How was your July weather?

[SNOW GO]

Here in Crewe this July has been quite boring weather wise with the exception of some heavy downpours in the past week or so. It seems certainly here in the North West we have pulled the short straw compared to areas in the South east and Channel Islands that have had the best share of sunshine and warmth throughout July. August may bring with it some nicer late Summer weather but all the decent weather on the models just seems to be pushed back and back so I am guessing unless there is a major change in the models we will be stuck with much of the same for much of August. Is the La Nina we are approaching making its effects felt already??

[Turnedoutniceagain]

http://www.wellesbourneairfield.com/wxflash.htm

We've had 10% of monthly rainfall this morning !!

[conor123]

Unbelievable, i was thinking behind the weather front we'd at least see some sunshine this weekend but its overcast without any breaks and very dark yet AGAIN.

[damianslaw]

Another cloudy morning - sun has tried to make an appearance but is struggling as banks of cloud move in from the Irish Sea. We may see some light evening sunshine like we have in recent days. Hoping August will be a much sunnier month, last time I'll say it but this month has by and large been a very poor summer month.

[RichardR]

Up to 80.9 hours of sunshine here to the 30th.

[Snowyowl9]

Wall to wall cloud today again,after an early sunny start,breaks to the east following the high cloud from last night`s rain,more light rain in the last hour so the forgettable July goes out,and dullest on record as I`ve seen,following the dullest august in 2008.

A W/NW-ly in spring is much clearer,or winter.

A rare sight a wall of blue sky about to head in lol.

Edited July 31, 2010 by Snowyowl9

[Guest]

August has got to be sunnier than this. Up to 79 hours only by 28th here. Every August since 2003 has been dreadful here. British summers have gone back to the 80's for the NW.

Given that we've just had the warmest June in 50 years (and one of the sunniest) in this part of the NW I have to disagree with this statement.

[johnholmes]

August has got to be sunnier than this. Up to 79 hours only by 28th here. Every August since 2003 has been dreadful here. British summers have gone back to the 80's for the NW.

Highest Daily Sunshine Hours 16. 19 Hours on 16th June 2010

Highest Monthly Sunshine Hours 226. 56 Hours in June 2010

Sun Hours in August'09 114 . 82 Hours

Data since 2003 from Buxton weather site, for August

Month rain in mm sunshine hours avge temp

August 21 149.86 16.30

August 287 114.87 15.14

August 98 147.40 14.19

August 127 83.90 14.20

August 54 132.64 14.45

August 138 71.37 14.59

August 82 114.82 14.56

No data available for 2009

Site link is

http://www.buxtonwea...hartwebsite.htm

approx 1000ft

so much as you Richard!

So can we have some accuracy rather than this?

‘Every August since 2003 has been dreadful here. British summers have gone back to the 80's for the NW’

Like I’ve posted before Richard Buxton is 1000ft up in the Derbyshire Peak District so its hardly a sensible idea to be comparing what you say your weather is to what people way SE of you on low ground are getting!

Apologies mods but I’m getting a little tired of the negative and at times inaccurate

Edited July 31, 2010 by johnholmes

[RichardR]

Highest Daily Sunshine Hours 16. 19 Hours on 16th June 2010

Highest Monthly Sunshine Hours 226. 56 Hours in June 2010

Sun Hours in August'09 114 . 82 Hours

Like I’ve posted before Richard Buxton is 1000ft up in the Derbyshire Peak District so its hardly a sensible idea to be comparing what you say your weather is to what people way SE of you on low ground are getting!

Apologies mods but I’m getting a little tired of the negative and at times inaccurate

Hmmm those records for last August and this August are all in my personal weather records. I've been using sunshine data from Michael Hilton's www.buxtonweather.co.uk site for years to add to my personal weather spreadsheet.

When I said Augusts since 2003 were poor, I am not talking in relative terms or compared to average. Rather more, I mean all the Augusts I have experienced here except 2003 seemed not sunny, often wet and cold. Whether that's average or not it's still poor.

Perhaps it's true that I find most summers poor here because in 2003 I had to relocate from Berkshire, which had far better summers. Maybe that's why I complain about the dullness and cold summers here. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that the Peak District's summers are generally poor at all IMHO. If I could move back to the SE I would, then you wouldn't hear me complain about the non-summers here so much.

Edited July 31, 2010 by RichardR

[Costa Del Fal]

Should have some good sunny intervals this afternoon...were already having them.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Re. RichardR and CatchMyDrift, 227 hours of sunshine at Buxton during June is a pretty impressive total actually. I doubt that many, if any, lowland locations in the Tyne & Wear/Durham area managed 227 hours that month for example.

The real standout month is July 2006 with 281.87 hours- that's well up there with what much of lowland Britain had, and probably more than twice the long-term average. (I'm sure I recall Richard suggesting that the month was unremarkable?)

However, while we could do with a little less negativity overall, it's true that the summers of the 2000s have returned to sunshine and rainfall levels similar to those of the 1980s, following a decade of mostly dry sunny summers in the 1990s. And as I've mentioned before, western England, Wales and the west Midlands has fared particularly badly during the last three summers. But we should remember that the 1990s was a highly anomalous decade and we should not expect summers to be as sunny and dry overall as those ones.

[Terminal Moraine]

Perhaps it's true that I find most summers poor here because in 2003 I had to relocate from Berkshire, which had far better summers. Maybe that's why I complain about the dullness and cold summers here. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that the Peak District's summers are generally poor at all IMHO. If I could move back to the SE I would, then you wouldn't hear me complain about the non-summers here so much.

A great deal is explained by your final paragraph, Richard. Having read many of your posts complaining about the terrible Peak District weather, when it was really barely below average, I felt sure you couldn't have been born and bred in the area. Certainly if you're used to Berkshire weather it's rarely going to live up to that in this area, bar exceptional summers such as 1976 and 1995, or months like July 2006.

You're not alone however. I've know several people move into the area from more southern climes and last only one winter as they couldn't stand the ( from their point of view ) endless fog and rain in winter.

Believe me, if we get another summer like 1965, 1978, 1985 or 1986 it will put the last few summers into some sort of perspective.

Having said all that, this July has certainly been exceptionally cloudy even by Peak District standards and rivals the Augusts of 2006 and 2008 for lack of sunshine.

[conor123]

The suns actually came out at times for the past 2 hours, rarely more than 5-10 second glimpses but for the first time since the 21st the suns come out before 5pm.

[Duncan McAlister]

Only 11 days with over 4 hours sunshine, not much to write home about considering the length of the days, and pretty pathetic even by our standards. Very few days of 8+ hours. Similar to July 2004 I'd say. And what a contrast to May and June which is becoming the de facto summer here these days.

Edited July 31, 2010 by Duncan McAlister

[Snowyowl9]

I would say august since 2003 has been a much more mixed month,the saviour of summer 2007 although very cool by recent standards with HP settled and sun but chilly nights,last august gave a settled spell.

2008 was very poor.

2006 similar with N/NW-lys

2005 was ok.

2004 a very differnt month unlike any other,very warm humid with thunderstorms/ex tropical storms S-ly jet.

2003 august also gave some thunderstorms and a very warm spell/hot day.

Getting non thundery augusts last few years.

[conor123]

Well not getting anymore sunshine here now so the official amount this month stands at 91 hours, which is around 49.5% of the average of 191.6 hours.

Shockingly we had 226 hours of sunshine in June so to have just 90 in July is a whopping 136hours less, only January & February have had less hours of sunshine this month.

Officially the dullest July on record here, be interesting to see how Shawbury fared in the end.

[Hairy Celt]

July's been dreary up here too, though i think the real north-west, i mean nw sutherland has not been too bad.

[Terminal Moraine]

A total of 88.9 hrs sunshine this month, 48% of the 30 year average and 64% of the average for the last 10 years.

The dullest July since 1965.

Only 1 day had no sunshine at all but there were 16 days with less than 2 hrs and the sunniest day of the month produced only 9.5hrs, the smallest amount for any summer month apart from August 2008.

[berometer]

That this is possibly one of the worst July summer months on record. Normally I like to look out my window at the Chemtrails for long periods of time but i've only been able to do this once, It has been very dull here and suprisingly chilly august isnt looking much better according to the net weather homepage. How would you sum up this month?.

[Guest]

It started off very well here with temps up to 30C - still dry, then by degrees it deteriorated, though it could be worse. During the last week or so there has been a lot of cloud, max temps down to low 20's and there has been some rain but we still have some brown grass.

[berometer]

Just want some decent sunshine with hot temperatures starting to miss it.

[Snowyowl9]

Windflow this month started from the SW then the 2nd half it`s been west to W/NW.

No S-lys did have one brief E/NE-ly around a slack low,the azores high was our enemy where it was.

Way too much cloud.

[Nick L]

The temperature is perfect, cool but not so cold that you can't go out in a t-shirt. The lack of sunshine or anything remotely exciting is what is frustrating me.

[conor123]

I have to say im gobsmacked at how cloudy days like today have been, the forecast was for clear skies to start with convectional showers bubbling up and instead its been the flat overcast skies with less than 5 minutes of sunshine again, thank goodness ill be in Crete this time next week, hopefully by the time i get back the high will be over us, certainly hope it can be sunny for V Festival again this year.

[Nick L]

I have to say im gobsmacked at how cloudy days like today have been, the forecast was for clear skies to start with convectional showers bubbling up and instead its been the flat overcast skies with less than 5 minutes of sunshine again, thank goodness ill be in Crete this time next week, hopefully by the time i get back the high will be over us, certainly hope it can be sunny for V Festival again this year.

It's like we are stuck in a time loop. Every day we are promised something different to overcast muck, yet every day is the same! Since I have come back off my hols I don't think I have had a day that hasn't been dominated by overcast muck.