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You can't really say they were just as cool "if you take out these few days". The point is, in the past there weren't as many "these such days". It doesn't change anything at the end of the day, they are still seen as rotten summers. However, the fact is that although they are cool by recent standards, they don't compare to past summers. Another fine example is the 1960s: seven summers of that decade were cooler than 2012 and only 6 out of 30 of the summer months were above 15.5C on CET. Wet or dry, that would surely have people up in arms these days!

I think summers like 2007 and 2012 were seen as so poor because they were so wet. The 1985-1988 summers were most notable for how cool they were, something which we would struggle to attain nowadays I imagine. I suppose if 2007 and 2012 were 1C cooler on average then no-one would have noticed, they'd have been perceived as being just as poor. Likewise there are several 'good' summers from the past which wouldn't be much warmer than 2007 and 2012. I guess that's the way of things. Similar weather as before, just with temperatures on average a degree or so higher.

1985 is probably the worst here, though 1985-1988 were all pretty dire. They were all wetter than average and cool, but 1985 just wins out for the worst. For an idea of how bad 1985 was, just 13 days topped 21C all summer here. The August came in with a mean at 15.0C, which seemed bad until August 1986 sunk even lower with 13.7C! In total, in the four summers between 1985 and 1988, only 11 days surpassed 25C here. Less than this July which had 14! All four had a mean temp of at least 0.5C below 2012. I couldn't imagine the reaction if we had such a summer nowadays. I doubt its even possible now though to be honest.

GFS 06z would leave us on 18.6C here to the 29th. The warmest August I've ever recorded was 18.5C in 1990. Summer would then likely finish on 17.7C.... ...both 1976 and 2006 were 17.1C.

We just had 12.6mm from that thunderstorm that passed over. We'd only had 4.2mm or rain so far in August before that.

So not "barely above 17C by Wednesday" then? Calls of this August being poor are premature. There's only been 11 Augusts above 17.6C in the entire CET series and we're looking to be at around 18C with less than 10 days of it left.

0.6mm of rain here since midnight, taking us to 2.0mm for the month. GFS only has a further 19mm here until the 27th and it nearly always overestimates. Still a good chance of a dry and warm month.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'not that high'? Even if August finishes on 17.0C it'll be the 3rd warmest summer in 360 years. Even a 16.0C finish would make it the joint 7th warmest. The outlook though not as warm as the first week doesn't exactly look below average either.

I think it's too early to write off August yet. There's been a gradual downgrade of the rainfall and upgrade of the temperatures expected recently. GFS 12z has us here with 21C or above everyday and only 14mm between now and the 19th. I think by the end it'll be respectable.

This is how the memory plays tricks though. In 1975, 1983 and 1995 the Junes all had a CET of 14.7C or below. In the cases of 1983 and 1995 they were actually pretty average overall temperature-wise. They also came after close to average or cold Mays (9.9C, 10.3C and 11.6C) Its extremely rare for heat to last much longer than 7-8 weeks through a summer in the UK, which is why 1976 is so highly rated. Even so, despite the more changeable outlook, its very likely August 2018 will still be quite a way above average by the end, which would ensure 2018 finishes in the tops ranks of summers.

I can assure you, it wasn't 70F on the last weekend of September 1969. The last weekend in October (as I mentioned before) however: October 1969 was the warmest in the CET series until 2001. Whether you're interested in stats or not is irrelevant, that's what happened.

After a cloudy and muggy night it was a sunny day with variable amounts of cloud. The max temp of 29.1C was the warmest in August here since 2001. The sunshine total for the month is now 67 hours already. Max Temp: 29.1C Min Temp: 16.7C Mean Wind: 10mph SW Max Gust: 16mph Sunshine: 12.0hrs Rainfall: None Currently mostly cloudy with a temp of 19.7C and 72% humidity.

I think you must be thinking of the end of October 1969 into November, as October that year was exceptionally warm (13.0C CET), with a very warm spell at the end, followed by a cold November (5.4C CET).

Up to a total of 831hrs of sunshine since 1st May here now - pretty much 8½hrs of sunshine a day over a 3 month period. Exceptional.

I've added in the rough figures for you. I used the graph so they might be 0.1C out or so.

Summer 1995 didn't get going until July though. June 1995 was cool, it only reached 20C here on 5 days and had nearly as much as rainfall as the entire summer of 2018 so far. This year its been very good right from the start of May.

Regardless of how August turns out (and lets be honest it isn't looking bad at the moment), this summer will definitely go down as one of, if not the best, especially if you include how May turned out beforehand. So far we've had (using the Metoffice UK-wide figure): May - sunniest on record, 23rd driest, 2nd warmest June - 6th sunniest, 9th driest, 3rd warmest July - 7th sunniest, 19th driest, 2nd warmest To get such consistent warm, dry and sunny weather for three consecutive months in this country is exceptional. If people aren't satisfied with this summer then nothing will ever measure up.

A hot and dry day with long periods of sunshine, especially mid-afternoon onwards. The maximum temperature of 28.5C was the warmest in August since 2001 and 4th warmest since 1980. The sunshine total from 1st May - 2nd August stands at 796hrs compared to the long-term average of 591hrs. Max Temp: 28.5C Min Temp: 16.8C Mean Wind: 10mph W Max Gust: 18mph Sunshine: 9.3hrs Rainfall: None Currently mostly clear and very warm with the temperature still at 24.2C.

We reached 28.5C in the end, making it the warmest August day since 2001 and the 4th warmest on record going back to 1980.

Very warm today, up to 27.2C so far. That makes it the warmest August day since 2007 and 7th warmest in the last 21 years, which says a lot about how very warm days have been rare in recent years in August.

So we've had: April - 24th warmest May - 18th warmest June - 18th warmest July - 3rd warmest Bearing in mind we're talking over a period 360 years, that's a pretty prolonged warm run. If we can muster an 18.2C August (7th or 8th warmest) then we'll have the warmest summer on record, beating 1976.

On Wetterzentrale, the max is 51C that day in Portugal! The previous record temp set there in 2003 was 47.4C for reference. The European record is 48.0C aswell. If that's accurate and taking into account GFS often underdoes temperatures, its going to blow the previous record out of the water. Its very dangerous heat too.

If we got to that point by the 10th, assuming July finishes on 19.0C after corrections, we'd only need the remaining 21 days of August to average 17.2C for 2018 to be the warmest summer on record.

Warmer and drier than average: 17.7C and 50mm

An outside chance of 40C according to the high-res GFS min/max temp chart. I don't think I've ever seen a 38C on these charts before: It would be interesting for sure, but I'd be happier if temperatures like that vanished on the next run!