Indeed, and arguably the last paragraph particularly so, but we have various ways to help overcome this fear or dread of the colder, darker months. Sitting by the fire with a good book or binge-watching. Why not?  This can take us up to Christmas with its cheery lights, but can also trigger sadness and illness when we see others enjoying the festival.

So another way is to plan, beginning now in August by buying indoor bulbs such as scented Paperwhites to stagger flowering in pots going well into the New Year. Treated Hyacinths another. Plenty of options. Then, at least in the South by the time we get to mid January with noticeably lengthening daylight, look outside for snowdrops and we are almost there, perhaps with SAD on its way out. Or if you hate gardens and plants, try a daylight bulb and sit under it for an hour or so every day. Or try and get out and about, especially on sunny days. Vitamin D tablets? I swear by those too in the darker months.

But planning ahead with outdoor Tulips or whatever planted in November and the images in your mind of the colour to come in April and May help me navigate the Winter too. Of course March and April can be the cruellest months. I try different colours each year, composting the old bulbs so I don’t end up with a mismatch and fire blight ridden plants.

It’s largely in the mind how we approach winter, though it’s easier said than done. 

I still do. I absolutely despise Winter. It has no redeeming qualities at all in my eyes. Miserable weather, miserable darkness. Vile

I used to be the same with Autumn, although these days, Autumn is largely an extension of summer 

On 31 Aug 1989, Washington DC had a dull day with persistent light rain and drizzle. The wind was moderate NE and It did not feel summery at all with a max temp of only 21 C. I had to wear a coat. 🙂

Not looking forward to the winter either, especially with prospect of violent gales and driving rain.

29.3c to 28.7c

That doesn't happen very often 

I just don't understand why all the summer stuff gets cleared in early August. It gets more and more difficult to get bbq charcoal after July. Surely if temperatures are still in the 20s or higher, keep selling it - even if it's in smaller volumes!?

It's because they order it in many months in advance, so once it's gone it's gone. They'll use long-range forecasts, but none of those forecasts ever pick up record-breaking months like the one we've just had! 

I like the crisp clear frosty mornings, and returning home to a roaring fire. However, such weather has become rarer than rain in July!

(Actually we had a brief downpour this morning much to my surprise - but again, half an hour later you would never know it had rained at all)

The 6z GFS has 36 here next Wednesday! That happened a couple of weeks ago and stayed much the same every through every single consecutive run, before cooling a couple of degrees in the final couple of runs. We ended up with 34.7 here (29th July)... I've never seen such inter-run consistency before. The other models eventually caught up, the MetO raw had 25 a week out but ended up at 34 come the day.

I hope it doesn't happen again, but the way this summer's going you'd be mad to bet against it!

That is almost ten degrees (9.5°C to be precise) warmer than the average daily max here for July. It just goes to show the geographical extent of the heatwave. You would expect the average max to be 23.9°C here if the heat anomaly had been to the same extent nationwide. (It was in reality 19.8°C).

Yes northern Europe has missed out really. Scandinavia and the Baltics have had similar issues. 

What happens after that is a bit of a head scratcher. All the models, pretty much, are showing a cool down and troughs riding across the country in the third week of August. Yet the long term outlooks from the Met Office and ECM, as well as the global scale patterns (MJO phase, AAM etc) would seem to favour high pressure.

HP to the west, still close by but latitudinally elongated, could still allow fronts/troughs and would permit a cooler set up to develop, especially if features repeatedly nudge the HP cell west, before it slips back again. I suppose that's the trouble with LT signals- they can be kind of right, but don't pretend to define the subtleties of meso scale geography.

Certainly interesting what lies ahead. For once something other than blue sky, blazing sun and parched earth appeals to me.

These look to be from around August 8th to 10th; August 12th to 14th. 

Met office mentioned this morning we had matched 1995s number of 30°C + days. Looks like we will exceed that figure. 

https://www.threads.com/@privateeyenews/post/DbpjsTnHHGk/media 

I believe that's only the front cover Roger? Even so, the points they've made in their own magical way are right there. 

I'm both tired and alarmed by this weather. I can just about cope with carting the largest watering can we could buy up and down the garden every evening (although a recent bout of radial nerve palsy made this a challenge!) We 'grow our own' and as you can imagine peppers, chillis, oranges are thriving but others are struggling even with the watering.

But nobody is watering on the wild side. The press has been on the big fires (including Headon Warren on the IOW, one of my favourite spotting grounds) but the less obvious environmerntal impacts won't reveal themselves for some time. I hope the forecasted heatwaves are last breaths, even though I do enjoy weather records. A good late August soaking would certainly send the mycelia into overdrive!

We did have an early cap of Boletus luridus in the garden back in June, but only one before the drought put a stop to all that!

https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/suillellus-luridus.php 

And salted earth in parts of England too. It must have been panic time for the NT and RSPB to even consider using seawater.

Meanwhile, the hedgehog (this year's hoglet) in my garden is getting through its cat food and water I place in little glass bowls I wash out each day.  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gjp2j4zz8o 

Spot on. Same with the portable aircon units

37, 37, 34, 35, 37

Could be hotter here than in Mallorca!