Is Anyone Else Getting Fed Up With British 'summers'?

[Bad2thebone79]

Hi haven't been here for ages!!!

Just thought I'd ask if anyone else is getting fed up with British summers? As apart from a few hot days here and there, we don't seem to get a nice summer anymore - the last one was 2006.

I'm chatting to some women who live in Japan and they say its too hot there! I'm envious of the weather in Japan it seems so much better than it is here (well during summer anyway - Sapporo and Hokkaido have a good winter!). Sometimes I just feel like heading over there to meet them and not coming back!!! lol

Anyway back to our summers for last 10 years from what I've seen where I live

2010 - no great shakes

2009 - no great shakes

2008 - disappointing

2007 - awful

2006 - beautiful!

2005 - nice

2004 - not bad (apart from floods in Cornwall)

2003 - lovely!

2002 - not bad

2001 - not bad

2000 - ok-ish

What does everyone else think and why has the weather deteriorated so badly since 2 Monday's ago?

[Paul]

Funny enough was just talking about this, do we perhaps expect to much out of our summers considering our latitude and proximity to the atlantic?

[Terminal Moraine]

I'm only fed up with British summers if they're warm dry and sunny or anything approaching it.

[Mesoscale]

Yeah we may not like it but we have to put up with it. If england were connected to france, belgium, netherlands etc we would have better weather but alot more illegal immigrants.

For the east anyway.

Edited July 15, 2011 by Mesoscale

[95 Degrees]

Hi haven't been here for ages!!!

Just thought I'd ask if anyone else is getting fed up with British summers? As apart from a few hot days here and there, we don't seem to get a nice summer anymore - the last one was 2006.

I'm chatting to some women who live in Japan and they say its too hot there! I'm envious of the weather in Japan it seems so much better than it is here (well during summer anyway - Sapporo and Hokkaido have a good winter!). Sometimes I just feel like heading over there to meet them and not coming back!!! lol

Anyway back to our summers for last 10 years from what I've seen where I live

2010 - no great shakes

2009 - no great shakes

2008 - disappointing

2007 - awful

2006 - beautiful!

2005 - nice

2004 - not bad (apart from floods in Cornwall)

2003 - lovely!

2002 - not bad

2001 - not bad

2000 - ok-ish

What does everyone else think and why has the weather deteriorated so badly since 2 Monday's ago?

I am fed up also, but this summer is typical of this country, so we shouldn't moan even though summers aren't summers these days but for those who want to leave the country, work hard, learn the language of the country your moving to and consider leaving, that's my plan and I reccomend moving Bad2thebone if this country isn't your cup of coffee.

[ohno]

Northern france and the Holland get pretty much what we get to... We get a good summer once in a while.. A poor summer now and then and most of the time a stop start affair..

I must say i was pretty miffed myself with last summer,I would take that right now compared to this summer.. From what i hear we are not going to get a single summer month this year .at least June was good in 2010.. At least we havent had them nights where its been difficult to sleep.Thats been a blessing in disguise...

[Weather-history]

I seem to recall just 3 years ago, people were fed up with the British winter until the last 3 came along.

I'm not fed up with British summers, sometimes they provide interest.

Summer 2004 was mentioned in that list and that was a really odd summer, IMO.

[Nick L]

I think people's expectations are far too high. We are not a hot country.

I think this summer has been average to be honest, certainly nowhere near as bad as some are making it out to be. Now 2007 was a stinker for summer-lovers. As a heat-hater I have enjoyed the last few years.

[Cheese Rice]

Agree,

If we can sustain high pressure over the UK for weeks on end over the winter then surely we could do this over summer?

I don't know the ins and out but if things like stratospheric warming, angle of the jet stream and sunspot activity are consistent since winter then shouldn't the conditions be the same.

[Costa Del Fal]

I think this summer so far is about the most average I can remember for many years - pretty perfect to be honest. There has been warm sunshine on many days interspersed with showers and thunderstorms with little frontal rain. A few hot, sticky days thrown in too making for cracking BBQ weather at times. We may not have seen some of the persistent dry weather seen in spring or aka June 2010 but were having decent enough weather spread out much better this time it seems instead of all the good weather bunched into one month as it seems over the last few years.

I know in the North it hasnt been great at times but for here anyway Im rather pleased with the summer thus far and would say its generally better than the last 4.

Needless to say some have their expectations far too high in here. If your looking for endless high pressure and heat, your totally in the wrong place. As a result reading the Model thread has become a pain with the moaning at the sight of a little frontal rain!

Edited July 15, 2011 by Blizzards

[SP1986]

Locally here it's been a great summer here this year, it's not been particularly warm no, but it has been sunny and dry in the most part, albeit this is very local but this summer has even then, locally been average, but it's been very pleasant.

I recall 2007 although many people said it was horrible, it was often humid, therefore even at fairly low temperatures felt a little warm at times.

[feb1991blizzard]

No definately not, nor with the last few winters. I have really loved the weather over the last 3 or 4 years, back to the true traditional british weather of the mid 80s and memories i will never forget. The only disappointment from my point of view was the end of last winter.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

been a good summer here, not too hot or wet, from mid may to mid Jul, changing of course now, mid July, i would expect the best of the summer to be over (away from the SE) equivalent of mid Jan, where best of winter was over by mid Jan in southern UK

[weatherguy]

Here the Summer's been great really; although we only had about a week or two of really nice weather (~30C/high 20s) most days have been overcast-sunny and mid 20s...Not too shabby really

[SnowBear]

The British summer, how can you "get fed up" with it? It's usually full of surprises, doesn't do anything you expect it to, and the summers now are not that much different to what we always have had, unpredictable, not too hot nor too warm, and take a rain coat, even if rain is not forecast :-P

Edited July 15, 2011 by SnowBear

[bobbydog]

The British summer, how can you "get fed up" with it? It's usually full of surprises, doesn't do anything you expect it to, and the summers now are not that much different to what we always have had, unpredictable, not too hot nor too warm, and take a rain coat, even if rain is not forecast :-P

exactly! people get spoilt by an occasional long hot summer then spend the rest of their lives moaning about what are essentially, normal summers. if you could sum up the british weather in one word, it would be 'changeable' our weather is what we get. we cant do anything about it, if you expect stereotypical seasons then you are living in fantasy land. whereas in reality you are living in britain. if you want.... see!.... you've got me started!... just.... go to the whining thread!!

[Guest]

I think we do down our weather too much.

It's all too easy to be on a downer about our weather...if it wasn't for the UK weather then this website would not exist.

Too many people spend too much time looking at Meteociel charts which show the south east of the UK and France when the reality is that we're an island with a huge cold North Sea to our east and the second biggest ocean on the planet directly to our west. Oh, and the Jet Stream running right over us.

If you're so fed up with our weather then move to continental Europe...you will eventually miss the grey murk

My boss recently returned from a holiday to Malaysia and reports that the heat was too much and that a proper blue sky was a thing of myth.

[iand61]

Going with the flow here.

We've had a decent, not to bad but certainly not one to tell the grand kids about kind of summer up to now.

Spoilt rotten in March and April, a lot of miserable damp cool weather in May and into June and since then a mixture of good and not so good days although in the last month, very few washouts and a good number of warm pleasant days and evenings.

Yes it's been far from ideal but i've certainly experienced worse and even in the last, so called hot summer of 2006 a predominatly hot June and July was followed in these parts by a poor August.

TBH this summer reminds me of my growing up summers in the 60's 70's - a couple of fine days then a bad one or two and a few thunderstorms for good measure.

maybe the perception of what is a good or bad summer is entirely dependent on where you live.

IMBY 21-25'c is decent summer weather, 26-29'c a heatwave, anything above to damned hot but thankfully quite rare and one thing i've learned this year is that some of the most painful sunburns can be had on so called coolish days.

[Mesoscale]

its not that people 'expect' anything from the weather, I don't expect it to be nice or bad. I in general do not like the english weather though, its always mild, something exciting happens once in a blue moon and you have to wait another 5+ years for it to happen again.

my ideal type of weather would be nice and warm in the summer with occasional thunderstorms some severe and in the winter it would be cold with snow. it may be boring to some but then you could plan for it and you would get used to it.

[Ben_Cambs]

I like British summers due to the variability rather than the dominance of one particular pattern. I could cope with a long, hot, dry summer but I think I would just get fed up with the lack of any other types of weather. This summer has been a good example for the variance that I enjoy, we've had heat and thunderstorms, quite a few warm and dry days and some (but few) wet and cooler days. Average- yes but I'm able to enjoy the great outdoors in pleasantly warm conditions.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I'm a long way from getting fed up of British summers but for me they suffer by comparison with what's available "right on our doorstep" in many parts of continental Europe. On the other side of the coin, I think I'd take British summers over those of most other regions of the world, typical criticisms including "too hot", "too prone to extreme hurricanes/tornadoes" and "not varied enough". That's why I don't share the prevailing desire for "sustained settled weather" in the model output thread- I'm all up for a hot sunny spell, but sustained settled weather by definition implies zero variety.

I think expectations of both spring and summer are often way too high, and for whatever reasons this always seems to be most prominent in MOD, less so elsewhere on the forum. We need to remember that Britain lies at the downwind end of the Atlantic, and while we do sometimes get predominantly anticyclonic months, even those usually have the odd complication here and there. Neither 1976 nor 1995 consisted of wall-to-wall heat, drought and sunshine, instead they just had somewhat more of all three than we usually get.

In truth I've been pleasantly surprised by the summer weather I've experienced since I came back to Tyneside on 19 June, after being disappointed by the way the summer started in Norwich during 1-18 June (and traditionally preferring Norwich's weather to Tyneside's). Up here in the North East, the period 19 June to 15 July has had a mix of dry sunny high pressure spells, bright showery low pressure spells with frequent hail and thunder, and one Spanish plume on 26/27 June which brought two thunder-days, and not much frontal rain- all the same stuff that I like about continental European summers. I'd have preferred daytime maxima to be a bit higher but apart from that I've had very little to complain about with the recent weather.

[Lake District Blizzard]

I think the problem is that the UK does fairly regularly get a settled warm summer month, and then every few years a very decent summer, but people are hoping each year, that that year is 'the one', so this summer we were hoping for the next 1995, 1976 etc, and next year will be exactly the same. eventually it will occur again whether it be in 1 year or 20 years time, its just people expect each upcoming summer to be the next classic.

and when one does occur then its expected to become the norm and the cycle continues, with our average summers becoming not good enough in peoples minds

[davehsug]

I think what i have missed the past few years has been a 2 week spell, somehwere during what might be called high summer, of dry,sunny, warm weather, with clear blue skies & warm evenings. Just a good spell. I don't expect all summer to be endless heat, indeed I wouldn't want it, but the 2 week spell just seems unattainable.

[Somerset Squall]

I would get fed up if it was dry and sunny the whole time. I like a good variety of weather through Summer, though no lengthy heatwaves please! This Summer has had some variety (warm/cool spells) but otherwise it has been fairly mundane (no thunderstorms, strong winds).

[95 Degrees]

I do agree with the comments above about the varied thing, it would get very tedious living in Egypt waking up to hot sunshine all day without some variety or types of rain to savoir or snow to jump into, likewise in Singapore where it's mostly sunny and humid in the morning before clouding over and then a evening T-Storm, that same pattern/temperature would get boring and you'd never see snow, Britain's weather is varied but it just fails to fufil alot of potential that European countries on a similar latitude do, mainly due to being an Island i'd imagine, Germany/Most of France/Belgium for example or the American Great Plains aren't Hot all the time but usually see some sort of 1 week Hot spell even during the worst summers meaning that you can enjoy it but without it getting tedious either, also they usually see a severe storm yearly but it could be anytime so it's unpredictable and don't get them that often so you don't get bored of them either, also we suffer from frontal rain and too rarely get a very very heavy downpour like they do, and although that makes them special you can't enjoy those events because they are so rare e.g every 5 years meaning you might miss it anyway rather than being uncommon but more likely like in more Continental regions, also the Landscape in Britain is almost allways green, there's no variety no escape, whist in the U.S you can go for a temperate climate but if you are desperate for a landscape change you can head into Utah where the ground is parched and the sun is fairly hot.

I do get the variety British thing, but the climate isn't as varied as those over the channel on a similar latitude or in the U.S interior,they get the right balance not allways hot or cold fairly often in the middle but can get severe hot/cold spells now and again and you can just drive south/north if you want cold/heat rather than needing a ferry and a passport etc just to change country this is just my opinion though and I do understand why some enjoy our climate.