Wildswimmer Pete

Yes, my overnight min was 16.1C

Seasonally affected disorder (or depression) results from the enhanced action of melatonin (a hormone controlling our response to circadian rhythms) and serotonin, a neurotransmitter. The main player is serotonin, some people have low levels in the brain and a lack of serotonin can result in SAD or even worse, chronic clinical depression. For SAD sufferers St.John's Wort often works well, however StJW must never be taken together with prescribed antidepressants (especially SSRIs) as doing so could lead to serotonin syndrome which can be fatal. Light boxes are useful in winter, although they are expensive to buy. I'm thinking of building myself one this autumn. If you are able to, fit lights that approximate daylight over your workplace. These aren't the standard bluish-white "daylight" lamps but ones whose spectra more resemble natural sunlight. Edit: a typo and clarified the meaning of SAD

The Dalton Minimum (the most recent) lasted about 20 years. The Maunder Minimum lasted much longer - about 60 years. I doubt I'll see the end of this one - if we are actually entering a Grand Minimum. I've been castigated for mentioning the possibilty of one, it's as if I've uttered the "Name that must never be said", but I feel that low sun activity is the elephant in the room. https://nextgrandmin....wordpress.com/

How would anyone actually have any statistics? No photography back then so the only visual records are those captured by painters and other artists. Subjective and open to interpretation. Sadly, there's no real-life Tardis available. However I've formed the opinion over the past few years that we are entering a Grand Minimum - the evidence is there: increasingly shorter, cooler and definitely cloudier summers (taking into account my location). What I would describe as proper summer weather has increasingly been restricted to 2-3 weeks in July. for the past few years, while '14 saw the arrival of Big Bertha in August ushering in an early autumn. This year has seen NO summery weather here, even July has now joined June and May as mostly chilly, cloudy and windy as an October day. Good heavens, this year we even night frosts in July . Now it looks like this August is a damp squib with the promised "hot spell" always remaining a couple of days in the future - "jam tomorrow". A lot our our unseasonal weather seems have been down to the jet stream being stuck in its "winter" position with the UK directly under it or even worse, to the north of a preternaturally south-shifted jet stream. Yes, I may be guilty of pattern-matching but my job used to involve recognisation of patterns.

From Yarmy's post #30 above <snip> " Quote http://onlinelibrary...3232.x/abstract </snip> I forget to mention the Dalton Minimum which also occured in that time frame. Food for thought: https://nextgrandminimum.wordpress.com/

"Low clouds (as opposed to fair-weather high clouds) increase sharply after 1550 but fall again after 1850." - nicely encompassing the Maunder Minimum. Musn't mention "Grand Minimum" as it'll annoy another poster - oops, I just did.

We travelled to Rhosneigr (Anglesey) yesterday (18th) for a three day camping break. The afternoon was glorious but not particularly warm at 19C. However the sea temp. was 16.5C (calibrated thermo and measured as stipulated by FINA) which was urprising as whenever I swam in the sea at Trac Mon 15-20 years ago (just down the coast) I always recorded 14C. Today was a disaster - we had to strike camp and return home thus losing out on our prepaid pitch fees. Torrential rain and a gale that almost lifted my tent off the ground with my 16-stone frame inside. One of the nastiest August days I can remember - the others being during August 1962, '63 and '87.

Perhaps I should slightly modify my previous statements - my location seems to have suffered persistent polar maritime or even polar airmass encroachment which here usually arrives on winds originating from the northern quarter. The result is the same - clear, chilly nights followed by a clear dawn, however by the time most of us who have our breakfasts the grey lid of infill has already slammed down. The cloud then melts away around teatime ready for another cloudless, cold night. Next day? Rinse and repeat. I'm an engineer so suspicious of statistics - I only trust what I see and can actually measure. Likewise my weather observations over the past six decades are based on what I can see through the window and go out and measure (a long time before AWS' came on the scene). I previously mentioned 50 years but I forgot my age, I've been observing since well before my 10th birthday.

Look at my avatar, that's a 1" thick slab of ice. The fact that I can withstand extreme cold is by the by - it involves serious physiological adaptation that remodels the body. The reason I do it is of no consequence for this discussion. I do not like cold, grey and thoroughly depressing weather especially in summer - period. Regarding the prevailing cold NWesterlies, here in North Cheshire such winds have blighted us for the past few summers. As for today, the current temp is 16C, and the wind direction is West - hardly warm and humid

Cheese, I've mentioned "Grand Minimum" about three times - hardly "fanatical", If you don't like what I post, then don't read it. I'm entitled to my opinion, you are entitled to yours. I've observed the weather for over fifty years and noted the various cycles during that time. The behaviour of the sun in recent years together with the changes in wind and weather patterns in the North Atlantic, including the obvious cooling and shortening of the past few summers, concerns me. Haven't you noticed the now prevailing cold northwesterly during the past 4-5 summers? If we ARE actually entering a Grand Minimum I'll never see the end of it. "That won't be the case next week - which looks warm, even very warm in places.............of course, that heatwave that's always on the way in three to 4 days time. Sadly that time doesn't seem to arrive. This "summer" it's been "jam tomorrow". I could claim that the obsessive use of "cool" rather than "cold" when appropriate is "fanatical" In my view, summer "cool" means 16C to 20C, below 15C is COLD.

The supposedly warm air that covered the UK on Friday resulted in cold, heavy rain all day here with the temp. no more than 15C. Now at lunchtime on a mid-August day, a schorchio 16C. I wish I could make it up. Looks like "Summer" '15 is already crawling towards an unlamented early grave with autumn knocking loudly on the door.

Could I mention two words: Grand Minimum

I was with a friend on a delivery today, driving up the M20 towards London and the M25 I was shocked by the extensive yellowish grey pall of smog clearly visible over London. At least the air here in Cheshire is somewhat cleaner.

Yes, Monday's supposed heat never arrived here, today's forecast heat hasn't materialised - currently 15C, light rain, and so dull I'm using my room lights on a high "summer" morning. So little IR my Crookes radiometer is stationary - very rare in summer. When I went to Leicester on a delivery with a friend I noticed the number of trees that were showing autumn colours - a bit early? Not been a very good year for those of us who have SAD. The UK climate must be one of the nastiest on the planet - I've had to endure it for over sixty years.

That's because you are in the firing line of all the dross that funnels through the Cheshire Gap from the northwest. Forecast for today: overnight rain (which we got) then sunny and warm @23C. The reality: leaden grey clouds, Liverpool ATIS reporting 17C @ mid-day. I can't remember a "summer" as bad as this during my 60-odd years.

Have we been experiencing the effects of a stubborn Scandi vortex? Will the pattern break before the end of "summer"?

Same here, cloudy, wet and cold. Liverpool ATIS reports "showers" but in my view it's rain. Likewise current temp a schorchio, blistering.................errr..............15C

Same here, day supposed to be mostly fine and warm. The reality: the inevitable grey lid has slammed down and feeling decidedly chilly.

I recorded 6C, appalling low for July in a minor UHI, maritime location. The sunshine this morning now gone with Cu/Sc dross infilling, par for the course for the last five summers. Edit: Liverpool ATIS reporting 17C - high afternoon in high summer!! Mind you, given the past three months of "Summer" '15 I should be grateful we actually achieved the mid teens.

Yes, it was a very dull day (I was in Liverpool city centre with family) and a maximum of 48F reported in the press, the cause - a set-up sadly too apparent lately, a stiff Northerly straight from the Arctic.

The lowest maximum I experienced one July day in Liverpool was 48F in 1967 (can't remember the actual date). The cold weather made the front page of the Liverpool Echo. We thought in old money back then but 9C on a July afternoon was remarkable. However with the obvious cooling of recent summers I don't think I'll have to wait long before another 9C July day turns up.

528dam air over the north of the UK? That indicates the possibility of wintry precipitation if not actually snow at sea level. Please tell me I'm mistaken. Where is all this cold coming from?

I've been discussing 1963 on another thread, pointing out that the abysmal summer '63 proceeded to one of the few "Golden Autumns" in my (long) recollection. Warm, dry and sunny, so much so that PE was held outdoors on my school's playing grounds in just shorts. August '63 was the pits, with the last weekend seeing torrential rain and bloody freezing. On the Monday, the first day back to school, cloudless blue sky that mostly lasted during September. Bear in mind this is personal experience and accordingly subjective, and of course location comes into the equation - in my case: Wirral.

Summer 1963 was also abysmal, only redeeming feature was that fortnight's heatwave in May '63. Autumn '63 was a true golden autumn, warmer, more sunny than the preceding summer. I'm not quoting dusty statistics, I'm talking actual experience. Winter '63/64 was average, just three weeks of cold, frosty anticyclonic conditions which broke on Christmas Eve then pretty humdrum until April '64. It was remarkable to find we had two abysmal summers with a savage winter as the "filling". Of all the Sixties summers the other notable one was 1965 which was dull, but not as cold and wet as summers '62 and '63. Winter '65 was quite snowy but nowhere as cold as 62/63.

If this "summer" follows the pattern of 1962 (which I endured) then your wish could be granted. Check out winter 1962/63, the coldest on record for the 20th century.