Frost HoIIow

Speaking of spiders I noticed a couple of giant house spiders over the last few days. Don't normally see them in the house until about late September. It would seem they're out looking for mates a bit earlier than normal this year. I don't kill them though I just scoop it into a cup and drop them out the window as the wife doesn't like them in the rooms at all. Ordinarily I would have just left them to go about their business. Gotta be quick though with trapping it as they are very fast at darting away from you.

Heavy showers this morning and a bit cool in the breeze. Rather have this than heat.

Locally a better summer up here than 76' and 2018. I would say no doubt the best in my 72 years. At the nearest official station at Manchester airport 59 days of summer 1995 reached at or above 20C. And 29 of those reached at or above 25C. That is a pretty extraordinary amount. Maybe not so for the likes of London but up here it certainly is.

A decent day overall. Had a shower late morning which wet the ground but once the sun came out not long after it soon dried up in minutes given there was a fresh breeze as well. Not a bad outlook going forward looks like nothing too hot but just on the bearable side. Hopefully Autumn will be a wet one to give the reservoirs a helping hand. Just as long as it doesn't carry on into Winter to scupper our chances of the white stuff.

Below 50% for our nearby reservoirs on the Pennines. I think if we will have a hosepipe ban soon enough should we get another dry spell. If I'm not mistaken the Liverpool area gets their water from Lake Vrynwy in Wales and about three quarters of Greater Manchester gets it from the Lake District, those areas aren't too terrible at the minute and more than half full. The rest of us in the far eastern part of the city gets it from Pennine reservoirs which are evidently running low. You can see for yourself when you drive there as I have family that live in Saddleworth and visually when you look at them you can tell they are more than half empty.

A warm feeling day with sunny spells but it's turned cloudier now. Still a very nice day and comfortably warm.

Probably won't last long even in our normally wet region. High pressure looks like ruling the roost as go further into August and probably warming up more. Not good for the reservoirs. Atlantic dead once again. I wonder how long some places down south have gone without a drop of rain? Some of the pictures look arid down there.

Got down to 7C here this morning. Although these cool nights have been few and far between even up here too. Bar 3 nights it's stayed above 10C for the past month. Going to be a warm one here tonight, probably not getting below 17C and very wet.

A wet old night coming up and looks like the morning too. Lawnmower out once again in a couple of days as the grass is growing like mad after all this humid wet weather.

Yes despite those two brief spells you mention not the best summer overall. Way down the league. In fact I'd say last summer was "better". June was quite warm and dry and July had a full week without interruption of sunny hot weather. August not so good though but it was still a better summer than this one so far. Us in the north and also Scotland had a better summer last year than down south. A very rare occurrence.

Yes not a bad day overall. The last of last nights rain soon cleared to leave a bright afternoon and comfortably warm. More of this please.

Warm and muggy feeling today, high of 21C. A bit of moderate rain first thing this morning and early afternoon and probably more tonight but that doesn't matter as most people will be inside anyway. But it should help the reservoirs even a bit as they do badly need the rainfall.

Another mostly dull dreary day. A bit of rain this morning, tomorrow not looking good on the sunshine front. Noticing the nights slowly drawing in now, nothing significant at the moment but it's clear we are on the long road to Winter.

If I could sum up summer so far I'd say average. Apart from that record breaking freak two day heatwave it's been fairly non descript and not a summer that would stay etched in the memory for most people, not overly wet ala 2012, but at times it's been notably dry, temps around average with not many overly cool days. Looks like carrying on that way into at least the first part of August.

Last Winter Athens Greece. Certainly not the 1mm sugar dustings that we usually get here

How come they begin to change so early as average max temps are 22C in Edmonton in August and mins 11C? Are the tree types different over there or is it late spring frosts doing damage to the already opened foliage? here our August max average is 19C and mins are 11C yet I don't think I've ever seen the leaves turn in August before. Must be other factors at play as to why they turn so early over where you are.

September definitely the most boring month. Air frosts are rare, Atlantic storms are quite rare and zero chance of snow away from the highest Scottish mountains. It's basically an extension of summer temperature wise minus the long daylight, especially early and mid September. The only good thing about September is you notice the leaves change towards the end of the month. At least in March and April you can get all of those above weather conditions. October things get a little bit more interesting with chances increasing.

Too many people smoking weed before driving thinking it's not as bad as drinking and it's true it probably isn't but it can still cause intoxication and drowsiness, not the best combination if you need to be alert on the roads. Can smell it everywhere these days, I'm all for legalising it as it does have some health benefits but probably best to smoke it when no driving is planned.

Another dull damp start today. No doubt the sun will peak out in the evening it usually does to rub it in.

Nothing hot on the horizon thankfully but no washout either, high pressure nudging in for a time and pleasantly warm the order of the day, temps low 20s. Suits me just fine. Another two to 3 weeks from now and heat doesn't have the same amount of clout due to less solar strength. We are slowly moving towards the Autumn and then perpetual Autumn...sorry Winter After last November's decent snowfall I was hoping the following Winter was going to be good, the signs were there beforehand but it turned out to be rubbish with I think one brief light covering one morning.

I think we're pretty much on the same northerly latitude. I love cold but the only thing I don't like about up here is how early it starts to go dark near the winter solstice not long after 3pm, if it's a dull wet day, which is often the case in December it can start a bit earlier than that...feels like you have the lights on most of the waking day if you're at home. At the other end of the spectrum I think we get too much daylight around the summer solstice, gets light too early for my liking, some might like that though. But it's even worse for the likes of Shetland where they stay in civil twilight all night long in the north of the island. Once we get to mid August I think we start to get into near perfect balance of daylight/nighttime.

Well I think the drought is well and truly over here. Torrential rain for the last hour.

Much needed rain here today but don't think it'll be enough to fill the reservoirs. Still need a week of it but can't it happening. Looks like turning warmer and drier in the medium range with the Azores influence but thankfully not a furnace again.

A comparison Ed. These people can do what they want in all spheres.

If you can influence public thinking then it's a gold mine to these billionaires and too irresistible to just ignore whilst getting even richer on top of it with key note speeches and lots of other involvement that gains financial rewards (not that they need any more money but they still carry on and travel on private gas guzzling jets). With such a vast amount of wealth they think they can dictate public and government policy and to a degree they get listened to and taken on board.....not because they have amazing ideas but because they are super rich. Money talks and they can get away with literally murder as well. Look at that Jefferey Epstein guy who died in a very strange way. Most people think he knew a lot of bad stuff about the elite and he simply had to be got rid of before he dished the dirt on them, I guess we'll never know 100% but I think someone went into his cell and got rid of him whilst pretending the CCTV footage was "erased by mistake". Prince Andrew was just a tip of the iceberg who visited his island.