Of course, it's not everyone who is actually a fan of the moaning thread and these people just tend to look for a general discussion thread so back in the spring, I started an experiment of combining the spring moaning thread with a general discussion thread because although not everyone is a fan of the moaning threads, they are still considered to be a very important part of this forum by a large number of its members.

That experiment proved to be successful. In the winter and summer seasons, there tends to always already be a separate general discussion thread for those seasons, so I wasn't really able to repeat that experiment during the summer, but I am happy to go back to that way of doing things for this autumn which I am now doing here.

This is therefore, the very thread for getting any rants off your chest during this autumn but as before, you may also gloat about something here if you want to. If you don't want to moan or gloat though and just want to give a general discussion about this autumn, this is also the very place for that.

Summer in Ayrshire has been very poor so I am glad to just get it out of the way and move on. Not a lot of signs of autumn so far though. Very green indeed here, perhaps due to just how wet it’s been. I can’t remember a wetter summer. So here’s to autumn and hopefully some frosts and a build up to a nice cold winter with lots of snow. 

Night temperatures won't typically start dipping into single figures, and day temperatures will still be averaging in the 20's until October. 

It's also technically still astronomical summer, and will be until the exact point in time of the Autumn Equinox (the exact time when the overhead Sun crosses the Equator from the Northern Hemisphere into the Southern Hemisphere) which for this year, will be at 1:43pm BST (12:43 UTC) on Sunday 22 September 2024.

It is only after that, that we will then be into the astronomical autumn and I know that there are a lot of people out there who prefer to go by that particular definition of the seasons.

As for the meteorological definition of the seasons, that only exists in order to make it easier for meteorologists to properly deal with the official statistics for each season because it is much easier for them if each season starts at the very beginning of a particular calendar month.

That same definition is used not just by the UK Met Office, but also by all of the various meteorological services throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

Down in the Southern Hemisphere, the various meteorological services use the same system for defining their seasons, but with their seasons being reversed which means that when meteorological autumn started here in the Northern Hemisphere, meteorological spring started in the Southern Hemisphere.

Since this is a weather forum at the end of the day and since it is the weather and climate which meteorologists deal with, I prefer to go by the meteorological definition of the seasons but that is only my personal choice whereas others may well disagree with that and have their own take on that which they are perfectly entitled to have.

I think this is nice and early. 

The sun incidentally is as strong now as it is at the very end of March, and the weather itself - 15.7 in early afternoon, dewpoint of 8.4 - is very much like an April day here.

I'll definitely enjoy the rest of the week, as there's more to come! 😁

The Sun definitely is still a bit stronger than I expect it to be for September. My solar panels are maxing out as if it’s high summer. That wasn’t the case last September, even on sunny days.

That's as maybe but you're not getting battered by blustery showers day & night as I am!

Edit: Just got some hail, nice!

If skies are very blue are the most important factor.  I did not like the last Friday dirty few hours of thick hazy sun that gave no warmth compare to Sunday skies was very nice. I also notice the temperatures indoors does not response if hazy just non-warmth sunlight. 

I've stickied it so it doesn't disappear into the ether. On December 1st or 2nd I'll the move it to the classics thread section.  🙂 

As I say every season, these threads shouldn't be called 'moaning & gloating', just  'general discussion'

I think they started off as just 'moaning' threads which gave them a specific purpose. Then gloating was added and put the two togrether it pretty much does amount to 'general discussion'.

Or more correctly "moating". 😀

On that basis, I could just title these threads as General Discussion threads whenever I start them and do so in such a way that you can still moan or gloat about something if you wish.

If I did so though, it would no longer be obvious that you could actually do so if you want to which means that a number of members on here would probably then no doubt end up moaning about the fact there is no longer an official moaning thread on here.

Having said that though, these threads have now developed into a lot more than just moaning and gloating threads these days and I never thought I would ever see the day when I would even end up posting the summer statistics on what started off as the summer moaning thread in the manner in which I did a few weeks ago.

Personally, I think that statistics should be dealt with in their own separate threads which are devoted to that particular subject, and that is why I always start new threads on the first day of every month for the previous month's statistics.

I think it should be the same for each season or year as well but then, that is only my opinion.

Moaning about the lack of a moaning thread? That would never do.

Keep things as they are, seems to work OK.

Hope with full sunny days since mid Jan.  Wed is the day my garden have a full turnover so dry warm and sunny is perfect timing so no mud bath type.

Now that we're into the autumn though, we now have the perfect "if only it were summer" setup during this week with high pressure firmly in charge of the overall pattern.

You really couldn't make it up and of course, this now raises the question of where on Earth was this high pressure during the summer when we were looking for it to deliver some hot and sunny weather to these parts at that time?😡