Summer of 95

Belting it down again. Must have been raining 18 out of the last 24 hours now...

Sun has been out since about 3, saw a few drops of rain the other side of town but nothing here. A summer month that's much drier and sunnier than average at last! (Last month was much sunnier, but only just made it as drier).

The lowest maximum at Shawbury this month is an amazing 19.1C: I'm pretty sure that's higher than 2006. In the cr@p summer years weeks could pass without topping that figure, some months only had 2 or 3 days that did. I also noticed that this months sunshine so far is more than July and August combined in 2010, June and July in 2012.

A beautiful afternoon after it threatened to cloud over this morning. This month is way ahead of last July now.

25C days in August have been as rare as hens teeth here since 2007, with only the 3rd in 2011 and 1st in 2013 topping it. May and September have done it more often since then, and the 1st of October 2011 was hotter than any August day between 2004 and 2013. And September sunnier than August seems to have become the norm since 2006, happening 5 years out of 9 since, including in 2008 when September was the dullest since 1993. We are seriously due a decent August!

Had clouded over by 10am, but only a few spots of rain. Looked like it was clearing an hour ago but gone dull again. Got to 22C but otherwise a disappointing day-the first for ages.

My garden has plenty of vegetation but the thermometer in the shade there still reads 1-2C higher than Shawbury 6 miles away on most summer days. Also it doesn't get as cold on many clear winter nights. In rain and wind or cloudy nights its very similar though. Wish I could find records from Preston Montford to compare- that site seems quite a bit warmer than Shawbury from the limited data I've seen. And theres the breeze- Shawbury often reports 10mph or more when theres hardly a breath of wind here. That seems to be part of the reason for its lower temps in summer. It is rural but I wouldn't call it exposed- if anything its sheltered by low hills to the N.

Just looked at the sun figures on Roger Brugge's site- Shawbury has made 200 hours in successive months for the firsts time since the electronic sensors readings started in 2002. Last time it happened under the old sensors was June and July 1999.And there has been more sun there in this past week than in all of July 2010 or June 2012.

Sun has come out well this afternoon, feeling warm again. 22C or so with sunny spells seems to be the default temperature/weather this summer, which is back to the pre-2007 standard. Hope it's back for good

Not a drop of rain here, a mostly sunny day and warm again

Lots of sun again, some Cu bubbled up and a thin Cs and sheet passed to the south an hour or so ago. Over 25C again, but just looking at the satellite Im wondering what that stuff is to the east? Not north sea cloud cos its showing up on infrared, is it just haze or something brewing?

28.2 currently, very nice but still dont think it will make 30. Maybe tomorrow? Lovely day again with only a few clouds, if it can carry on next week this will go down as a good July as well.

Lovely day here, up to 25C about already with just a few bits Ac, Cs and Cc and smallthe Cu quickly drifting over E-W. I see Wales is clouding over again though, noticed this the last couple of days too- strange.

I was going to say power station smoke- it has the characteristic "puffs" that can look like small cumulus, as opposed to fire smoke which is one continuous haze. I looked at a satellite pic of Ukraine the evening of the disaster, most of the country and adjacent parts of Russia were completely clouded over. Looked like a weather system of some kind.

Another beautiful day, few Cu which are blowing over instead of hanging around . Currently 27C despite the fresh east/northeast wind. Dare I say it, this is turning into a good summer. August please, please don't spoil it like you did 2006!

Much clearer since 3pm or so, still some Cu but sky above now blue rather than white.

Been disappointingly cloudy/hazy since about 10am, sun is trying to come out but is finding it hard. You can feel that it will get warm if it does manage. Do one, cloud!

Look on the city data forum for examples of people calling summers with an average high of 25C "a bit cool" or places with 700mm annual rainfall "too dry". 250 hours in a month "too much sun". And insisting New York is "subtropical". Mediterranean climates seem to be their idea of hell.

Just rain here now, but getting darker to the south.

That's more promising- on last night's lightning map you could just about trace the length of the A49 Since the last rumbles about 7am it's gone decidedly dank and dull, with not much rain. Humid but nowhere near as warm as forecast.

Thundering again here- really long drawn out rumbles. Rain was torrential 10 mins ago but eased off a bit now.

Thunder and lightning been going on for nearly 2 hours here now, but only been raining for about 30 minutes. Seen lots of IC and a couple CG, in all directions including overhead. Longest lasting storm for several years.

Fork lightning! First time in years- followed by an instant thunderclap. 2 overheads in 24 hours!

Started raining here, still flickering around.

Only 3-5 seconds between lightning and thunder, but it still isn't raining and the thunder is a really low boom, like a distant jet or train, not the loud crashes we had this morning. Seems to be jumping from cloud to cloud to another cloud as its illuminating a large area.