Summer 2015 overviews and opinions

[damianslaw]

Made it to 7000th post, and it seems apt for it to be a new topic thread post...not started one for quite some time.

 

Anyhow thought it would be good to read people's opinions and overviews of Summer 2015. I know there is still 6 days to go until the official end of the meteorological summer, so not expecting any summaries and stats just yet, but its the right time to post overall thoughts and feelings about it.

 

My own opinion is one of a very lacklustre summer, the only highlight being the 1 day heat wonder that was 1 July 2015, a major anomaly, the odd day out..

 

Temperatures have evened out very near average nationwide, though suspect NW quarter of the country a bit below average. Average maxima being very disappointing, I can count on 1 hand number of days with a max of 25 degrees or more..

 

I don't have the stats but I suspect it will end up a very average summer overall, temp, rainfall and sunshine wise.

 

The last 10 days of July were very disappointing though.

 

Apart from 1 July, an instantly forgettable summer, certainly below par compared to 2013 and 2014, but nowhere as dire as the likes of 2007, 2008 or 2012 which were washouts, similar in many respects to 2009, 2010 and 2011.

 

 

[cheese]

June - pleasant. Sunnier and drier than average, slightly cooler than average but only due to the string of cold nights early on. Mean maximum came in above average. No storms at all - not even a crack of thunder.

 

July - kind of disappointing really. Not terrible - within 0.5C of average - but the final week was a real stinker - and it wasn't very sunny. Some storms though.

 

August - turning out to be the best of 2015, with consistently warm weather, albeit nothing hot. Some storms. It's been wet, with 80mm, but on 6 days, so it actually hasn't felt that wet, and more than half fell on Saturday and Sunday alone thanks to thunderstorms (which I don't mind at all).

 

So overall, nothing terrible. Nothing great. Pretty unremarkable - but not in a bad way.

 

2015 will simply go down in history.. well, actually, it won't.. nobody will remember it.

Edited August 25, 2015 by cheese

[damianslaw]

June - pleasant. Sunnier and drier than average, slightly cooler than average but only due to the string of cold nights early on. Mean maximum came in above average. No storms at all - not even a crack of thunder.

 

July - kind of disappointing really. Not terrible - within 0.5C of average - but the final week was a real stinker - and it wasn't very sunny. Some storms though.

 

August - turning out to be the best of 2015, with consistently warm weather, albeit nothing hot. Some storms. It's been wet, with 80mm, but on 6 days, so it actually hasn't felt that wet, and more than half fell on Saturday and Sunday alone thanks to thunderstorms (which I don't mind at all).

 

So overall, nothing terrible. Nothing great. Pretty unremarkable - but not in a bad way.

 

2015 will simply go down in history.. well, actually, it won't.. nobody will remember it.

 

Quick reply - thanks. Yes so far 2015 has been remarkably average, despite the rather warm April, devoid of anything worthy of attention in the main.. plenty can change though as we enter the wetter and generally more disturbed part of the year.

[simshady]

Happy with this summer to be honest. Nothing too hot apart from the odd day. Cool, which is how I like my least liked season. Not too wet, not too dry and pretty average really. One huge thunderstorm which I didn't particularly like but was interesting nevertheless.  This year for me was pretty good.

Edited August 25, 2015 by simshady

[davehsug]

Very poor. Apart from the odd warmer spell & 1 good thunderstorm. it's been persistently cool, cloudy, many cold nights & above all windy. Not a single instance of more than 2 or at most 3 dry sunny days consecutively. It's been like an October, but without the extreme wind & persistent rain

[IanR]

being not far from you thunderbolt , petty similar stuff here, after a poor start thunderwise , it turned out not bad, with that supercell and elevated lightning every second for up to an hour on the 1st july  ,  and at dusk too!  ,  wont forget that in a hurry, some hot days , but most have been coolish ,but not overly so,  still t shirt stuff apart from a few which were really quite cold, mainly in may and june 

 

hope  a pleasant autumn with some still usable weather is on offer  but with some of those heavy streamer shower days courtesy of the still warm irish sea ,   then a wild stormy winter   , although i feel it will be a  colder more stagnant type one than the last couple of winters     

[weatherguru14]

someone form leeds saying June was pleasant.???. there was  a cold NW blowing for most of the month.In this location its not been a  wet summer. But June and July were very disappointing temperature wise..August definetly been  a decent summer month..

Poor summer over all for lack of warmth..

[cheese]

someone form leeds saying June was pleasant.???. there was a cold NW blowing for most of the month.In this location its not been a wet summer. But June and July were very disappointing temperature wise..August definetly been a decent summer month..

Poor summer over all for lack of warmth..

The first week of June was very cold, but the rest of the month was average - and the final 10 days were above average. There was no cold NW wind blowing for most of the month - where on earth did you get that?! Me thinks you suffer from a common condition that a lot of people are affected by - selective memory.

July was 0.5C below average. That is statistically insignificant.

I reiterate, an unremarkable summer. Certainly not bad.

Edited August 25, 2015 by cheese

[Lauren]

June was fabulous hot and a couple of good storms, July was really good up until the end and the less said about August the better.

In short, good start, poor finish.

[weatherguru14]

Its funny how peoples memories  get warped.. June was not warm at all.. very rarely reached average for this part of the world.. July was no better.. parts of July we were  looking at 5c below for a  good few days and weeks 15c and 16c  in mid summer... I guess am like many.. Ive just not trusted this summer, In the sense of not being able to take my jacket off.. The cold wasn't  far behind..

Edited August 26, 2015 by weatherguru14

[weatherguru14]

The first week of June was very cold, but the rest of the month was average - and the final 10 days were above average. There was no cold NW wind blowing for most of the month - where on earth did you get that?! Me thinks you suffer from a common condition that a lot of people are affected by - selective memory.

July was 0.5C below average. That is statistically insignificant.

I reiterate, an unremarkable summer. Certainly not bad.

Am not gonna waste my time in replying to you about the Northwestly air flow that as made this summer  cold.. You just need to look up the summer thread and read that..as for July being 0.5 below average.,if your  telling me you don't remember  most of July being way below average then you are clearly deceiving  yourself.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Windy most days, wet days, dry nights, no hot spells as such but 30th June and 1st July were very hot, average UK summer really, dominated by low pressure and the Atlantic

[Yarmy]

Notable for the complete absence of the Azores high ridging over us, an omnipresent Atlantic trough and the amazing inverted July.

[stainesbloke]

Very disappointing Summer. June was sunnier than average but windy and chilly until the last week which was better. Then July started great but was dominated by cloud and not particularly warm. August had a reasonable first week and nice first weekend but mainly crap afterwards, often wet and cloudy. It is the lack of any proper warmth and settled sunny weather that has been the stand-out feature, making Summer 2015 very forgettable and part of the 2007-2012 gang of poor summers.

Edited August 26, 2015 by stainesbloke

[Bobd29]

Think it depends where you are, more a north v south perspective. Here June and the first half of July were in the main good summer months but since the school holidays, with the odd exceptional day, it has been mostly average to poor with August in particular being more wet and drab as the month progressed. Seems a long time since August really delivered a fine summer spell of a week or more. Roll on autumn and winter.

[johnholmes]

Am not gonna waste my time in replying to you about the Northwestly air flow that as made this summer  cold.. You just need to look up the summer thread and read that..as for July being 0.5 below average.,if your  telling me you don't remember  most of July being way below average then you are clearly deceiving  yourself.

I suspect you are one of those folk who have the half empty glass view rather than the half full. For factual data then the COL site is about as accurate as one can get other than the monthly Weather.

In Col for June it showed, countrywide, for surface wind about 13% of surface winds were from the NW quadrant with 10% in July.

Perhaps where you live changes winds from any direction into NW. Other statistics I have seen, including daily weather charts for June, not yet seen July also do not agree with your rather adamant posts.

[Nick L]

I don't think anyone in the south can have too many complaints, a reasonable and very use-able summer by all accounts. 

[MP-R]

someone form leeds saying June was pleasant.???. there was  a cold NW blowing for most of the month.In this location its not been a  wet summer. But June and July were very disappointing temperature wise..August definetly been  a decent summer month..

Poor summer over all for lack of warmth..

 

From what I remember the chilly winds in June were actually from the north and northeast were they not? May was certainly very northwesterly. The wind that has been persistent through the rest of June until now has mainly been from the west and southwest. One probably imagines it to be a persistent northwesterly as it hasn't been a particularly warm wind save for some southwesterly occasions. Certainly, the chilliest days and nights in the first half of June here were from the northeast.

I don't think anyone in the south can have too many complaints, a reasonable and very use-able summer by all accounts. 

 

Southeast* 

[cheeky_monkey]

Very disappointing Summer. June was sunnier than average but windy and chilly until the last week which was better. Then July started great but was dominated by cloud and not particularly warm. August had a reasonable first week and nice first weekend but mainly crap afterwards, often wet and cloudy. It is the lack of any proper warmth and settled sunny weather that has been the stand-out feature, making Summer 2015 very forgettable and part of the 2007-2012 gang of poor summers.

I live in Middlesex also...don't agree with your statement at all..apart from this last week it has been remarkably dry..25 days have hit 25c or above..the only thing missing is a sustained hot spell..as summer goes I have seen far worse...for me I would give it 8/10

[stainesbloke]

I live in Middlesex also...don't agree with your statement at all..apart from this last week it has been remarkably dry..25 days have hit 25c or above..the only thing missing is a sustained hot spell..as summer goes I have seen far worse...for me I would give it 8/10

That's fair enough, everyone has their own standards on what they would call decent summer weather. Mine are quite high! As are most people I know, the general consensus from friends, family and fellow allotment holders is not a very positive one. Oh, for usable weather, this summer has had a majority of dry days where one could get out and about etc which has been a positive. For me personally, it has often been too cool, and way too cloudy and windy.

25 days above 25C isn't bad but there were more days below the average too, I'm sure. I'll give this Summer a score of 6/10. Nothing too horrific but could have been a lot better (like, say, Paris).

Edited August 26, 2015 by stainesbloke

[Summer of 95]

June 6/10. Apart from the 30th which was the only hot and sunny day this year, very disappointing for temperatures with no other day exceeding 23C. Nothing thundery at all. Redeemed by its high sunshine total, which was a stark contrast to July and August.

July 1/10. Complete pile of elephant dung. Sat under the most pathetic sheet of cloud on the 1st when much of the country either topped 30C or had storms. Then missed all the storms again a few days later. Cloud, cloud, cloud all the way, even at night. Any sun was inevitably before 8am. One day early on just made it to 25C with a sunny afternoon. Absolutely disgusting second half full of drizzle and temps in the 15-17C range. Lots of wet days but not a very high rainfall total due to no storms.

August 4/10. Would have got 1 but for the storm on Saturday 22nd. Started as July finished Looked like improving with 3 fairly sunny days in the low 20s from 8-10th, but then went back to being a cloudfest.

The predominant features of this summer seemed to be the constant wind, always from between SW and NW, which has hardly let up since the beginning of May. And the SE-only warm spells which have plagued this summer more than any other I can remember, even those in the 2008-12 period. Just 3 days over 25C here, one of which was sunny all day. No pressure reading over 1030 since early June. The sunniest days have seemed to be the coolest ones, the sunniest week was the one in early June when maxima were around 16C and minima around 4-5C, April-like.

One for the bin, apart from an hour last Saturday evening...

[Snowyowl9]

Agree with summer of 1995 on this one a very difficult summer to get anything done outside with all those drizzly days,june was pretty good it all came abit early nothing special temps wise even then.

Just 2 thundery days of note,after that so called 1 day heatwave of 25.9c with interesting distant lightning display on the 3rd late evening.

This will be a forgotten summer overall,its been very much a wet end to august but ground still remains dry underneath.

June 6/10

July 2/10

August 4/10

Edited August 26, 2015 by Snowyowl9

[Captain Shortwave]

So then

June - The first 3 weeks were poor in my opinion, winds from the north west with pressure relatively high, this meant a lot of cool and cloudy days as cloud built up by mid-morning. The final week was much better as the pattern flipped from Atlantic high to Atlantic trough as pressure built over Greenland. This resulted in a sunnier and very warm end to June, with the final day reaching the hot category. 4/10 overall as the cool cloudy conditions dominated here.

 

July - The reverse of June, it started very hot, but this quickly got replaced by a mixed and warm pattern overall down here as the now established Euro heights made brief encounters with this region, resulting in occasional very warm days with the inevitable spell of thunderstorms following. The final week saw a cooler and wetter pattern establish, but I was out of the country so no worries 7/10 overall.

 

August - Quickly returned to the warmer patter with low pressure to the west or north west of the UK, the main issue this month has been that many warm days have been ruined by low cloud pushing in under the warm sectors which even the summer sunshine couldn't budge. There have been some cracking days though, notably last Saturday where 29C was reached at Southend where I saw the parade. Lovely. provisional figure of 5/10 for this month.

 

Overall this summer has been largely average to mediocre, but there have been some flashes of brilliance, if from the extremely hot July 1st to the various plume initiated thunderstorm events which have occurred on quite a few occasions this summer. A similar score to last year - 6/10.

 

Some last thoughts from me, it is worth noting that the seasonal models really didn't get this summer right at all, most going for a trough dominated pattern with heights in the Atlantic and a trough over the UK/Scandinavia. This looked odd to me given the cooler waters in the Atlantic which from previous experience would promote lower heights there. This also confirmed by the NOAA forecaster (can't remember his name) who put Europe mostly under heatwave conditions for a goo part of the summer (this was correct for a lot of central Europe). Of course we haven't fared that well from this pattern with the jet being unusually strong at times which suppressed the extent of higher heights over Europe and quite often left us out in the cold so to speak. The north west faring particularly badly in terms of temperatures, the south east doing rather well. Oddly it seems to be the reverse to the winter of 2014/15 where the north west did well and the south east got barely any scraps in terms of wintry potential.

 

In the end the best seasonal performed model wise was surprisingly the CFS which correctly spotted the European pattern but also suppressed the temperatures over the UK to near normal levels.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Captain shortwave

[cheese]

There's been a north-south divide this August, but in reverse..

 

August 2015 average high anomaly for selected stations vs 1981-2010 average (to the 25th)..

 

Leconfield (nr Hull) +0.8C

Edinburgh Gogarbank +0.7C

Manchester Airport +0.7C

Linton on Ouse (nr York) +0.7C

Carlisle +0.6C

Coleshill (nr B'ham) +0.5C

Lerwick +0.5C

Glasgow Bishopton 0.0C

Shoreham Airport (nr Brighton) -0.1C

Heathrow Airport -0.3C

Brize Norton (nr Oxford) -0.4C

Filton (nr Bristol) -0.4C

Bournemouth Airport -1.0C

Edited August 26, 2015 by cheese

[Airedalejoe]

As said several times in the summer thread, very poor summer.

 

Not a washout but an incredible number of cold days, cloudy days and windy days.