Highest temp on 31st July 2023 at 1200 was Bridlington 21.0C, and that the only station in the MetO list above 20C. Next highest Heathrow et al 19.5C.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/library-and-archive/publications/daily-weather-summary  

Roll the dice and pat oneself on the back…. Hilarious 

As I've said before, people seem to think a Med climate is normal these days! At least heat hounds have it lucky - as we've seen in another thread, the roughly once-a-decade chance of 35C is now an every other year event, having become 5 times more likely.

If only the same could be said about winter! Imagine a foot of level snow in southern England every other year...

Had a look at my Kew Gardens daily max records and it seems there were no days that reached 35C between the start of the data in 1881 until August 1990  and since then there have been 14 of them up till 2022

Indeed. I think this is the fourth spell of the summer when temperatures have reached 30C.

This summer has, much more than usual, been skewed in favour of the South East.

A couple of albeit brief nice spells, followed by a general improvement since around mid-July, has lifted the summer here from 'terrible' to 'slightly below average'; it's not in the same ballpark of crap as 07-12, but it's still been a disappointment.

The July map for MBY actually has pretty much average max temps, average sunshine, slightly higher than average rainfall and days of rain.

June was surprisingly a similar picture in terms of anomalies (although with slightly lower than average max temps)

My annoyance is that the places we tend to go for days out - the Lakes and North Wales coast - have both been markedly poor (a fair bit poorer than MBY, with lower temps, less sunshine, more rainfall, more rainfall days), especially in July.

I'll reply in kind once you start boasting about snow this winter while we in the SE just have cold rain😒

We're not that blessed with snow, either! 

We do get a fair few of falls, but in recent years they've all been pretty meagre efforts, laying only a dusting to a couple of cm's. I think March 2013 was the last fall of at least 10cm (which, coming after a period of averaging almost one of these a winter, has been a frustration!)

BTW, my comment about the summer being more skewed than usual toward the SE was just a neutral observation and you shouldn't read anything into into it beyond that. I know that, on average, the SE gets temps 1-2c higher than further north, a bit more sunshine and a bit less rain. In some summers that doesn't seem to matter (the difference between, say 25c and 27c maxes is largely an irrelevance!) and in other summers the difference is smaller than average. But this summer, the SE seems to have had much more dry and sunny days, and a lot more =/>25c days.

See - to us Kent folks, "only a dusting to a couple of cms" is headline news most winters, as it's so unusual - we're the land of feast or famine. Last winter, for example, there were two 5 minute partial dustings - blink and you'll miss it. The one before that? A partial dusting one morning in December. And the one before that? Nothing at all. Yet go back to Feb 2021 and we had 15cm... it *can* still happen, but a 15cm fall wouldn't have been unusual in the 80s or 90s... "lake effect snow" can really produce here.

As for days >=25C, so far there have been 9 in August (today will be the 10th, I suspect), 5 in July and none in June (lots more that would round up to 25, mind you, but I'm being strict!)

Domestically, the lawn is still green - I've mowed it twice this August whereas in previous years I've put the lawnmower away by mid-July.

There's still water in the Lavant winterbourne at West Dean, too - usually it dries up by the start of July.

I've only mowed the lawn once since the beginning of July - and TBH there was so little growth I was done in just over half the usual time. I've not mowed it at all this month as the bits that haven't wilted away have just stopped growing.

The main thing I'm noticing now is the leaf fall - the path through my torii gate into the new part of the garden is now covered in hazel leaves, and the cherry tree (which doesn't like heat or drought much) has started dropping leaves too - it looks unhealthy. Even the viburnum out the front now has sections with red leaves, where it's shedding them to save itself.

It's unusual to see this much in August, as the leaves normally don't fall like this until November.

This early leaf fall has been quite common in the last decade in central S England, but not this year.

I think it's been just as dry here recently as, say, N Kent, but we had so much rain in the winter that the subsoil remains really damp, something for the trees to get their roots into.

We've got a lot of leaf shed, locally and in the NF. A few days ago I was shaking my head at the pitter-patter of them in the Anton Valley, and walking on the footpaths in warm weather reminded me of the tropics where in the dry spells there is leaf shed all year round.

Very locally, we've been dry (until yesterday) but not overly so and everything has stayed green.  Including yesterdays rain and not counting where the rain straddled 2 days, we've had 7 days with rain so far and a current total of 50.53mm (3 of those days were trace amounts). Most of the rain has fallen on 2 occasions - 13.46mm from a storm on 1st August and 23.11mm from yesterdays rain, with the other more noticeable rain days having 4.57mm and 5.33mm respectively. 

As with DEWs comment at least part of why it's still green locally is due to the very wet winter and spring, which with a fairly average amount of rain over the summer and no really prolonged hot/dry spells, has kept soil moisture reasonably high compared to recent summers.  Current rainfall for the 3 summer months is running at 30.74mm June, 67.06mm July and as above 50.53 August. 

I suspect the explanation for the variation even within a few miles of me is that most of the rain I've had IMBY this month has been showery - there's been a few days where it's been damp at home and by the time I've got to work (Tonbridge these days) the roads are dry and I did notice the grass was noticeably more yellow/straw like coming along the A26 in to work the other day versus what it's like at home (or some other parts of Kent I've cycled through). 

Summer overall has been okay here, with less prolonged heat than we have suffered with over recent summers (or enjoyed if you like that kind of thing). The last 5-6 weeks have definitely been a lot warmer than the rest of the summer, although happily the really hot stuff has been in short bursts and most days have been between 20-25c, so a touch warmer than I like for a fair bit of the time but not overly so. 

I suspect judging by the current charts September will probably be a generally summery month again down here and probably pretty dry too - seems to be pretty much the case that even if we get some really damp weather in August, high pressure asserts itself for September at least for our part of the UK and rainfall amounts are small. 

It started off as a wonderful old-school summer - temperatures swinging around the 61-90 average, replicating the summers of my childhood in the 80s. Dewpoints were generally lower than in recent years, there was a mix of sun, cloud, rain and a breeze and it was all very useable weather and everything was lush and green.

Then in mid-July it's as if a switch were flicked, and we went into modern drought/sauna mode, with very little rain, very little cloud and a great deal of humidity, with dewpoints reaching the low 20s on several occasions (something which was unknown until around a decade ago). Things quickly dried, and died, so now the yellowy lawn is scattered with leaves shed by the trees - and the countryside is parched, as per usual. Temperatures shot up and there have only been a handful of days below the 91-20 average high since then.

June: av max: 20.7, av min: 10.7, max, 26.5, min, 5.9

July: av max: 22.9, av min: 13.2, max, 31.4, min, 8.9

August: av max: 24.7, av min: 14.2, max, 33.6, min, 10.4

August ended up very dry with only 26mm (average is around 58mm).

Temperature (°C)

Lowest Minimum:                                                               3.00 (on 12/6/24)

Highest Minimum:                                                             15.60 (on 18/7/24)

Mean Minimum:                                                                10.62

Minimum Anomaly:                                                           +0.17

Lowest Maximum:                                                              13.30 (on 5/6/24)

Highest Maximum:                                                             24.70 (on 5/8/24)

Mean Maximum:                                                                18.85

Maximum Anomaly:                                                           +0.17

Lowest Average:                                                                 9.55 (on 5/6/24)

Highest Average:                                                               19.02 (on 28/7/24)

Average Temperature:                                                       14.73

Average Anomaly:                                                             +0.17

Lowest Diurnal Temperature Range:                                   2.67 (on 21/8/24)

Highest Diurnal Temperature Range:                                  15.71 (on 30/7/24)

Average Diurnal Temperature Range:                                 8.16

Other Temperature Statistics

Single Figures Minimum Temperatures:                              34

Double Figures Maximum Temperatures:                            59

Double Figures Minimum Temperatures:                             58

Maximum Temperatures Above 20°C:                                  33

Tropical Nights:                                                                     0

Maximum Temperatures Above 30°C:                                  0

Number of Frosts

Ground Frosts:                                                                       1

Rainfall (mm)

Total for summer:                                                                   151.0 (70.1% of 1991-2020 summer average)

Wettest Day:                                                                           16.2 (on 22/8/24)

Highest Hourly Total:                                                              4.8 (on 25/7/24 at 20:00)

Highest Ten Minute Total:                                                       2.8 (on 14/6/24 at 12:10)

Rain Days: 34                                                                           (100.9% of 1991-2020 summer average)

Dry Days:                                                                                 37

Longest Dry Spell                                                                     3 days (22/6 to 24/6, 28/7 to 30/7, 29/8 to 31/8)

Longest Non-Dry Spell                                                             6 days (1/7 to 6/7)

Most Consecutive Rain Days                                                    5 days (19/8 to 23/8)

Longest Period Without a Rain Day:                                        9 days (1/6 to 9/6)

Month with lowest rainfall total:                                              June 2024: 34.0 (49.4% of 1991-2020 June average)

Month with highest rainfall total:                                             August 2024: 68.2 (91.3% of 1991-2020 August average)

Month with fewest rain days:                                                   June 2024: 9 (80.8% of 1991-2020 June average)

Month with most rain days:                                                      August 2024: 15 (134.3% of 1991-2020 August average)

Wind Speed (mph)

Average Mean Wind Speed:                                                     9.1 (114.8% of 1991-2020 summer average)

Highest Mean Wind Speed:                                                      26.6 (on 4/7/24)

Highest Wind Gust:                                                                   46.3 (on 27/6/24)

Most Common Wind Direction                                                 WSW

Pressure (mb)

Lowest Pressure:                                                                        987.6 (on 22/8/24)

Average Pressure:                                                                      1010.1

Highest Pressure:                                                                       1029.4 (on 1/6/24)

Sunshine Total (hrs)

Total for summer:                                                                      258.1 (55.4% of 1991-2020 summer average)

Sunniest Day:                                                                            13.0 (on 31/7/24)

Sunless Days:                                                                             4

Most Consecutive Sunless Days:                                               2 days (10/7 and 11/7)

Month with lowest sunshine total:                                            June 2024: 2.5 (1.5% of 1991-2020 June average)

Month with highest sunshine total:                                           August 2024: 162.5 (111.5% of 1991-2020 August average)

Month with fewest sunless days: June 2024:                             0

Month with most sunless days: July 2024:                                 3

Conclusion

As far as the temperatures are concerned, it was a very much average summer but it was our coolest summer for some time and there were very few occasions when I actually felt all that hot. In addition to that, not a single temperature of 25°C or above was recorded at Edinburgh Gogarbank during the entire summer which is very disappointing even for here.

The beginning of the summer was particularly cool with even a ground frost being recorded on one occasion.

However, it was a substantially drier than average summer overall in terms of the actual rainfall amounts with June being a particularly dry month but in spite of that, the number of official rain days was actually very slightly above average during the summer.

In addition to that, it was also a substantially duller than average summer overall with August being its only sunnier than average month.

In all in, a very disappointing summer overall and for that reason, I can't give it any more than 3/10 in my books.

Garden likes it and my water bill will be less. I like the beach when it's not stuffed with paddleboarders, naturists and people setting fire to things... The weather helped here.

But I'm usually there late and early which also helps.

But 2 points off 10/10.

Point 1. I could count the days of dawn to dusk sunshine on one hand. No long-lasting anticyclone, one would associate with the all-time classics.

Point 2. French thundery imports. I can't recall one. 

I'm sure we used to get more in the past. France and the near continent seem to have had several but they just can't get across the Channel nowadays.

This index combines Maximum Temperature, Sun Hours and Rain Days into an index value ranging from about 150-350 for the whole or part of a summer

There was a fair bit if debate this year about how different the summer felt between the north and south of the UK and this is borne out by the two graphs.

The NW England graph show that 2024 was almost bottom of the 2017-2024 summers for that area in terms of the index value whereas in the SE it was a fairly average summer being around the middle of the pack

The SE index is on average higher by about 75 due to average maxima being 3-4C higher (40% contribution) less rain days (40%) and more sun hours (20%) but this year the difference was about 95 in favour of the SE