Summer 2012

[Thundery wintry showers]

Just recapping on my first post, those charts are a pretty good illustration of it. On the 5th July 1933 chart the Azores High itself is somewhat subdued and shifted towards Bermuda, but with a large displaced/breakaway high over western Europe, situated over the British Isles. The mid-Atlantic trough that fills in the gap is too weak and too far west to produce thundery complications, so the implication is an extended spell of dry sunny weather.

Similarly that chart from the 11th August 2003 has a rather floppy zone of high pressure over the western half of Europe with minimal evidence of the Azores High. The slacker nature of the setup with weak troughs led to widespread thundery activity on the 10th and 11th.

I mainly emphasised this point because in recent summers, whenever we've seen a large Azores High on the GFS/ECMWF charts many members have got excited and associated it with the sort of weather we get from the likes of that July 1933 chart, when the reality tends to be more along the lines of what we got during August 1998 unless the main focus of high pressure transfers north-eastwards.

[Milhouse]

Or this??

The heatwave had ended here in East Yorkshire by then, but i vaguely recall it soon became warm again for the remainder of the week, whilst the south held onto the hot conditions for a few more days after the heat peaked on the 10th.

[AderynCoch]

If I'm walking around I'm the same - a light fleece. But now try sitting outside for 2-3 hours - still just in a jumper?

I don't sit outside in winter! But if I did, yes I would need more layers at 5C - but more still at -5C.

[Aaron]

Anything that brings thundery conditions all over the country will do me.

[Aaron]

The heatwave had ended here in East Yorkshire by then, but i vaguely recall it soon became warm again for the remainder of the week, whilst the south held onto the hot conditions for a few more days after the heat peaked on the 10th.

Yes, IMBY anyway, August 2003 was not exceptional, July 1995 was warmer and August 1990 had more extreme temperatures. The temperature here during that month reached 31.8C, very warm for here but not unheard of, it's reached 31.7C in June.

Edited May 4, 2012 by Aaron

[Milhouse]

Re:warm nights. They are a hindrance to get a good nights sleep but i love those warm humid evenings when you can go outside at dusk in shorts and t-shirt and feel that warm waft of air whilst listening to that gentle rustle of the leaves on the trees. Ahhh, i can almost picture it now.

[Robbie Garrett]

The heatwave had ended here in East Yorkshire by then, but i vaguely recall it soon became warm again for the remainder of the week, whilst the south held onto the hot conditions for a few more days after the heat peaked on the 10th.

I actually remember being in Kew Gardens greenhouse during Summer 2003. Not sure why, but sounds silly to be honest when all you needed to do was go outside.

[Derp Patrol]

Warm nights are brilliant. When we get 30C that usually brings night temps of 18-21C here, and I don't find it hard to sleep in. The added bonus is that I can open my window wide to get some fresh air in my room.

[Aaron]

Re:warm nights. They are a hindrance to get a good nights sleep but i love those warm humid evenings when you can go outside at dusk in shorts and t-shirt and feel that warm waft of air whilst listening to that gentle rustle of the leaves on the trees. Ahhh, i can almost picture it now.

At night, my number one priority is to sleep. Don't like opening windows either as it lets in a lot of unwanted creepy crawlies.

Edited May 5, 2012 by Aaron

[Bottesford]

I love having the window open at night - in fact I just like windows open all the time if possible.

Get sick of recycled carbon dioxide laden air - most acute at work where during winter (and this spring) the windows are closed most of the time and with four people + computers it gets very stuffy leading to countless headaches as the day goes on.

Getting air all day and all night makes me feel positively alive. Insects don't bother me so no problem there.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I don't like having the windows open overnight because it makes it harder to sleep if there is a lot of noise outside, and during hot spells mosquitoes like to come into my bedroom and fly around my ears while I'm in bed.

However if opening the windows during the evening, and closing them when going to bed, is sufficient to keep the room cool enough for sleeping then I do alright.

I find the optimal combination for warm evenings but comfortable sleeping to be clear skies and light winds and low to moderate humidity, whereupon a fair amount of warmth is retained into the evening and then the temperature drops away after dark. Conversely cloudy humid breezy weather often makes it feel too cool and damp to sit outside during the evening and then holds temperatures up after dark making it hard to sleep.

This phenomenon is a large part of the reason why in Tyneside the Augusts of 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2009 all had a higher average minimum temperature than the record-breaking August of 1995, despite it rarely being as comfortable to sit outside late into the evening. Similarly hot uncomfortable nights were a more prominent feature of July 2010 than the record-breaking July of 2006.

I can cope with the odd hot stuffy night if it brings thundery activity with it though, in which cases I would generally rather be awake anyway so I can watch for lightning strikes.

[AderynCoch]

I'm something of a masochist when it comes to hot, sticky summer nights. I love having to adapt to the extremes of both summer and winter - going through a proper cycle of distinct seasons leaves me with a sense of life-affirming rusticity which I often struggle to find in the modern world. Sure, I won't sweat as much in summer if it's cooler and I won't have to use as much heating in winter if it's milder, but the world doesn't feel quite the same under these circumstances.

Sticky nights also retain a certain degree of novelty as they're not exactly a regular occurrence.

[Bottesford]

Yeah I agree - summer just doesn't feel like summer if its just 20c with cool nights.

Warm nights and hot days are pretty rare in the UK so to me dreading them is like worrying about how awful xmas pudding tastes all year long when you only have to pretend to enjoy it that couple of times once a year!

[summer blizzard]

According to Summer Blizzards posts on another thread the Summer analogues will be akin to 1994, 1996 and 2001. Would bank anyone of those three, and with solar activity increasing a bit we should be ok.

Those were based on the data for Feb-March, will update during the week.

[Jon Somerset]

Ye - unlike many I know I sleep like a log irrespective of how warm it is and really enjoy a warm night, with the sounds it brings and the windows open - the only irritation is gnats after rain.

[Backtrack]

In summer, I am a true "pure blue skies by day, temperatures as high as possible" with a truly dramatic drop at night to sub 15C. Anything higher than around 16C is very uncomfortable to sleep in.

When it get's past mid-March I stop looking for cold weather completely, as rare as that is around here, I would much rather enjoy some Spring warmth than a weak, half-hearted northerly.

Roll on summer I say? May looks pretty dead and buried already in terms of warmth and good weather according to the Met Office. So roll on June and July when the sunshine can truly work it's magic and give me a nice tan!!

[AderynCoch]

Roll on summer I say? May looks pretty dead and buried already in terms of warmth and good weather according to the Met Office. So roll on June and July when the sunshine can truly work it's magic and give me a nice tan!!

To be honest May hasn't been too bad here so far due to some good lengthy spells of sunshine, although Bank Holiday Monday looks likely to live up to its reputation by being a wet, grey day. Thursday looks positively awful at the moment too.

Other than that, I'm hopeful of some useful weather between now and June.

[Cheese Rice]

Mosquitoes don't come in my house, they know the consequences....

lol

Anyway I'm hopeful we will see a prolonged period of warmth. I'm thinking August this year for a change, there usually washouts, along with June ...July....

Edited May 6, 2012 by Cheese Rice

[BlueHedgehog074]

We are kinda overdue a settled August here. Some of the previous ones have been cloudy and generally unsettled. The only Augusts that have really stuck out, to me, were August 2003 with that heatwave near the beginning and also 2006, which was fairly settled here (if I remebered correctly). And warm, too.

It's a bit odd, really, because I dislike it when temperatures rise above 30*C, yet I really enjoyed August 2003's really hot weather. Probably just due to the fact that it was interesting to experience such warm temperatures here, and also in Cornwall when I stayed at grandparents for a few days. I guess I would not mind experiencing this again as longs as the temperatures don't exceed 30*C for more than a few days.

Although I appreciate not everyone is a fan of warm, settled Summers, I think the good thing about all this soggy weather we're getting will hopefully mean a Summer of more sunshine and perhaps more thundery days, too. This unsettled spell will have to run out eventually, yet I understand an unsettled Spring does not necessarily equal a settled Summer, although I feel it helps in some way. To be fair, today was settled and dry here, breaking the constant chain of rain and showers occuring pratically everyday here.

Last year was almost stormless here, apart from the odd spot of thundery weather last August, so am personally hoping thunderstorms will be more of a regular ordeal in the Summer.

[Backtrack]

To be honest May hasn't been too bad here so far due to some good lengthy spells of sunshine, although Bank Holiday Monday looks likely to live up to its reputation by being a wet, grey day. Thursday looks positively awful at the moment too.

Other than that, I'm hopeful of some useful weather between now and June.

Quite grey so far here, but I believe that you've had some nice days as yesterday I went to Southport. It went from overcast skies with spits of rain, to unbroken sunshine with temperatures up to 13C.

[Aaron]

Mosquitoes don't come in my house, they know the consequences....

lol

Anyway I'm hopeful we will see a prolonged period of warmth. I'm thinking August this year for a change, there usually washouts, along with June ...July....

Warm and sunny on my birthday for a change? Hmm, I doubt that!

[Summer Sun]

The met office probability charts for May have updated

Temperature

Precipitation

Sea surface temperature

Edited May 12, 2012 by Gavin D

[Bottesford]

Well I like the look of those charts! But those things do seem to change quite a lot thought.

[Terminal Moraine]

Well I like the look of those charts! But those things do seem to change quite a lot thought.

They're also much different to the CFS long range charts which,for the last couple of months at least have consistently shown

a wetter than average summer across central Britain, with near normal or slightly above average temperatures, and a drier and much warmer summer than average across northernmost parts of Britain.

[summer blizzard]

ao

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