Derp Patrol

Same here I think. It's hardly proper 'heat' as such anyway, only in the mid-high 20s, something that is pretty regular in July-August in this part of England, although since 2006 not quite as much. Wait till we have a plume type scenario and reach the low 30s, then people on here will die! The Spanish and Italians must laugh at some of us, this would be below average for them, whereas 28C is only about 4 or 5C above average for here. I did see some older people in the supermarket complaining, but they were wearing jumpers and trousers!!

26C outside, very pleasant now. Inside when sitting down I actually had to put a jumper on just now though. A low tonight of 15 or 16 so it will be fine to sleep in again.

29C again here but I'm used to it now, lovely and warm although a few degrees higher would be a bit better. Last night was very pleasant with a low of 16C and it wasn't too warm, the perfect temperature to sleep in

Windows in my room stay shut if the low temperature is below 15C or it gets too chilly, the past few weeks up to now have been about 15C so i've had my small window open a bit to let some air in.

Close to 29C here.. a nice warm breeze coming through my window and it is very pleasant indeed

People are complaining about the heat a lot here in my area - the average max for July here is 23C and we are only about 6C above that! It's not that extreme at all really. Places like Seville have much drier heat, so although it is still very hot, it would not feel as bad as you would imagine. In the sun it is absolutely awful, having been there in mid July before with temps of 43C but places in Spain tend to shut in summer and move to the coasts.

I am finding this fine, it's not that hot at all really compared to other countries that experience much hotter than this. I guess because my area regularly gets spells of weather like this each year i'm more used to it, for some areas up north this is their best weather since 2006! The temperatures we are experiencing will probably only be 27-31C in this spell, when we get plumes here then that is when I sometimes find it uncomfortable - the last few years in particular i've seen days of 32C with high humidity and lows of 20C. In contrast right now the lows here are in the mid teens, apart from last night which dipped to about 18-19C it is very comfortable

One thing I have noticed about this spell is that the nights are still quite cool, which comes with the result of having high pressure over us instead of a plume type scenario pumping up hot air and giving 20c nights here. Apart from tonight which is expected to be 19C, the rest of the nights and recent nights have been 13-15C which is quite fresh and cool in contrast to the day. We haven't had a set up like this in a while, and whilst it is not a set up that will bring very high maxima, it will bring 30-31C to a few areas I think

I think that 40C is very possible, especially given the high temperatures in neighbouring countries during recent summers when we received the bad end of their weather. I think I read that the average yearly maximum temperature recorded in the UK is about 32C, which seems pretty consistent for here, we have achieved 30C every year here since I was born, and even in the poor summers after 2006 we have recorded a few 33C and many 32C. These all came from plume events that lasted from a few days to 2 weeks after poor weather prior to that, so given better conditions and more heat, high 30s and even 40 should be achievable again

Just a guess, but i'd say the main factors are that for a start, UK is at a high latitude and therefore heat is harder to build the further north you go, the south of the UK is about the furthest point north that would probably allow this. Also that north of London the UK is very narrow and therefore has sea influencing and moderating the temperatures a lot, the south eastern corner has sea as well, but being so close to the continent this means that it has little effect

Thanks for the responses guys, I understand a bit more now.And I am shocked that Steele has recorded 49C so far north! I guess geography has much more imput into weather than I thought

So I've been looking at various climate data for different cities out of interest recently, and it has come to my surprise just how hot and sunny it is on average for areas around the same latitude of southern Britain at this time of year. For example, places such as Donetsk, and Atyrau (Ukrain and Kazakhstan) are between 47 N and 48 N and seem to have weather similar to southern Spain. For example: Donetsk lies 48N and has average max temperatures of: June: 25 July: 27 August: 27 with much higher sunshine hours than Britain (yes this is to be expected as we are an island, but it is similar to a Mediterranean sunshine hours) Even more surprising was when I searched Atyrau in Kazakhstan that lies at just 47 degrees North yet averages max temperatures of: June: 31 July: 33 August: 32 and sunshine hours above 330 each month. To put this into perspective, London which lies at 51 degrees north averages max temperatures of: June: 21 July: 23 August: 23 and sunshine hours way below above, just over 200 each month. Sevilla, probably the hottest city in Europe, lies at 36N and averages max temperatures of: June: 31 July: 36 August: 36 slightly warmer than Atyrau yet about 12 degrees further south in latitude with a much stronger sun, close to the massive heat machine of the Sahara Desert and with almost constant high pressure throughout May to September. I understand that continental climates are usually warmer in summer due to land heating up more easily etc, but it seems extreme for an area just 48N to have average maxes the same as Sevilla when they both build up heat during the summer months. How is it possible that an area so far north builds up such heat?

I too saw this, some sites recording UV index of 7 which is usual for June and July. I did also burn yesterday though very quickly so I believe this. Uv indexes of 7 are more usual for areas as far south as mid-southern Spain at this time of year though!

Well temperatures are still way way below average. It should be about 15C down here this time of year yet we are still struggling to reach double figures. I am looking forward to the approaching milder weather, the weekend coming and afterwards could see the first 20C of the year finally

My ideal summer is temps of 26-30C during the day, dropping to a more comfortable 17-18C at night so that it is still in the low 20s well up to midnight, making it comfortable weather to sit outside in shorts and t-shirt enjoying a beer. To make things a bit more variable, every now and then a heatwave with temps up to 35C on days where I am not travelling, and then days with thunderstorms and 30c - I love the feeling of the hot air and dark clouds when you can feel a thunderstorm is minutes away. Absolutely no temperatures below 20C, otherwise it becomes too cool to wear t shirt and shorts. I know that this is wishful thinking for where I live - just as well I will be moving to the Cote d'Azure in a year!

I find it quite hard to tan in the UK anyway, the sun is not very strong in this country at all. I guess I'm lucky because I rarely burn, I tend to go brown, although I did burn when I went to Morocco in July with no sun cream on the first day when the UV index was about 13 - a bit silly.

Yes I also find that the MET isn't so good for UV.. those sites are much better! I was out in the sun for an hour and a half but I didn't manage to get a tan, It takes my skin a long time to tan with a weak sun, and I do still have tan lines from last summer so I guess those are the reasons why! In a few weeks when the UV index starts hitting 5 it should be easier to tan!

Don't worry I will be doing the same! Need some vitamin D and the winter has taken away my tan from last summer, I love being tanned it just feels much healthier and makes my skin look 100x better

February is more like early Spring nowadays so we have just over a month really for any substantial cold. Once mid February comes along snow never lasts for more than a day so that's when I start looking for warm weather again

This is normal winter weather, it should be mild and wet in the UK. Much like northerners complain in Summer, people who constantly complain about not getting snow should move to Siberia or Canada!

It's still a dire outlook.. what an awful summer so far and it could come close to beating 2007 as the worst. Temperatures here now should be around 24C-25C by day and 14c by night, but we are struggling at about 19-21C. As a matter of interest, I had to laugh the other day when a Scottish BBC reporter on an online webfeed for the football at Hampden park suggested that the conditions would be tricky as the temperatures were 'warm' as she put it, in the high 50s to low 60s (IE mid to high teens!) I know Scotland doesn't exactly have the best summer climate (well rubbish for warm weather fans to be honest) but I'm sure it can't be so bad that temperatures in the mid teens are described as warm! Let's hope that the GFS can upgrade for later this week.. there have been signs of the trough moving west but it seems to have transferred east on recent runs.. there's some warm air to be tapped into just a few hundred miles away given the right conditions.

About time.. so far it has been worse than 2007. Absolutely awful first half of 'summer' with temperatures struggling to reach the low 20s now let alone the average of 24C Hopefully this is the start of a long settled spell

yes, the charts aren't looking awful. There has been a trend recently for higher pressure over the UK this weekend and beyond, so it won't be as cool as some are thinking. Beyond this weekend is very much FI at the moment

Yeah sorry, I meant only really the very northern part of England and up the northern east coast, places where the average July max doesn't even reach 20C. I would class anywhere that doesn't average at least 20C max in July as pretty poor for summer, but that's just me!

It was a good spell.. but in practically every May I can remember we have had a similar spell.. I don't have time to look now, but i'm sure if you look at the past few years we have recorded temperatures ranging from 27-31C in pretty much every May. All you need in May for such temperatures to occur is some high pressure close by or to the east, in fact if the winds had been more southerly it would have been maybe 4-5 degrees warmer in some places. I accept that for northern areas it has been a pretty exceptional event though, especially in Scotland who have recorded some high maxes It's not too much different, Paris tends to get more heat waves than London because of it's more favourable location, but sunshine hours are pretty similar, and average temperatures aren't too much different. Paris peaks at about 25C in July which is about 1C warmer than London