The sooner the "autumnal" weather arrives here the better - it's been a warm, sticky week and as of right now it's 17C outside (with a 17C dewpoint) and 25C indoors.

Today's high winds can't come soon enough, but even then it's still going to be muggy!

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I’m not moaning yet!  Yesterday was was warm and sunny throughout and it’s been a warm night again but not unbearable.  We have light rain now but it’s the first we’ve had for a while and the garden could do with a drenching.  

We’ve done remarkably well in my neck of the woods this summer and have consistently had better weather than forecast.  I may be moaning by Sunday if the weekend turns out to be as wet and windy as forecast. 

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Most parents will be concerned about what the weather will be like for the school holidays, but that isn't the only point of concern here.

Edinburgh may well only be a small city and only the second largest city in Scotland behind Glasgow in terms of its size, but it is Scotland's capital city as well as being famous worldwide for its festivals. Indeed, the main summer festivals are going on here just now and as a result of that, the population of this city tends to more or less double at this time of the year.

However, I don't think that all of these extra visitors to this city would have been exactly looking forward to the sort of weather which we are getting here just now, which has to be the worst possible weather which they could have been experiencing for that. In fact, the weather has taken such a turn for the worst now that it wouldn't even seem all that appropriate to refer to this as our "summer" now, even though we are still in meteorological summer, technically speaking.

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I look back with fondness at summer 1990; although June was poor, there were countless days of river swimming and beach visits.

Yet the CET was only 16.17.

For this summer to achieve that August would need a CET of around 16.8.

It's looking around 18C for the first third (pre-adjustment). So it seems like a fair chance to me. 

Locally, from 22nd June to today, a period of exactly 7 weeks, only one day has failed to exceed 20°C- that was 19th July(and only two, excluding today, failed to each 21°C) . I personally will remember summer 2019 as a good one, so long as I can avoid comparing it with last year.

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I look back with fondness at summer 1990; although June was poor, there were countless days of river swimming and beach visits.

Yet the CET was only 16.17.

For this summer to achieve that August would need a CET of around 16.8.

It's looking around 18C for the first third (pre-adjustment). So it seems like a fair chance to me. 

Locally, from 22nd June to today, a period of exactly 7 weeks, only one day has failed to exceed 20°C- that was 19th July(and only two, excluding today, failed to each 21°C) . I personally will remember summer 2019 as a good one, so long as I can avoid comparing it with last year.

 

I remember July 90 having a great spell of weather. I changed jobs and had a 2-week gap between leaving the old and starting the new. It was a lovely, sunny spell. Remember going up to the Lakes with a few mates and swimming in Grasmere.

 

This summer has been poor, IMO. For a while in July it seemed that the rubbish & wet June would be redeemed, but it's just been too unsettled. It's been warm, I grant you, but we've hardly gone 2 or 3 days without rain.

I don't need temps up towards 30c to consider it a good spell. Just bone dry and sunny for a few weeks with a high that looks immovable; temps can be low-20's for all I care.

 

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Calm right now but I have some pots with various tallish plants that will topple/break unless I bring them into the shed for the duration.

The sunflowers just coming to bloom look like they will face the snap tomorrow or Saturday. I hate gales in August.

   Will the shed get blown away. 

Some of my plants are now in the brick shed. Others have been staked. Then moved closer to a wall.

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A ridiculous 20C dewpoint at the moment (and the same is true across much of the SE) - it's stinkingly humid. Thank heavens I work in an office with air-con, it'd be insufferable without it.

I'm looking at the low dewpoints up north with considerable envy...

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August has become the crappiest month (relatively speaking) of the year.

We've had prolonged warm, sunny settled spells in each of April, May, June, July, September & October in recent years.

But we need to go back to 2003 to get the same for August. 

Yes, we've had numerous brief spells last a week or so, but nothing going on for 3 or 4 weeks like we've had in other months.

 

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One observation about this summer which I have noticed is that although we have had some decent weather at times which even brought us our hottest day on record here in Edinburgh, there hasn't actually been any sustained spells of decent weather which have lasted for any length of time.

From my childhood memories, I can remember a typical summer from the past as being one where we get a whole couple of weeks somewhere during the line where the Azores High would build in to bring us a decent spell of weather right throughout that entire period, but with the weather then being relatively poor during the rest of that time.

However, this is something which we haven't seen during this summer and since 2014, the only summer which I can recall where that actually happened was last year. Even at that, last August wasn't still wasn't all that great (which shows that we just can't get a decent August these days), although last August wasn't actually as bad as what this month is turning out to be like in this part of the world up until now.

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Widely over 27c in EA today with mostly sunny skies again . The difference between east and west in England is extraordinary sometimes considering how small a country  we are.

 

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Widely over 27c in EA today with mostly sunny skies again . The difference between east and west in England is extraordinary sometimes considering how small a country  we are.

 

 

It is - normally it's SE and 'the rest'. The path of LP's is jolly annoying.

 

 

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I remember July 90 having a great spell of weather. I changed jobs and had a 2-week gap between leaving the old and starting the new. It was a lovely, sunny spell. Remember going up to the Lakes with a few mates and swimming in Grasmere.

I remember summer 1990 well too; I was 10 then. June was pretty poor overall with a lot of rain and only a few completely dry days and early July wasn't great either. However we had a very good spell from mid-July until around mid-August with some pretty hot temperatures at times too. The better second half of the summer that year IMO more than made up for the poor start.

 

This summer has been poor, IMO. For a while in July it seemed that the rubbish & wet June would be redeemed, but it's just been too unsettled. It's been warm, I grant you, but we've hardly gone 2 or 3 days without rain.

I don't need temps up towards 30c to consider it a good spell. Just bone dry and sunny for a few weeks with a high that looks immovable; temps can be low-20's for all I care.

 

Agree with that too. I would rather have a sustained settled spell with some warm temperatures and wall-to-wall sunshine for a couple of weeks or more, like we saw last year, than have a one-week wonder with some record-breaking temps only for it all to descend into dross again as has just happened and happened in 2015 too.

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Calm right now but I have some pots with various tallish plants that will topple/break unless I bring them into the shed for the duration.

The sunflowers just coming to bloom look like they will face the snap tomorrow or Saturday. I hate gales in August.

Hi Nick;

had the same thoughts. Lots of rangy plants including aubergines, but also some bushy peppers, chillies and tomatoes look dodgy. The wind is really cranking up a notch now.

So- some in front porch, some up against N facing wall with table to the side, and yes, some in shed. Shed's don't blow away in 50mph gusts but I understand IYNOTW there might be some 60 gusts. Unless it's already falling apart, it should be a safe place!

Like you, we have some tall (6ft+) sunflowers. No doubt they're for the snap.

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Another point that I would like to make is about the fairly large amounts of rain which we have getting during this summer which unlike in many other parts of the UK, has also come after a wet spring in this part of the world.

It is true that we had a lengthy spell of dry weather which started just before last summer and then carried on all the way through last winter which was actually even drier here than what last summer was.

It is true that this deficit had to be made up, especially as the situation in that regard, was becoming rather critical in terms of groundwater levels and so on, as we got towards the end of last winter.

For me though, I would have been much happier if that deficit had been made up during last winter rather than right now during the summer. For me, one of the key things which make up a decent summer is that it should be drier than average. That makes this time of the year, the time when we would expect any large amounts of rainfall to be less welcome on this shores than at any other time of the year.

It is therefore just typical ot the weather in this country, that this overall rainfall deficit from last year is only now just being made up at the very time of year when we rely on dry weather for our various outdoor activities, more than at any other time of the year.

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I still have no complaints!  This morning’s rain cleared by 8 o’clock and the sun has been out most of the day with mid twenties temps yet again and only a moderate breeze at times. We had a five minute downpour with thunder at 4pm but the sun came out again within minutes and is still out. 

I appreciate the weather has varied depending on your locality, but Summer has been lovely here since the end of June.  All of July was warm and sunny, with one storm in the early hours of 24th and we’ve had only a couple of nights with light showers but no rain during the days, until today.  On several occasions the forecast has been for rain but we’ve missed it completely and we’ve invariably exceeded the forecast temperatures.  

Yes, I’d take this every year! 

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I remember July 90 having a great spell of weather. I changed jobs and had a 2-week gap between leaving the old and starting the new. It was a lovely, sunny spell. Remember going up to the Lakes with a few mates and swimming in Grasmere.

 

This summer has been poor, IMO. For a while in July it seemed that the rubbish & wet June would be redeemed, but it's just been too unsettled. It's been warm, I grant you, but we've hardly gone 2 or 3 days without rain.

I don't need temps up towards 30c to consider it a good spell. Just bone dry and sunny for a few weeks with a high that looks immovable; temps can be low-20's for all I care.

 

You’re saying that as if it isn’t asking for much. What exactly do you expect in a typical British summer? Have you considered booking a holiday abroad?

Much like Caz, I don’t have ludicrously high expectations and continue to be satisfied with this summer’s weather, and my nice tan is testimony to that. 😎

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You’re saying that as if it isn’t asking for much. What exactly do you expect in a typical British summer? Have you considered booking a holiday abroad?

 

No need to get arsey, cocker!

I don't think what I'm asking for is anything exceptional. We've had just that (a great 3-4 week spell of dry & sunny in summer) in 2013, 14 & 18.

Whilst the vast majority of years will have a dry & mostly sunny spell of at least 3-4 weeks at some point in that April to September period. 

But this summer we had a washout June, and July had only brief dry spells before a breakdown came. I hoped August would settle down, but I think it's rained every single day (ie, 24 hour period) apart from 1 or 2 so far. 

 

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No need to get arsey, cocker!

I don't think what I'm asking for is anything exceptional. We've had just that (a great 3-4 week spell of dry & sunny in summer) in 2013, 14 & 18.

Whilst the vast majority of years will have a dry & mostly sunny spell of at least 3-4 weeks at some point in that April to September period. 

But this summer we had a washout June, and July had only brief dry spells before a breakdown came. I hoped August would settle down, but I think it's rained every single day (ie, 24 hour period) apart from 1 or 2 so far. 

 

July 2013 and June/July 2018 were exceptional - July 2013 was one of the top 10 warmest Julys on record. Summer 2018 was one of the warmest summers full stop. Do you seriously expect that every year? I mean, really.. 

Like it or lump it but this summer is much closer to a normal summer than 2013, 2014 or 2018. 

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One thing I have thought to myself in recent years is that in respect of my own area, the summers of the 1990s were generally better than the majority of summers I have experienced since the turn of the millenium. In the whole 1990s decade, there was only one summer from that time which I would say was really poor overall, and that was 1998. Other summers in the 90s did have unsettled spells as every summer does, but from what I recall there was at least one reasonably long-lasting period of decent weather in them too.

This summer, and it seems to me in quite a lot of 21st century summers so far, there has been a notable absence of any sustained settled spell of the type that Saint spoke about above and I recall experiencing in many 90s summers. As far as my own location is concerned, the only summers this century thus far that I would class as either good, very good or excellent are 2003, 2006, 2013, 2014 and 2018. That's only five years with a summer that was IMO good or even better, and we are now nearly 20 years into the new century.

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