Summer 2021: Moans, Groans, Ramps and Banter

[Sunny76]

1 minute ago, davehsug said:

Indeed, I can cope with rain, I can live with showers, it can even be a bit breezy and cool, but please, some sunshine. It's the incessant total cloud cover, all day every day.

It can be 20-22c for the whole of June to august,  but that would still go down as a very poor summer in my book. 
 

If there’s no sunshine, there’s no real summer.

[Azazel]

8 hours ago, Daniel* said:

Terrible company!

 

So i'm not wrong then - this could be one of the worst summers in recent memory?

[SunSean]

Living in the South East, this has comfortably been the cloudiest year i have ever experienced. The only prolonged sunny spells were the 2nd half of April and the 1st half of June. At least I now know what it feels like to live in the Faroe Islands. The forecast for at least the 1st half of July is also a cloudfest and that could even rumble on in to the 2nd half of July too. I think we may have a new record for least sunshine hours on record this year in the South East. It will be interesting to see the total at the end.

[In Absence of True Seasons]

25 minutes ago, davehsug said:

Indeed, I can cope with rain, I can live with showers, it can even be a bit breezy and cool, but please, some sunshine. It's the incessant total cloud cover, all day every day.

100% this. It is not primarily about the the heat. When the cooler weather lovers say "I'd rather it be 16c than 30c" this overlooks the main point of contention with this weather, which is the sheer lack of sun / light. I genuinely cannot remember the last time I woke up to a truly sunny, warm and clear morning, which for this time of year in the South is truly shocking. 

I'm honestly not massively fussed about London reaching those 30c temps...but I want sun during summer for God sake, not endless grey cloud from dawn till dusk. 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Easterly winds the worst though, grey guaranteed here probably until 1pm or so, where every where else seems sunny

[Sunny76]

40 minutes ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

100% this. It is not primarily about the the heat. When the cooler weather lovers say "I'd rather it be 16c than 30c" this overlooks the main point of contention with this weather, which is the sheer lack of sun / light. I genuinely cannot remember the last time I woke up to a truly sunny, warm and clear morning, which for this time of year in the South is truly shocking. 

I'm honestly not massively fussed about London reaching those 30c temps...but I want sun during summer for God sake, not endless grey cloud from dawn till dusk. 

Possibly a sign of a cooler theme to come. Last winter was colder than recent years, and maybe the next one will be just as cold if not colder.

[*Stormforce~beka*]

1 hour ago, SunSean said:

Living in the South East, this has comfortably been the cloudiest year i have ever experienced. The only prolonged sunny spells were the 2nd half of April and the 1st half of June. At least I now know what it feels like to live in the Faroe Islands. The forecast for at least the 1st half of July is also a cloudfest and that could even rumble on in to the 2nd half of July too. I think we may have a new record for least sunshine hours on record this year in the South East. It will be interesting to see the total at the end.

I can't wait to see too

[*Stormforce~beka*]

1 hour ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

100% this. It is not primarily about the the heat. When the cooler weather lovers say "I'd rather it be 16c than 30c" this overlooks the main point of contention with this weather, which is the sheer lack of sun / light. I genuinely cannot remember the last time I woke up to a truly sunny, warm and clear morning, which for this time of year in the South is truly shocking. 

I'm honestly not massively fussed about London reaching those 30c temps...but I want sun during summer for God sake, not endless grey cloud from dawn till dusk. 

Exactly! This is what I have been trying to put forward may times over! It's the sun not the heat. I had SAD in summer right now!

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

Possibly a sign of a cooler theme to come. Last winter was colder than recent years, and maybe the next one will be just as cold if not colder.

I have to say I have the opposite feeling, think we’ll have a 9 month autumn from now until Mar/Apr time. Flooding to be a big problem this wetter.

[mb018538]

10 minutes ago, Alderc said:

I have to say I have the opposite feeling, think we’ll have a 9 month autumn from now until Mar/Apr time. Flooding to be a big problem this wetter.

We're dropping back into La Nina, so the winter ramp train will be full steam ahead in about 7 weeks when the PV turns westerly again and reaches 0.1 m/s

[In Absence of True Seasons]

51 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

Possibly a sign of a cooler theme to come. Last winter was colder than recent years, and maybe the next one will be just as cold if not colder.

Perhaps. But the last few years we have had legitimately decent summers (near London at least). Last year had pretty much an undisputed warm period all the way from April to Oct. 2017, 2018 and 2019 were also decent summers overall. It just seems that our climate nowadays is so utterly random one year to the next. And let's consider that the winter solstice for this year was about the same temperature as the summer solstice! 

[sarahng]

What an utterly depressing day!  I was just in the garden talking to the gardener and the wind was blowing right through me (as they say!).  It is cloudy yet again, and the rain clouds are gathering.  I've just about given up with my hanging baskets as each time I deadhead them and make them tidy, it rains again and saturates the flowers.  Whatever happened to those beautiful summer mornings we used to have when I'd leave for work and there was that wonderful summery smell on the air?  I don't think I have smelled that for a good 10 years!

[Sunny76]

48 minutes ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

Perhaps. But the last few years we have had legitimately decent summers (near London at least). Last year had pretty much an undisputed warm period all the way from April to Oct. 2017, 2018 and 2019 were also decent summers overall. It just seems that our climate nowadays is so utterly random one year to the next. And let's consider that the winter solstice for this year was about the same temperature as the summer solstice! 

I disagree about decent summers.

2018 was the only summer in recent times i would call close to decent. 

2017, 19, and 20 all had some very warm periods, even hot, but large portions of these years had lots of cloudy days in the london region. That's still very poor, even if the temps were mild.

[Sunny76]

There will be folk who will call summer 2021 decent, but if we get to September with most days being cloudy and damp like this, I will be having a word with these people.

A cloudy summer, regardless of whether its 17c ot 21-22c, will be poor and unremarkable.

[summer blizzard]

It's wonderful, no humidity.

[mb018538]

Just now, Sunny76 said:

I disagree about decent summers.

2018 was the only summer in recent times i would call close to decent. 

2017, 19, and 20 all had some very warm periods, even hot, but large portions of these years had lots of cloudy days in the london region. That's still very poor, even if the temps were mild.

Yep. Last year grabbed some headlines with 37.8c at Heathrow on 31/7 and the hot spell in mid August.....other than that it was pretty poor. 2019 similar - overall poor barring the 38.7c at Cambridge.

2018 was just exceptionally good, and one to go in the pile with 1976/1995/2003 etc as memorable if you enjoy hot sunny weather.

[Sunny76]

11 minutes ago, sarahng said:

What an utterly depressing day!  I was just in the garden talking to the gardener and the wind was blowing right through me (as they say!).  It is cloudy yet again, and the rain clouds are gathering.  I've just about given up with my hanging baskets as each time I deadhead them and make them tidy, it rains again and saturates the flowers.  Whatever happened to those beautiful summer mornings we used to have when I'd leave for work and there was that wonderful summery smell on the air?  I don't think I have smelled that for a good 10 years!

We had them for a few weeks  between the last few days of May, until middle of June this year, but it's been in very short supply.

A cloudy damp May also made things seem worse this time round.

Even with a poor summer year, the recent Mays were usually quite sunny and pleasant. 2020 yes, i'm looking at you.

[Sunny76]

1 minute ago, mb018538 said:

Yep. Last year grabbed some headlines with 37.8c at Heathrow on 31/7 and the hot spell in mid August.....other than that it was pretty poor. 2019 similar - overall poor barring the 38.7c at Cambridge.

2018 was just exceptionally good, and one to go in the pile with 1976/1995/2003 etc as memorable if you enjoy hot sunny weather.

Lol, you see this is the problem i have. #

 

Yes, we had some lovely hot weather, maybe a bit too hot, but it was only for two and a half weeks during the June to August period. 

Spring 2020, and early summer was great, but it got cancelled out by the predominantly dull summer.

[Sunny76]

3 minutes ago, mb018538 said:

Yep. Last year grabbed some headlines with 37.8c at Heathrow on 31/7 and the hot spell in mid August.....other than that it was pretty poor. 2019 similar - overall poor barring the 38.7c at Cambridge.

2018 was just exceptionally good, and one to go in the pile with 1976/1995/2003 etc as memorable if you enjoy hot sunny weather.

I agree, we won't get a 2018,95,2003, 1989,90 etc summer all the time. Those come round once or twice every 4-5 years, but we could do with a sunnier summer for a change.

[Sunny76]

1994, i would class as a better summer over the recent few years, 2018 not included. That had a very hot July, warmest at the time since 1983, and warm sunny June. August was mixed with storms.

[Frigid]

In my area, Summer 2020 wasn't even that bad. Had a lot of variety I would say. June thunderstorms, then a few days of warmth. July was cool but ended up with record heat which leeched into the first half of August. End of August had some very cool nights. Imo last summer had something for everyone whether it be thunderstorms or heatwaves. Let's not forget that b4 Summer 2020 we had the sunniest spring on record. 

2021 has been a huge contrast. A much colder and duller year I would say so far. 

[stainesbloke]

4 hours ago, davehsug said:

Indeed, I can cope with rain, I can live with showers, it can even be a bit breezy and cool, but please, some sunshine. It's the incessant total cloud cover, all day every day.

That, in a nutshell, is the main problem with the British climate. The huge amounts of pointless cloud and grey gloom. If it were sunnier, it wouldn’t be too bad a climate. But it’s ruined by this one thing.

[Guest]

We average around 225hrs for each of the summer months (June & July a little higher, August unsurprisingly lower) Anything under 200hrs becomes really noticeable so June’s 183hrs was really poor, and that’s actually below average for April. The first six days of July have only yielded 25.1hrs of sun, so given the forecast we’d probably need a completely cloudless final tercile of July to even get near average for this month. It’s really been a very feeble attempt at summer so far down here. 

[78/79]

Someone said to me once "You're so lucky to work outside during the Summer in the nice weather" 

Sitting here in my van watching it p,, ss down incessantly I can now think of a suitable response. Two words ending with off.!!!! 

[Jon Somerset]

Not quite so bad today. Air is warmer and sun is actually coming out between showers so my SAD is reduced.