Agree with you there FW, you can't beat a fresh, sunny spring/autumn day. I may be outspoken but i prefer winter to high summer with the exception of the shorter days which can be bothersome at times.

My gripe with the current conditions;

Cracks opening in the old walls of the house as the clay subsoil dries out...

Lawn parched and rough...

A few local trees now dead from dehydration...

Water bill almost certainly double this quarter...

I can cope with most weather and do enjoy a good hot spell but its the overall lack of rain here in the SE that is killing it at the moment.

I've got keen eyes on NW Scotland for the end of July/beginning of August.

Hoping for high pressure to be centrered either over, just north of, or just east of Scotland. I'd be happy with temps around 21/22/23c and some sunny days. It's not aking for the world!

It's in range of the GFS and [just] ECM.

It's not looking promising one bit. Unsettled and temps 16-18c 

Long way to go, but I won't build my hopes up.

Still, perhaps sh*te and cold weather will convince the rest of my family (who outvoted me on destination choice this summer for our main holiday; I wanted france again, for a better chance of heat and sun) to abandon their romanticism for Scotland, and we can go back to the French Atlantic coast next summer.

Isn't August classed as Autumn in Scotland… 

I've seen a breakdown to rain in England and an improvement in Scotland many a time in August. I'm keeping an eye on the models for a few nights on the West coast - Ardnamurchan hopefully - but I'm only driving up there if the weather is good. It really would be ideal to enjoy some sunshine in Scotland while my garden and allotment gets a good soaking at home 

NW Scotland is a lovely place in the summer over looking the North Atlantic.

It looks beautiful, Duane (we're due to be right on the coast, not far from Mallaig, overlooking the sea and the Small Isles).

Looks way better bathed in sunshine, though  and being warm enough for me to swim/paddleboard in that turquoise sea without a wetsuit...

We'll be a bit further north than even that!

Looks lovely - https://vimeo.com/273994078?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=926255

Nine engines fighting a fire near the Dartford Crossing also.

Well this has been yet another epic fail. An unmitigated disaster.

27C at 9am should have seen the record smashed but yet again the overcast comes into ruin things 

Horrible cloud fest day again. The sun is now shining through thin high cloud after being almost entirely absent since 9:30am but the temperature is actually falling and is the lowest it's been all day at 24.5C 

Yet again we have failed to reach 28C, a value that was not only reached during 1976, 1995 and 2006 but also during unexceptional summers like 1950, 1958 and 1986.

The only records that come close to be equalled in summer these days are cold records.

Utterly awful day and 'heatwave'. 0/10.

The heat doesn't deter arsonists.

Stupid comment

I think I'm going to be using this thread a lot.

Latest few runs show the max temp for NW Scotland, where I'm f*ckwittedly going to spend my bloody so-called summer holiday, as 14-15c for its entirety.

No, I tell a lie. The day we travel home, it shows some warming-up.

I'm going to divorce my family for wanting this.

Give my regards to the midges

We're on the coast (like, about 300m back from a beach) and the reports from around that area are that the midges aren't a problem. Inland, yes it's a major issue - put it this way, I'll drive through the Great Glen, but won't get out of the car and be a smorgasbord.

I do sympathise...BUT .....I have it in my head that you have already been abroad somewhere this year ?

I've camped on Skye, a similar distance from the sea, and got up to find the socks which I'd pegged to the guy ropes to dry out overnight completely surrounded by a sphere of midges. The reaction of the site owner was "Och, it's a live one today!"

That was only a long weekend

Great!

Good luck anyway. Just hope for a bit of a breeze which tends to make them lie low.

Why does midges don't appear in England since we are in same land and temperatures almost the same?

We went to the Trossachs last summer. Half the boot was filled with Smidge/Avon So Soft and hiking hats with nets.

Saw a handful the first day there when sat out having a pint. None the rest of the time.

Sunshine also makes them take cover. But I guess sunshine is a more forlorn hope than breeze/wind 

They like a certain type of environment - acidic, wet/damp, plenty of tree cover/shade. With the abundance of lochs; peaty, boggy land; rain and forests, Scotland is ideal, especially Western/North-Western. 

But you also find them in huge numbers in parts of Scandinavia.

Thanks now I know, i never been to Scotland by the way, the further north is Newcastle in Stanley area.

It's a beautiful place, mate

(just sh*te summer weather... and midges)

The midges can be absolute hell and can ruin a day. I go up near the Kyle of Sutherland every year and go fishing a few days. A damp morning with no wind, near trees on the riverbank can be torture, even with a midge net the little [censored]get inside, some people get quite a reaction to midge bites with their whole face swelling up. They are the worst thing about Scotland, i dont mind the weather as i am no heat lover