Summer 2021: Moans, Groans, Ramps and Banter

[Mac_SE]

Just had a look back at Heathrow's stats for max temps of 25c and above.

May: 0
June: 7
July: 9
August: 1

A miserly 17 out of 118 days. Says it all.

[mountain shadow]

Poor cloud forecast for today.

Watched the forecast last night and it had wall to wall sunshine from dawn to dusk. Nothing but cloud for now and chilly.

[Guest]

Forecast well out today, the cloud is getting thicker. Only 16C here so far! Not good.

Edited August 27, 2021 by Alderc

[Andy Bown]

Merely 13.9c in Warminster. A clear night post cold front allowed a chilly minimum of 8.3c and the cloud arrived before sunrise so no warm up either.

[MP-R]

Today's definitely got September syndrome compared to the glorious weather of yesterday, but it looks like the weekend will be better for most.

[Andrew Hurcomb]

2 hours ago, Mac_SE said:

Just had a look back at Heathrow's stats for max temps of 25c and above.

May: 0
June: 7
July: 9
August: 1

A miserly 17 out of 118 days. Says it all.

Same here in Hereford

May.0

June 2

July 9

August 0

Have to go back to 2014 for a equivelant  summer. This August hasnt even reached 24 c here. At the moment 16.3c and cloudy.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I enjoyed June and July here in Lincoln.  Sunshine and rainfall were variable through the two months, but there was a high frequency of thunder in July and some fine spells in both months.  I had been thinking of it as an "almost great but not quite, but still reasonable" summer in a similar vein to that of 2005.  August, though, has been a letdown - "usable" but forgettable weather early in the month, and then since midmonth it's been dull and forgettable.  I didn't realise quite how dull it has been though - only 95.8 hours of sunshine for the month so far at Waddington (even with the Kipp-Zonen sensor, which tends to record less than Campbell-Stokes, we'd normally expect around 150-160 hours by this point in the month).  This is now placing Summer 2021 a long way behind that of 2005.

Until around midmonth, negative "summer so far" sunshine anomalies were largely confined to the SE, with Lincolnshire coming out near average, but as that Met Office sunshine map indicates, in the past fortnight those negative anomalies have been spreading a fair way north.

Edited August 27, 2021 by Thundery wintry showers

[Wynn D Woo]

19 hours ago, Wynn D Woo said:

Yesterday was a cool cloudy dross day, today bang opposite, warm and sunny...

back to the cool cloudy dross today, flipping back and forth sums up this week perfectly 

[Northwest NI]

Sunny intervals here today  as sky only partially clear. Blue bits are getting bigger as time goes by. Pleasantly warm with a forecast high of 23 later.

Edited August 27, 2021 by Northwest NI

[Guest]

Meto forecast for the weekend is pretty dreary, tonnes more cloud away from the west. To be honest this has to be one of the worst pressures ever! 

[Mac_SE]

Only the blue sky and sunny afternoon on Tuesday currently separating this week’s N/NE cloudy dross from last week’s full house of NW cloudy dross. 

Edited August 27, 2021 by Mac_SE

[Thundery wintry showers]

When I think back, I remember cloudy anticyclonic late-August spells like this, but I was living in Tyneside at the time which is relatively prone to cloud coming in off the North Sea.  Two that spring to mind are 1998 and, perhaps surprisingly, 1995 (the last four days of August 1995 were mainly cloudy in Tyneside, which was in very stark contrast to the near-unbroken sunshine of the high pressure spells earlier that month).  I guess with the solar strength weakening at this time of the year, it's easier to get cloudy anticyclonic spells at this time of the year than it is earlier in the summer.  To get prolonged dry but dull spells in May-July tends to require a sustained onshore wind, like in eastern and south-eastern England in Junes 1988 and 2013 and (especially) May 1991.

I'm reminded a bit of late August 2008, although that was a rather different setup with tropical maritime air circulating around the northern flank of the high pressure.  I remember it being rather ironic as August 2008 had been dull and wet up until that point, and a settled and warm spell was forthcoming, but it turned out to be even duller than what had gone before, with the warmth mainly coming from high minima due to the cloud cover.

On the other side of the coin there have been plenty of mostly dull months that saw a sunny anticyclonic spell at the end that raised sunshine totals above the long-term normal, including some in the winter half-year.  June 2018 is widely remembered as a warm sunny month, but in Exeter there were less than 100 hours of sunshine until the 20th, and then over 140 hours in the last ten days - had the anticyclone of late June 2018 settled in a different position the month might have been remembered very differently.  Sunshine was also similarly "back-loaded" in the famous Junes of 1976 and 1995 in many parts of the country.

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by Thundery wintry showers

[NEVES SCREAMER]

So this is the Daily Express heatwave. 16c. Cold. Thick grey cloud ( 3 of the last 4 days now).  Looks like finding the thermal socks out. Already dreading what's coming. Only 216 days till April.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

37 minutes ago, NEVES SCREAMER said:

So this is the Daily Express heatwave. 16c. Cold. Thick grey cloud ( 3 of the last 4 days now).  Looks like finding the thermal socks out. Already dreading what's coming. Only 216 days till April.

Won't be too long now until the Express mentions that we'll be getting the coldest winter in 100 years.

[Guest]

Struggled up to 19C but with low DPs and strong breeze it’s COLD.

[Freeze]

I don't think I can ever recall a summer where I haven't recorded higher than 26c. There has literally been no heat in my area this year so I do hope September can pull off a couple of hot days before autumn sets in properly. 

[Fourty Point Three Degrees]

Lots of cloud around today and surpressed temperatures despite being underneath a large ridge of HP.  Reminds me of 26th July when it was blue skies and 25C despite being under LP and trough.    

[reef]

Here, June and July had a combined total of 105% of average sunshine (and Apr - Jul was 110%) but this August is looking like a candidate for the dullest on record. We're currently on 95 hours of sunshine and the dullest on record was 2008 with 123 hours. That means the next four days need to average over 7 hours per day of sunshine which is looking extremely unlikely. 

There's an outside chance of only the second summer month under 100 hours. The only other one ironically was July 2020 on 97 hours!

Summer as a whole is on exactly 500 hours so far, which is 87% of normal.

Edited August 27, 2021 by reef

[mb018538]

3 hours ago, Alderc said:

Meto forecast for the weekend is pretty dreary, tonnes more cloud away from the west. To be honest this has to be one of the worst pressures ever! 

More like a winter high where you expect so much cloud and greyness. No sun here at all today yet again.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

filth today as expected, not lifted, E'ly breeze again so misty and grey all day

[Methuselah]

It's been a stonker over here -- good sunny spells, 20C, nice fresh breeze. What's not to like?

[Mapantz]

On 27/08/2021 at 15:42, reef said:

Here, June and July had a combined total of 105% of average sunshine (and Apr - Jul was 110%) but this August is looking like a candidate for the dullest on record. We're currently on 95 hours of sunshine and the dullest on record was 2008 with 123 hours. That means the next four days need to average over 7 hours per day of sunshine which is looking extremely unlikely. 

There's an outside chance of only the second summer month under 100 hours. The only other one ironically was July 2020 on 97 hours!

Summer as a whole is on exactly 500 hours so far, which is 87% of normal.

All three Summer months have been below average with June and August being well below.

Just 75% of the average.

512.5 hours recorded, compared to the average of 679.2 hours.

[BruenSryan]

June was slightly sunnier than average locally, many days with sunny spells but few very sunny ones. July was well above average all thanks to an exceptional sunny 10-day spell from 16th to 25th and was the sunniest since 2013. First half of July was running as dull as July 2020 up until that so was a complete flip around. August up until 22nd was also exceptionally dull with only 48.7 hrs (absolutely atrocious), it has risen to 92.9 hrs as of the 26th and after today will now be sunnier than August 2020 which was the dullest on record here in Dublin. 

What is it with 2021 and these big turn arounds? February, July and August this year all featured exceptional dull periods being masked by very sunny periods. EDIT: Even March to an extent.

Seasonal total to 26 August is 463.9 hrs which is relatively below average (95% of 91-20 average) but way way sunnier than 2020 which was more than 120 hrs duller and the dullest on record. There's still time for it to reach average too but August will be dull. 

Edited August 27, 2021 by BruenSryan

[mb018538]

And just for laughs, the filthy cloud deck that has been here for over 2 days starts to clear at 8pm and sunset, when we can’t use it.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

5 minutes ago, mb018538 said:

And just for laughs, the filthy cloud deck that has been here for over 2 days starts to clear at 8pm and sunset, when we can’t use it.

was expecting that here! but no, never properly got light today!

EC suggests good riddance E'lys next Sat