Temperature at 12:14PM on the 10th December 2025 : 13.0C (dew 10.6)

Temperature at 12:14PM on the 10th June 2026 : 12.8C (dew 10.3)

Cherry-picked, I know, and of course there's a time difference, but uncommon if not rare to see here! No complaints, I'll save those for when the default warm/humid conditions return.

I'm sure there was a case in the last decade when the Summer Solstice was colder than the previous year's Winter Solstice

I'm sure I heard that too.

Currently 15.1 °C with a brisk SW wind and spits of drizzle that for some will be a luxurious, mild salve to be savoured.  Not for me though.

Hope the unwanted rain we had all day 2 days ago is the last one for a long while.  We badly need more dry weather and meanwhile spent today and yesterday correcting my indoor temperatures back to 23-25C as it was dropped very low 20C during the cold rainy day.  34-35c in the conservatory today and yesterday help to restore my house warmth now feel very comfortable warm. 

I take it you don't have a garden?

For any summer month, that is very poor fare indeed even for this part of the world, especially given that we are now halfway through the month. In addition to that, Edinburgh Gogarbank has only had 40.7% of its 1991-2020 June average sunshine as I write, so this is turning out to be a rather dull month as well, thereby resulting in a dull start to the summer in these parts.

(There have been a couple of minor tropical storms on the W coast of Mexico as well)

I have a large garden facing south and landscaped 2 years ago so nice tidy garden with large patio and nice new grass and modern lean to conservatory 3x4m size.  

I'm wondering weather to try some walking in the SE next summer. I'm thinking primarily the South Downs, High Weald, Kent, Surrey Hills etc.

Any ideas where to base ourselves, prefer attractive smaller towns and villages on the waymarked long distant paths. Thank you

Alfriston would make a nice base; Firle Beacon to the West leading on to Ditchling Beacon / Devils Dyke and Brighton etc. Seven Sisters / Beachy head to the East leading down to Eastbourne and through to Hastings and the fossil beds at Pett then onwards to historic Rye and Camber (avoid during school hols!) then on to the vast gravel headland of Dungeness and its associated unique habitats and general weirdness.

I live just up the road to the North and its amazing how much more sun they get along that stretch of the coast.

Thanks for the advice MR.....some food for thought there 🙂

After a relatively unsettled next few days though, the models now appear to be showing the high pressure building north in the next week with the Met Office showing a maximum for here of around 25°C next Tuesday.

In recent years, our summers have tended to become warmer, drier and sunnier (that might not necessarily be statistically true, but that is how it has appeared to be) with the result of that being that the almost constant sunshine which we saw during the spring in particular just became boring in the end.

If the latest model output is correct, that is what we could be gradually heading back towards once again and although there has been a lot of complaints on here about the recent cooler and more unsettled start to this summer, that spell of weather to me has actually been a welcome break from that same old pattern in recent years of that trend towards warmer and drier weather, and it seems as though we just can't seem to get a really poor and miserable summer any more such as what we have had in past years such as 2007 or 2012.

Even during this recent spell of cool and less settled weather, we still haven't been getting any high rainfall totals here in Edinburgh such as what are being witnessed elsewhere and it just seems as though it is no longer possible for us to actually get any big rainfall totals here any more.

This hot spell has finally convinced me to get proper aircon installed - it's quite frankly unpleasant to sit indoors sweating my balls off each day, or get scorched outside and still sweat my balls off. This morning shows it well: a uniform 25C downstairs, 27C upstairs, and my portable aircon was on the verge of conking out last night due to the heat (the compressor was very loud) - I normally have it in the spare room due to the noise it makes, piping the cold air into my room through a hose, but it was 33C in that back bedroom and the aircon's manual says it can only work up to 32C. Today I'll have to have the aircon in the same room, so not much sleep tonight either.

I know Matty has always been a big fan of the heat, but I consider it cheating if you then have aircon at home (as he does). If you profess to enjoy the heat, raw-dog it man, as the cool kids would say! Embrace that buildup of heat, enjoy the feeling of the mattress you're lying on radiating heat into you, make the most of the warm walls and warm floors in your home...

I really feel for those down here who don't have aircon and I expect sales to go nuts well into the autumn. I'm going to get mine installed late winter or early spring, I think, hopefully when it's least busy and prices and availability are better. 

Incidentally 76 wasn't like this - it was cooler, at least here. It only hit 30 four times on Sheppey during that whole summer, the highest temperature was 32, and at night, importantly, it still got into the mid or even low teens, something which is seemingly impossible these days. Dewpoints were several degrees lower too, and that's something seldom mentioned in heatwave discussions: dryer air cools more, it cools you more, and it makes the whole thing feel less oppressive. These high teens/low 20s dewpoints we're having now are utterly sapping.

Normally the sea breeze would save us here (as it did in both 2022 and 2003, which had temperatures in the high 30s followed by a 10-degree cooling as the see breeze arrived in the afternoon), but this year? Nothing. We now have GFS and MetO showing temperatures in the 30s here this afternoon with winds off the sea... hopeless!

And the worst bit? We're not even halfway through this poxy summer yet. Unbelievable, frankly.

As one ages one's response to hot weather changes. Health issues affect this too. When we first hit 31C here we had a phone conversation with a cousin who lines in Ostia, near Rome. They had just hit 41C! She, like us, is in the the 75-85 age bracket. Thankfully she has one air conditioned room. She has two kids who keep an eye on her.  I think her case is the way many here will have to go - one properly air conditioned room. That strikes a survivable balance between comfort and sensible energy use.

You will laugh - but our 3 USB fans are making a real difference - one plugged into the smart TV in the living room, one in the kitchen, plugged into the radio, and one here in the computer room. 😂 Another BIG plus is a skylight we can open to release convected heat upstairs. Left open all night, this ensures upstairs rooms are a tolerable temperature. 

Yes, I suspect you're right in terms of us (at least in the south/SE) ending up with a "cool room" - the equivalent of the old days before central heating, I guess, when there might be a fire kept going in one room while the others were left to freeze. Perhaps in due course we'll see American/hotel-style "central air", where there are ducts and grilles in each room... something for newbuilds, perhaps, as the cost of retrofitting such a system would be many tens of thousands. 

As for fans, I can imagine your house dotted with them - little breezes wherever you go!

My (pedestal) fan yesterday made it feel pretty warm. It was 28C in my living room yesterday evening (30 outside, so the windows were closed, curtains drawn) and the fan made it feel like a hair dryer! I do use one each morning at times like this, though; my living room is on the north side of the house, running from west to east, with a 70s concrete patio on the eastern side. On days like this I open the french windows, pop the fan on the patio, then have it blowing air through the living room (and out the window on the western side)... the snag is when it's 18C outside there's only so much it can do, and I note even after an hour and a half it's still 23C in the living room. 

EDIT: As for the skylight, that sounds like a great idea - they have a similar system in the newbuilds at the school where I worked, I notice, and theirs open automatically when it gets to a certain temperature. Mind you, they were always complaining about how hot it got in there in the summer...

https://theconversation.com/can-air-conditioning-really-make-you-sick-a-microbiologist-explains-260648 

Heh - the fan on patio trick only works for me up to about now, when the sun starts streaming in... 23 was as low as I could get it before having to close the windows and pull the curtains. It's only 20 outside but the heat from the sun seems to offset any further cooling from that 3C temperature difference. 

Cleaning the filters (and indeed other bits) is indeed essential, and it's why at the school we had a chap come in twice per year to do just that. My own portable gets cleaned out twice a year too, once mid-season and again at the end. (When I get real a/c I'll give my portable to a friend, as something's better than nothing! I'll also explain the necessity of keeping it clean too...)

You love cold and snow. Do you have central heating?

I've been researching central air conditioning recently and from what i gathered online it is much more cost effective than a split system if you have the loft space and want more than one room cooled.

One heat pump unit outside (same as split system) and one fan cool unit in the loft with associated ducting into 3 or 4 upstairs rooms. All that’s really needed is to cut a neat little hole in the ceiling plasterboard. Much less work than installing multiple expensive fan cool units in each room and the associated refrigerant lines and power cabling. In fact, i'm amazed more people don't consider it. Its also much quieter if installed correctly (noise is in loft and outside). The only disadvantage i can ascertain is that most basic systems will pump the same temperature air into each room - not a massive issue for most, and there can be issues with air pressure if not installed correctly. 

Edit - i should clarify i'm referring to upstairs AC, not entire property!

I also don't struggle to sleep in this weather. I get up at half 5 to take the dog out before it's too hot for her and we sit out on the deck in the evening until late so by the time I get to bed at half 11 or so I'm tired enough to go straight to sleep

These conditions, although becoming much more common in recent years, are something to be enjoyed for me as there is so much of the year to be stuck indoors looking at gloomy skies. I don't care how hot it is, I'd far rather be sat at home working than wasting the best part of 3 hours a day door to door travelling to and from the office. I've had more than enough years of that. The City of London concrete jungle in this type of weather is particularly unpleasant with the heat radiating out of roads and buildings. Much happier dealing with the heat here with the window open, hearing birds calling and the splashing of water in the pond  and watching butterflies, dragonflies and the occasional humming bird hawk moth and hornet going about their business. Much more civilised