Your Overall Thoughts On Summer 2011

[Milhouse]

I am rather suprised comparing July 2011, which i thought was very cool month for mean maxima, to other Julys since 1990. Using my local stations data (Humberside Airport) it turns out the following years had an even cooler July for mean maxima.

1992

1993

1998

2000

2002

2004

2007

The mean maxima for July 2000 was almost 3c lower than this July.

Edited August 30, 2011 by Milhouse

[Optimus Prime]

Not great it has to be said. I still think 2007 was worse but with June being quite warm, it skewed the temperature.

[Downburst]

Duller than average and a good bit cooler too. Rainfall just below average. April and May were perfect though which I think accounts for the negative feeling towards Summer, you just imagine after a few cracking days in April and May, gardening well under way, ground dry as a bone that it will get even better and you'll be sitting out all Summer in the evening. If you did that here this summer you'd be a hardy man indeed. I've lit the fire each weekend in August, first time ever to do that.

Edited August 30, 2011 by Downburst

[Summer Sun]

The cloud cover has been the worst thing this summer, when i think back to just how sunny it was from Feburary to May and warm at times to mid 20s for a time during Easter, then as soon as June arrived so did the cloud cover and only limited hot spells.

[Snowstorm1]

What summer ? I came to the conclusion years ago I live in the UK so I forfeit my right to one

[Evening thunder]

Pretty poor here to be honest.

Temperatures have been poor, with lit often being one or two average/above average days in many below average days. There have been a few notably cool maxima below 15C in July and August which didn't occur in the previous 3 summers. There was a spell of 50 days from June the 3rd to late July where the highest temp was a brief max of just 23.2C, very poor. All 3 months were below average temperature wise, July and August more so.

Sunshine I think will end up slightly below average with June average to slightly above, July below and August will probably be below average.

Rainfall not as wet as some summers, with July quite dry despite being quite cloudy and cool with quite a high number of dull drizzly days relative to normal like June, but with not much actually falling. June and August have been a bit above normal for rainfall, and I think the overall amount of 'damp' days were above normal in July too which I think was shown by the MetO anomaly maps when I looked. Though for me rain accumulation isn't as important as temperature or sunshine as I find heavier and/or convective rainfall interesting.

Thunder has been very poor again, with a single rumble of thunder all I have heard this summer! There were a few faint distant flashes one evening too. Spring was much better and more average for storms.

There have though been some nice days/spells here but not as much as you would expect.

Overall rating: about 3/10. All months scoring poorly overall, perhaps June more like a 4/10. Last year and probably 2009 were better IMO, 2008/2007 were poor for slightly different reasons. I think 2008 may have even been the worst of those here not 2007. I think this summer may be a bit better than those two, though it's hard to say without going through my records.

Today feels more like a late September/October high pressure again with 100% cloud, 15.9C and light winds.

Edited August 30, 2011 by Stormmad26

[picog]

I liked this summer. Here it was average temperatures, not too hot, but not cold either. Some good sunny days, and very dry throughout July and August. Quite a few B-B-Q days as well. It's been a fantastic summer for being able to get out and do stuff in the garden without getting wet, blown away, or burned to a crisp. I rate it 9/10.

[Coast]

Not enough sunshine and generally not enough heat down here. It has also reflected the dearth of thunderstorms for us in 2011. I'll dig out some sunshine hours stats after its all over and they are compiled.

[karyo]

This summer was pretty good for me. It was cool and cloudy, often wet too. Just how I like it!

I wish we had more in the way of thundery showers but never mind.

Karyo

[Thundery wintry showers]

At Cleadon this has been a very mediocre summer with temperatures and rainfall both close to the long-term average, though it ranks alongside 1998 and 2000 as the coolest since 1993, reflecting the absence of cool summers here in recent years. I'll remember this summer for the period from 25 June to 11 July, which had some unusually potent convective storms by North East standards and also a fine dry sunny spell in the first week of July, with warm days and cool nights. However, the settled spell in late July was cool and cloudy here, and August has ended up dull and wet.

My personal ratings for the summer months: June 6.0, July 6.6, August 4.4, and overall 5.7- about the same as 2010, slightly behind 2009, well behind 2006, but ahead of 2007 and 2008.

[Aaron]

The type of summer that you don't remember because nothing happened in it. It was just plain, not dire but not great. It was.. well, boring. Of course this depends on your location, only the Scots should complain really since they've had one of their wettest August's on record.

[Airedalejoe]

At Cleadon this has been a very mediocre summer with temperatures and rainfall both close to the long-term average, though it ranks alongside 1998 and 2000 as the coolest since 1993, reflecting the absence of cool summers here in recent years. I'll remember this summer for the period from 25 June to 11 July, which had some unusually potent convective storms by North East standards and also a fine dry sunny spell in the first week of July, with warm days and cool nights. However, the settled spell in late July was cool and cloudy here, and August has ended up dull and wet.

My personal ratings for the summer months: June 6.0, July 6.6, August 4.4, and overall 5.7- about the same as 2010, slightly behind 2009, well behind 2006, but ahead of 2007 and 2008.

I'm not far from you and I'd describe the summer as dire! I know we're not the med but......The number of day's above the magic 21* must be horribly low, cold cloudy or wet day's prevailing. I'm an 'outdoorsy' person and this summer has been crap for cycling/kids activities etc.!!

I'd hate to suffer one of your July/August 2's!!

[jy]

Here in Central Southern England,where by the way im a gardener by trade,it has been quite unremarkable.In many ways quite similar to previous spring/Summer,we just about got rain in time to stop lawns going brown,very little in the way of high temps,which i was personally glad about,but i would say dryish best sums up this summer without being hot so all in all perfectly acceptable for me.

One thing does puzzle me and i will make some enquiries and that is how do gardeners make a living in Scotland cold winters and wet summers,same i guess with farmers too.

[The PIT]

One of the most uneventful none de-script summers I can remember. Nothing really happened no storms no long lasting cold spells no long lasting hot spells. It was a dry summer and is looking the coolest since 2007. Would have been in the top ten driest but 27mm in tow days spoilt that.

[Upgrade]

like each of the preceding 3 summers, 2011 went downhill later on . August has been pretty rubbish these last few years - quite noticable how poor it has become as a summer month since 2006/7.

not a great summer, but overall in the south east mixed enough, with some sunny, some showery days, such that we can't say it was a complete write off. some quite warms days, including a few good weekends, too.

not exactly stunning though.

Edited August 30, 2011 by Upgrade

[Alex]

For the southeast I think we should come to expect more than a few nice days on average, at least a few longer spells during the summer. This summer was poor in fact it was coldest I can ever remember, with some days in August struggling to hit a poor 20c when the avg is nearer 23c. The only plus point was the 33c day in June. Overall poor with little thunder and lots more cool dull days than on avg.

Sorry but I think if we had this after a decent summer such as 2006, ppl would have been so much more Damning!

[J10]

There are 3 measures IMO to judge a summer, Heat, Sun and Rainfall.

On these measures heat it has been a very disappointing summer, with a real lack of heat.

Rainfall has been around average.

Sunshine is the best being above average, with June and July offsetting August. This has meant there have been a lot of decent sunny days which have felt warm and summery.

So being positive, you could call this a decent summer, being negative a disappointing one. Better than some recent summers, similar to others, but not a good summer by any means.

[Downburst]

Here in Central Southern England,where by the way im a gardener by trade,it has been quite unremarkable.In many ways quite similar to previous spring/Summer,we just about got rain in time to stop lawns going brown,very little in the way of high temps,which i was personally glad about,but i would say dryish best sums up this summer without being hot so all in all perfectly acceptable for me.

One thing does puzzle me and i will make some enquiries and that is how do gardeners make a living in Scotland cold winters and wet summers,same i guess with farmers too.

Some parts of Scotland are very mild with long day light hours and plenty of rain in the Summer, perfect for grass and hedging. Growth is not an issue. Only 15% of land in Scotland is not marginal land, however they still produce 2.3 billion in output from that. In Ireland it is close to 8 billion and that is under very low intensity. I think this site gets a bit over the top on the north south divide, the climate outside the SE is really not that different. I am aghast at some of the assumptions of Scotland as some sort of Tundra. I would say that grass cutting in the Summer the average garden in Scotland requires a lot more work due to moisture, density of blades per M than it does in the SE of England, hence more man hours and more cost per acre. All in all good for Gardeners and Black and Decker.

[DAVID SNOW]

Average British Summer.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I'm not far from you and I'd describe the summer as dire! I know we're not the med but......The number of day's above the magic 21* must be horribly low, cold cloudy or wet day's prevailing. I'm an 'outdoorsy' person and this summer has been crap for cycling/kids activities etc.!!

I'd hate to suffer one of your July/August 2's!!

It has certainly been lacking heat wise in the North East. At Cleadon I only recorded a maximum of 21°C and above on 5 days in June, 1 in July and 5 in August, which is pretty remarkable.

Ratings of months/summers are subjective- I must admit that my rating criteria includes (in descending order of importance) sunshine, warmth, lack of frontal rainfall, abundance of convective activity and variety- the last two certainly wouldn't appear in a conventional "good summers" index! As a result I don't end up giving out many 2s or 3s as it's quite rare for a summer month to score low on all five counts and not have at least the odd warmer sunnier day. (In the last 18 years, I awarded 3s to July 2000, June 2007 and August 2008).

But even looking at raw stats for the "noughties" the summer here wasn't as wet as 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008 or 2009, or as dull as 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007 or 2008. It may have been a different story in other parts of the region though.

[rob48]

Overall: a blessed relief after the disquiet induced by the "shades of 76" forecast.

Thankfully there was no real heat and humidity apart from a few days at the beginning of August.

Only real negative was the lack of rainfall, which although not as useful in summer, it was yet another drier season.

Hopefully autumn will rectify this.

Highlight?

Posters in the model discussion thread identifying a heatwave, next week.

[damianslaw]

Thanks for all your posts so far. Taking them as a whole most are rating the summer as average at best, with many in the north and west saying it has been preety poor especially for temperatures and sunshine.

Of the three summer months, August once again has been our worse. It has been the wettest of the three months and by far the dullest with not one day above 70f. I never rate August, May on average delivers far better conditions in the NW than August.

Good riddance to August 2011 I say, you failed to deliver on every score!

Edited August 30, 2011 by damianslaw

[reef]

I am rather suprised comparing July 2011, which i thought was very cool month for mean maxima, to other Julys since 1990. Using my local stations data (Humberside Airport) it turns out the following years had an even cooler July for mean maxima.

1992

1993

1998

2000

2002

2004

2007

The mean maxima for July 2000 was almost 3c lower than this July.

It wasnt quite as big a difference in this location, but July 2000 was the coldest July in 30 years of records here with a mean temp of 14.8C (Average max of 17.8C versus 19.4C in 2011). Only 8 days reached 20C that month and 6 days had maxima below 15C. Mean minima that month were slightly higher than this July just gone though (11.9C versus 11.6C in 2011).

The month came as a bit of a suprise at the time as just a couple of weeks earlier the record June max was broken here on the 19th when it reached 30.8C.

Still, such months really put this summer into perspective!

[cheeky_monkey]

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[Aaron]

Summer 2011: A summer that nobody will remember in 3 years time. Certainly not like 2007 or 2008 which everyone remembers due to the massive amounts of rainfall.