Froze were the Days

Well 25.1c here on the Essex coast, certainly warmer than predicted at the weekend.

Augusts in general here in the south east have been okay over recent years...surprising once looking at the CET values since 2010 they've been relatively poor (only 2013/16 have been warm), I think maybe it is more of a southerly/south east thing with more of an Atlantic influence than June/July in that timescale. Just a matter of time before we see at least another warm one? 2013, 2016...2019? and as said far too early to be looking at current modelling to say August will not be good, what ecm is modelling currently looks similarish to a fortnight ago (weakish Atlantic influence).

But this month has largely been settled...the first half or so of the month we hardly had any recorded rainfall, problem is now days in our summers we experience more slow moving if not static fronts or low pressure that isn't usually Atlantic oriented, June a case in point and now the last day or so - so rainfall totals don't always tell a tale of how the month has been.

I wonder how many 'unofficial' sites there are now compared to say 30 years ago...can't help thinking that in such circumstances as per yesterday there is desperation to find the holy grail in breaking the UK record...not sure if this would have happened back in the day. Remember only last year with the weather in the news so much after last summer we found the news spouting out how it was the hottest English summer on record but if you looked closely at the stats it was actually the 4th...

Well before last nights storm activity I thought here on the Essex coast we could be in for some torrential rain, couldn't have been more wrong! we only had 2.5mm in total and today as expected cooler but still feels kind of a humid and a max of 27.2c (hardly refreshing)

Nightmare last night...power cut, no fans or anything - it was like trying to get to sleep in a sauna. Lightning was flashing all around and as there were no lights in the house the lightning showed up all the gaps under the doors and the recesses...it was like something out of a horror movie. Strangely when it did rain outside it seemed to cool the bedroom momentarily and once stopped the temperature seem to rise slightly again. Please no more of this...

Starting to rain more persistently here, continuous rumbles of thunder to the east but no lightning.

What the hell has happened!...wind has got up out of no where and a brief power cut! All the beefy storms look like they have developed on the east side of the rain i.e. North Sea (again)

Little has happened in the last hour, if anything the dark foreboding skies have dissipated somewhat...the odd rumble over the North Sea and a freshening breeze.

Yep! distant rumbles getting louder and darkening skies from the south...hopefully a few classic storms in that mass. A few areas will get torrential rain.

Metcheck Instrumentation sell the bulbs...BUT they're twice the price now when I bought them 10 years ago, gallium filled rather than mercury (safer)...don't forget hinges for the front panel. Here's mine.

Metcheck instrumentation sell them - gallium filled rather than mercury, but they're a lot more expensive now than when I bought them - £190 each but the real deal...

I'll get back to you...I got them about 8/9 years ago from a specialised site (can't remember what)

Make a little louvered wooden box painted white and buy some British Standard max/min bulbs (not cheap about £80 each) and house them in it, I'm fairly sure pretty accurate readings. Never quite as hot as inland in Burnham and where you are but fairly confident they're accurate.

I'd say that was inaccurate at Woodham... I've got 2 readings currently 32.8c (stevenson screen) and 34.6c (Kestrel 4000 handheld), but who knows with the variations and Writtle going sky high.

Chuckle...I get the same thing but at about 9.30pm most evenings! Currently a cool 32.7c here on the coast.

Writtle really is a surprise to be right up there, my sister got the day off work at Chelmsford from her office job (no air con) can see why now!

Have my doubts about some of these smaller 'stations' - 101f near Shoeburyness in Essex, that's 38c where up the road here on the coast it's just above 33c and that's with a gentle on shore breeze!

Somewhere with a tin pot station will no doubt declare 40c has been breached...not sure it will be accepted but you never know with MetO and it's alliance to get headline breaking news!, remember after last summer when strangely said (not sure if this was the MetO or BBC) it was the hottest summer on record when in fact it was only the 4th. Anyway what is the difference between the official and unofficial stations, equipment used?

Hopefully...but really not sure, it's only weather (but it's catching the headlines though).

Seems like you've had fairly cool/cold weather over the last couple of months after reading your posts - don't see much in the way of cold anomalies over the west of Canada though going by June 2019 maps of the northern hemisphere.

Thinking of doing this yesterday but got rid of the whole tray with some Pimms

C'mon mate you know you're contradicting yourself to a degree...you've been craving for very warm/hot conditions for some time (and recent summers I've noticed this too)...you can argue we've had that already this summer. Wouldn't at all surprise me if we now see a very warm August on top of this July (it's about time) which will be 2c above normal of the rolling CET series at least, it's easy to forget just how hot last July was with a 3.1 positive anomaly when all the talk was about May and June last summer.

Rising temp here on the Essex Riviera, on shore breeze has dropped since this morning. Now 31.1c

Not going to be as hot on the Essex Riviera today as we have a slight on shore breeze, temp currently 28.4c