Summer of 95

Winter 13-14 was as abnormal as December 2010 or Jan 1963. The wettest winter on record, a record low number of frosts, the highest low daily CET, and above all the most cyclonic January followed by the most cyclonic Feb (and any month). Not normal. Something like 1993-4 or 2000-1 is a normal winter, a mix of mild and cold, dry and wet.

Was nice between 1200-1500 with a fair bit of Sun, but ha suddenly started raining from nowhere in the past hour. Started as isolated showers but now more sustained and heavier. No sign of any thunder though, surprisingly enough.

I've gone for spring- not only can it bring all kinds of weather but it's often the funniest season here and even the most boring one can be relied on to provide its most pleasant feature- the lengthening days after months of 5pm darkness. A nice summer is very nice indeed as is a cold snowy winter, but in this sorry excuse for a climate we have neither can be relied upon. Weeks of cloud and rain in July and August or winters like 2013/14 are the pits. Autumn I've voted as least favourite simply because extreme temperatures are rare, however it is mainly October and early November that I find boring and tedious a lot if the time. Especially about 15 Oct-15 Nov which nearly always seems to be wet, cloudy with temps around 8-13C. September is OK, and late Nov can have its moments as did early Oct in 2011.

1st August last year was warm but quite cloudy: the sun didn't come out till mid afternoon preventing a possible 30C (none here since 2006). It was close but not quite. 2011 was a non event, cloudy and 5-7C cooler than further south and east.That one obviously moved far enough north, but only in the east of England : they just dont seem to affect the west like they used to.

Will it be a proper Spanish plume (30C over all England and Wales with a thundery breakdown) or a post-2006 one (30C in the SE, cloudy 20C everywhere else, and no thunder?) They always seem to be a let down unless you're in the southeast nowadays. I dont like the look of that temp chart with Wales and W England outside the heat.

Sun has been out on and off for last 2 hours but still lots of cloud around. The clearances have indeed come from the NW

Sun is attempting to come out now, if it can remember how to do so. Another completely overcast night, but as yet no rain today

We've had plenty of anomalous Junes since 1976, so far as sunshine and rainfall are concerned. More 100mm plus Junes in the last 35 years than the previous 100. Theres a June sunshine graph on the MO site; it shows a gradual decline over the last century with a particularly noticeable drop in the late 1970s from which it hasn't recovered. June really isn't what it used to be, look at all the hot ones between 1750-1850 especially. If we can manage a subzero December surely we can get a 17C plus June?

Been hard to tell day from night most of the past week... Such a waste when the sun is up for 16 hours a day yet isn't allowed to shine.

Revolting day, hours on end of that horrid fine drizzle that doesn't look heavy but soaks everything. Apart from a reasonable Monday(at least till about 4pm) and a couple of breaks on Tuesday, there has been virtually no sunshine for a week now. It's late May and feels like November.

We've had the odd hot day in August this century (9th 2003, 1st 2013, a couple in the very wet August 2004) but there really hasn't been anything I'd describe as a prolonged hot dry sunny spell in August since 1995. But for all people say about summer 2007, I reckon it was the best August here in recent years, certainly since 2000. There were two discrete spells when the temp hit the mid 20s, one on the first weekend and one around the bank holiday; in between lots of acceptable weather, ie partly sunny and around 20-22C. No washout spells, not many of those horrid cool grey days that we got a load of in Augusts like 2010 and 2011. Yes it was better than2003 which honestly wasn't that good here apart from one or two days.

Spring and winter have had one thing in common here- lack of temperature variation. While winter was almost constantly 6-10C during the day, since April 1 all bar 4 days have had a max between 10 and 19C. Not a single sub 10C max in April or May is unprecedented as is no airfrost after March. Yet this springs highest max of 22.5 on 18 May is below last springs,

I actually do think the wetness of the winter is still having an effect now. Every time it rains large puddles and areas of standing water form, disproportionate to the amount of rain that's come down. Especially noticeable in fields and gardens- our garden still doesn't seem to have dried out (I notice this each time I cut the grass). Also we had several spells of high pressure and dry air during the spring, which normally would have given weather similar to late March 2012. But often they just gave fog, mist and low cloud this time around, which seemed to me a result of the ground still being so wet, it basically formed sea mist over land. Last weekend's was the first one that didn't, but even then the temps didn't rise quite as high as they might (21-22, compare 25-26 in the similar setup ln May 2012) which I think is due to the sun using much of its energy drying the ground up. This may still have an effect on maxima in summer: it just needs the ground to dry out but the fog and cloud prevented this happening during spring's dry spells. What we really needed more than anything to dry it up was the one thing that's been absent for over a year now, a frosty spell.

Same drizzly gunk as yesterday morning, it was clear for a short while around 2am before the cloud and rain rolled back in. A summary of this month: "3 fine days and a thunderstorm, plus an awful lot of rubbish"

Vile here as well, on/off light rain all morning just got heavier. No thunder or warmth, just autumnal gunk. Only 11C and feels very unlike late May.

Thunder and lightning in Shrewsbury! Finally. About 20 minutes of really heavy rain too, clearing away now.

Been a lovely day so far, can see that Ci/Cs but it's mostly skirting south of here. Big looking storms just off Kent on the radar- could they get here? It's a long shot, but if stuff from the S and SW can't manage maybe the SE can show it how...

Well it wasn't in this direction- only lightning I've seen was flashing across the stars last night.

Just light rain now, that felt more like a squall line than a cell

Very dark to the south, just had very heavy rain and gusty wind- and one distant rumble

It's about time. Nearly 9 years since the last really good storm here (19 June 2005), while places 30-odd miles away keep getting them. Was noticeable how yesterday's storms survived crossing Snowdonia and the Berwyn, which are much higher than those hills to the south of here.

Not again please........ Why do those south Shropshire hills kill storms so well, they're not very high really. And why do they always kick off again north of here, it's like there's a forcefield.

Had a very brief shower just now, but nothing heard yet... Can that stuff by Hereford survive crossing the hills, and avoid the Bridgnorth right turn?

Yes sounds like the same one. Some flashes seemed to move more to the S here.

I did see one actually, bit longer ago than that. It was just below the Plough then there was a flash about 10sec later