
1907 147
1956 155
1912 156
1924 158
2012 164
2008 168
1987 169
1946 170
1909 171
1931 173
1978 173
1980 173
1920 174
1923 174
2007 174
1927 175
1948 176
1938 177
1922 178
2011 179
1985 180
1958 184
1972 185
1916 188
1986 189
1965 189
2016 189
1910 190
1936 190
1988 191
2010 191
1966 192
1998 192
2017 192
1953 193
1963 194
1993 194
2009 194
1902 195
2019 195 (up to 2nd August)
1915 196
1981 196
1928 197
1962 197
1964 197
2004 197
1952 198
2000 198 

 

Well, despite last summer being very good until late July, just about every outdoor event we did was spoilt by rain. My son's 1st birthday in mid June - showers. Daughter's birthday trip to the zoo (July 29) - torrential rain all day, marking the end of the decent summer of 2018 IMHO. Camping trip to Devon, August 15-18 - gale force winds and heavy rain caused the tent to collapse on the first night! And then Carfest on August 26 which was a total washout, temperatures barely struggling into the teens and nonstop heavy rain from first thing in the morning until about 7pm.

 

August was really crap last year, at least in the south.

Looking at the Met Office maps, last August in your part of the world had average rainfall, average sunshine and above-average temperatures. And, if I recall, the first week of August was very warm to hot just about everywhere, with temperatures into the 30s down south - unless there’s a mysterious microclimate over your house.

If you were looking at things objectively then you’d be singing a different tune but unfortunately like many people on here you’re just seeing what you want to see. Or maybe your poor luck with choosing holiday dates is just skewing your opinion - especially if you’re holidaying in Devon which will always be more prone to Atlantic influences. Maybe you should go to Margate instead?  We had no rain on 15-18 August with temperatures in the low 20s so a camping trip to Yorkshire should have been in order. 😉

Anyway, today was on the cloudy side but at 25C it was very warm still. Tomorrow looks similar. Next week is cooler but still low 20s on the current forecast. Time will tell but those stupid GFS rainfall maps are absolutely rubbish and I’ll bet good money on them being wrong as they usually are.

 If you were looking at things objectively then you’d be singing a different tune but unfortunately like many people on here you’re just seeing what you want to see. Or maybe your poor luck with choosing holiday dates is just skewing your opinion - especially if you’re holidaying in Devon which will always be more prone to Atlantic influences. Maybe you should go to Margate instead?  We had no rain on 15-18 August with temperatures in the low 20s so a camping trip to Yorkshire should have been in order. 😉

My perception of summers have changed drastically since 2014 by simply changing my reality. 

Instead of leaving good summer weather in Kent and driving 9 hours west to Cornwall to endure 2 crappy weeks we now drive 9 hours SW'wards to La Rochelle where we experience 2 lovely weeks.

Its a life changer ! 

Richardabdn experiences crap weather because he attracts it....law of attraction, a basic rule of our universe. 

I agree, it's expectation. I've spent the summer so far in Wharfedale looking after poorly Mum. We've had what you would expect. Most days have been feeling warm with normal temperatures or above. We had 34 C in the Dale on hot Thursday! Yes we've had above normal rain but this has come as short intense downpours and cracking thunderstorms. Sunshine around normal. I've managed plenty of smaller walks around the Dales instead of my usual Lakes and Scotland hills. Evening's have been great for sitting out. No complaints from me!

I agree that far too many people expect our summer weather to be better than it statistically should be based on our position next to the Atlantic Ocean. 

Far too many people, especially those who live in Northern and Western areas, seem to think that fine and settled weather in summer is the norm. It isn’t - what’s more normal is mixed weather, some nice days, some terrible days, with a fair amount of rain thrown in. 

That said -  the weather has been exceptionally bad in certain areas over the past couple of weeks (take the Peak District), there has been nothing normal about the weather there and we shouldn’t be dismissing moans in those areas as anything other than absolutely warranted. 

I agree that far too many people expect our summer weather to be better than it statistically should be based on our position next to the Atlantic Ocean. 

Far too many people, especially those who live in Northern and Western areas, seem to think that fine and settled weather in summer is the norm. It isn’t - what’s more normal is mixed weather, some nice days, some terrible days, with a fair amount of rain thrown in. 

That said -  the weather has been exceptionally bad in certain areas over the past couple of weeks (take the Peak District), there has been nothing normal about the weather there and we shouldn’t be dismissing moans in those areas as anything other than absolutely warranted. 

It's exactly the same in winter. People have unrealistic expecatione as to what the climate can deliver. Most especially snowfall on low ground in the south. Regardless of climate change, deep snowfalls were never particularly common in the south.

Poor weekend down here (cloudy) in an overall nice summer.

 

Looking at the Met Office maps, last August in your part of the world had average rainfall, average sunshine and above-average temperatures. And, if I recall, the first week of August was very warm to hot just about everywhere, with temperatures into the 30s down south - unless there’s a mysterious microclimate over your house.

If you were looking at things objectively then you’d be singing a different tune but unfortunately like many people on here you’re just seeing what you want to see. Or maybe your poor luck with choosing holiday dates is just skewing your opinion - especially if you’re holidaying in Devon which will always be more prone to Atlantic influences. Maybe you should go to Margate instead?  We had no rain on 15-18 August with temperatures in the low 20s so a camping trip to Yorkshire should have been in order. 😉

Anyway, today was on the cloudy side but at 25C it was very warm still. Tomorrow looks similar. Next week is cooler but still low 20s on the current forecast. Time will tell but those stupid GFS rainfall maps are absolutely rubbish and I’ll bet good money on them being wrong as they usually are.

 Yes i was a bit mystified by August being described as  crap in the south last year. It did turn more mixed after the very hot first week but not that bad.  It aint the Cote D,Azur

Yet another dire weekend of grey overcast rubbish - five weeks in a row of this. The last mostly sunny weekend day was 30th June. It's just beyond depressing. I just watched a laughable forecast on the BBC showing a sunny day with no sign of the masses of cloud currently on the satellite.

It's never this grim in winter. Only in this vile season do we have to suffer this perpetual grey horror weekend after weekend and even the worst of Septembers such as 2017 produced far more useable weather than this utter hell of a season.

Really appalling start to August with hardly any sunshine and set to get even worse next week. Nothing remotely decent on the horizon even for one day.

I have been looking on with abject horror at the weather down in NW England this week. I thought the weather was bad enough when I was down there to fly in and out of Manchester Airport but to see all the flooding in Bramhall where I was only a few weeks ago, on the way to the airport, was horrific and that even that doesn't compare with the events in Whaley Bridge.

This is yet another awful, awful summer. It will be the 11th wetter than average out of 13 for the UK. A wretched run of shockingly bad rubbish 

 You need to go North. Relations up near Lairg have weather you could only dream about

Today probably epitomizes the whole summer here cloudy and humid effortlessly over 25c yet again. Apart from a poor couple of weeks in June its been warm and fairly dry summer . The outlook seems OK for these parts fairly warm and most of the rain in the NW. 

Yep. Loving this summer. Bags of sunshine but most importantly a general lack of wind.

Apart from a few days the patio doors have been open 85% of the time since Mid June from 8am until bedtime. 

Always in the low to mid 20's...just perfect.  39c (102f) last week still makes me shudder at the potential of what is coming in the next few years. 

I don't think anyone's opinions should be dismissed really. Our average summers aren't really that exciting so obviously people wish for the stand out months like May to July last year. People are just hoping for August to be one of those months because it has been a while. Also, average comes in different forms. It could mean each day mixed but average probably like much of this summer or a 2 1/2 week heatwave and 2 weeks worse.

Although this summer has been pretty average, I still look back and wish there had been at least one proper spell of decent weather. The last couple of days have been a good example of much of this summer. Warm, mainly cloudy with some sunny spells but always the threat of a cloud burst.

Looking at the models, it looks like 2019 will yet again succumb to the August curse. It really is incredible how the month has so consistently been a cool, wet and unsettled month in recent years.

The "curse" will break sooner or later.  As the year ending in 8 = bad summer one was put to bed last year.