Azazel

I’ve definitely learned to keep my mouth shut this summer and not tell friends/family it might be hot next week etc - the forecasts have been horribly unreliable at anything more than like 3 days out.

ahhhh the heat is gone for next week and the storm potential for my area has shunted off to the east. 3 summers without a storm - the central south is possibly the worst location in the country for convection - what a painfully boring summer this has been.

lmao what happened to the hot weather next week? Opened my weather app and its all gone - again.

Feels summery today

Don't I know it haha. Not looking forward to that part - its the norovirus that really scares me. I haven't had a stomach bug since 2010 but I fear that run will soon be coming to an end

It's mostly cloudy here.

Vitamin D is strongly correlated to good immune health. A lack of it can also cause things like fatigue and stuff like that. I started taking it routinely around the pandemic and I have to say, since doing it, I’ve had 2 proper colds (and covid) - in the years prior I would probably get 3-4 colds per winter and repeat sinus infections. Haven’t had one since. I’ve also noticed when I DO pick something up, the duration seems to be shorter and I’m able to shake it off quicker. I used to catch everything going - and because the missus is a nurse she would often bring home colds which I would constantly catch - in the last few years since taking vitamin D supplements Ive managed to not catch stuff somehow which is bizarre for me!

Definitely agree with getting outside - just wish there had been more sun. I take vit D tablets until April/May at which point I try to maintain my levels through sunshine until October - this year sadly I had to take them all the way up until June and once the grot set in I had to start back on them.

I would've just liked some more calm/sunny days around the 23/24 mark so we could've done more things outside with the baby/gone for nice walks etc. On the plus side from a personal point of view - I've not really had to worry about keeping him cool (apart from for a couple days in June) so I guess that's a good thing. I am feeling a bit better now thank you! Gonna be a while before I shake off this rank cough though! May was dogs**t here until the very very end.

I feel similarly - like I never really came out of "Winter hibernation" mode and it feels too late now to come out of it even if we have a really nice spell of weather because Autumn is just around the corner and all the signs are already there in nature etc. I genuinely worry about my ability to cope mentally with another 8 months of dross until hopefully something nice next May.

Here its been a sort of breezy, mucky, soupy, patchy nothingness for the vast majority of days with the odd sunnier day here and there mixed with some absolutely abysmal days that wouldn't be out of place in November. Another reason I guess people could perceive this summer as being extra bad is for our recent propensity to get "stuck" in patterns that last for weeks (months in this case) on end. Had June and July's weather been broken up and mixed together (3 lovely days then 3 duller/wetter days) it probably wouldn't have "felt" quite so awful - but because we got like 3-4 weeks of the good stuff early on and then like 7 weeks solid of utter s***e it feels way worse.

I genuinely couldn't find anyone in my real life. Granted, some of my friends don't fare well with extreme heat (even I personally don't fare too well when it gets really hot) - but even they've been moaning about the constant dullness and dampness. And putting all that aside for one second - there has been zero convective interest in this part of the world for the entirety of summer - for the third year running. At least 2022 had glorious warm temps so I could forgive the lack of storms. 2021 was also pretty woeful - I didn't see any summer storms but did see a strong funnel cloud from a convective shower. 2020 only had ONE storm in the summer and that came in mid-August, so it's really nearly 4 years without a notable storm here in summer (July 2019 being the last time). A definite shift in our summer climate over the past few years - and not for the better.

I need to scroll back to my comment at the start of July when I said the rest of this summer will be s***e and you can quote me on that. Doubt any apologies will be forthcoming To be fair I was wrong anyway - I said we would probably see short lived, transient bursts of heat but somehow the rest of summer was even worse than my most pessimistic prediction.

Yeah that’s the issue - I would love a proper settled autumn with atmospheric mists and fogs but we won’t get it. We’ll get 60mph depressions with driving rain instead.

I've tested negative twice so apparently not!

We had to put our garden furniture away a week or two ago as it's just getting ruined by the relentless moisture and rain. Barely got to use it at all this year.

Yeah this cold is a humdinger alright - probably the worst I’ve had in quite some time. I felt a bit better on Friday but absolutely awful again yesterday and finally a little better today - went down tesco to pick up a prescription which was a mistake. Thought I was going to faint in the queue. The cough is rank - feels a bit like bronchitis.

Absolutely - 2007 and 2012 both had storms in amongst the rain - 2021 was also a pretty terrible summer but I saw some storms and a really solid funnel cloud. This year though it’s just been beige.

I agree with that - my summer I basically include May as that can often be a wonderful month weather wise for both heat and storms but spring was just diabolical down here.

Alright so seeing as the warm spell for next week has downgraded/disappeared I think I can give my final summer 2023 rating. Im gonna give it a 1.5/10. My rating system is simple really - out of 5 for heat and out of 5 for storms giving a total out of 10. The June spell was really quite pleasant though and I can’t really have many complaints about it. Never stiflingly hot but very decent weather all the same with some evenings where I could sit outside and enjoy the warm weather. Everything since has been utter drivel. No storms and bar one day in July, no heat either. The most pointless summer in my lifetime. So to summarise - it gets 1.5 out of 5 for heat and 0 out of 5 for storms. I hope we never see another summer like it. Completely devoid of interest and worse than 2007 and 2012 in my location in my opinion.

Thank you - yes exactly this. I was kind of hoping it was covid (maybe it is and the tests are funky) so I would be less likely to catch it in the winter but I guess I have that to look forward to too now!

Get well soon! I’ve tested twice as I still had some tests locked away but they’ve come back negative. I feel awful though and it’s definitely the worst bug I’ve had since legit covid the first time round - shortness of breath/chest tightness has been a bit unsettling though my blood oxygen seems to be normal. Horrible dry cough too!

I definitely think there is life out there. Obviously for aliens to have visited us on earth they would need to be extremely advanced - which makes me wonder if we would even be able to comprehend their presence. There could be one sat right next to me right now. Also, would they even be able to communicate with us? The evolutionary gap between us would likely be as large, if not larger than the jump between ants and ourselves - we can’t communicate with ants so how would they communicate with us?

Hornets on the other hand are absolutely monstrous to look at but seem kinda chill and will leave you alone (unless you aggravate them somehow). We have one that seems to visit our garden every autumn (probably not the same one) and it fills me with absolute terror but it’s never had a pop at me or anything. We had wood wasps in our garden one year and I had never heard of or seen one before so that was quite the shock when one flew into my face. I locked the door I was so rattled

Some more thunderstorms than the none we’ve already had down here would be interesting at least.