Manchester Summer Indices

1954 143
1907 147
1956 155
1912 156
1924 158
2012 164
2008 168
1987 169
1946 170
1909 171
2020 172 (up to 23rd July)
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

 

If the rest of summer had an average maximum of 20C, no more rain days and 12 hours of sunshine per day, the index will be high as 250  

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I will post below an objective, countrywide retrospective for British Summer Weather this millenium that takes dry days, the mean daily maxima and sunshine hours as its criteria for measuring a summer (1 June - 31 August for the purposes of this measure).  Obviously 2020 is not available yet.

In this index, the highest ever total at any of the selected locations is 74.7 (Manston, 2018), and the lowest Stornoway 30.7 (2015).

It can be considered to be "out of a hundred" with a score over around 52 being the mean or median score nationally.  You can see how each station has its own mean and median (which tend to be close, with a low inter quartile range generally for each station, but quite markedly different figures between stations.  (Eg Eastbourne mean = 65.7, mean 65.1; Bradford mean= 50.6, median 49.6).

Im happy to provide the full calculations and methodology to anyone who PMs me.

What this Simple Summer Index does show, is that there are distinct summer climates across the UK, with the far SE recording "better" summers than all other parts of the UK, with 2013 being the year that came closest to breaking this rule.  Like it or loathe it, there a definite NW/ SE divide when it comes to summer weather in the UK.  It is notable that are occasional (very occasional) years like 2018 which are very good almost countrywide, with the extreme North and Western fringes being exceptions (Lerwick, Stornoway).

 

Simple Summer Index 2001-2018 by Whether Idle
Year	Manston	Bradford	Glasgow	London	Lerwick	Eastbourne	Yeovilton	Armagh	Stornoway
2001	66.4	50.8	45.2	65.5	33.2	68.8	61.3	45.3	40.2
2002	64.4	47.0	43.5	58.3	39.6	62.7	57.0	42.3	37.0
2003	74.1	52.8	51.6	69.9	43.8	72.6	62.1	50.4	39.1
2004	60.3	46.1	44.9	62.0	42.3	64.7	56.2	47.4	38.7
2005	65.4	51.7	51.7	61.4	34.2	70.7	63.0	45.7	34.8
2006	70.1	57.0	57.4	65.8	40.0	70.9	67.6	52.8	42.9
2007	59.1	46.9	45.8	51.7	35.4	61.8	51.6	41.4	39.7
2008	65.8	43.1	42.5	54.2	38.2	60.0	49.0	40.6	39.1
2009	68.5	49.4	46.9	56.2	44.7	67.5	51.1	47.0	40.6
2010	62.6	49.6	48.5	59.3	35.4	66.2	60.4	48.0	36.1
2011	59.7	54.0	48.7	53.3	36.3	63.8	49.0	44.4	37.8
2012	55.1	41.1	42.1	49.7	36.7	58.7	44.0	38.4	39.1
2013	62.3	58.4	57.3	65.9	37.8	68.4	63.8	55.6	42.7
2014	62.1	53.7	55.2	62.4	37.2	62.8	60.8	48.0	42.7
2015	56.0	50.6	45.0	56.9	30.9	60.4	57.0	44.0	30.7
2016	63.8	48.9	43.0	57.9	38.4	61.7	57.1	42.2	34.8
2017	65.4	47.5	37.2	59.5	36.0	67.2	54.6	41.5	40.1
2018	74.7	62.8	55.7	72.8	39.9	73.8	66.6	53.3	39.4
2019	66.4	49.3	47.5	61.7	35.4	65.1	57.7	43.0	39.4
	Manston	Bradford	Glasgow	London	Lerwick	Eastbourne	Yeovilton	Armagh	Stornoway
mean	64.3	50.6	47.9	60.2	37.6	65.7	57.4	45.9	38.7	All stations	52.0
median	64.4	49.6	46.9	59.5	37.2	65.1	57.1	45.3	39.1	51.6

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The start of my first week off work since the start of the year and, after a rare good day yesterday, the weather is as vile as it could possibly be. Going down to Fife later on, until Friday, but all this disgusting rank weather makes me want to do is hibernate 

Dank, wet, manky SE'ly, draining, depressing filth. We have now surpassed the monthly rainfall average and on the way to recording yet another wet July in this unprecedented wet run. Temperature stuck on 13-14C for over 12 hours

Lerwick will always rate poorly on a summer index because of the extremely cool temperatures but it's been sunnier than a lot of the UK this summer which just goes to show what a ridiculously bad summer it has been for many due to formerly abnormal synoptics which are now becoming the norm 

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Even today despite it getting into the low 30Cs, it still manage to cloud up. Typical of the month though, it has been a cloudfest, July 2020.

Less than 100hrs of sunshine by the looks of it since 26th June.

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What's happening here now, is just typical of what this summer has been like here up until now.

This has been such a duller than average month that our highest sunshine total for any day during this month has been very mediocre for this time of the year.

However, you would think that on a day like today which has been our hottest day of this year so far, we would be able to get our sunniest day of that particular month without any problems on that particular day.

Yet even with those mediocre highest sunshine totals for this month, today has still failed to go down as our sunniest day of this month with a total of just 6.5 hours of sunshine actually being recorded for today si far at Edinburgh Gogarbank as at 7pm this evening.

As is typical of what this summer has like as well, it has also clouded over which means that we will be lucky if our sunshine total as at 7pm this evening, doesn't now become today's final total in the end.

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Cloudy skies to start of August here. There was more sunshine here during May than June and July combined.  

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Cloudy skies to start of August here. There was more sunshine here during May than June and July combined.  

Did April have more sunshine than June and July combined ?

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Thank goodness yesterday's sweltering temperatures were a one-day wonder, and we're back to normal pleasant English summer weather today.

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Did April have more sunshine than June and July combined ?

 

Just

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As I said in a previous post, yesterday still manage to cloud over

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What a grim, disgusting and soul destroying start to August. Was meant to be a reasonable day with sunny spells and the chance of an isolated shower. Reality a rank mass of ugly grey cloud forms at 9am and just sits there refusing to move. Then at 11am revolting drizzly rain forms and just sits there refusing to move 

Result yet another write-off overcast wet Saturday.  Yet again I am unable to spend the weekend doing the things I enjoy. 14.9C, grey skies and rain at noon during what should be the warmest part of the year. It's like living in Lerwick 

This summer is a suicide-inducing endurance test. Another terrible, terrible summer. Can't wait until it's over. Just one of the past six Saturdays has managed 5 hours of sun. It's the same repulsive grey muck week in week out. There's only about six weeks left to get warm weather and the prospect of them being filled with more of this putrid garbage is horrific 

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Well I’m in Eastern Scotland, admittedly not in Aberdeen, and today is really rather pleasant.

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What a grim, disgusting and soul destroying start to August. Was meant to be a reasonable day with sunny spells and the chance of an isolated shower. Reality a rank mass of ugly grey cloud forms at 9am and just sits there refusing to move. Then at 11am revolting drizzly rain forms and just sits there refusing to move 

Just face it Rob McKenna, the clouds and rain love you.   Wherever you are, they are   If you'd gone to Brighton today, it'd have poured with rain on the south coast and Aberdeen would have basked in sunshine from dawn to dusk.

It's all your fault

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Yet another summer month has just got off to yet another dull start here in Edinburgh as the rather pathetic and disgusting total of just 1.6 hours of sunshine was recorded for today at Edinburgh Gogarbank as at 8pm this evening, with that now looking likely to be today's final total in the end.

As a result of that, I will now be glad to just see the back of this rather dismal summer which we are continuing to experience in this part of the world, as I'm sure that it no doubt become a lot sunnier once we get into the autumn, just as it was during the spring.

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Another shockingly poor excuse for a summers day. Got caught in the rain again and the temperature at 12:30pm is 15.1C.  An atrocity of an August weekend. Both days look like failing to manage even 3 hours sun, for the third time this summer, which is just beyond a joke. At least we managed a sunny run of Sundays during July whereas Saturday has been disgusting pretty much constantly for 2 years now 

Day temperatures of 13-16C repeatedly at the warmest time of the year and a so-called heatwave giving 20C is Shetland summer weather. That is what our summers have morphed into.

Just when you think this abysmal summer, which has been in damage limitation territory for some time, can't get worse we've now had 39mm of rain in the last 9 days to accompany the Shetland temperatures. Managed to dodge the horrific wet Saturday last weekend down in Fife where it was dry and Leuchars was the sunniest place in the UK with a whopping 5.6 hours sun  Monday and Thursday were vile there as well though.

Outlook is grim. Horrid cloudy week ahead with the possibility of rain almost every day. A dreadful start to what has been the best or rather 'least worst' summer month in many recent years. 

 

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Just face it Rob McKenna, the clouds and rain love you.   Wherever you are, they are   If you'd gone to Brighton today, it'd have poured with rain on the south coast and Aberdeen would have basked in sunshine from dawn to dusk.

It's all your fault

I will be down in the Cotswolds, not far from you, between the 5th and 13th September so be warned!

 

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I will be down in the Cotswolds, not far from you, between the 5th and 13th September so be warned!

 

Thanks!   I'll book that week for a holiday in Scotland    

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I will be down in the Cotswolds, not far from you, between the 5th and 13th September so be warned!

 

I remember you being in Stockport last summer and that was close enough to give me an unexpectedly wet evening. Sometimes it's possible to believe you really can affect the weather.

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Thanks!   I'll book that week for a holiday in Scotland    

Aberdeen's always nice when Richard's not there!

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It's almost 12 am and is currently 24.3 c & 73% h outside (33.5 c in my famed west facing hobby room with a fan on full blast).

That's enough now, I'm waving the white flag on this Summer. 

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