Summer of 95

Especially considering August 2008 was supposed to be a once in 100 year dull summer month; we had a July duller two years later and a June two years after that! There hadn't been a summer month under 100 hours since 1912 here as far as I am aware until August 2008; we then had 3 in 5 summers and another three months (Aug 2010, Aug 2011 and July 2012) that only just made it over 100 in the last week. July 2010 only had about 60mm rain here (just above average): but there must have been 20 days with drizzle or light rain. It really was a stinker of a month.

July 2010 was even duller than August 2008 here. It wasn't especially wet, but save for that weekend 10-11th the cloud was relentless. There wasn't even the early morning/late evening sun we get in a lot of cloudy summer months.July 2009 was also grim- wetter than 2007, 1988 or 2012 here, and it lacked the thunder it had further east. It was up there with the very worst summer months.

Still a bit of a glow until 10pm now if it stays clear, it really is amazing how short the period is between pre-6pm darkness and post-9pm light. Only March, September and early October really.

10 days with sleet or snow falling this Winter but 7 of them were just sleet (RASN) and 2 of the other 3 were 13/14 Jan, when snow fell from 2345 to 0030. The other one, Feb 11th, only missed being a snow lying day by one hour or so despite a very brief cover (it started settling about 0930, accumulated to 0.5cm, was gone by 1130). So not completely snowless but very poor. It was the lack of low temperatures that was most extraordinary- no day failed to reach 3C and no night reached -4. There were only a couple of times when the temp stayed below freezing for more than an hour or two, a lot of the air frosts were around 8pm before inexplicably rising later in the night, equally inexplicably jumping above and below freezing all night, or a brief freeze in the hour before dawn. The 11 months and 6 days without a single day of snow falling that I had between Jan 7 and Dec 13 2011 was not beaten though.

The summers of 1998-2002 inclusive seemed like a pretty poor run at the time, with only July 1999 in that period being a decent warm dry sunny month; however they merely seem poor-to-average after the 2007-2012 horrors.

Looks like we used up all our sun allocation yesterday, despite high pressure and no wind its back to grey muck for no apparent reason, while the SE is clear. Whats so difficult about getting more than one or two nice days, it seems highs just fill with murk nowadays if they linger more than 48 hrs.

And 2012. The anticyclonic influence started in February rather than March, but it had that same pattern. What 89-90, 94-95 and 13-14 had in common was that places that normally escape the worst of the rain in westerly setups got a lot of it, e.g. SE England and the Midlands.

Been sunny most of the day: there was quite a lot of cloud around but it never seemed to find the sun. Feeling warm too

March must have been close to average for rain here. Just like last July a potentially dry month was spoilt by too much rain in the last 10 days, without the thunder most other places seemed to get. Considering the March average is only about 35-40mm it may even have been wetter. Also for sun: it had the synoptics to be a very sunny, warm month but there was a lot of inexplicable fog, drizzle and low cloud with seldom more than 2 sunny days in a row. (Even a 1035mb high right over the central UK couldn't give sunshine) April, apart from the 1st which was a mostly fine day, has been one big cloudfest so far.

Very grey and threatening again, only a little rain so far but looks like more to come. Apart from Tuesday 1st which had a good 7 hours, there's been very little sunshine for about 2 weeks now.

April 11th 1954 was supposedly the most boring day in history. Lovely looking chart though with high pressure right across UK!

Been raining for an hour or so, still hazy as anything. SE is usually a wind direction that guarantees dry, clear weather, albeit sometimes hazy/polluted. I've never known a SEly be so cloudy as this one. Apart from Tuesday which was nice at least till late afternoon, it's been as grey as a NEly laden with North Sea gunk. The pollution explains the poor visibility, but why all the cloud? It's continental air with little sea to cross, yet there's even been cloud over France in this airbase.

After a clear, clean day yesterday the muck has returned with a vengeance today. Grey murk blocking the sun all day and it smells like a chemical factory out there. Very little rain though.

Much clearer here today, the sky is blue and I can see the hills 10 miles away. That rain last night really seems to have cleared the air. Sunday and Monday were so hazy the sun could only cast weak shadows, when it came out at all.

Shallow fog first thing but mostly sunny and quite warm. That rain last night might have disappointed on the thunder front, but it has cleared that hazy muck

Yes totally indestructible- as long as it's just rain. It's belting down, but not a hint of thunder.

That blob is here, but it's just rain. You haven't missed anything!

Went grey but clearing now as the shield gets into position. Still loads of that mucky mid level stuff about, but no Cbs

Grey as slate again and spitting with rain.Not exactly promising for storms

We need to keep abreast of this situation with tits and climate change. If we start seeing Boobys in the UK then things are definitely hotting up...

Yes it is a starry night, but its weird sitting out in a T shirt and shorts pointing binoculars at things in Gemini and Cancer. Those are constellations you see on cold, frosty nights

The sun has managed to shine on and off here, but its weaker than in midwinter. It isn't the ground level haze that's the problem (though that is definitely there), but that stupid medium/high level muck that always seems to turn up in a southerly type airflow nowadays. Bits of Ac with masses of that ill defined stuff that looks like stratocumulus at altocumulus height, all turning the sky a totally unnatural blue-grey.

Sun has been attempting to come through for an hour or so, but just can't manage it .Very like those days during the last supposed-to-be-nice spell where we got that infuriating murk and fog.

Has anywhere had an Ice day this winter? Lowest max here a ridiculous 3.5C and no min below -4, both records for at least the last 25 years. No day had an average temp (of max and min) below 0, which I think is unprecedented in decades round here. The number of clear, starry nights that didn't freeze was just ridiculous- something mysterious seemed to be stopping it getting below about 2C. Hasn't been completely snowless here, briefly saw snow settle twice (overnight 13-14 Jan and morning of 11 Feb) but to less than 1cm and never on the ground at 0900 (again, anywhere?).

No sign of promised sun so far- grey as slate.