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Part of the reason that winter drags for me is that there's so much darkness which limits what you can do outdoors, not to mention the colder weather which is also a limitation. Having more freedom to do outdoor activities makes the time go quicker in my opinion.

I used to have my temperature sensor behind a tree but it was too shaded. I recently made a box for it based on a design I found online, then positioned the box further from the tree. The box now has sun shining on it during the afternoon. However sunlight was getting in through the holes and hitting the sensor, so I fixed plastic louvres on the box - see below. It's a bit better now but I still see artificial spikes (by up to 1C) when the sun hits the box. Would it be best to put another shield on the sensor (such as the possible ones shown below), or would this just add to the number of surfaces being warmed up? Would painting the inside of the box black be of any use? Note: the above additional shields are from other sensors I've had, and they're not good enough to use standalone! Thanks in advance

I've just devised my own silly, back-of-an-envelope scoring for the summer months based on my records. Start at 0, add one for a day with a max >20C, subtract one for a day with a max of <17C, add one for a day with no rain, subtract one for a day that had rain. Results are: Jun: 16 Jul: 24 Aug: 5 Very primitive scoring I know, but it puts August in its rightful place.

Thanks for that link - very interesting!

No worries - I just 'moved' my post to that thread. I've previously commented on the long runs of days I recorded this meteorological summer with maxima of >20C, so I'm now going to 'name and shame' the days which had maxima of <17C: 04 Jun - max 14.5 16 Jun - 16.2 29 Jun - 15.7 10 Jul - 15.8 11 Jul - 15.6 25 Aug - 16.2 26 Aug - 16.2 I don't know why I chose 17C - I just think anything below that is very poor in the south-east for a summer's day. I don't think seven 'very poor' days out of the 92 days of summer is too bad though.

Well the old Zambretti Weather Forecaster just has two options - "winter" or "summer", presumably Sep to Mar for the former and Mar to Sep for the latter. Judging from my 26 years on this planet - living in the south-east of England - I'd define the seasons as follows: Winter: mid/late Nov to end of Feb (main part start of Dec to early Feb) Spring: start of Mar to late May (main part late Mar to early May) Summer: late May to early Sep (main part late Jun to early Aug) Autumn: early Sep to mid/late Nov (main part start of Oct to early Nov) I think the astronomical start of winter is too late to be considered the start of the winter season - my birthday's on 13 December and I wouldn't say that's in the autumn.

EDIT: Removed (sorry SR - just saw your post!)

Hmm, morning cloud has lingered here so temperatures hovering around 20. Don't think they'll hit the mid 20s as was being predicted - a bit disappointing... but at least it's warmer than most of August was!

Well I recorded a max of 22.4 today - the last time I recorded a max as high as that was 7th August! That shows how rubbish August's weather was.

Didn't think it worth setting up a new thread for this question, but I've spotted some unofficial weather stations show spikes in the afternoon, presumably where the sun's hitting the instruments. Does this happen with 'official' stations too? Or is a 'spike' (perhaps up/down by a degree or so depending on changing cloud cover) indicate that too much sun is hitting the sensor?

This summer will be remembered for its sustained sun and warmth more than anything else. Plenty of days across the country in the 20 - 25C bracket, but only a few of 28+ If you enjoy sun and reasonable warmth over a long period then this summer beats last year; if you prefer having a more intense period with temps regularly in the high 20s or early 30s then last year wins.

I think a false sense of hope has been generated for an unusual mini-heatwave next week, due to the talk of Cristobal whipping up air from the continent and also the models which were originally forecasting temps into the high 20s. The reality is next week could see settled weather and temps into the low 20s, which is quite common for early September and not that unusual. It's a step up from August though!

I understand there are two types of Met Office/WMO official station - 'climate' and 'synoptic'. I believe Writtle, for example, is a climate one, while Andrewsfield is synoptic. I read on the MetO site that the climate stations mostly report daily, but I've looked some up on the Weathercast site and they all appear to report hourly, such as here. The graph seems to just reproduce the hourly data, although upon closer inspection it looks like it may use more frequent data recordings. How often do the climate and synoptic stations actually report? Are their reports widely available? I've also found this site here which shows the 'snyop' hourly data, along with max/mins, but seemingly for synoptic stations only. How do I view the max/mins for climate stations such as Writtle? Thank you!

Are the models fairly certain now about the positioning of highs, lack of southerly flow etc for next week now? Or will it depend on the exact track of Cristobal?

Yes - doesn't look like this September will be notable for its heat. Having said that, I suspect quite a few of those hot September days in that list came out of the blue... so you never know.

Those seeking heat next month can look at this for some inspiration http://www.dandantheweatherman.com/Bereklauw/Septwarm.htm

Grrrr.... it's a bit disappointing that the heat's been downgraded so much. Temps in the low 20s are definitely preferable in terms of comfort, but I was hoping the models would be right and we'd get a proper burst of heat for a meteorologically interesting start to autumn - especially after the poor August. Rant over.

GFS is keen for Friday to be the hottest day, although there's quite a contrast in the maxes between today's 06z run and the 12z run! 06z: 12z:

deleted (see post in model discussions instead)

So what sort of temperatures are realistically expected in this upcoming 'mini heatwave'? There doesn't seem to be much agreement - I assume the actual temps will depend somewhat on Cristobal's exact track? I'm in Essex and have seen forecast maxes ranging from 23 to 27 for next Wednesday. Some models are showing high 20s in the south/south-west, others aren't...

What sort of heat could these model set-ups have brought a month ago then?

August's definitely been a month of two halves. It started here by continuing the long run of days which had maximums of >20, then it fell off a cliff and I haven't recorded a temp of 20 or above for two weeks! As a result the mean max of this month is currently 2.2C below the average here. The last below-average month I recorded was November 2013 (2.4C below).

Some places got to 32/33 in July 2013 so these models could be hinting at a possible 30C somewhere then.

Welcome to Chelmsford Hopefully the tropical storm that's heading across the Atlantic (what's its name?) won't scupper the high pressure that the models are trying to forecast.

Well it seems the models are hinting at high pressure building for the start of 'meteorological' autumn, and there seems to be general agreement on that which is painting a more optimistic picture than the models were showing during August. There's no sign of a return to any heat (mid/high 20s) from what I can see, but I suppose that's going to be a rarity now we're fast approaching autumn.