Bottesford

24.4c the summer max on 5th July for me. Highest of the year was 26.7c back on 28th May. Similar summer records to 2007 really.

Cool, drizzly and grey... 13.2c. A typical October's day...

Of course this summer has been dire but at least up to now it has felt fairly warm & humid so even though the skies were slate grey with water coming out of them it has not felt cold. However today has changed that. I got home to a chilly house, the warm slippers have replaced the sandals and socks (bare feet this summer I think not!) and upstairs windows remain firmly closed (downstairs not been open since May). It's 13.7c at the moment - lower than I'd like to see at any time of day in summer never mind only 10:20pm. It goes from bad to worse - wet, grey and now cold too?!

Be careful what you wish for eh! :lol: For a summer lover its the equivalent (to a winter lover) of 8-13c day & night with constant cloud & rain off the Atlantic - running from early October to mid January (so far) with a two week break for some decent frosts in late November. Just the odd light frost thrown in from time to time to break it up...

Anyone mind if I rename this topic to have inverted commas around it? 'Summer' 2012 :lol:

With almost 40mm here today we're already on to beating most of those figures by the 6th!

Very heavy rain here - we've had 23mm (12mm in last hour) since around 4am and no sign of it slowing down. Roads were flooded and the river right up when I was coming in so dread to think how it'll be in a few hours. Hopefully no proper flooding although its looking that way. This is dangerous weather for sure.

Moderate to heavy rain that kept waking me from around 4am. A complete soaking on the way to work and I swear the bus shelter advert with a nice looking beach & blue skies in Lanzarote just put two fingers up at me & laughed...

We've had 3 weeks of 'good' weather this year (1 in March and 2 in May) with the majority of the decent weather avoiding weekends and holidays! I remember March - lovely mild to warm weather all week during work time (before clock move so getting dark not long after getting home) then turned to complete cack the moment we hit Friday evening. I then had a week off work where it snowed & was horribly cold & wet all week forcing us to cancel our trip away. Then May. 2 week warmth was fantastic but managed to disappear just in time for the bank holiday weekend which was absolutely awful at times. Still at least I got two weekend days of good weather in that spell - and with the longer days some chance to enjoy it in the evenings. The last time we had 'hot' weather was last October which still beats any max so far this year! Very poor indeed.

Yes last summer was dry but it came in the form of cloudy, dry weather with low maxima and high minima. For me that counts as a poor summer albeit not as poor as this one (so far).

I'm so glad we cannot control the weather. Can you imagine the wars it'd start?!

Well I can certainly attest to weather and time of year having a large impact on mood & happiness levels. I could probably draw a graph of overall well being vs time of year which would peak somewhere around May to July and hit rock bottom from the end of October to December, then a short jump for xmas before falling back. It then climbs steadily to May again. I would suspect the low points for most people (I know there are exceptions who prefer dark, wet & winter but I would argue they are the exceptions overall) are caused by a few factors. These apply both to winter vs summer generally as well as poor vs good summer weather: - Lack of daylight (or sunlight in poor summers) Getting up before sunrise is not natural. Coming home after sunset is very unpleasant. Only seeing your home in daylight two days a week is horrible. Some people don't see *any* day light Sunday afternoon to Saturday morning. This is not healthy. Lack of sunlight in poor summers brings you down and the rain makes you feel trapped inside. - Lack of exercise and poor diet. Lets face it - most of us do less in winter/poor weather and eat more. An after work run is not possible or desirable in the dark, the car beckons on a cold, damp & dark morning and Sunday afternoon cycle rides are replaced by films & computer games. Look at winter food - stodge & over rich stuff. Even ales in pubs tend to favour dark, rich ones over the lighter pale ales of summer. A diet high in fat/sugar coupled with no exercise will make you feel tired, lacking in energy and have a poor mood. A healthy diet with fresh veg coupled with plenty of exercise will make you feel good. You also need more sleep in winter but most of us don't have time to get it. In summer I have surplus of sleep time so end up getting up earlier. In winter the opposite is true. Dry centrally heated recycled air is not as good for you as fresh outdoor air coming from an open window. This can increase headaches and tiredness/moodiness. - Lack of social interaction. In winter or in poor summer weather you see less people. A sunny day in summer and everyone is out & about - you see your neighbours (love 'em or hate 'em) and people spending time relaxing outdoors in public spaces. A wet/cold winters day everyone is inside, curtains drawn hidden away. Human interaction improves happiness and mood; isolation does the opposite. - Increased hardship of day to day life. Despite mod cons this still applies. dealing with frozen windscreens, avoiding falling on ice or autumn debris, frustration & safety concerns with increased traffic volumes and more dangerous road conditions, fear of crime in less safe areas that are now in darkness for most of the day, increased maintenance requirements for outdoor equipment likes bicycles, cars, garage doors/gates etc., the loss of the garden as a space in your house, lack of sights and smells from nature... all these and more add up to take their toll on your happiness & well being levels. Somehow that turned into an essay! Slow morning at work haha. Still sums up many of the things that drive me down in winter or in poor weather which I'm sure many others can relate to. Perhaps someone can write a counter essay bigging up the merits of cold/wet/dark in a similar way because I'd be interested to read it.

Another horrible drizzle morning. It's pretty dangerous out there under foot/wheel too as this constant drizzle has made everything extremely slippery almost like black ice in places! It's almost like all the annoying pains in the backsides & drawbacks that normally surface in winter have turned up in July. Stuff like: - Lack of daylight lowering the mood and making it hard to wake up in the morning. - Being trapped indoors only going outside to run between buildings. - Dangerous conditions underfoot. - Having to prepare yourself to go outside rather than just slipping some easy shoes on and going. - Increased traffic as no one wants to be outside. - Arguments with my colleague/the missus who complain its too cold all the time meaning can't open any windows and heaters end up on. - Impossible to dry clothes without using the expensive and clothes damaging tumble dryer. - Poor/no growth in garden and nasty conditions out causing me to loose interest in spending time working on it. Roll on summer!

I liked December 2010 just to see how low the temperature got. We didn't get much snow anyway (couple cm or so). The lethal ice and heating bills were my main complaint!

Yes winter rainfall is allowed to fall as snow! Although generally to get snowfall we need cold air here which generally comes from a dry source limiting somewhat the rainfall available. Besides, a winter that stays cold enough for snow start to finish would be too much for most people.

I like rain too (esp from storms) but I prefer my rain to be mostly outside May-August period and not at 0800-0830 or 1700-1730 Monday to Friday! If I could choose my rainy periods I'd go for October-early December and January-March with most of it falling weekdays at night. Summer rain should be short, sharp, stormy and not on days I've planned stuff!

Went to see the missus' parents this weekend and their house is so hot I was melting! Thermometer said 25.5c which would be ok if the outdoor temperature matched - turned out their heating was playing up so when making hot water it was heating rooms too. Not nice. Coming home it was 18.9c which gladly made it just to 20c after cooking dinner. The lack of sun & cold wind today will mean it'll be more like 17-18c when I get in.

I last used heating on that bank holiday weekend in June as it was horribly cold & wet. I haven't since and it's been *just* about warm enough so long as its warmed a little bit by us cooking etc. It's been abut 19-20.5c most of the time - too warm to put heating on but always that niggling chill on the air if you sit around for long enough. Soon as we drop below 18c then we need some heat into the place. Oh for the late May weather when I came home to 22c and could open the windows to let the warm in!

Well my colleague who has an allotment says all his plants are way behind. Peas would normally be 3 foot tall by now are still only a few inches in height. The soil temperature only reached high enough to grow many crops 2 or so weeks ago - well behind. Even if the weather changed now it would be too late for many crops to grow in time. An appalling spring and summer for growing anything. I'm lucky in that my garden is very sheltered so I am getting growth albeit weeks behind what it would be normally. As for heating - radiators were on this morning in the office as the system clicks on at a certain temperature. My Cameroonian colleague is currently wrapped up in his coat trying to kill us all with the fan heater. All windows are shut and the headaches I get when the room is stuffy are on the way. All in all - it's like being trapped in the grim months, the only exception being I can cycle home in the relative safety of daylight. This time last week I was sat outside having lunch in Slovenia in the warm sunshine and stuffy airless rooms causing headaches were a distant nightmare!

Nature will of course balance out this run of dire summers with a return to good (from my perspective) ones again. That or we'll end up with mild winters coupled with cool summers a lot more which I'm sure would not suit many except those who can only operate over a very narrow range of temperatures. I feel for the farmers I really do. As a gardener myself I've seen how dry it was in early spring and since then we've had low temperatures and very little sunlight. Things just don't grow without energy. Expect food (and beer!) prices to shoot up this year. I'm just hoping we get a drier/sunnier August so at least what harvest we do get will not just rot in the fields. I know some of you don't like warmth & sun but if this were a more longing trend it would be a disaster for our farming & tourist industry it really would.

Horrid looking week coming up by looks of it. More rain and on the wrong side of 20c for a fair bit of it too.

It's the fastest route to work - and of course free and keeps me exercising. Most of the time it is fine - the route is mostly side roads/cycle track with some more major roads to cross/join for a short time. Even light rain at speed on a bike quickly soaks you and of course snow/ice is very tricky to deal with (black ice has caused me a nasty slip before). Traffic is the natural enemy of the bike and on my route it is far far busier in dark or poor weather with the evening tending to be the busiest. I pass through an area containing 90% or more student population. This means from now till late Sept the area is practically deserted but come October and especially November is a extreme change to really busy and dark all at once making it feel much less safe. It's one of the main reasons I hate the switch to GMT as the sudden plunge into darkness of the evening rush hour at already the busiest time of year makes it feel doubly riskier.

Sounds lovely weather to spend in Stansted airport then an air conditioned train coming home just in time for it to turn cool again! Argggg. Still at least Slovenia where I shall be will be nice & warm all week although suspect I won't see a lot of it from an air conditioned business centre!

Try cycling to work everyday and you'll soon discover the best conditions for doing so! Certainly it ain't rain, snow, ice or bitter cold all of which make it both difficult and downright dangerous at times. Darkness at rush hour during Nov-Feb makes a bad situation even worse - I feel so unsafe at times I really do. A bright sunny, dry day with temperatures warm enough to allow no need for coats etc is perfect especially since more people will leave the car at home keep the roads clearer.

I'd say there is quite a craving for 'uniform blue sky with a blazing white blob in the middle of it' (like that description!) in the UK as it is very rare to last more than a day or two. It's the same with the snow cravings - we don't get much of it so we crave it more. Madrid - well that's a good example of continental climate in a very dry area. In winter its freezing cold there and in summer blazing hot hence why the city empties in high summer with people escaping the heat. Personally I'd argue that this weather *isn't* uniform dull as it's gone from rain to sun to cloud to rain again and nothing like a flat uniform grey sheet like you can get off an easterly in winter/spring. It's just the balance of cloud/rain to sun has been stacked in the wrong direction for most people - and temperatures are generally too low.