Summer 2016

[Summer Sun]

Gravesend has hit 33.9C / 93F

[stainesbloke]

1 hour ago, Nick L said:

Can't recall anyone saying it's amazing. Many people like myself have said it's decent, and many agree. It's certainly not the misery fest some are claiming it to be around here.

Well many people don't agree that's it's been that good a summer. Shall we all leave it there? 

[Relativistic]

2 hours ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

2 GFS runs in a row now to show a vile Saturday

I must be the only person in the south-east who wants to move away. The heat always seems to stick here. It seems to be a recurring theme this August, seeing temperature charts where the south-east corner is in the reds/ deep oranges.

As to whether this Summer has been what most would describe as "good" (hot, dry, sunny), I would say the following for this location. It has certainly felt warm/ hot on a number of occasions (more often than I would expect, often maxing out at 24C), and has been extremely dry. The grass seems to be brown absolutely everywhere, which I expect to a certain extent for July and August but this year it seems to have been very noticeable. The ground is like concrete at the moment. A nearby floodplain had deep, gaping cracks forming in it last time I went there. In terms of sunshine July and August have felt much more normal. June was extremely cloudy but felt on the warm side still.

The above is certainly not what I would expect given my experiences of past Summers. Granted my memory for weather events doesn't go back too far (2010... ish), but the only thing comparable seems to be July 2013, which seemed hot and dry for weeks. And that was the 10th hottest July on record (CET).

I've said it before two or three times, but this talk of minima dragging up the averages simply isn't true, at least across the CET zone (which is pretty extensive). Both maxima and minima have been comfortably above average this Summer. I'll post the links once again (must be the third time now) just so that people can check for themselves.

Min:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_min.html

Max:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_max.html

I know warm temperatures alone for most people don't constitute a good Summer, but the talk of minima skewing this Summer's averages is nonsense and keeps coming up in conversation, so I'm just pointing that out.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Relativistic

[markyo]

13 minutes ago, stainesbloke said:

Well many people don't agree that's it's been that good a summer. Shall we all leave it there? 

Summer is a very objective opinion,your summer i totally agree has been at best average,june july were poor by anybodies standards,the brief hot spot but that's it.  August is a different matter,good spells of warmth which i'm sure you'd agree with but the crucial point is one month does not make a season,look at winter 2010,dec incredible the rest,well crap to say the least. Also location is so crucial,south east,yep should get better than this summer. We may live on the same small island but the variation in the climate is pretty broad and so different! Been on the road for nearly 30 years now with my job,seen a LOT of weather. Never fails to surprise me!

[Summer Sun]

Updated level 3 heatwave alert has it ending in the morning rather than Friday

Current watch level: Level 3 - Heatwave Action

Issued at: 09:33 on Wed 24 Aug 2016

There is a 90 % probability of heatwave conditions between 0900 on Wednesday and 0900 on Thursday in parts of England.

High daytime temperatures along with elevated overnight temperatures mean that there is high confidence that trigger criteria for the East of England, London and Southeast England will be achieved. There is also moderate confidence that criteria will be met across the East Midlands. Warmest conditions are expected to be during Wednesday, with less hot weather currently predicted for Thursday, with this being the reason for curtailing the Heatwave warning to Thursday morning. To summarise, the significant changes in this latest issue of the Heat Health Watch are the generally curtailed end time from Friday to Thursday morning, and also raised confidence in London, East Midlands and Southeast England exceeding their threshold temperatures in this period.

An update will be issued when the alert level changes in any region. Alerts are issued once a day by 0900 if required and are not subject to amendment in between standard issue times. Note that the details of the forecast weather are valid at the time of issue but may change over the period that an alert remains in force. These details will not be updated here unless the alert level also changes, the latest forecast details can be obtained at the following link: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/#?tab=map

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/heat-health/#?tab=heatHealth

Edited August 24, 2016 by Summer Sun

[Weather-history]

Cooler today

 

[Mapantz]

It's not often you'll see a top 20 like that:

 

[cheese]

1 hour ago, markyo said:

Summer is a very objective opinion,your summer i totally agree has been at best average,june july were poor by anybodies standards,the brief hot spot but that's it.  August is a different matter,good spells of warmth which i'm sure you'd agree with but the crucial point is one month does not make a season,look at winter 2010,dec incredible the rest,well crap to say the least. Also location is so crucial,south east,yep should get better than this summer. We may live on the same small island but the variation in the climate is pretty broad and so different! Been on the road for nearly 30 years now with my job,seen a LOT of weather. Never fails to surprise me!

July saw an east-west split, rather than a north-south split. West was below average, east above. Areas in between were normal.

This map shows nicely how much warmer the nights were pretty much everywhere..

Abysmal sunshine hours for Scotland and some western areas, largely normal elsewhere, above normal for parts of Yorkshire and East Anglia..

Rainfall above average in the NW, below average everywhere else.

I suspect the maps for August will show the SE doing better relative to average, because this month there seems to have been more divides in terms of temperature - like today - but it's still slightly warmer than average here, and likely to be drier than average unless we get lots of rain in the final few days of August.

So, contrary to what some people might think, it hasn't been a poor summer up here at all - far from it. Pretty normal truth be told.

Edited August 24, 2016 by cheese

[Matthew.]

Before August I thought May was the best month this year but August has really surprised me with settled and sunny weather returning. I wonder if the Atlantic SST's have made a difference to high pressure development? Well here's the anomalies for June, July, August:

[B87]

Assuming the forecast is correct, August here will end up with approx. 191 hrs of sun.  That will take the sunshine total for summer 2016 up to ~475 hrs, or the 4th cloudiest summer on record.

1. 440.3 hrs (1968)
2. 445.8 hrs (1958)
3. 462.7 hrs (2012)
4. 478.7 hrs (2008)
5. 481.0 hrs (1977)
6. 481.3 hrs (1987)
7. 491.2 hrs (2011)
8. 492.2 hrs (2007)
9. 492.8 hrs (2010)
10. 494.1 hrs (1979)

[hillbilly]

6 hours ago, cheese said:

Reaching 30C is not a noteworthy occasion here. More years reach it than not. This is the second consecutive year we've exceeded 30C. Reached it in 2013 and 2011 as well. But then, it's not too unusual for this area of the country to be amongst the warmest - certainly the daytime temps are warmer than most south coast locations (but sunshine is lower).

All but one year from 1995 to 2006 reached 30C here - that year being 1998 (crap summer). We could well reach 30C pretty much every year for the next 8 or 9 years if we return to summers of the mid 90s-mid 00s. 

Amazing ,Leeds just along the road from here and how different it is out of the hills,i think we have only hit 30deg one day since 2006 that of 1st july last year a typical high for the year being 26 to 28 deg.Have hit the dizzy heights of 22 deg today !Having said that Doncaster just down from Leeds it typically even warmer almost always 4 deg warmer than here and the warmest place in the North !

[Weather-history]

1 minute ago, B87 said:

Assuming the forecast is correct, August here will end up with approx. 191 hrs of sun.  That will take the sunshine total for summer 2016 up to ~475 hrs, or the 4th cloudiest summer on record.

1. 440.3 hrs (1968)
2. 445.8 hrs (1958)
3. 462.7 hrs (2012)
4. 478.7 hrs (2008)
5. 481.0 hrs (1977)
6. 481.3 hrs (1987)
7. 491.2 hrs (2011)
8. 492.2 hrs (2007)
9. 492.8 hrs (2010)
10. 494.1 hrs (1979)

The depressing thing about that list is that it goes back to at least 1958 but look how many have occurred within the last 10 years.

[B87]

3 minutes ago, hillbilly said:

Amazing ,Leeds just along the road from here and how different it is out of the hills,i think we have only hit 30deg one day since 2006 that of 1st july last year a typical high for the year being 26 to 28 deg.Have hit the dizzy heights of 22 deg today !Having said that Doncaster just down from Leeds it typically even warmer almost always 4 deg warmer than here and the warmest place in the North !

I was in Halifax this weekend and it felt like October or November!  It was blustery, rainy and chilly.

[hillbilly]

7 minutes ago, B87 said:

I was in Halifax this weekend and it felt like October or November!  It was blustery, rainy and chilly.

I actually missed out on that as I was on holls in Northumberland and had much better weather than at home in Halifax !

[I Cumbria Marra I]

Been quite a poor summer here, below average temps and above average rainfall.

[hillbilly]

1 hour ago, Mapantz said:

It's not often you'll see a top 20 like that:

 

33 deg or more has been the highest temp in 2 years of the 80s,5 times in the 90s ,twice in the noughties and four times since 2010.Just goes to show that high temps do not mean we have had great summers in recent years.There were also 6 years in both the 1930s and 1940s .

[cheese]

34 minutes ago, hillbilly said:

Amazing ,Leeds just along the road from here and how different it is out of the hills,i think we have only hit 30deg one day since 2006 that of 1st july last year a typical high for the year being 26 to 28 deg.Have hit the dizzy heights of 22 deg today !Having said that Doncaster just down from Leeds it typically even warmer almost always 4 deg warmer than here and the warmest place in the North !

Someone on another forum I use posted an interesting stat.. on 11 August 2003, the max temp at Bingley was 17.7C and in Leeds it was 25.5C. They are only 15 miles apart. Difference between Leeds and places in the Pennines can be drastic. A lot of the time it does feel like the weather here is more similar to places down south than it is to places further west like Halifax etc.

Edited August 24, 2016 by cheese

[Lake District Blizzards]

11 minutes ago, I Cumbria Marra I said:

Been quite a poor summer here, below average temps and above average rainfall.

June good

July poor

August - reasonable / ok 

[hillbilly]

8 minutes ago, cheese said:

Someone on another forum I use posted an interesting stat.. on 11 August 2003, the max temp at Bingley was 17.7C and in Leeds it was 25.5C. They are only 15 miles apart. Difference between Leeds and places in the Pennines can be drastic. A lot of the time it does feel like the weather here is more similar to places down south than it is to places further west like Halifax etc.

You cannot trust the car temp guage but is a good guide,i went for the day to Bridlington yesterday,clocked 22 deg on the coast but 26 just a few miles inland then 28 and 29 all the way back to Bradford before clocking 27 at Brighouse and 26 as I got home,the Thermometer at home read just shading 24 deg .That could have read so much different had we had typically more cloud in these hills !

[cheese]

I remember driving with friends to the coast during hot weather in the past - one day sticks in my mind of it being 26C in Leeds but only 20C in Scarborough. Was interesting to see the temperature slowly fall as we got closer to the coast.

Edited August 24, 2016 by cheese

[cheese]

I'm sure 'I remember Atlantic' will be glad to see the GFS showing a nice, warm, settled bank holiday weekend, temps in the low 20s.

[Jon Somerset]

General upgrade in forecast for period around England Bank holiday weekend. This August, despite last weekend's cool damp drabness, is turning out to be the best in years for these parts.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

7 hours ago, cheese said:

I'm sure 'I remember Atlantic' will be glad to see the GFS showing a nice, warm, settled bank holiday weekend, temps in the low 20s.

yes, and 00Z follows it up

[NickMdx]

Netweather 7 day forecast promised me a thundery breakdown today!!

Edited August 25, 2016 by NickMdx

[B87]

Based on the weather online forecast we might even end up with average or above average sun this month, for the first time since 2005!

We will end up with 207 hrs if forecast verifies, compared to the average of 205.