Summer 2016

[weatherguru14]

least said about this mornings weather the better ..needless to say no mention anywhere of torrential rain for my location!,.

[stainesbloke]

Another crap 'summer' day here with heavy cloud and strong winds; enough already. Fax charts not as good for the weekend now with basically just Saturday morning looking decent then fronts piling in to ruin the rest of the weekend. Yawn.

Edited August 4, 2016 by stainesbloke

[Nick L]

A lovely warm weekend to come for many. 

[Summer Sun]

A warm weekend in some parts of the UK, yes, but I can't see temps anywhere near 35c to 40c not even in France for the weekend on the current models the hottest air looks to be well in Spain and Portugal where temperatures will be pushing 40c

[Nick L]

3 minutes ago, Summer Sun said:

A warm weekend in some parts of the UK, yes, but I can't see temps anywhere near 35c to 40c not even in France for the weekend on the current models the hottest air looks to be well in Spain and Portugal where temperatures will be pushing 40c

Gavin, can I make a request that we don't give Exacta Weather publicity? Up to you whether you agree or not but I don't think they should be included in discussions, they are not legitimate forecasters and IMO are fraudsters. Madden is an attention-seeking charlatan.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Nick L

[stainesbloke]

2 hours ago, Nick L said:

A lovely warm weekend to come for many. 

Hmmm....looks very cloudy to me past Saturday lunchtime, and that's here in the SE. Warm though, yes.

[Wildswimmer Pete]

4 minutes ago, stainesbloke said:

Hmmm....looks very cloudy to me past Saturday lunchtime, and that's here in the SE. Warm though, yes.

Hopefully it's sunny intervals and 23C where we'll be camping in North Wales on Saturday

[Mapantz]

The GFS looks pretty good to me, bar some fleeting cloud, and probably not thick cloud either.

The MetO agree..

What's not to like? Unless you're looking for something to moan about? lol

[Methuselah]

Guys....For God's sake will y'all stop moaning!

I recall the school holidays back in the Swinging Sixties: sunshine on the day we broke-up, sunshine on the day we went back - and endless days' cack in between. What has changed?

[I remember Atlantic 252]

1 hour ago, Nick L said:

Gavin, can I make a request that we don't give Exacta Weather publicity? Up to you whether you agree or not but I don't think they should be included in discussions, they are not legitimate forecasters and IMO are fraudsters. Madden is an attention-seeking charlatan.

I'd be opposite Nick to Madden! my thoughts would be 'flooding misery to strike Britain'

'Warmest winter ever due'

'coolest dullest summer due'

'winter to be dominated by gale damage'

(cos I am the Atlantic air believer)

[Wildswimmer Pete]

3 minutes ago, Ed Stone said:

Guys....For God's sake will y'all stop moaning!

I recall the school holidays back in the Swinging Sixties: sunshine on the day we broke-up, sunshine on the day we went back - and endless days' cack in between. What has changed?

Sixties school holidays were mixed.  1962 was a shocker, as bad as '15 and this summer.  '63 was not quite as bad but still awful. I left school in '67 but I still remember the period of the school holidays - '68 was thundery while '69 wasn't very good - we were forced to abandon a holiday in North Wales due to very poor weather.  '63 I vividly remember because my school holidays were marred by persistent overcast if not actually wet (as with this summer) while the very last weekend was spectacularly vile with driving rain very cold.  I went back to school that Monday (2nd September) to cloudless blue skies. Bear in mind that until 1967 the Bank Holiday was at the beginning of August.

[stainesbloke]

Maybe the weather we are experiencing isn't anything overtly abnormal (especially with those mature enough to remember '60's summers) but that doesn't mean I have to like all this cloud and wind. Really hope the weekend will be sunny and warm. Fax charts say otherwise to me though, could be completely wrong but that's my take.

[Weather-history]

15 minutes ago, stainesbloke said:

Maybe the weather we are experiencing isn't anything overtly abnormal (especially with those mature enough to remember '60's summers) but that doesn't mean I have to like all this cloud and wind. Really hope the weekend will be sunny and warm. Fax charts say otherwise to me though, could be completely wrong but that's my take.

Manchester Summer Index for the summers of the 1960s. 

1960 217

1961 203

1962 197

1963 194 

1964 197

1965 189

1966 192

1967 223

1968 215

1969 234 

Those figures are not as bad as suggested, infact 1969 is a very respectful figure. Compare 2008 with 168 and 2012 with 164.

I point out that summer covers June to August. How many memories of summers at school are distorted by just remembering the school holidays? For instance a superb August may give an impression of a wonderful summer overall when infact June and July were mediocre.

Also vice versa, with a poor August. The Junes of the 1960s were not on the cool side overall. June 1962 was a dry month for England and Wales, it's the 5th driest June on record.

 

 

Edited August 4, 2016 by Weather-history

[I remember Atlantic 252]

18 minutes ago, stainesbloke said:

Maybe the weather we are experiencing isn't anything overtly abnormal (especially with those mature enough to remember '60's summers) but that doesn't mean I have to like all this cloud and wind. Really hope the weekend will be sunny and warm. Fax charts say otherwise to me though, could be completely wrong but that's my take.

yes, see what you mean, looking at that, it looks like a 'Dec' chart, strong westerly, not saying it will feel like Dec though 12°C, still expect average temps for Aug, 22° in south 17 maybe in north

[stainesbloke]

4 minutes ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

yes, see what you mean, looking at that, it looks like a 'Dec' chart, strong westerly, not saying it will feel like Dec though 12°C, still expect average temps for Aug, 22° in south 17 maybe in north

I'm really not trying to be overly negative or moan too much but from the fax charts alone it doesn't look that great with plenty of cloud and wind. Sorry  Very happy to be proven wrong!

[Wildswimmer Pete]

25 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

Those figures are not as bad as suggested, infact 1969 is a very respectful figure. Compare 2008 with 168 and 2012 with 164.

I point out that summer covers June to August. How many memories of summers at school are distorted by just remembering the school holidays? For instance a superb August may give an impression of a wonderful summer overall when infact June and July were mediocre.

I actually lived through those times and my remarks are based on my impressions at the time.  During a previous part of my misbegotten life I was involved in research and actually collected raw data. I saw at first hand how stats can be manipulated to suit the requirements of a sponsor.

My recollections of the 1950s and '60s are extremely keen - there's a reason for that.

That's why sunshine stats are meaningless - most of this sad excuse for a summer has been overcast with any sunshine recorded occurring in the small hours when the majority are asleep.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Wildswimmer Pete

[hillbilly]

45 minutes ago, Wildswimmer Pete said:

I actually lived through those times and my remarks are based on my impressions at the time.  During a previous part of my misbegotten life I was involved in research and actually collected raw data. I saw at first hand how stats can be manipulated to suit the requirements of a sponsor.

My recollections of the 1950s and '60s are extremely keen - there's a reason for that.

That's why sunshine stats are meaningless - most of this sad excuse for a summer has been overcast with any sunshine recorded occurring in the small hours when the majority are asleep.

Yes statistics sure do hide  how a summer is remembered,i seem to recall 2009 having endless lows which rained almost every day but between the showers it was actually nice but to me I would have rather had a cloudy or wet 3 weeks and a week of nice weather together for each month,which is what we have been accustomed to for an average year in my lifetime,we do not get clusters of days or weeks anymore.

Edited August 4, 2016 by hillbilly

[I remember Atlantic 252]

1 hour ago, stainesbloke said:

I'm really not trying to be overly negative or moan too much but from the fax charts alone it doesn't look that great with plenty of cloud and wind. Sorry  Very happy to be proven wrong!

you probably having best weather in UK off that chart, 22C sunnyish I'd say

[Summer of 95]

Looking at the stats for 1960s summers at Shawbury, there were several months which would be quite respectable nowadays: June 1961 19.0 max/29mm/216hrs, June 1962 18.4/17mm/232hrs, Aug 1964 20.0/31mm/185hrs, June 1967 19.1/42mm/224hrs July 1967 21.2/42mm/195hrs June 1969 19.0/17mm/236hrs July 1969 21.5/37mm/221 hrs; and look at June 1960: 21.5/55mm/277hrs.

There were no months with very high mean maxima, but several on the dry and sunny side. Only 1965 and 1966 look like really awful summers; July 1965 (17.9/117mm/104hrs) looks dire, and 1969 seems to be a great example of "good June and July, rubbish August" (Aug 1969 19.8/114mm/139hrs)- that year might be the source of memories of the weather turning bad for the holidays. But overall, they don't look as bad as post-2007 especially regarding sunshine.

[cheese]

Well, let's look at it this way - this decade isn't over yet. We can't say whether it's worse than the 1960s or not because there are 9 more summer months to go. Who knows how next summer will turn out - or the one after that. This run of poor summers - particularly August - will end eventually. 

Anyway, has the weather beaten expectations anywhere else? Today was better than I expected - 22C and sunny. Yesterday was 21C with sunny spells. Tomorrow and Sunday both look good. Not too bad really.

Edited August 5, 2016 by cheese

[Snowyowl9]

It does look more settled now at least,and into next week well after a bit of blip,looking cool with a NWly though,should get away with it with the azores high coming back in not 100%,too late now I cut the last hay field this morning.

Edited August 5, 2016 by Snowyowl9

[Northernlights]

39 minutes ago, Snowyowl9 said:

It does look more settled now at least,and into next week well after a bit of blip,looking cool with a NWly though,should get away with it with the azores high coming back in not 100%,too late now I cut the last hay field this morning.

Don"t touch it for up to a week and it should be fine when it dries up.Constant turning is what bleaches it.

[B87]

Finally a decent settled spell with mostly above average temps and sun hours that you'd expect in August!

I hope this comes off, it would help salvage what has been a poor summer here.

 

Edited August 5, 2016 by B87

[Weather-history]

A decent day

 

[Snowyowl9]

2 hours ago, Northernlights said:

Don"t touch it for up to a week and it should be fine when it dries up.Constant turning is what bleaches it.

Yes I`m in no hurry to shake this out too much,will do tomorrow for the first time still pretty green yet quite old as its getting later in the summer.

Looks like there will be plenty of wind to dry it out for awhile at least,until the high comes back in.