BlueSkies_do_I_see

I'm looking for settled, sunny weather all the year round. Happy enough with cold winter days with plenty of sunshine. For me the switch to warm weather hunting starts during mid March to early April. That's the time you can be realistically be chasing the magic temperature of 18C when you can throw open your patio doors and the temperature inside and out is the same.

Expect to see records tumble this year. I wouldn't be surprised to see another warmest month on record broken, if not more than one. Ask yourself this. If someone told you that 40C would be breached again this summer, would you be that surprised? I would put the odds at 1/3.

@cheeky_monkey yes I would love to visit somewhere for a snowier winter. Ita one of the downsides to living in lower areas of England. Virtually no snow now. This latter half of Jan is super mild. If it can't be below zero and snow, be dry warm and calm winds for me.

Thanks for the tip. One day I will be taking a campervan all the way down that coast when I retire. It's pricey i'm but tempted to shell out the ferry to Bilbao or Santander sometime. Is there a beach around there that you rate?

@In Absence of True Seasons Thanks for the detailed reply. It is much appreciated. I prefer not to fly when I can help it, and love to take a load of beach stuff in the boot anyway. My personal thinking is that most Augusts (barring the odd one such as 2023) are going to be pretty warm from now on. I guess it comes down to preference. I lucked out in Aug 2022 and sat on the beach with 3 successive days of 27C. That's more typical of somewhere like Île de Ré. I'd be happy with 20-21C, as with those temperatures you can still do the sight seeing and coastal path walking. The best bet for that is the UK. If you want 2 weeks by the beach / pool and then eat out in the evening, further south in Europe is a better bet.

About to book my summer holidays What do you think the odds are of us having a head wave again in July and August this summer like we did 2022? My favourite place is Western France because I like the warmth, but if it's going to be another scorchio British summer, I might as well save the £800 on the Brittany ferry and head to Devon or Cornwall again. Yes, I know I can get cheaper shorter crossing to places like Dieppe and Calais, but that leaves a longer drive for me.

I was happy as a sandboy last week with the crisp clear air and frozen ground. It's what winter is meant to feel like, at least some of the time. This stormy weather is less welcoming and I'm now on the countdown to meteorological spring and something approaching 16C, sunny and calm. 38 days and counting. I'll move heaven and earth to get out of January in the UK in the future.

What is the sunniest January on record? I ask because the remainder of lanuary is looking sunnier than average and last week was very sunny, so I am guessing hours of Jan 2024: sunshine is running quite high right now.

The weather from Sunday onwards is looking incredibly mild 21-31st is the daily max reaching 10C + every day, peaking at 14C on the 23rd for my location in Coventry. If that came off, we couldn't be far off record high 2nd half of January temperatures. despite this current cold snap?

I would put very good money on this pattern occurring. Our weather is becoming predictable unfortunately. I am enjoyed the long dry sunny spells this month though. Happy to get used to those!

Jan slightly below avg CET The rest of the year above avg CET Weeks of predominantly dry weather followed by weeks of predominantly wet weather. Summer will have several heatwaves with 32C plus with one tipping 38C. Very dry at times, but with periods of intense downpours and severe storms. September very warm, switching to very unsettled. Rest of autumn with periods of well above avg temps and storms Very cold end of Nov and beginning of December but then mild, v wet and stormy. I hope I am wrong, but that's how l see 2024 and most years after that playing out.

That was quite a drop from 8.2C the day before!

3 out of every 5 years, will be averaging 11C from now on. Quote me on here and tell me I was wrong in 2028.

I don't mind cold and clear like we have had this week. Rain bands are less welcome but tolerated as long as it's shortlived, i.e a classic Atlantic driven weather - cloud and rain followed quickly by sunshine. What I struggle with is our stuck weather patterns, especially when we get stuck under a succession of rotating low pressure systems that seem to last for weeks, with no glimpse of the sun.

Oct 2023 is definitely going to be joining this Top 17 group.

As someone who suffers with seasonal affective disorder, these sunny days are like free medicine for me. Having a warm and sunny Sept , Oct, late Feb and March with something wintry in the middle would go down nicely.

In my retirement I plan to chase these autumn 18-25C temperatures as much as time, health and funds allow. If I don't always have to cross the English channel to do it, it is going to be a lot easier and cheaper!

My dream climate would be beach one weekend and skiing the next during December. There aren't many places that you can do that. Northern Spain, maybe? Barca and Andorra are only 2 1/2 hours apart. Here in the UK, the climate is fast becoming 1960s Mediterranean in SE Eng. I still think we will see a sudden swing from extremely mild to extremely cold. It happened in Dec 2022 and I am expecting the same thing this year.

Thank you for that Roger. It feels like a less extreme repeat of September. A strong spike in temperatures and then the rest of the month petering out. We shall see. It was never likely to see two record breaking CET months in a row. Have there ever been 2 or more month records broken in a calendar year?

Can anyone make an estimate based on current GFS output what our projected CET running total would be into mid month? I would do it myself, but I don't know how to!

What caught my eye on that map is that Glasgow (1370mm) receives twice as much annual rainfall as Edinburgh (685mm) does despite only being 41 miles west of Edinburgh (as the crow files.) Sorry tagged the wrong post. I meant danm met office precipitation map above

The Met office app is surely glitching?. Take a look at the BBC Weather App. Sunshine forecast aplenty for Nottingham. One of them has to have some kind of programming issue? I would say it's going to be somewhere in between.. sunny intervals.

Completely agree. I can't deny a love of driving. I've driven all the way round Australia in my youth, but as I get older I plan to explore more by train, especially Eurostar. That's one of the lowest emission ways to get long distances quickly.

I bought a 2nd hand Nissan Leaf 4 years ago Some of the things I have liked about it:. It's way cheaper to run than an ICE. Been stung many times with big bills fixing my petrol car, but the EV has only cost me some new tyres and a window wiper blade so far. I'm not sweating on the cost of petrol creeping up again every time I go to fill up. I am on a overnight 9p Octopus Go tariff and it is very cheap per mile of driving compared to driving my petrol. The car is super speedy in acceleration. It feels like driving a giant go-kart. It's so much fun to drive a compact EV. If you haven't already, you will at some point in the future no doubt, and you'll see what I mean. This performance doesn't diminish as the car ages, unlike an older ICE car does. It is great is to be able to sit in a car park on a super hot day with the A/C running full blast, windows up and stay cool. You don't have a running engine polluting everyone's lungs in the car park. It's been great not having to pay road tax, but obviously that honeymoon ends in 2025. I understand it needs to come in as more EVs enter the system At some point in the future a government will enforce new builds have solar panels. This government sadly haven't, but hoping a future one will. That will instantly make recharging cheaper still. Hopefully prices will come down and better batteries will develop. I accept the arguments about the mineral extraction and the fact car tyres still create pollution as they wear on the road and that the initial costs of purchasing are higher. I can't wait for the day you can buy a new EV with a 400 mile range for less than £20k. I believe that day will one day arrive. I don't buy new cars, but I will be keen to pick up a 3 year old one when the day happens.

I would like to see an animation showing how July panned out for the UK and Western Europe but I don't know how to do it? Is someone able to post something?