Whining Thread

[Evening thunder]

July was complete crap - it rained for 27 days out of 31... for the first 15 days of August it has rained 11 days out of 15, so on par with July this is pretty good... but lets face it the weather this summer has been total and utter rubbish!!... you lot in England live a charmed life with warm temperatures over 20C days on end.. we have had 4 days at 20C in the last 6 weeks.. thats the difference between the North and South of this country!

I think the thing here perhaps is 'you lot in SE England...' Here in East Devon we had 29 days from the 7th July to the 5th august where only 5 days reached 20C. and we had rain on 24 days with a total over 4 times above average. Also, depending on opinion I think most of England away from the South East had a pretty poor July if you look at it from the perspective that rainfall was well above average and temperatures a bit below average. I do feel sorry for the NW though having a continuation of what many of us had in July.

I,m not complaining though because I did actually enjoy some of the weather we had in July as I'm sort of a mixed person in my weather preferences, i like some good warm/hot weather in the summer but also may get bored of it eventuality and also like convective weather (esp. thunderstorms) and sometimes even wet rainy days as long as there's not too much of it in summer, like in July. Any kind of extreme weather also excites me usually so I suppose the high rainfall total for the month of July was quite interesting.

I also agree with TWS's previous posts on the last page of this thread about prefered weather in summer being a matter of opinion not a 'correct way of thinking' despite my previous post on the last page of this thread, where i was saying this august has been much better than July. Having 5 mostly sunny - sunny days in a 7 day period with average to above average max temps temps was a relief though and also a chance to enjoy some nice summer like weather. I guess the fact I was going camping for 3 days might have had something to do with that aswell!

It seems I have gone off on a bit of a tangent here and wondered off topic a bit as I'm not exactly whining.:bad:

[Terminal Moraine]

July was complete crap - it rained for 27 days out of 31... for the first 15 days of August it has rained 11 days out of 15, so on par with July this is pretty good... but lets face it the weather this summer has been total and utter rubbish!!... you lot in England live a charmed life with warm temperatures over 20C days on end.. we have had 4 days at 20C in the last 6 weeks.. thats the difference between the North and South of this country!

One man's crap is anothers ambrosia! I've recorded only 2 fewer rain days than you and 3 extra days reaching 20c and that was 3 too many.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Well, Philip Eden's stats have come in, and they show that over most of the country, while it has certainly been far less wet than July, it's also been rather duller. For East Anglia, sunshine is at only 86% of average, which compares with about 105% for July. In NW England and the Midlands sunshine is only at 75-76% of average compared with about 90% for July. So my assertions that I personally preferred July's weather in Norwich to August's so far does have some statistical basis sunshine wise as well as shower/thunder wise.

http://www.climate-uk.com/page2.html

However I'm expecting this to change (on both counts) for East Anglia over the coming week - I think both sunshine totals and my perception of the month are set to increase.

[Guest]

Wow - look at Pas de Calais - 36C.

It reminds me of the Belgique who took a train to Calais, there he saw the sign "Pas de Calais" - il a retouré a Bruxelles!

[Rainy]

Has anyone had a good whinge about this before. Isn't it about time there was a Revolution in the timing of the main school and thereby national holidays.

Why can't we have the kids off school for main holidays in the long days in June when it's usually glorious weather and countryside is fresh and lovely. Lots of outdoor activities possible.

The weather up here gets wetter from mid July onwards. May and June are the driest months. Kids are trapped in school then looking out through windows at blue skies. People always say the weather seems to go downhill when the school "summer" hols start.

The present set up has roots in the ancient law tems, politics and grouse shooting holidays etc. Why should we stay in the grip of this arrangement which has no relevance to weather.

Well, yes OK, the sea is warmer in August. So if you must go paddling, maybe split the holidays to allow time for those who want time on the beach. 2 or 3 weeks in June and 2 or 3 weeks in Aug.

And external exam timetables? Well they were invented by Man, surely they can be adjusted. I'd suggest having the main exam season in April/ May.

Good weather is so precious in the UK we should have more chance to enjoy it when it turns up. Whinge...

[Milhouse]

Has anyone had a good whinge about this before. Isn't it about time there was a Revolution in the timing of the main school and thereby national holidays.

Why can't we have the kids off school for main holidays in the long days in June when it's usually glorious weather and countryside is fresh and lovely. Lots of outdoor activities possible.

The weather up here gets wetter from mid July onwards. May and June are the driest months. Kids are trapped in school then looking out through windows at blue skies. People always say the weather seems to go downhill when the school "summer" hols start.

The present set up has roots in the ancient law tems, politics and grouse shooting holidays etc. Why should we stay in the grip of this arrangement which has no relevance to weather.

Well, yes OK, the sea is warmer in August. So if you must go paddling, maybe split the holidays to allow time for those who want time on the beach. 2 or 3 weeks in June and 2 or 3 weeks in Aug.

And external exam timetables? Well they were invented by Man, surely they can be adjusted. I'd suggest having the main exam season in April/ May.

Good weather is so precious in the UK we should have more chance to enjoy it when it turns up. Whinge...

A prime example is 2004, the year i was doing my GCSEs. We had such a great start to June which sadly coincided with the exam period so for those who really put in some hard studying (i wasnt one of them) they missed the best part of the summer. From the middle of June it all went downhill which ruined my extended summer holiday. 2006 however, just after my A level exams in May/June, was superb.

Not sure i would alter the summer holidays though but even though i've left school i still associate the kids going back to school with the nights drawing in and the impending arrival of Winter. Something i'd rather not think about.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I think it would probably be better if the start of the English summer holidays was shifted back to early July, maybe even late June (like they are in Scotland). This combines the warmth of high summer with relatively long summer days, as the dark nights don't really start drawing in until August. Also, on average July's weather is that little bit more reliable- late August "unsettled" spells are more likely to end up autumnal with deep depressions bringing spells of cloudy wet and windy weather.

In Scotland they could perhaps do with the holidays being even earlier than that, as July is more prone to having a stronger Atlantic which means more cloud and wind and rain for Scotland, especially the north and west, and correspondingly May/June is the driest and sunniest time of year. This also applies to north-west England from north Lancashire northwards, but as that's in England it would have to make do with the same holidays as the rest of England.

[mountain shadow]

THIS SUMMER IN NORTHERN IRELAND HAS BEEN CRAP, WITH MORE CRAP TO COME.........DULL AND WET CRAP NON STOP.....

[Guest]

Has anyone had a good whinge about this before. Isn't it about time there was a Revolution in the timing of the main school and thereby national holidays.

Why can't we have the kids off school for main holidays in the long days in June when it's usually glorious weather and countryside is fresh and lovely. Lots of outdoor activities possible.

The weather up here gets wetter from mid July onwards. May and June are the driest months. Kids are trapped in school then looking out through windows at blue skies. People always say the weather seems to go downhill when the school "summer" hols start.

The present set up has roots in the ancient law tems, politics and grouse shooting holidays etc. Why should we stay in the grip of this arrangement which has no relevance to weather.

Well, yes OK, the sea is warmer in August. So if you must go paddling, maybe split the holidays to allow time for those who want time on the beach. 2 or 3 weeks in June and 2 or 3 weeks in Aug.

And external exam timetables? Well they were invented by Man, surely they can be adjusted. I'd suggest having the main exam season in April/ May.

Good weather is so precious in the UK we should have more chance to enjoy it when it turns up. Whinge...

I might be wrong but I always thought that the summer school holidays were a historical thing dating back to the time when the kids would be expected to assist with the various harvests at that time of year. Ordinary people did not have much of a chance to go on what we understand to be a holiday in those days.

Edited August 17, 2009 by mike Meehan

[Eugene]

Wow saturday was unbelievably windy for mid August, people having BBQ's/picnic's had a nightmare of a time of it with stuff flying everywhere.

[PB22]

Not wishing to upset the rest of the country, but I might soon have to have a whinge about the endless warmth and uncomfortable nights if this heat continues for much longer here!

[J10]

Not wishing to upset the rest of the country, but I might soon have to have a whinge about the endless warmth and uncomfortable nights if this heat continues for much longer here!

There is a long queue willing to swap this weather. Paul.

[damianslaw]

Oh well we've gone past what I call high summer i.e.mid July - mid August when we normally see our hottest weather of the year though not necessarily sunniest and driest weather..

This year 'high summer' here in Cumbria has been particularly poor indeed, I don't have the stats but I'm reckoning the highest temperature has been about 24 degrees, and most days in this period have failed to hit 21 degrees, in fact most have been at 18 or 19 degree mark.

This August is turning into a particularly abymsal affair, it has been very very dull, where has the sunshine gone, I don't expect heatwaves but I do expect sunny days, most days have been overcast or wet with early or late bursts of sunny spells.. its miserable..

The synoptics so far this month and expected to continue through to the end of the month = rubbish August weather in the NW, we know when the atlantic is ruling the roost in these parts we can write off August. I never rate August here in the NW, May,June and July is usually our summer.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I can understand Paul's problem- especially if he is based primarily in a west or south-facing room and only a small part of the window is "openable", whereupon it tends to get very hot very quickly no matter what you do. I've had experiences like that before.

But personally I'm more than happy to keep the weather I'm having- unlike earlier in the month, it's tended to be reasonably sunny and warm as well as dry.

[PB22]

I can understand Paul's problem- especially if he is based primarily in a west or south-facing room and only a small part of the window is "openable", whereupon it tends to get very hot very quickly no matter what you do. I've had experiences like that before.

But personally I'm more than happy to keep the weather I'm having- unlike earlier in the month, it's tended to be reasonably sunny and warm as well as dry.

My problem is a south-facing flat with the hot sun on it all day! Currently the temperature in here is at 27C, and thats with all the windows open! Over the last few days, temperatures in here have consistently been around the 28C mark. By the time the flat cools down overnight, its time to get up!

[Thundery wintry showers]

Aye, I fully understand your predicament then!

[Bottesford]

Such is the problem of modern UK housing - fantastic at keeping the heat in during winter but dreadful at keeping cool in summer.

Living in an old building myself, I get the opposite problem - it's lovely in summer, never getting much above 25c even in the hottest daytimes (and easily cooled at night) but in winter we generally need to burn huge amounts of gas to keep warm. We have to shut off the downstairs bog completely (where it'll fall into single figures!) and only open the kitchen when actually using it (kitchen & downstairs toilet stick out from the rest of the house making them colder). The living room can drop to 11-14c during the night/working day before the 2 hour process of heating it begins.

Add a cold east wind to things (we face east) and you might as well invest in your own off shore gas rig!

[Derp Patrol]

The problem with this summer has been the lack of sun for me at least. Temperatures have not been too bad at all, but there has been a lack of very warm/hot days (25C+) I can only recall any real warmth from the early June warm spell and the June/July hot spell.. apart from that it has been pretty much bang on average here with 22C typically by day and nights generally milder, we have had quite a few 15C+ nights down here and never really slipping below 13C. It's funny because about 95% of the days here this summer have been 20C+, but cloud cover/rain/wind has prevented it from being of any use. Warmth is only nice if the sun is out.. It's been a while since we have had high pressure slap bang over the UK like we used to get.. I just hope next summer turns out better

[Weather-history]

Sunshine levels this August have been on the disappointing side around this area. Thankfully not on the scale as last year which was exceptional but still not brilliant. A lot of cloud around again today.

Edited August 18, 2009 by Mr_Data

[Bottesford]

Yes it's been dryer than July but definitely duller too. Is this our summer pattern now - a ton of rain in high summer followed a load of cloud in late summer?

[mountain shadow]

Another wet, dull and damp day passes by..............in this crap summer

[Summer of 95]

Yet again this summer has sufffered from

a) a lack of days with unbroken or near-unbroken sunshine; which seems to be getting rarer and rarer between May and August though it can still happen quite often in March and April

:lol: As robthefool said, there have been plenty of 20-22C days this "summer" but 25+ has again been elusive; even when it did happen it wasn't always sunny which is a very recent phenomenon- those days towards the end of June when it was 25C, cloudy and at times drizzling were unlike anything I can remember seeing in Britain before.

c) July from the 5th onward was an absolute shocker, in the July 1988/2007 or June 1997 class; hence although June certainly qualifies as an "average, though mixed" month August would have to be on a par with 1995 to make this summer anything other than "disappointing" overall.

August so far has been a bit like 2005, albeit somewhat cloudier- it's often been mild enough to wear T-shirts and shorts and there haven't been many washout days; but it has been seriously lacking in really hot weather, and any sunshine has been intermittent though pleasant when it does arrive.

[Eugene]

France has been enjoying a much hotter summer than here, today for example temps are in the high 30`s C, it seems they get much better weather than us, much better cuisine but at least not a much better language spoken much more in the world

[Nick L]

Horribly warm and humid today, this is why I hate summer! Glad we are back to good old rain tomorrow.

[Costa Del Fal]

How can you not enjoy today nick! Its a perfect day to get outside and enjoy it!

Im glad that on the whole it looks fairly decent in the nearby future too. Some showers over the next few days but the weekend looks nice and sunny and perhaps quite warm on sunday with 24c.