Summer 2021: Moans, Groans, Ramps and Banter

[Mac_SE]

This lack of sunshine is seriously getting to me. And the forecast is of more continuous cloud to come. Urrrgh!

[danm]

Absolutely pants summer, following on from a cold Spring. Apart from two spells of nice weather (one in early to mid June and the other in late July), this year has been cool with a distinct lack of sunshine and quite wet at times. One of the worst summers I can remember for a long time. Particularly off the back of three or four excellent summers down here in the SE between 2017-2020. 

I’m actually surprised we’ve had four days exceed 30c here in London considering how poor it’s been.

[Guest]

Well the North Sea cloud generator is cranked right up this morning! 
 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

9 minutes ago, Alderc said:

Well the North Sea cloud generator is cranked right up this morning! 
 

not just Staffs and Shrops then, makes a change

[MP-R]

40 minutes ago, Alderc said:

Well the North Sea cloud generator is cranked right up this morning! 
 

Quite incredible really. Who needs the Atlantic!

[mb018538]

Now it looks like the cloud may stick here right through to Saturday. A whole week without any sun. Heathrow could have it’s dullest summer on record, and it feels like that here too. 80 hours sun in 30 days is more like December or January.

[Guest]

Just looking at the forecast and it looks like the cloud will probably hang around most of the week until the Atlantic starts to break through. Terrible period of supposedly good weather. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, mb018538 said:

Now it looks like the cloud may stick here right through to Saturday. A whole week without any sun. Heathrow could have it’s dullest summer on record, and it feels like that here too. 80 hours sun in 30 days is more like December or January.

Snap 

[Mac_SE]

Thirtieth day of suppressed temps and a grey lid. Marvellous 

[Nick L]

Another miserable, gloomy day but with added drizzle.

[Andy Bown]

Just think, had this set up been in January-March there would have been snow grains/flurries to keep it interesting.

Actually, hang on, the 850s would probably be too high and it would still have been drizzle!

[TheOgre]

The weather has been so predictable this summer! Every day is the same: cool - mild, overcast and mainly dry

Edited August 30, 2021 by TheOgre

[James1979]

Another borefest and this countries slow decline into perpetual autumn and grey lids continues. Oh for the weather of yesterdecade.

Edited August 30, 2021 by James1979

[NEVES SCREAMER]

It's ironic that most of the summer has been under low pressure cloud and grey. We finally get a big massive high pressure for two weeks and it's just, er...........cloud and grey. And I have just put the bins out at the top of the drive and its is bloomin freezing cold to boot. UK.August.

[damianslaw]

Not as quite a grey a start as yesterday. All rather uninspiring though. However, we are more favoured than many this week for bright or sunny spells. If you like benign weather this is the week for you. Doesn't get more benign. Always said September is our most 'benign' month especially first half and how often it starts anticyclonic and dry. 2021 another to add to the list... sleep time..

[adrianh]

Decent first half of the summer, dire second half. Nothing particularly wet or cold but endless murk is almost as bad

[Sunny76]

10 hours ago, danm said:

Absolutely pants summer, following on from a cold Spring. Apart from two spells of nice weather (one in early to mid June and the other in late July), this year has been cool with a distinct lack of sunshine and quite wet at times. One of the worst summers I can remember for a long time. Particularly off the back of three or four excellent summers down here in the SE between 2017-2020. 

I’m actually surprised we’ve had four days exceed 30c here in London considering how poor it’s been.

I would only class 2018 as excellent, and 2017 as a half decent one. 2020 would be seen as okish. 2019 wasn’t that great. 

[Sunny76]

39 minutes ago, NEVES SCREAMER said:

It's ironic that most of the summer has been under low pressure cloud and grey. We finally get a big massive high pressure for two weeks and it's just, er...........cloud and grey. And I have just put the bins out at the top of the drive and its is bloomin freezing cold to boot. UK.August.

I think this is a sure sign of a cold winter to come. Like I mentioned before, think we’ve entered a period of cooler winters, which might affect our summers. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by Sunny76

[Guest]

It’s nothing other than cold and breezy. 17C with low dew points. Brrr

Edited August 30, 2021 by Alderc

[Azazel]

When we get low pressure over us it’s often cloudy, cool and breezy. When we get high pressure over us, it’s apparently cloudy, cool and breezy now too. 
 

Absolutely dreadful - all we need now is a mild windy and wet autumn/early winter and it will have been the worst year weather wise I’ve ever seen. 

[Snowshine]

Almost 100% cloud cover forecasted here every single day this week. Might as well be November.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

Wish this stubborn anticyclone would shift as it has become rather tedious now. The 'weather' or lack of it has been the same for a little while now and looks to be the same all the way through the week as well. But the good news is that it looks set to change next weekend.

Just goes to show that high pressure isn't always necessarily a good thing.

Edited August 30, 2021 by Weather Enthusiast91

[In Absence of True Seasons]

1 hour ago, Sunny76 said:

2020 would be seen as okish. 2019 wasn’t that great. 

2020 overall was a great year overall though, that's the thing, because the spring was stunning - practically the entirety of April and May (in London) were warm and sunny, so by the time we had some poorer weather in June, we'd already had nearly 2 months of decent weather. And the summer itself IMO was still good, largely warm and lots of sunny days. I recall them because I was working from home the entire time and was sitting outdoors most days enjoying it.

We had decent weather in September too because I recall still being quite tanned into October which only happens when we get those 'Indian Summer' September weeks of like 21c - 24c or whatever.

2019 was a bit poorer but still far, far better than 2021. Again, we had some decent weather in April and May that year, and enough warm and sunny spells throughout June, July and August to compensate for the interspersed grey and rain. Whereas this year, it's just been literal weeks on end up grey gloom without even a scrap of sun at times. May an entire washout, June also a washout bar that one sunny week, and July equally bad again save from the short hot spell. August...I don't even wanna talk about August. It's been dreadful and I spent 10 days of it not even in the country lol.

[Josh Rubio]

I think I’d rather have the Atlantic barrelling over us rather than this ‘nothingness’. At least then we’d have a mix of sunshine and rain. 

[Thundery wintry showers]

On 30/08/2021 at 10:29, NEVES SCREAMER said:

It's ironic that most of the summer has been under low pressure cloud and grey. We finally get a big massive high pressure for two weeks and it's just, er...........cloud and grey. And I have just put the bins out at the top of the drive and its is bloomin freezing cold to boot. UK.August.

I'm reminded of August 2008.  The setup was rather different, with tropical maritime air on the northern flank of high pressure bringing lots of cloud, rather than the North Sea cloud-producing machine going into overdrive, but it was a similar story of a few weeks of generally dull wet weather being followed by dry and anticyclonic weather that was ironically even duller than what had gone before.  It's rare, but this kind of thing isn't without precedent.

It's possible that some parts of eastern, central and southern England could end up with a comparable shortage of sunshine to August 2008 this month, we'll have to see when the end of month stats come out, but a few days ago Waddington still hadn't reached 100 hours.