Matthew.

To be fair August 2016 was better than August 2004 for settled weather. It's not all about temperature but settled sunny conditions in my view. Look at Summer 1989 for example- apart from July the temperatures were nothing outstanding but the diurnal range was much greater with warm days offset by cool nights. The most outstanding Summers in my view are the following: 1976, 1995, 1989, 1975, 2006, 1959, 1984, 1996, 2013. I don't think we're due the next one till into the 2020's really. Other close call Summers were 1983, 2003, 2014. This summer looks like being less good than 2016 but better than 2015. The worst Summers in recent times were 2012 by a long way followed by 2008.

Great memory that one WH. 1 in my hall of fame and probably the 2nd greatest in the last century.

Interesting stats above. The CC peeps did say warmer and wetter episodes will become more frequent.

The ECM charts see Low pressure domination from Wednesday with a terrible pattern for settled weather. The Azores ridge going west into Greenland. Good news longer term maybe for winter fans but August 2008 comes to mind when seeing charts like that.

Don't worry September is only 1 month and 3 days away. July looks like its going to scrape average sunshine here which I didn't think was going to happen a few days ago. Temperatures may a touch low on afternoon but a touch above on the mornings. Between the hours of 8am -8pm here's the order of the sunniest month to the least sunniest since March- 1.May 2. April 3. March 4. July 5. June

Is this based on the last weeks weather or do you keep weather records for the full 8 weeks? I can only speak for my area but poor is well out of context as this has been a reasonable summer, just slightly below par up to now. The only poor summer I can think of recently is 2012.

Fair point here. 2007 and 2013 good here but not as 2016 was. Nothing exceptional like 1995 because that was in a league of its own lightyears away.

Completely agree! The best in quite a while here, maybe since 1995. The only 2 to rival it was 2003 and 2005.

I just wonder with a busier than usual hurricane season probably on its way if this could disrupt this signal and push up ridges over the Uk with Low pressure sinking into Iberia.

Maybe a weeksworth of 30c he meant. Even the much coveted Dover couldn't claim that this summer even if they have stolen all the sunshine.

The Monsoon storm of July 6th 2017 4:30pm-6.00pm

Looks quite unusual at this time of year to see Low pressure making it across the Atlantic like the ECM has it. Might be wrong but that looks more later season polar vortex power.

Completely agree. 10 miles away there can be a great storm but have nothing locally. I tend to travel if there's something great and close. From memory summer 2007 had lots of these big shower episodes and made an exciting summer. 2006 was also good when unstable areas ran into all that heat in July 2006.

Bradford got some serious rain according to the radar. Is that on the front line moving north?

We've had 3 storms so far this year- April 1, May 27 and July 6. This includes Thunder and Lightning. Hope we see one later today, would be nice to make 4 for the year

Hopefully some nice storms later this evening. Strangely no weather warning for this

With the setup the way things are looking I think August might be poor but where yet to see a really good month here yet so I wonder it will be a really good September. Hopefully no later than October though. Then again a sunny December is possible with lying snow as this hasn't happened for a few years.

So it looks like July is going to join June with 3 fabulous days if it stays like this till the evening. I can't see a 4th coming along according to the outlook. I hope we can get another 3 in August also. Just to show how optimistic I am about September is that in 2015 we had 9 and 2016 we had 6. August 2016 we had 8.

Further to Frostys post about the ECM mean is similar to what UKMO was showing earlier so it could be a recipe for convection, maybe some homegrown thunderstorms!

UKMO is back to the idea of the Lo w over the UK again so where will the ECM take us for the weekend?

Always look forward to September as its been good for settled weather. 2015 had a marvellous last week. With mist patches to start followed by long sunny days. In 2015 and 2016 it was the second sunniest month of the year between 8am-8pm.

The summer to date here has been slightly below average sunshine and warmer than average temps so its been a pretty Normal half. I wouldn't class this as a poor summer. 2012 is the only one what stands out as being poor here since 2006. 2007 was very wet but quite sunny at times too.

UKMO has the trough keeping more to the NW and with the fresher Atlantic air after the cold front on Thursday it could stay quite sunny in the east. Nothing to complain about from this run really unless your after the Low centre

Regarding Solar activity from what I've noticed the most settled summers tend to come around solar minimum or in the middle of a solar cycle. Once again though this only increases the chances nothing more.

UKMO going for a settled start next week. Looks very pleasant. Maybe the best summer spell since 2014 on the way. No getting carried away with 2013, 2006 or 1995 just yet though