Wildswimmer Pete

Be happy to be rid of this endless grey lid.

Just looked outdoors and a layer of white on the ground. However whatever is I can hear so looks like as you say: Freezing rain/graupel/sleet or combination thereof.

Now steady moderate snow.

Just had the first dusting of snow.

Bear in mind that I was attending secondary school during the Sixties and finishing time was 4pm which was the norm for that time. So under GMT schoolkids were going home in the dark and all-year BST meant going home in the light. There was also far less traffic around back then and the standard of driving was very much higher (I passed my motorcycle test in May 1968). However nowadays schools finish around 3pm so schoolkids are going home in the light under both GMT or GMT+1.

Rospa were singing from a very different hymnsheet fifty years ago. They came out fully against any notion of imposing BST all year around. Bear in mind that three year experiment was just that: an experiment.

Depending on what you're looking for. Swimming holidays ideal because of the abundance of geothermally warmed pools including of course the Blue Lagoon. Fortunately the weather is irrelevant. http://www.bluelagoon.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Lagoon_(geothermal_spa)

That experiment ran between Spring 1968 and Autumn 1971 and was an unmitigated disaster with many schoolchildren knocked down by half-awake drivers in the dark. What about the icy roads we had to navigate to go to work before the sun rose? I had to do that on two wheels, not fun. In Glasgow the sun didn't rise until about 10am due to the elevated horizon of the Southern Uplands. I wish people would realise that in midwinter we only have about eight hours of daylight however much we muck about with the clocks. Under GMT most of us go to work in the light, as do schoolchildren going to school while with school finishing around 3pm, schoolkids still go home in the daylight.

Thought Bank Holiday Monday gave the impression that it was going to turn out the usual all-day cloudfest however the cloud broke to give a tolerable afternoon. Only made it to about 21C which was a bit of a disappointment. Water temp. in Pickmere was 20C.

I think we just got about 21C

About 11.30pm several flashes and thunder followed by heavy rain. Off to bed now and currently quiet and rain stopped.

December 1970 saw a light dusting of snow on Christmas Day in the Wirral and that's all we had. It was Spring 1970 that saw frequent cold shots with snow up to March. In fact Winter 1969/70 was cold and snowy from Christmas onwards. This isn't from dry statistics, these were personal observations.

Warmth all around us but notice how the green snot always makes a beeline towards us.

I wish some of Lucifer's heat would make it our way but of course that won't ever happen. This is Britain, the grey land of perpetual late autumn. Appears it's time to dig out my SAD lamp.

Yes, what is laughingly described as "high summer" currently so dark that you would be forgiven to think today was a late October day just before the clocks go back. Needless to say it's cold and wet. No improvement in sight so looks like autumn has started a month early.

Probably because they don't live all that long. Those complaints only generally affect humans in later life. Seagulls in Llandudno have learned to dive-bomb folk coming out of chippies by tactical sh*tting on their chips knowing the meal will be thrown away for the avian thieves to gorge upon. All along the North Wales beaches and promenades there are notices warning about not feeding the gulls, Gulls also feast on the juicy bits floating in the primary settlement tanks of the local sewage works which is why seagull poo is heaving with human pathogens. Should a gull "bless" you, you need to wash it off if possible, but whatever you do thoroughly wash your hands before touching food.

You jest of course. A couple of reasonably warm days in June with the rest being a cloudfest with any sunshine restricted to the late evening when the clouds eventually melted away. Bear in mind my observation is subjective.

That blue patch indicating very cold air must be unusual for the height of summer. I hope it doesn't come our way!

We heat lovers only have three months to enjoy it. You coldies have nine months of the worst the lousy British climate can throw at us to enjoy. Cold, ice, rain, wind (mostly all together).

A passable summer day although with a chilly breeze until the cloud cleared at lunch to almost clear blue skies. Temp. was nothing to write home about for the beginning of July - miserable 17C. A view of Pickmere, Cheshire. Water temp was 20C, knocked back by 1C by all that cold rain last Wednesday.

10C on a late June evening, so cold I can see my breath outside. It's also extremely dark especially as we're only just past the solstice. I do hope we aren't having the same conditions as during the past few years: semi-permanent low pressure throughout what we laughingly call "summer". Looking at the thickness charts a persistent blob of green snot covering the UK surrounded by yellows and oranges. We have a very few months of what I would describe to be warm, I resent that little is encroached on by conditions more reminiscent of winter, let alone autumn.

Awful cold, wet Autumn day with a miserable 13C forecast all day (it actually is 13C here).

What a dark, miserable morning. Given current model output looks like we are resuming our usual "Forever Autumn"

The standard British climate - a week of tolerable weather will always be followed by a month of utter ordure.

Arrgh! The Invasion of the Green Snot with single digit temps covering much of N. England and Scotland. Have I slept through the summer months and it's now October?