Absolutely!  Manchester is less than a two hour drive from here, yet the weather can be so different.

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No probs, Steve. 

I really don't want any argey-bargey in the main weather section. I have enough of that in UIA  and you're a great poster on the forum.

I appreciate this summer more than most has been one of huge variation depending on location. 

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The summer here in Gloucestershire has certainly been very variable, June was wet and cool apart from the first day and the last few days, mainly the 29th which produced 32c, July has definitely had some good days,and decently warm ones. August started ok, but this last week has seen a deterioration. Today's gale force winds and heavy showers , max of 19c has felt more like October like someone mentioned. Just hoping that something changes and we return to something summer like again.

Like has been mentioned its quite amazing a small island can have such regional differences, London is about 120 miles east of us yet can miss most of the rain have temps 5c higher and see more sunshine. I think generally a line from Southampton diagonal to Norwich seems to be where you can expect the best weather and something you can call good summers more often than not.

One thing seems pretty sure going by numerous posts I have seen from John in Edinburgh throughout this summer: Those who like thunderstorms and live in Edinburgh or in areas close to it will almost certainly consider this to have been a good summer from a thunder point of view!

Personally I can't stand them, and have hated them ever since I first experienced one at the age of five back in the summer of 1985. Each to their own though.

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I suppose, some people like them and some people don't. I recall as well that it wasn't all that long ago that there was even an entire thread on this forum which was devoted to the lack of thunderstorms in the Manchester area which I think, may have been started by Kev Brads although Bolty would not doubt have contributed to that as well.

For those two members, I can see why they like to see thunderstorms as these generate some footage for their YouTube channels which in turn, will be more likely to attract more people towards subscribing to their YouTube channels as a result.

Fir the rest of us though, it may well be a completely different story. In addition to our thunderstorms though, the ground in my local park is completely saturated with water after all of the rain which we have getting recently, which makes everything very squelchy when I'm walking on it.

That is in complete contrast to the situation which we had last year when everything was bone dry with the ground being rock hard as a result with the grass having also turned brown due to the ongoing lack of rainfall at that time.

This year, it is a different story and if anything, we could probably do with a spell of drier weather now in this part of the world to allow that saturated ground to dry out a bit. Sadly though, that is not likely to happen during the next day or so at least according to the latest forecasts.

 

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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 10th August)
1928 197
1962 197
1964 197
2004 197
1952 198
2000 198
1930 199
1974 199
1979 199 

 

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The Met Office Regional Data for Max Temp, Sun Hours and Rain Days is available for June and July so it is now possible to use Kevin's Summer Index Formula (above) with a bit of juggling around of the Met Office Data to get the Regional Summer Indexes up to the end of July 2019

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Nice work Martin.

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Great work! where would those numbers go on the all time summer index ?

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5.8 hours sun in the past four days and the soul destroying overcast misery goes on with a totally rank grey, drizzly horror Sunday. Not a single decent weekend that has managed average sunshine during the whole of July and August so far. Sick to death of this and as far as I'm concerned just another crap weekend away from the worst summer since 2012. At the moment I'd still say 2016 was worse.

June has really saved this summer from being a complete atrocity. It can be confirmed that with 211.8 hours sun it will be the sunniest month of the year for incredibly the first time since 1996. August will be lucky to produce even 111.8 hours the way it's going. Not even hit 40 hours yet 

The second half of June was really a decent period of weather with an average of 9 hours sun a day it blows anything July produced out the water and as for August, the final third of last December was more pleasant and summery feeling than this putrid turd of a month 

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A good summer for me. Spending time between Wharfedale, the Lakes and Edinburgh it's been warm enough and it's been sunny enough for some great walks. I've experienced the hottest day of my life 36 C in Nottingham (32 C at 8 pm). I love thunderstorms and have experienced about 8 since June with intense rain and flooding unfortunately

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A completely dry weekend here and other than the wind, pretty decent weather actually with plenty of sunshine.

 

1961-2018 max and min index values by region (met office regional download dara)

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Don't need stats to tell me summer has been mediocre in these parts. There have been decent spells and obviously a couple of heat bursts. However unlike last year it hasn't been the kind of summer where we have felt like having barbecues. 

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It's been quite decent south and east of London actually. No comparison to last year obviously, but a pretty enjoyable summer so far. Warm with few wet days and few windy days too.

 

Some widely differing regional figures there and I daresay there would be some widely differing local figures within them too, given the unsettled periods of weather we’ve had.  A certain indicator of how greatly the weather varies across the country and perhaps a lesson in why not to assume the weather in our own back yards is universal.   

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This is how wet it has been since 17th July for NW England and North Wales.

17th July-10th August: approx 161mm for that region 

 

 

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A lot has been said here about what kind of summer it has been like in various parts of the country and beyond, but my question at the moment as far as this part of the world is concerned is - will it ever actually stop raining here!?

 

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I think that this summer the NW/SE contrast has been much greater than average.  In providing stats to back this up I am much frustrated by the fact that wunderground.com appears to have lost patches of recent data from its records of my local PWSs, but from surviving records since the beginning of June (72 days), we've had 16 wet days (rainfall >1mm) i.e. 22%; and 43 dry days, i.e. 60%.

The remaining 13 days are missing data, but if they are allocated wet/dry in the same proportions as the days for which data is available (my hunch is that this overestimates the wet days) the totals are: wet 19 days (26%) dry 53 days (74%), which combined with daytime temperatures consistently above 21*C makes for a pretty decent summer, with lots of useable days outside.  In My Back Garden, of course.

 

And I have not seen a thunderstorm in that period either.  The majority of that action has been well to the north of here, or has passed to the west or the east.

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We have had one barbecue all summer here mainly due to how unsettled it has been and we haven't been invited to any. That is a barbecue record low for me! On the one day we did have one, it was warm but we sat through three showers.

I can't speak for everywhere but here in the North West, it has been average to poor as Saint said. Even most of the better days have seen rain. The stats are a bit skewed by this as a 25C day with hours of sun also most likely saw numerous showers too.

The weather has now turned cooler and mixed and the rest of August looks to carry on like this. It does have that 'summer is over' feel to it now.

I know today was never going to be a great day but I've been stuck under an endless stream of showers for some hours now. Temp 11.5C, just dismal for August. There isn't much else nearby on the radar so I guess it's just sheer bad luck with the alingment but once something like this takes hold it can be hard to shake off.

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Looks like you're in the firing line for the showers forming over Blackpool. Another heavy batch on its way. Just shows how localised these showers can be and how you can get stuck either in them or out of them. It hasn't rained at all YET here in Warrington and has been quite bright this morning.

Yet another dire, grey and drizzly evening that is utterly useless for doing anything outdoors 

Absolutely sick to death of it. Might as well be mid-winter already for all the opportunity there is for outdoor activity. In fact it's worse than that as evidenced by my step count for the past week. Every week from mid-April to mid-September last year I hit at least 70,000 steps and the same was true this year until now. Last week was so dire I failed to even hit 50,000. That was worse than any week from the entirety of last winter and in fact the worst since the atrocious late November last year.

Absolutely sickening 

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I'll whisper it, but it's been a nice day here. A bit lacking in warmth, but mostly sunny this afternoon and light winds. And no bloody rain!!

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