Whining Thread

[snowray]

I went for a CET of 16c for August, but I'm thinking much lower now, the charts are looking even more Autumnal to me today, I wonder how cold August can actually get in the modern age?

Bye bye summer 2009....

But I bet September could sping a few surprises.

[Derp Patrol]

Surely next year won't be as bad as this.. Oh well, in 3 weeks I go to Italy, the place I am going to is recording temps of 35C at the moment

I've known many days in October to be better than this, this July has been very poor to be frank, I can't remember going so long in high summer without a 25C+ day, even in the last 2 years there was the occasional warm day..

[The Penguin]

Is SACRA so blooming omnipotent in this forum that we have to have "Snow Reports" highlighted in the Summer discussion thread menu item?

[Eugene]

I cannot believe this but i am seeing lately the first signs of leaves falling off trees :ph34r:....... it's only July 28th for gods sake and with GFS 12Z that situation is just going to get worse with more windy weather.

[littlemissy]

I cannot believe this but i am seeing lately the first signs of leaves falling off trees :ph34r: ....... it's only July 28th for gods sake and with GFS 12Z that situation is just going to get worse with more windy weather.

I JUST WANT TO HAVE SOME SUN AND WARMTH NOW.......................

Sorry guys/gals, just needed to say it.That's better.

[mountain shadow]

Glad somebody else noticed, even at the START of this month the leaves have been falling off trees so readily around where I live, it is quite a sight. There's a tree just outside the front of my house which on the underside of it, has branches with no leaves on them, couldn't believe when I saw it!

I can only put it down to lack of sunshine and generally cool conditions and perhpas too much rainfall. Either that, or pollution is on the rise Can anything else go wrong this Summer?

It's not only the leaves, my apples have all rotted on the branch, that's never happened before. Even the grass has stopped growing with so much rain. Very very depressing stuff. At least the Met Office have egg on there faces.

[Nick L]

http://cirrus.netweather.tv/gfsimages/gfs.20090729/06/204/h850t850eu.png

Pass me the sick bucket...

[Costa Del Fal]

http://cirrus.netweather.tv/gfsimages/gfs.20090729/06/204/h850t850eu.png

Pass me the sick bucket...

A beautiful sight-now what are the chances that it will happen. :o

[Nick L]

A beautiful sight-now what are the chances that it will happen.

It's revolting! I would rather have my arm chewed off by a cat than experience what that chart is showing.

[Derp Patrol]

Why can't the MET office just accept that they made a massive mistake?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8173533.stm

This report tells us rightly that they only said 'odds on' but they still made it sound as if we were going to have a scorching summer, what was the need for all of this BBQ summer nonsense.

'But the organisation has defended its record, saying people have already forgotten the hot weather experienced across many parts of Britain in June. It also highlights the absence of the sort of major floods that blighted 2007 and 2008; and the largely fine weather for the Wimbledon tennis championship, the cricket Tests and the Open golf.'

I wish that they would just admit that they made a mistake. They think that everything is ok because we had a 2 week spell of good weather in the space of 2 months, which is appauling. Also, it says about the lack of floods, but one would expect to not have many floods in an average British summer anyway..

[Nick L]

1 billion % agreed Rob.

Yes so far this summer has been above average temperature wise. But this does not automatically make it a barbecue summer (as they said themselves).

I wish they would just hold their hands up and say "we made a mistake and it wasn't the 'hot and dry' summer we forecasted". That way people would have more respect for them.

[ANYWEATHER]

Th MetOffice are really getting some stick about the BBQ summer....I wonder Why? :blush: Philip Eden rightly said that there is nothing wrong with seasonal forecasts but what is wrong is the media hype such as this BBQ summer mentioned on April 30th this year. I for one take no notice whatsoever of sensational,media spin, but some of the general public do.! I bet the met office had smiles allround at the start of Summer because although June did not have so called "perfect Summer weather" in all fairness it was not too bad and certainly ample good weather to bbq especially in the south and east of the uk. But its gone horribly wrong now, I hope there wont be any more sensational news headlines in the near future as regards Summer/Winter forecast [im sure there will though!] and hopefully who ever was ultamately responsable for that has learned a lesson! Nothing wrong with seasonal forecasts at all only when they are sensationalised or hyped up...and it lots of ways it was not the met office fault....media to blame as everything is blown out of proportion!

[Thundery wintry showers]

Independent meteorologist Philip Eden told BBC News that Met Office forecasts were "generally fairly accurate".

Instead, he blamed "spinners" in the Met Office press office for exaggerating the certainty of forecasts.

Aye, as is often the case Philip talks a lot of sense here. In addition I always thought the "BBQ summer" comment was misplaced, as the forecast itself didn't lend itself to such a statement, and for example it is much easier to get the BBQ out in an average summer in inland parts of southern England than in coastal parts of Scotland or the North Sea strip of north-east England.

I don't think the Met Office's record at long-range forecasting is any worse than anyone else's. However their accuracy seems to have "clustered"- they had a succession of accurate forecasts around 2005-07 and have had a succession of inaccurate forecasts since then, both of which add up to make their record seem worse than it really is. Memories can be notoriously short. My guess is that they're avoiding owning up to being wrong because some press people could blow that up out of all proportion and make stupid claims that their forecasts are useless and a waste of taxpayers' money.

With regards the weather, I have to admit I really enjoyed the early part of this July- it was reasonably warm (even hot to begin with) with sunshine, showers and thunderstorms, very much the type of weather that I relish. However, since the first week we've slided almost imperceptibly towards a cool cloudy westerly pattern with frequent frontal rain in the style of July 1988.

[Eugene]

The met office are a laughing stock this morning in the newspapers everyone is making jokes at their expense, i think they are currently one of the most unpopular organisations with the british public, so many people are angry over their BBQ summer quote.

BBC are still not mentioning the word chilly at all in their forecasts on tv or on ceefax when it was only 13C to 16C under that persistent rain yesterday and feels chilly this morning.

The hot spell only lasted four days here(temps in the late 20`s C) and it didn't reach 30C in the midlands.

[Snowyowl9]

The hot spell only lasted four days here(temps in the late 20`s C) and it didn't reach 30C in the midlands.

Last Julys warm/hot spell was better to this years with it at least staying dry for longer with 9 days.

This summer has only produced 4 dry consecutive dry days at most yet.

[Eugene]

Yes snowyowl it's been really bad for you welsh folks, luckily i`m further east but its still been poor here overall.

Isn't it frustrating the germans were enjoying some nice heat on wednesday while we were shivering under cold torrential rainfall, i watched the audi cup on MUTV and what a difference it was to the weather here and again next weeks heat looks like being enjoyed by the bleedin germans again

[Snowyowl9]

Looks like the heatwave at the start recorded one of my warmest night`s on record there has been some very warm nights this month earlier,made very little difference to even getting the CET higher than last July surprising.

Not much good when surpressed daytime maxes and rain most days.

[Guest]

Until somebody can establish a reliable theory on why, where and when the "Jet Streams" establish themselves as they do, I would suggest it would be virtually impossible for anybody to produce a fairly reliable long range forecast in this area of NW Europe.

Had this current series of jet streams been routed on the normal summer track between the north of Scotland and Iceland the Met Office would have been right. As it is we are getting one depressing low after another. :lol:

Edited August 1, 2009 by mike Meehan

[Thundery wintry showers]

Had this current series of jet streams been routed on the normal summer track between the north of Scotland and Iceland the Met Office would have been right. As it is we are getting one depressing low after another. :lol:

That's not strictly true (especially the further north you are), and perhaps underlines the popular misconceptions about what a "normal" British summer is like. Depressions taking the normal path between the north of Scotland and Iceland usually leaves Britain in a changeable westerly regime with high pressure periodically ridging into the south bringing dry bright weather, and cooler cloudier weather further north with bands of rain moving from west to east at times.

There are two ways we can get a long hot summer in the UK. One is via the jet being weaker than usual, allowing blocking highs to form, and if those highs are regularly positioned close to Britain we can get prolonged spells of hot dry sunny weather. This setup dominated most of summer 1995, when in June the high was often out to the west allowing cool northerlies in, in July it was often to the east allowing southerlies in, and in August it was often over the UK resulting in the hottest and sunniest August on record. August 1995 remains the driest summer month of recent times but for heat and sunshine it was widely eclipsed by July 2006 which had a similar pattern, but with the high often a little to the east allowing hot southerlies in.

The other is when the jet tracks much further north than usual, such that the Azores High ridges extend over most of the UK and only the far north of Scotland gets the cloudy unsettled westerlies- this setup prevailed for most of summer 1976.

This summer and the previous two have often seen the jet track further south than usual which is why they've been so wet- I think that's pretty well established by now!

[Upgrade]

crikey , its the first of August, its 7pm, and the streetlights are coming on in London under a heavy grey sky and pouring rain. cars have got their lights on too. i'm usually very optimistic about the weather, but this is ridiculous. we get an hour or two of sun at a time, if we're lucky. for the past month. and rain nearly every day. and winds. awful.

[stingrays4]

Hi yep pretty grim here too,like you said jimmyay me already got the light on! but clearing over the hills south of me now so will be clear by nightfall as promised - pity the sun doesn't shine at night . roll on winter....................

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

[Guest]

The warmer temperatures of today were more welcome - just a pity that we did not have so much sun. 28 to 30C are my ideal temperatures in the summer, then if we have to have a winter, -5C, dry with abundant sunshine.

[Eugene]

The heavy rain has arrived earlier than i thought it would be, another very wet afternoon instore, the god awful summer continues, people going mad around here screaming because they got caught out in it.

The good weather always seems to last very briefly but doesn't last long before the rain comes down heavy again.

[Karen Ann]

You can all pelt me with stones. I think I am the reason we have had our third rubbish Summer here.

When we moved into our home in '94, everyone would comment that the garden was just crying out for a pool. We refrained. Then after a few good summers (particulary 2006) my hubby and I finally decided that we would bite the bullet and have a pool built. May and the first half of June 2007 were glorious, the average daily temp was 26 degrees and the sun was shining, UNTIL that is, we filled the pool with water. From that day, the rain started. One bonus is, that with being on a water meter, I have never had to top the pool up, nature has done that for me.

OK, I admit we've had a few fab weeks and the odd days here and there and the pool has been worth every penny on those days but come on .... this is the 2nd lot of the kids summer holidays where we've only had the pool cover off twice since the kids broke up.

Is this rain going to stop? We are off camping shortly for 2 weeks and I am really not sure if I can cope with 14 days of bone penetrating damp.

Like I said, think it's my fault. Never been lucky.