AderynCoch

I agree with the sentiment. It's been a decent summer so far (certainly miles better than 2007-12) but still not quite "there". The brunt of the warmth has been just too far east, and now the encroaching Atlantic is trying to scupper a good August.

Well today hasn't been too bad. Rain came in the form of short, beefy showers instead of persistent, frontal 8/8 dross. Plenty of sunshine in-between with thunder late in the afternoon. Certainly better than yesterday's grey crapola.

Agreed. Cooler weather after warm weather is overrated.

Summer - June 1846/July 2006/August 1995 Autumn - September 2006/October 1926/November 1782 Winter - December 1890/January 1795/February 1947 Spring - March 1674/April 1917/May 1833

Britain has moved to the southern hemisphere by the looks of things.

No we can't.

Who's calling you a liar? You might be telling the truth but your description of the vegetation certainly isn't true for many other locations (mine included). Summer's still in the air here (cooler temperatures notwithstanding) and not about to go away any time soon as far as I'm concerned.

Today and yesterday have been better than expected. Just a shame tomorrow looks disappointing.

I saw a news report from Oymyakon not long back, where the teacher was considering having class outside because the temperature was a balmy -30C. Just goes to show how adaptable humans are. I recall reading an article where a British journalist travelled to Yakutsk in the dead of winter. He was amazed at how these old women could stand outside for hours at a market stall, yet one of them said they preferred it to European winters because of the lack of wind. I suppose the humidity is very low there too.

The light/darkness can change from year to year depending on the weather. It gets dark a lot earlier when it's overcast.

Well December is an autumn month if you believe what some people on here say. Anyway I was wrong - the change will take place on the evening of November 30th.

And then the deep Arctic northerlies commence on December 1st, not letting up until some time in March.

Agree with this. It wasn't anything spectacular, but last August had plenty of decent summery weather on offer in contrast to summer months between 2007 and 2012. August 2006 was a massive letdown though - the February 1982 of summer months.

Bad news if you don't like house spiders.

Thunderstorm at 8am followed by near-total sunshine since then. I must be living in some parallel universe, unless the southern Wirral area is being cursed.

I really don't know what you're talking about. There was a short but severe thunderstorm here about 8am, with one particularly close strike which sounded like an explosion. Scared the crap out of me! It's fine and sunny again now, and should be even more humid with the sun heating the surface water.

Exactly. I'm fed up reading loaded comments and assumptions about heat-lovers as though they all live on the set of Baywatch. If I'm sitting around in an office environment I'd much prefer it to be too hot than too cold. Try working at a computer in an old unheated building when it's like Pluto outside, like I had to during December 2010 (and I loved that month by the way). I so envied the workmen doing manual labour outside, as at least they were doing something which kept them warm. Of course in hot weather it's different and manual labour is the less envious of the two options, so I understand how one might find hot worse than cold in that situation. Still, having done back-breaking work in 40C temperatures with an overhead sun and not a little humidity, the level of heat we get in this country doesn't bother me even in those circumstances. By the way, the skin cancer argument is a red herring. That's entirely due to the strength of the sun (which is constant year-to-year) and not the air temperature. Doesn't matter if it's 20C next week or 30C, the sun will be the same strength.

I'm a bit worried myself. I was watching BBC Weatherview just before and the forecast looked nowhere near as good as I was hoping (too much cloud, temperatures nothing to write home about). I try not to take these things as gospel, but in the 1-2 day range at least the BBC TV forecasts are usually reliable. Today is looking like a letdown too. That front couldn't have picked a worse time of day to move in.

Very nice indeed, especially after a summer notable for its lack of heat and frustrating NW/SE splits. Before this I'd always found it hard to imagine the high 20s being reached in October (as happened in 1985), but this was up there with a select group of autumn heatwaves (including 1895 and 1921). We were so, so close to seeing 30C in October for the first time, with the highest official reading being 29.9C. Just a shame the NW/SE crap returned on the 2nd and that the rest of autumn was so bland (November was rubbish).

No.

A large area of high pressure which is often found in the vicinity of the Azore Islands in the middle of the Atlantic. You can see it in the bottom left of this chart: In summer it has a tendency to ridge towards NW Europe. The weather which entails depends on the placement of the high: places under the Azores High will receive very warm and sunny weather, but if the ridge is too far south then a westerly flow off the Atlantic will occur instead due to the clockwise movement of air around the high pressure. So the Azores High is a mixed blessing for the UK, depending on how far north it can reach. EDIT - Phil puts it better.

Actually coastal areas usually receive more sunshine than inland areas.

The heat seems to have been biased towards the east for July 1994, with the core of the heat farther east towards Scandinavia (where it was an exceptionally hot month).

I absolutely abhor it. July 2010 was one of the most disgusting summer months you could ever hope to experience - a month I never hope to see repeated. And just to rub it in, not only does the warmth disappear where you are but it increases for those who still have it. At least the sun is back out this evening. June was nice for the most part however, despite a rubbish beginning and end. Certainly not one of those atrocious NW/SE split type of months.