Sunny76

Sounds like April and May 1980.

People need to be less dramatic about this warm spell, the first one for many months I might add. Let’s just enjoy it! Beats weeks of dull cloudy cool weather, which is frankly quite depressing.

Yeah, but we’ve had late October warm spells before, which have been followed by long chilly winters which last until mid or late March and even April ends up being chilly. 1995 was a prime example.

I meant to say decent, not distant lol. July 18th was probably the last hot day of last summer, part from the late August bank holiday. Think it was about 30 degrees on the 18th, before the storms hit, then cooled right down and never fully recovered.

Yeah, not a distant one since 2014, although last June and first half of July wasn’t too bad, if you were in the South east that is. This winter probably made up for all the moaning since the 2013/14 period.

It’s very nice today, but I’m looking forward to the low 20s temps of next week. That’s warm enough for me not to wear a jacket.

My flat still feels cold, despite the fact it feels warm outside.

I remember the spring of 1996, following on from the very cold winter of 1995/96. Robert Miles’ ‘Children’ was the song I remember being big at the time, and went with the cold weather. It was relentless until late May, and we only had a handful of mild sunny days in between the cold trend. Then, the heat arrived in June, and if I recall, there were violent thunderstorms on the 5th or 6th of that month.

I think the spring of 1982 was sunnier and warmer than average. We came out of the cold winter by late January, February was milder than average, and temps recovered during the spring. It was quite warm in April.

Well, my hands are cold today and always feel cold when the temps are lower than 16 degrees, but mostly when the weather is cloudy and under 14 degrees.

It seems to be struggling to warm up this year. Maybe the February and early March snow and bitter temps have affected this?

Are you insane? I like the fact we’ve had more cold during the past winter and first half of March, but I’m starting to find the cold and damp rather tedious as we move deeper into April. I’ll welcome a spell of warm sunny or even above average heat in place of the cool and damp weather we’ve had to endure of late.

I agree with Staines. We’ve had way too many days and weeks of endless dull, cold and damp conditions, with only a handful of warmish days(if you can call them that, last Friday and Saturday were the only examples), and this dreary theme has been in place on and off since last mid July. The terrible second half of summer 2017, followed by a dull and depressing autumn, with only a few spells of bright days. Winter overall delivered the cold and snow, in between some milder interludes, and although February was sunny, the lack of daylight(despite the days becoming gradually longer) didn’t benefit many, because of the cold and longer nights. March is usually the time of year when our expectations turn to mild spring temps with more sun, and this hasn’t been the case for 2018. Actually, 2018 seems to be stuck in a prolonged winter. It has been depressing observing just how many people are still wearing hats and scarves, and this is coming from someone who lives in London. The people on here who find 24 degrees uncomfortable, are the same folk who were commenting about sitting in the beer garden, when it was sunny and 5-8 degrees back in February, before it was snowing, when I thought it was still too cold to be dining or drinking outside. I don’t feel comfortable sitting outside until it’s at least into the mid teens, (12-14c), and even then I’ll be still wrapped up. Sitting in the beer garden with only a t-shirt doesn’t happen for me until we hit at least 18 or 19 degrees with sunshine. And if you factor in the breeze, I’ll still have a light jacket to hand.

Another 2007 or 2011, or 12 would be depressing. 2009 or 2010 wouldn’t be too bad, as these summers at least produced some warm to hot dry spells, in between the poorer periods.

I think this summer might end up like 1982. It followed a cold snowy December and January spell. The summer was warmer than 80 and 81, but still poor overall, with lots of thunderstorms, and some hot spells in June and July.

Funny how I remember 2013 having the better August, maybe because it followed a hot and sunny July, which clouds my perception of the summer overall. 2009 started off well and June was the best month, but July 2009 was dire and August was just ok, from what how I remember it. 2016 again, was another drab summer, dull and coolish June mixed with humid cloudy days, and July wasn’t much better. August was the best part of that summer, but for some reason it hasn’t stuck in memory as anything special.

I still stand by my word, when I mentioned the fact that since the mid July storms of 2017, temperatures overall have been on the cooler side. Apart from the mini hot spell in late August and some warmish days in September and early to mid October, the trend has been on the cooler side. And I did predict that this would or could lead us into the return of colder snowy winters, much like the 2007-12 era, or 1980s. I have a feeling as we move through 2018, we’ll be seeing a few more months below average or just close to the average. If we have another coldish winter, or cold second half into 2019, then it’s probably safe to say we are entering a new cold phase, which unfortunately provides poorer summers. The last half decent August was 2013, but I guess it depends where you live. For London it was arguably the best one since 2003. 2009 and 2016 had some sunny and warm days, but also far too many days with cloud.

I was having this conversation with a co worker and he said his last summer(2017) was really good, but this was based purely on his point of view. He plays golf and was lucky to enjoy the early part of May to mid July having time off work. The weather was good, but I also have to remind him how summer 2017 fell apart after the mid July thunderstorms, which led to cooler conditions during the rest of July and produced a very poor August. For some reason he seems to conveniently forget the poor second half of summer. It was a disappointment. 2009 and 2010 started off quite decent, but were poor in the second half.

Yes I remember that period. It was the first really warm to hot week of the year, after what was a really cold May and June period and cold snowy February during the previous winter. I was in secondary school then, on a field trip and returned from Wales the weekend before. That week produced many days in the upper twenties, but by the Friday it turned very humid. I remember living in Chelsea at the time and seeing the lightning and hearing the distant thunder, around the 12.30 to 1am mark. The storms didn’t hit us directly, think they we further south towards Sussex or southern Surrey.

Maybe 2018 will bring us a sunnier and warmer August, even if the earlier part of summer is poor. Maybe the opposite to 2017, which started off well, but deteriorated after mid July.

A summer like 1995, or 83, 84, or 2013 would be great. But, with less humidity. What I don’t want is the high humidity of June 2017, with several days exceeding 30 degrees and warm to hot nights of 20 and above.

I guess we will have to wait until May this year, before any real warmth kicks in. This time last year, the weather was improving, despite still having some chilly days in between. The lack of sunshine recently has been depressing.

My prediction is, the first warm spell where a 20c is achieved, will occur before April 20th. Maybe lasting for 3 or 4 days, before another cool and rainy spell to see out the month. May will provide us with the first warm to hot spell of the year, lasting for two weeks, giving a dry heat and the air feeling fresh with northerly or easterly breezes. As May wears on, it will start to turn increasingly humid and the nights will start to feel warm. The first of the summer storms will arrive by the last week of May. Just a prediction mind!

I wonder if there’s any footage of this storm. I was really young when this happened, but do recall the sky being dark as night.

It was very smoggy and still dull in parts. It may have been hot, but I still rate 1995, 2003, 2013, 89, 90, 83 and 84 as sunnier and for having better Augusts