OldLandRover

Like night here now, it has gone so dark. Strong winds, heavy rain and constant rumbling of thunder, so much thunder it seems as though it is just one long awesome rumble. I love thunderstorms

it has suddenly gone very dark here (just north of Brigg) and I can hear lots of thunder, a few miles south of us at the moment but just had a few drops of rain too.

Yes, it got upto 32c about midday but has since cooled off here, down to 29.7c here now. When you say thrips, do you mean thunderbugs? We've had them here for weeks. I've been taking advantage of the warm weather to sit outside to work, spent most days for the past month outside all day. Those damned thunderbugs are everywhere, my arms went black the other day when a swarm of them appeared. They even got into my laptop and somehow worked their way behind the screen glass. Flipping nightmare. They make you really itchy, especially my head after a cloud of them got into my hair, had to dunk my head underwater to deal with them.

Yes, my wife confirmed it was not my imagination. She took a photo of lawn two days ago and it is significantly greener this morning. We had a torrential downpour yesterday at about 5pm in addition to the inch of rain that has fallen overnight. So the lawn has been soaking for 14 hours. Still amazing to see how fast it can recover. More important to my wife however is the fact her veg garden has got a good soaking. She has really struggled with it this year. Crops that she has done well with for many years have failed this year. Her only real success has been with her crops of hot chilli peppers, sweet peppers, carrots, potatoes and greenhouse salad. All the peas, beans, squash, pumpkin and onions have struggled.

Typical, I just woke up to be told that my wife and kids have been up half the night due to the most thunder and lightning they've seen in years. I slept like a log through it all. Apparently it has been torrential/heavy rain for hours here. Could be my imagination but the previously brown lawn seems to be a little greener this morning

We finally got some decent rain here in North Lincs. Dark clouds and thunder rolled in late afternoon and by teatime we got a good 10 minutes of very heavy rain followed by another 10 mins of light rain. Been an odd week. We hit a high of 34.3c on the 23rd but since then it has been cooler (relatively speaking), often quite breezy mid afternoon and quite cloudy. Not had that much clear blue sky this week at all. It has looked like rain a few times but not delivered. Glad we finally got some.

It was lovely and cool last night, had dropped to 14c by time I went to bed. Best nights sleep I've had in a month

looks like MO has issues.

we've finally had some decent rain HURRAH!! Started very lightly at 7:30pm here (just north of Brigg), got heavier by 9pm and still raining now. Garden has had a real good soaking which was really needed after yet another baking weekend. We got 32.8c here on Saturday, not only hottest day of year for us but hottest day since 2011.

Hehe, yeah, I drove back from Nottingham yesterday and had light rain for about 30 mins on M18/M180, first time had to use wipers in a month, got to be a record in itself We then got light rain at home for half hour yesterday early evening. Sadly not heavy enough to do much for the garden but still pleasant to have a cool break in the weather.

We had 30c on our weather station at 4pm. Quite odd as it had been quite cool most of the day but sun finally broke late afternoon and wow, got very hot, very fast! Desperate for some rain, our veg plot is struggling!

Another amazing weekend weatherwise but could really do with rain now! (haven't needed to say that in a long time ) Our well is lowest that I can remember and garden desperately needs water.

Hi cheese, 75 and 76 were exceptional summers however there were plenty of long sunny dry summers throughout 70's and 80's. While no out right record heat, they were at least very pleasant, unlike the wet/dismal stuff we've had for many summers in the last 20 years. Indeed, my parents got fed up of spending money on foreign holidays only to find UK just as warm/dry so they had an outdoor pool built and stayed in UK. It got alot of use throughout the 80's. What we are experiencing at the moment is the sort of summers we had back then. We've actually had a really long run of good weather here this year, last two weeks of May and first week of June had good amounts of sun. Had two weeks of changeable stuff then more warm, sunny weather. Best run of good weather since 2011 for us I think. 2011 would be difficult to beat, we had ace weather from May to October, I stripped and rebuilt a Land Rover on our drive that year.

not sure where the media are getting their 'heatwave' figures from? Some UHI affected concrete inner city weather station? We've only seen a max of 24.6c today so far. Significantly lower than forecast. I'm not complaining, it is beautiful weather but hardly more than a typical summers day temperature. Actually cooler and more pleasant today than earlier in week. Having grown up in the 70's with weather like this lasting for 10-12 weeks and having to get water from military tankers parked in our street, it does amuse me that the media seem to hype 'normal' seasonal weather as some extraordinary event. I do concede that our spring fed well is very low compared to last 15 years but then we've just finished a warming cycle with its wet summers, now in a cooling cycle with drier summers so it is difficult to compare. Suspect we may have a few years now of cold winters and warm dry summers like late 70's early 80's?

wow, what a rapid drop in temps. Just 12.9c here now, that is a 10c drop in 2 hours. Kids wrapped up in dressing gowns comparing it to a scene from 'day after tomorrow'

temp plunged to 18.5c now, family have all retired indoors as feels quite cool in the breeze after being in 26c+ temps just 2 hours earlier. Still fantastic weather though compared to last few years.

We managed a max of 26.2c today, significantly cooler than Sunday when we saw 29.2c. Quite a strong breeze picked up here now and temp dropped to 22c. Not quite the hottest day as forecast but to be honest it was a much more comfortable heat and pleasant for working outdoors.

We hit at a max of 29.2c at 4:30pm, fantastic day! Spent hours in garden with kids today, actually got too hot in the end and had to escape back indoors. Thankfully Victorians knew how to build houses, it was a full 10c cooler indoors than out, like having free air con

28.5c now

what a lovely day today! 27.8c here at Elsham, just 37% humidity, glorious blue sky and no breeze. AND I just won game of life with the kids

Yes, same here, my reference to 'just' 19c was in comparison to forecast. I think we were spoilt by the glorious warm and sunny weather in May/early June. We ate our evening meal outside every night for two weeks and had peak temps of 29c. So lovely to be able to spend so much time outdoors with the family. The last two weeks have been pleasant but much cooler and often breezier by teatime.

Not very warm here north of Brigg, cloudy, grey and just 19.1c, also quite a cool breeze. It was alot warmer yesterday.

+1 Thanks for all your posts in here Knocker, much appreciated.

Yes, I'm surprised too. The latest model output shows mild conditions for most of the country, only Scotland having any decent chance of snow. Yesterday was glorious here, felt like summer was arriving :-) Of course, with a bank holiday weekend coming up and the kids on school hols you can guarantee the sun will vanish and be replaced with rain by the time we get to Friday :-( Shame because it has been so nice to be outside in the sun these last few days that I'm now in summer mode, don't want any more cold now. want to get the gazebo up and start having BBQ's :-)

It is hard to imagine any real cold weather arriving now. There is glorious warm sunshine flooding in through the windows and it feels like a warm summers morning. Didn't get much sleep last night because house was too warm. It has got to that time of year where a solid fuel central heating system is a bit of a pain, not quite warm enough weather to let the rayburn go out but not cold enough to be comfortable with it running 24/7 as it gets too warm at night.