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 

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Cloudy start here but turned sunny and warm by afternoon. If Richard just waited before writing off the whole weekend at 8.47am on Saturday morning... then he wouldn't be Richard!

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.

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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. 

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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!

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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. 

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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.

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

 

 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

 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. 

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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. 

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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.

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

I don't want to give any "summer is over" posts on this forum even though this seems to how the latest model output is looking at the moment. Even with that though, I can't really complain about how the weather has been today. Earlier on today, I met up with a friend at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh, who was virtually convinced that it was probably going to be raining during that time based on what the forecast was like when that arrangement was made.

However, it was quite a number of days ago when this arrangement was made and as we all know, forecasts and model output tends to be more unreliable the further ahead that we look. Because of that, I knew that there was probably a chance that it wouldn't be raining, so I then explained that to my friend in as non-technical a manner as possible.

As it turned out, my perceptive that it might not rain turned out to be correct. This was a very interesting day out because without even looking for it, I managed to stumble across the very weather station that is situated there, which I use as one of my three local stations on this forum (and one of the two stations which report for on the monthly PW threads). This means that for the first time ever, I can now say that I have seen an actual official weather station and stood right beside it.

As I did so, the Sun shone for quite a large part of the time with the rain radar maps showing not a single bit of rain anywhere near here. That even allowed me to enjoy a meal outdoors at a restaurant which is situated within the gardens. On my way home, there was a bit of thunder and lightning in the distance which I then reported on the convective thread. However, the fact that the rain from that storm missed us meant that I had plenty of time to get home and still keep dry.

Later on, it eventually did rain but by that time, it didn't really matter as I was already back home and well indoors for the rest of the day by that time. The important thing here was the fact that the weather behaved itself during today at the most important time when that mattered the most when I wasn't really expected it to and so, this is a gloat from me rather than a moan.

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Credit where it’s due.

It has been a warm and pleasant weekend here with only a few splashes of rain. No complaints. 

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Glad to see I’m not losing my mind. It’s been a perfectly decent summer in this part of the world, and as you say the rain has largely been from intense downpours - we had another thunderstorm yesterday evening! 

This week looks set to continue with the fine weather. Not going to get bogged down by what the weather might be like 10 days from now, just going to get out in the garden and make the most of it. 

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  Same here!  It’s been perfect summer weather!

We’ve missed out on most of the rain but what little we’ve had has been mostly at night, including our only storm on 24th July.  Hot Thursday was a bit too hot at 38.4c but was nice to experience.  Since the end of June it’s been weather for shorts with plenty of sunshine and temps rising early into the mid to high 20’s and staying warm in the evenings.  I’d take this every year!

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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
1915 196
1981 196
2019 196 (up to 5th August)
1928 197
1962 197
1964 197
2004 197
1952 198
2000 198 

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Same here (and same yesterday - when I had a day off )

 

But it's like brief oases in a desert of low pressure-dominated showers and rain (no, actually that analogy really doesn't work)

It's the unsettled nature of it all. No chance of planning anything. The forecast 10, 7, 5 days out will be saying one thing consistently, then the day before the event you'd planned on the back of this, the forecast about-turns and it ends up raining most of the day.

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We have come out of the last few days quite well and seemed to have missed pretty much all the showers and storms. Still dry so far today too.  It's all very localised and just a few miles is the difference between a sunny, dry and warm day and heavy showers all day. The next couple of weeks look the same with a cooling trend after the weekend. Thursday is my birthday though and that looks OK so far 

I don't think I've ever known so many thunderstorms forecast as recently. Nothing has materialised directly above me but there's been quite a few forecast.

I spent the first week of August in Yorkshire last year and to be fair it was reasonably decent, a couple of wet days but also plenty of sun. I was meant to be going back to the same place (Swaledale) last weekend for the same event, but we know what happened to that!

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Yet another mid 20s mostly sunny humid day here. Still awaiting Autumn. 

 

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Yes, that’s how it’s been here too.  Thunder storms heard but not seen several times as they seem to be skirting round us.  Same with the rain and even today it’s been sunny and dry but I drove through rain a few miles from home this afternoon. 

Happy birthday for Thursday!  That’s my daughter’s birthday too and she’s hoping to barbecue in the evening!  So let’s hope this weather keeps up. 

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