Uncle_Barty

Here in Bournemouth, pretty much the same. July not quite as wet as further west, but pretty dire in terms of 'feel'... 5 weeks of unsettled weather and at no time between 3 July and 7 August did the temperature exceed 22c, and rarely even 20c. June was so-so.. warm and settled first few days and last few days, not great in between. August was so-so after the 7th with a few bright sunny days. Definitely a 'below par' summer here, bordering on 'rather poor' due to the frequent long spells of windy weather that also characterised 2008.

It's been largely poor in Bournemouth too, especially 3 July till 7th August (22c not even reached in that time), though the last 10 days have been better. It sounds like it's been much better further east though. Looks like being touch and go for half decent weather for the Bournemouth Air Festival at the weekend. The Sunday was spoiled last year by low cloud and rain, hopefully not this year.......

19c here and sunny after a min of 13.8c. Light northerly. Should reach 22c here for the second day in a row after yesterday's 22.4c - the first such day to reach that mark in 5 weeks.

Desperately poor afternoon for 'high summer' here now, 14c and rain. Wind northerly 15mph, Pressure 1018mb. Only marginally warmer than a mild January day in a SW'ly LP run.

See it's 26 and CAVOK at Gatwick and 27 at Southend. Here it's 17c and looks certain to be the 35th successive "high summer" day with the max temp failing to reach even 22c here. After a sunny afternoon yesterday, it's again cloudy here, it rained a while ago and there is more rain due in a couple of hours judging from the radar.

To me, a typical british summer resembles those of 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005.. all mixed summers with good and not so good spells. 2007 and 2008 were not, in my opinion, typical British summers, and this one isnt either. Not here in Bournemouth anyway (see my earlier post). We had 3-4 decent days early in June, and a decent week at the end of that month, but apart from that it has been cool, windy - and in July - damp as well. August hasn't improved, and I've not seen any sun since Monday lunchtime, just a lot of drizzle.

Interesting that a lot of you in the SE hold the view that it's not been too bad a summer. Here in Bournemouth, it has been a pretty poor summer. It's been rather damp for sure, and like last year there have been long spells of cool and very breezy weather. June was perhaps so-so, decent spell right at the beginning before it all went wrong, and only a half decent (if rather cloudy) warmer spell in the last week saving June form being very mediocre. July.. less said the better. We have now not exceeded 22c since July 3rd - exactly a month, poor for high summer, and it has rained on all but 8 days, and on two days out of three so far this month. Even when the weather has been ok, it has usually been unpleasantly windy. Even July 2008 gave a decent spell near the end, we didnt even get that this year. Only an excellent latter 2/3rd of August will rescue this summer from the 'poor' category, and if we carry on as we have, I will assess it as 'very poor', andf the third 'very poor' summer in a row.

I wouldnt say it's a shocking chart for mid July - should be pleasant enough down here at least. You want a shocking chart for July? http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/...00120080706.gif In view of the uncertainties with the teleconnections as mentioned by GP and co, I am not taking anything from the models with any seriousness beyond 120H. A look at them suggests unsettled to the edge of FI, but then thats where we were a month ago and look what happened.

Horrid nasty little things. If there is one in my house, it doersnt survive for long, I can tell you that. I had 20,000 honey bees in my back garden last week, that wan't so bad, but wasps are just plain aggressive

Thanks very much - that has (mostly) done the trick! Have you got the time slider to work, and the postcode and box zoom? Can't get them to work on here, maybe too much to hope for?

Hi everyone, Thanks for a great site. I have a Radar subscription, and have just aquired a BlackBerry Curve 8900 mobile phone. IN trying to view the 5 minute radar page, everything appears apart from the radar pic. It worked fine on my Nokia N95. Has anyone else had problems with viewing the 5 min radar on a Blackberry? I know I have the Mobile/PDA pics but I can't get postcode zoom or the high-contrast (yellow/red etc.) scale that I prefer, only the blue-green one.

Please god no... not another summer like the last two. Had too many summer plans repeatedly ruined by the poor weather in '07 and '08. High latitude blocking.. go away please!!

I chose first weekend of July last year for my wedding - BIG mistake!! Writing was on the wall when a week before, a deep low showed up on the models, centred right over the south of the UK

That can make all the difference. Looking at the radar, there were some very heavy bursts just to the west of here and I suspect evaporative cooling may have come in to play as well.

heavy sleet in Bournemouth. Temp 2c dp 0.5, T850 about -2. Temps 5 or 6 in Channel Is so I expect them to rise here before too long.

heavy sleet in Bournemouth. Temp 2c dp 0.5, T850 about -2. Temps 5 or 6 in Channel Is so I expect them to rise here before too long. (is this SW or Central S? Not sure?!)

Needless to say - nothing in Bournemouth, and not expecting any in the forseeable future unless we get a cold easterly and a channel low. Nothing else does it for us down here except in really exceptional circumstances (eg thundersnow event 2004) In fact, I havn't seen any since feb/mar 2005, and only the thundersnow in Jan 2004 has produced anything more than the odd flake this century.

And with continued northern blocking.. if that carries on (and also bear in mind the year ends in 8 ) I'll go for 13.0. Would be pleased to be proved wrong though

Hard to say for sure whether there will be any snow here this year. Gut feeling says 'no' - there seems such an inevitability about it these days. I suppose one cannot rule out something along the lines of Feb 78 which ISTR came after a mainly mild winter.

Confirmed - No air frost in Bournemouth for Jan 08. First Jan without an air frost in my records going back to 1996. I suspect we might get one tomorrow morning, only chance for a while, methinks.

No frosts in january here either, last frost was 20 December, only had three air frosts this winter so far. No January has been frost-free here in my records going back to March 1996.

Generally rather boring year in Bournemouth. One thunderstorm in June which dumped over half an inch of rain in half an hour No ice days (indeed no ice days since Jan 97) No snow (indeed no snow since Jan 04) Some gales in the early weeks made life a little interesting but thats all. One interesting statistic.. 23.8c was reached on 14th April - this was not exceeded till August 23rd, and only August 25th exceeded 25c. The three warmest days in the year occurred outside and either side of the four month period centred on the summer solstice. Quite remarkable. As for 2008.. the past three years ending in 8 (can't remember 1968) have all brought poor summers. Will 2008 follow the trend?

I dont see 30c this side of July 20th... Here in Bournemouth we are yet to exceed 24c, and that was last reached in April...

Summer so far in Bournemouth - I'd say it's been about average.. last few days havnt been that great with sub-20c maxima and feeling rather cool and windy esp in the rain - the first week however was very pleasant. If the models verify it looks like being very mediocre over the next 10 days or so. Highest temperature remains 24c on the 14th April, however.... I'm hoping that this is going to be one of those years where there is a significant pattern change around the turn of the half year (following a rather unsettled May/June) from coolish and unsettled to proper summer weather - examples I can think of: 1983, 1987 (though it didnt last), 1990, 1997. Fingers crossed thyat it's not another 1985 or 1998.......

I dont remember the summer of 93 as being all that bad down here in Bournemouth.. mid-july I remember being wet and August was reasonable even if not very hot. I also remember the first few days of October as being especially wet with a lot of violent showers between the fronts.. also some cold days in November with one day having a subzero max. Not had one of those in any month since early 1997 here.