Scorcher

I just hope we are free of this annoying cloud tomorrow- it seems that only the Midlands and just slightly north of the midlands have been affected and it has surpressed the temperatures quite substantially. It seems that the West Midlands hasn't been affected as badly as your part, as Birmingham has reached 13C.

We had a surprisingly grey and chilly morning here, but the sun broke through around lunchtime and it is now a lovely sunny afternoon. It is strange that despite the sun temperatures have not risen that much, it's only 10C here at present.

You can easily tan with a UV index of 3 if you're out in it long enough. I'm not sure why people think you can't get a tan until May. Just because it's not warm enough to sit outside doesn't mean the sun isn't strong enough to tan you. Most people in this country would notice the effects of the sun on their skin from the beginning of April if the sky was clear and they were out in it long enough.

It looks like we will see a UV index of 3 in my area next week, things are looking up!

Lovely spring day here, light winds with some hazy sunshine. The temperature has risen rapidly since this morning and is now at 12C.

Beautiful spring day here, sunny and hardly a breath of wind. The sun is feeling increasingly strong too. Currently 10C here.

It really was a fantastic month and I can't imagine we will have something similar this year but I live in hope. It looks like we are going to get quite a cool start to the month in any case. Still I seem to remember March 03 starting off rather cool and unsettled before settling down in the 2nd week of the month. Virtually every day I remember waking up to the cloudless skies and it felt surprisingly warm in the afternoons. It's one of the most memorable months for me personally, particularly as I was out of the country during April 2007 which I'm sure would have been up there too. I bet it was great being in Lancaster during that glorious spring of 2003. There really is no better place to be in the spring sunshine!

Very dry indeed here, the little rain we have had has been in the form of drizzle and has not amounted to much. In these parts we have had less than a third of the average so far!

I would love a repeat of March 2003, that was my ideal month as far as March goes. There is something I love about the early spring sunshine and warmth. I am going to go for 7.3C this year.

Are nights of 5-6C really average though? The minima have made me think of spring despite the days being quite cool. The soil temperatures will have been rising over the past week or two due to the lack of frost. We have had hardly any frost here or rain. The North West has had only 32% of its average precipitation so far this month!

Cloudy again here, we really have had any of the sunshine that the South and the Midlands have experienced over the past few days! It's quite mild with very little wind but not much happening at all. Incredibly, the month has been very dry indeed in these parts. According to Philip Eden's site, so far in the month the North West of England has only had 32% of its average rainfall. What makes this more remarkable is the fact that Midlands has had above average rainfall and the South East has experienced 184% of its average figure! Probably due to the fact that the South East had far more precipitation in the form of snow than we did near the start of the month. Only 32% here and it seems unlikely we will get much rain before the end of the month, quite amazing!

Yes that's an interesting point, I always find that the night time temperatures in Continental Europe are higher in summer than in the UK. I spent a week near Lille in northern France during the 2006 heatwave and the nights were definitely warmer there than they had been in Manchester the previous week (the week when the July record was broken). I think the night time temperatures are generally warmer the further south and east you go in England during hot spells. Even during the 2006 heatwave, in Manchester we were still getting down to 18C or cooler at night. There have been very few nights that I can remember in this area where the temperature has stayed above 19C. During the 2006 hot spell, despite the temperature getting up to 30C+ in these parts during the day, it dropped rather quickly after sunset and tended to be around 21C at midnight. I think low humidity was to blame during that particular spell, which also meant that later on in the evening it didn't feel that warm and a lot of people weren't comfortable sitting out in t shirts. I don't know why British people moan about warm nights in this country, because I really don't find them that warm at all! I personally would love the temperature to stay above 22C all night during summer. The problem we have is that our houses are built to keep the heat in, so the main reason houses are so hot at night is because of the heat that has built up during the day and can't get out due to our homes being poorly ventilated. That low solar activity doesn't seem to have given Australia a cool summer. Victoria has had one of its warmest on record- how do you explain that?

Milder that expected here today, we've reached 5C this afternoon and nearly all the snow is gone in my area. There is still quite a lot left on the hills nearby though. I am far more likely to remember this spell of weather for the amount of snow rather than low temperatures- in fact temperatures haven't been that low here at all, no ice days in this current spell and no notably cold nights with -2C being the lowest temperature.

Low of 18C as well here last night. I think a lot of people overlook the fact that the nights in late August are not that much cooler than early August- of course you get the odd night with clear skies when temperatures drop into single figures but this also happens in July. There were some very cool nights only days before the July record temperature was broken in 2006.

Poor here, it's worse than yesterday. I mean it's not the worst day but I was expecting mid twenties earlier in the week and there has been barely any sunshine today or yesterday. I think it might the first time I'm sort of looking forward to summer ending as August has been absolutely grim here. The only slight positive is that the nights have been warm. I hope I never witness another summer month like this.

Thanks, pretty interesting- it looks like 2008 could end up in that list. I wasn't aware it was that bad in this area but maybe I judge a summer too much on temperature.

Better than 1954 at least! So 1954 was the worst summer according the Manchester summer index? Which other summers were notably bad?

Interesting to see comments like this after the relative warmth of the past couple of weeks. It certainly hasn't been a good summer but terrible? In my location only one day has failed to reach 20C in the last 15, and places further south and east have done better than that. I would have liked less rain and some more sunshine but temperature wise the last couple of weeks have not been terrible.

Would this come into the 'exceptional' category then?

How come it's always adjusted downwards? I can't really believe how low both Manley and Hadley are considering the recent warm spell.

I'll go for 17.5C, I'm expecting a warm month with high minima although perhaps no particularly high temperatures.

Yes nowhere near as dramatic as that!

I'm tempted to call this a 'remarkable turnaround' as many seem to do during winter when the second half of a month is much colder than the first. Around mid-month many people ruled out the chance of even getting to 16C and now it's even possible we could get up to the 71-00 average.

At the moment I think 30C may well be reached in the South by Thursday but at the moment I can't see the temp getting much higher than 30C. Still plenty of time for upgrades before Thursday though.

Surprised there is so much interest in this thread to be honest with the month running below average. I can't imagine there being too much interest in a January CET thread if the month was running above average at this point. Nothing to get excited about IMO.