Arctic Hare

At least it looks like being more interesting than the current weather. Incredibly boring for the last few days. Useable for getting outdoor things done of course, but as Christmas approaches there are fewer of those for many people. Personally expecting not much of an event for our region, bar the usual suspects like the Peak District, but that's just the usual pessimism. Could be wrong!

New seasonal low max and min for me. Got down to -1.3 °C on Saturday night, then struggled up to 4.1 °C today. In both cases, marginally lower than Friday night/Saturday were. Today was okay, I guess. Not "interesting" compared with Saturday, but I don't want a storm like that every day! A tiny bit of very slushy snow around 5pm, and a little rain at other times. Not much to report.

Ah, at last... -0.1 °C on Monday night! Only just made it, though, as by the end of the night it was grey and drizzly, and that persisted all day. After a lovely day on Monday, Tuesday was a reminder of how unpleasant late November can be when it feels like it!

A classic late autumn day here. Not quite an air frost overnight (+0.4 °C, still haven't had a negative this season) but the coldest max so far at 7.7 °C yesterday. This morning has been gorgeously sunny with ice on car windows, frost on leaves etc. Another chilly day today, but this kind of chilly is fine! Not looking forward to the gloom and damp forecast for later in the week, though. Not cold enough for snow, just cold and miserable. Best enjoy today!

I recorded +0.1 °C last night, which was irritating! It was looking odds-on for an air frost, then some light mist rolled in and helped the temp up a degree or so for the rest of the night. So still no air frost for me this season. Today has been slightly warmer than yesterday (max 12.1 °C) but not as pleasant. Some nice sunny intervals, but also a lot of cloud around, especially this afternoon.

Maximum of 9.5 °C today, making this the first single-figure max of the season. It was actually a very pleasant day and perfect for walking: chilly yes, but benign and mostly sunny. I'm more than happy with this kind of weather in November. Shame extensive cloud is more often the order of the day, but I enjoyed today at least.

Sunny again now here in N Worcs, and doesn't feel storm at all, just breezy. Really very localised stuff today.

Oh yeah, one of the better known statistical "near misses" too, with a new UK October record max of 29.9 °C at Gravesend on 1st October. Absolutely extraordinary few days.

Strange morning here. Massive roll of thunder around 7 am, enough to wake lots of people up, and a short period of very heavy rain. Then easing off a lot, with even the odd glimpse of sunshine at times. Now steady moderate rain again, though not especially dark considering the gloominess of the skies.

What fun. I'm going to be outdoors a fair amount of next weekend in the E Midlands. I don't mind sunshine and showers, which at least feel right from autumn, but I certainly do mind miserable days with no relief from the bleakness and wet!

Just got caught under the heavy showers running across the W Midlands now. A good deal more widespread than I'd expected given the forecast, so I'm not very pleased at having to change clothes this early in the day! I think I've said this before, but if the Met Office (+others) are going to invest heavily in more forecasting skill, I'd rather they did something about trying to predict very short-term showers. Maybe just subjective, but I don't think they do quite as good a job in that area as they do in other areas. I know it's hard, but the MetO have the expertise and the firepower. It would be a lot more use to many people than extending the "moderately reliable" overall picture from 6 days to 7 or whatever.

Personally my favourite is what is (for me) the best of both worlds: warm sunny days and reasonably cool nights. That was one reason I was so disappointed in the cold, wet May this year, as it's a month when you can get that combination quite often. I am a little bit sad to see the end of "sitting outside" weather now, as a lazy hour or two in the garden with a cool drink is a real favourite and is obviously not something that really works in November! I quite like autumnal weather if it's the type that brings crisp frost, low sun and a slight but not extreme bite to the air. I'm much, much, much less keen on the kind that's gloomy and murky and dank and damp. Unfortunately that version is common!

Not at all happy with tomorrow's forecast for the Midlands! Particularly because even 24 hours ago it didn't look like being even half as bad, and 48 hours ago it looked like sunshine and a few showers at worst. I have a free day and was planning to head out somewhere, but that's completely out now. I appreciate this is nothing but a moan, but that's one reason this thread is here! The annoying thing is that I'd decided not to go today (I could have shifted things around and had the free day today instead), yet today is just grey with light showers and would actually have been much better. Argh!

Wednesday here hit 29.0 °C, and it felt it too, though after mid-afternoon it wasn't always sunny unlike yesterday. Only three days during the July hot spell exceeded today's max, and since the outright max was 29.9 °C (twice!) if today had been even one degree warmer my 2021 high would have been in September. Still warm outside (18 °C), but there have been a few sharpish showers to bring this hot spell to an end. It hasn't been a bad one. I feel it's at least slight payback for the cold (and, in May, miserably wet) spring, when I only scraped to 20 °C at the very end of May. Hopefully the rest of September will bring some more pleasant days, even if low 20s are probably the best I can hope for now.

Spent today wandering around Ludlow. Absolutely gorgeous weather throughout, clear blue skies and very warm sunshine. I was grateful of an ice cream, though! Back here in Bewdley it topped out at 28.2 °C, my highest max since 22nd July! It's only dropped below 20 °C in the last few minutes. A true midsummer's day feel in September, not unprecedented but certainly not common!

Made it to 28.2 °C here, the warmest day since the 29.9 °C I recorded on 22nd July! Not absolutely unprecedented, as I can remember several very warm and sunny first weeks of September, but a striking contrast to most of August. Even more so in that after a bit of early mist lifted it was blue skies all the way. I was enjoying a day out in Ludlow today, and in the end I walked around 16,000 steps, not bad going by my standards considering it's a pretty hilly town. However, as I had no formal commitments, could stop for an ice cream etc whenever I wanted, and was in T-shirt and shorts, I didn't find it especially hard going. I think I might have done in midsummer with a really intense sun. Summer's last gasp tomorrow, perhaps. I shall enjoy that as well. As for autumn, I hope it's a sunny one. Later in the season at least, a frosty, sunny morning is something I really enjoy walking in. I just don't want days on end of 12 °C murk. I will never enjoy that.

A barely acceptable day here. Drizzle in the morning, then brighter but still overcast until well into the afternoon. Some sun thereafter, though not a huge amount. Didn't quite reach 20 °C, though it felt reasonably warm. As others have mentioned above, the fear for the upcoming warm spell is that it brings yet more cloudy weather. The one thing I desperately want is a day with a reasonable amount of sunshine before tea-time. Barring a couple of odd days, it seems like forever since that's happened here. Yet more muggy, overcast weather will not go down well in these parts!

Just about acceptable here this morning. Not very warm (16.1 °C) but it feels OK if you're walking and there are at least a few breaks in the clouds, though they've filled in a bit since earlier. Could be worse I suppose, and frequently has been. Useable weather at least.

Just had about 2 mins of hazy sunshine, the first sight of any sun all day. Yesterday there were a few more breaks, today has been incredibly poor. MetO text forecast for the WM goes for "Variable amounts of cloud, lifting through the afternoon, and prolonged sunny spells" - well, it's gonna have to get a move on! Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Sure I wasn't expecting 27 °C and blazing sunshine, but this is very poor fare.

Best (or least bad) day in a while here. Just crept into the 20s (max 20.4 °C) and apart from a very heavy shower in early evening it was dry all day with occasional sunshine. Tomorrow looks like an actual decent summer's day, too. Shame it falls apart again later in the week!

I was sufficiently surprised that I went out in it as a crude bit of quality control... and yep, in the rain it really did feel that bad. More recently, with just grey murk and drizzle, it's been up to a staggering 16 °C.

How I feel about this summer overall obviously depends a bit how August goes, but right now it's 11 °C, windy, dark and raining. Never mind October, this would be a pretty meh November day.

Spring 2020 was incredibly frustrating. The best spring in years and years, and we were all locked down and couldn't really do much with it! Got some nice walks in, but that was it. Having said that, in these parts at least May has had a reasonable record in terms of sunshine and pleasant if not startling warmth. Obviously not this year! The last couple of days here have actually been decent. Temps in the low 20s and a reasonable amount of sunshine. I find it hard to be too upset about that. Less good today (overcast and windy) but still. Mind you, August tends to be the month of the extended summer (ie May-Sep) that I have the lowest expectations for. September a bit less so, plus it's quieter on weekdays as the schools have gone back! I'd love a September like 2006's to round things off, but obviously the odds are against it.

Crawled up to 16.3 °C during a brief sunny spell around tea-time, but otherwise this was a day to forget. Damp and cold, so much so that I had to put a jacket on when going out in mid-afternoon. In July.

Overall? For me, this summer so far has been very much in the "average" category. Possibly I didn't have huge expectations after the appalling dross that was May, but it's frequently been warm enough that I've chosen to sit outside to eat even now we don't have to. Apart from the recent spell not much really warm weather, but that's fine by me. Too much cloud, but the Severn Valley usually suffers from that (spring 2020 excepted). Today has been supremely grotty, though. Rain lingering for hours longer than forecast and 13 °C for much of the afternoon. That really did bring back memories of May. Anyone who likes this weather, fair enough. I don't. Forecast for round here is... meh. Not absolutely awful in this neck of the woods, and 19-20 °C in August will feel fine when the sun's out. Not exactly looking like a summer that will live long in the memory, though.