Summer 2016

[Weather-history]

Thinking about the heatwave at the start of August 1995, there were 4 consecutive nights here that didn't dip below 18C.

 

[Scorcher]

42 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

Thinking about the heatwave at the start of August 1995, there were 4 consecutive nights here that didn't dip below 18C.

 

On any of those nights was it 26C at Manchester Airport at midnight though? I can't recall such exceptional warmth lasting past midnight before in these parts...

[cheese]

1 hour ago, reef said:

The humidity can't possibly increase from this! It was 28.4C with a dewpoint of 21.3C at 13:05 today. Looking back at my records I can't find another dewpoint reading above 21.0C, so its certainly unusual.

I'm so glad I'm not on nights this week, I don't think I would have slept at all!

On 1 August 2013, we had a dew point of 21C with an air temperature of 31C. That was the first time I've seen such a high temperature with such a high dew point. The dew point is normally much lower when it's 30C+. In July 2013 there was also a day when it was 23C and the dew point was 20C - that felt very humid. You could feel and smell it. 

20C+ dew points seem to occur most years here, but as the temperature gets hotter during the day, the dew point gets lower.

Edited July 20, 2016 by cheese

[Weather-history]

30 minutes ago, Scorcher said:

On any of those nights was it 26C at Manchester Airport at midnight though? I can't recall such exceptional warmth lasting past midnight before in these parts...

I can't recall but remember a little thunderstorm cell developing over the Pennines and gave a short lightning display around midnight as it tracked westwards. 

[stainesbloke]

1 hour ago, Nick L said:

Exactly! What exactly is wrong with 23-25c? Why does it have to be 33-35c? There's nothing you can do at 33c that you can't at 25c, other than be more uncomfortable.

I dunno, I love the heat. Not great if you have to work outside or in a kitchen, for instance, I'll admit. Problem is a high of 23 is ok only if sunny and calm but then the evenings are chilly. Better for sleeping, yes. But the last two evenings I have sat outside 'til gone 11pm in a tshirt and shorts and it has been wonderful. We get conditions like this so infrequently here it's a joy to be able to enjoy them, rather than the endless cloud, wind and chill.

[Frost HoIIow]

56 minutes ago, stainesbloke said:

I dunno, I love the heat. Not great if you have to work outside or in a kitchen, for instance, I'll admit. Problem is a high of 23 is ok only if sunny and calm but then the evenings are chilly. Better for sleeping, yes. But the last two evenings I have sat outside 'til gone 11pm in a tshirt and shorts and it has been wonderful. We get conditions like this so infrequently here it's a joy to be able to enjoy them, rather than the endless cloud, wind and chill.

I reckon more people wouldn't mind the recent heat if our homes had air con like most do in America, it would stop people saying "I can't sleep" and what not - but as you say we get such conditions so infrequently it would be a waste of money to get it for the odd few days a year that I can count on one hand & that's if we are lucky. At least up here in the north. Where as in most parts of America they get loads of use out of them as Summer temps are regularly above 30C...at least away from the Pacific north west & northern New England.

[Daniel*]

I would not say the heat has been unbearable topped 33C here on Tuesday maxed out 30C today or should I say yesterday. I was out and about I coped alright, 1 July 2015 was in another league a lot more humid, and a lot more oppressive, to this brief hot surge, so much for southern softies  .....only nights have been a real problem, thankfully this one seems an awful lot more fresher.

[cheese]

2 hours ago, stainesbloke said:

I dunno, I love the heat. Not great if you have to work outside or in a kitchen, for instance, I'll admit. Problem is a high of 23 is ok only if sunny and calm but then the evenings are chilly. Better for sleeping, yes. But the last two evenings I have sat outside 'til gone 11pm in a tshirt and shorts and it has been wonderful. We get conditions like this so infrequently here it's a joy to be able to enjoy them, rather than the endless cloud, wind and chill.

But that's the thing - most people work during the week, and most people don't spend until 11pm outside. A lot of us are already asleep, or getting ready to go to sleep. In the UK, houses are designed to retain heat, so even if the outside temperature is cool, the inside temperature will be really high. Like Frost Hollow says, if we had A/C it'd be a different case. AC is ubiquitous in most of the US. In fact, I'd say A/C is pretty much the only thing making certain climates desirable - why do you think places like Phoenix and Florida have only boomed in the past 30 years? Because A/C makes their horribly hot summers bearable. People spend most of the time in air conditioned houses and businesses. 

31C isn't too bad to me, but I certainly find it less pleasant than 25C, which is a very agreeable temperature. Our average high in July and August is 21C, and I think that's a very pleasant temperature. Certainly in this country you'll see most people in short shirts in an average summer, because that's what we're used to. Even on cloudy 21C days, I see more people in T-shirts than not - and I'd look at someone very oddly if they were walking around in a coat in that temperature, unless they were a recent immigrant from India.

Edited July 21, 2016 by cheese

[markyo]

Much fresher this morning,nice summers morn,why can't all be like this! Shame i've got to endure the cauldron again down south

[Polar Maritime]

Much better for sleeping last night, And certainly a fresher feel here this morning. 

Edited July 21, 2016 by Polar Maritime

[stainesbloke]

8 hours ago, cheese said:

But that's the thing - most people work during the week, and most people don't spend until 11pm outside. A lot of us are already asleep, or getting ready to go to sleep. In the UK, houses are designed to retain heat, so even if the outside temperature is cool, the inside temperature will be really high. Like Frost Hollow says, if we had A/C it'd be a different case. AC is ubiquitous in most of the US. In fact, I'd say A/C is pretty much the only thing making certain climates desirable - why do you think places like Phoenix and Florida have only boomed in the past 30 years? Because A/C makes their horribly hot summers bearable. People spend most of the time in air conditioned houses and businesses. 

31C isn't too bad to me, but I certainly find it less pleasant than 25C, which is a very agreeable temperature. Our average high in July and August is 21C, and I think that's a very pleasant temperature. Certainly in this country you'll see most people in short shirts in an average summer, because that's what we're used to. Even on cloudy 21C days, I see more people in T-shirts than not - and I'd look at someone very oddly if they were walking around in a coat in that temperature, unless they were a recent immigrant from India.

21C to me is chilly, unless in clear skies, strong sunshine and no wind. Which occurs in the UK about once a decade lol. 25C is very nice, agreed. The thing is, you can easily get mobile air cooler units here, they're generally not overly expensive and chill a room very effectively. My ex housemate had one and it worked a dream in his bedroom during the summers of 2003 and 2006, whilst my bedroom was still 35C at 10pm. 

[Nick L]

9 hours ago, cheese said:

But that's the thing - most people work during the week, and most people don't spend until 11pm outside. A lot of us are already asleep, or getting ready to go to sleep. In the UK, houses are designed to retain heat, so even if the outside temperature is cool, the inside temperature will be really high. Like Frost Hollow says, if we had A/C it'd be a different case. AC is ubiquitous in most of the US. In fact, I'd say A/C is pretty much the only thing making certain climates desirable - why do you think places like Phoenix and Florida have only boomed in the past 30 years? Because A/C makes their horribly hot summers bearable. People spend most of the time in air conditioned houses and businesses. 

And this is another argument against going to GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in summer. During uncomfortable weather like Tuesday, homes would take an extra hour to cool down of an evening, so the impacts of uncomfortable nights would be even more pronounced.

Meanwhile, wasn't last night bliss? Feel so refreshed now we're back to sensible temperatures!

Edited July 21, 2016 by Nick L

[Summer Sun]

Yesterday's highs

Heathrow: 31.4°C

St. James's Park: 30.4°C

Northolt: 30.3°C

Weybourne: 30.3°C

Gravesend: 30.2°C

[Nouska]

On 13/07/2016 at 13:23, Nouska said:

For non weather geeks, it's not really a case of statistics about whether it is dry or wet but more a case of what the 'sensible' weather is. That's what we see and feel in real terms - the seeing bit is the important one here - we are seeing a severe depletion of the bright light of the sun.

This article on SAD explains in simple terms how it affects us so much more than it did in the past.

http://www.sad.org.uk/

 

 A recognition of the physiological effects of recent poor summers.

Now we just need them to highlight the psychological effects as well.

An edit with regard to Evening Thunders point about the quoted "cool summers".

The focus should have been on cloudier summers - that is where the problem lies.

Edited July 21, 2016 by Nouska

[Evening thunder]

Funnily enough I didn't find the heat too bad in the states (apart from one day at 39C and it rising to 27C again before sunrise), though it was dry heat and mainly camping or air-conditioned accommodation.. If anything I found it just as uncomfortable here reaching only 27C, mainly due to the house getting too warm and lack of air con. Maybe we should go back to living/sleeping more outside lol.

26 minutes ago, Nouska said:

 A recognition of the physiological effects of recent poor summers.

Now we just need them to highlight the psychological effects as well.

Is 'cool summers' our recent summers or our summer climate in general combined with our lifestyle changes and suncream? 

 

[B87]

Based on our 2 week forecast (not set in stone I know), July will end up with an average high of 23.7c and 196 hours of sun. Almost identical to July 2015, and yet another summer month with below average sunshine (it will be the 28 out of the last 32 summer months that has failed to record average or above).

[stainesbloke]

4 hours ago, Nick L said:

And this is another argument against going to GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in summer. During uncomfortable weather like Tuesday, homes would take an extra hour to cool down of an evening, so the impacts of uncomfortable nights would be even more pronounced.

Meanwhile, wasn't last night bliss? Feel so refreshed now we're back to sensible temperatures!

So we've had about 3 nights so far this summer that I'd class as warm or uncomfortable for sleeping. Not exactly a lot though is it. If we went onto C.E.T then wouldn't an extra hour of darkness in the morning weigh out against a slightly warmer evening? Seriously, I'd understand people moaning if we had a month of 90F but 3 days?? Jeez!

[Nick L]

2 minutes ago, stainesbloke said:

So we've had about 3 nights so far this summer that I'd class as warm or uncomfortable for sleeping. Not exactly a lot though is it. If we went onto C.E.T then wouldn't an extra hour of darkness in the morning weigh out against a slightly warmer evening? Seriously, I'd understand people moaning if we had a month of 90F but 3 days?? Jeez!

Not at all. Houses wouldn't really start cooling down until 11pm of an evening on CET, most working people (aside from the anti-social louts you get during warm weather) would be in bed before this - hardly ideal.

If we were in a country that was capable of getting a month of 90F each summer, then more people would have air conditioning.

[cheese]

5 hours ago, Nick L said:

And this is another argument against going to GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in summer. During uncomfortable weather like Tuesday, homes would take an extra hour to cool down of an evening, so the impacts of uncomfortable nights would be even more pronounced.

Meanwhile, wasn't last night bliss? Feel so refreshed now we're back to sensible temperatures!

Actually Nick, with my windows open I felt cold! Even after 3 days of high 20s-low 30s, I began acclimatising. Right now it's 22C and cloudy and it feels a hell of a lot cooler. Still T-shirt weather for me though. As ever, with the UK's climate, only problem for me is cloudiness. The temperature right now is pleasant, but I don't like how it decided to cloud over for no reason. Seems to happen a lot these days - with even months with average temperatures being duller than normal.

Edited July 21, 2016 by cheese

[Joseph Hudson]

When I went out today it felt a lot cooler but it still felt pleasant.

[B87]

12 minutes ago, cheese said:

Actually Nick, with my windows open I felt cold! Even after 3 days of high 20s-low 30s, I began acclimatising. Right now it's 22C and cloudy and it feels a hell of a lot cooler. Still T-shirt weather for me though. As ever, with the UK's climate, only problem for me is cloudiness. The temperature right now is pleasant, but I don't like how it decided to cloud over for no reason. Seems to happen a lot these days - with even months with average temperatures being duller than normal.

Tell me about it, this July will end up average or maybe even slightly above average, but yet again the sunshine is below normal.

[March]

I think it's been a good July so far. Rain well below average and a hot spell mixed with average spells. 

[markyo]

How the hell is it fresh and nice down south but vile muggy and totally unpleasant when i get home to the Yorkshire?! Very humid by me now,horrible in fact.

[Dangerous55019]

Whilst certainly not missing that horrendous heat and humidity of the past few days, I have to say that a few more fresh feeling sunny days would have nice instead of back to the perpetual cloud cover. *sigh* 

[Weather-history]

Sunny start but the cloud soon developed