Warm/hot Spell Discussion 22nd May Onwards

[Costa Del Fal]

I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure 7 days of sunshine and warm weather is pretty common in the months May-September.

7 days of sunshine and warmth yes can be quite common but I have to say I cant remember many occasions where it was 7/8 days of Uninterrupted sunshine, day in, day out over this time. Quite impressive as its usually a good deal of fair weather cloud by afternoon.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Indeed, I'd suggest that 7 consecutive days of largely, let alone entirely, uninterrupted sunshine is pretty rare. Even a clear anticyclonic spell typically has the occasional disturbance that brings some cloud in during the course of a week, e.g. fronts moving into the high pressure or the high moving to a position allowing cloud to spread in from the west or east.

[Cheese Rice]

From a nation wide perspective I see your point, but somewhere more prone to clear skies and sunny weather such as Central and eastern England it seems part of a regular summer.

[Backtrack]

I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure 7 days of sunshine and warm weather is pretty common in the months May-September.

So when was the last time you had 7 days of crystal blue skies without interruptions? I for one cannot remember any spells which gave that quality of weather.

From a nation wide perspective I see your point, but somewhere more prone to clear skies and sunny weather such as Central and eastern England it seems part of a regular summer.

No chance. No where in the UK gets 7 days of cloudless skies in a row in a regular summer.

[I Cumbria Marra I]

Friday was literally the warmest day in years here lol

[Aaron]

Even this period of weather has not had completely uninterrupted sunshine.. many days have had cumulus develop later in the day (like today). This hasn't affected the sunshine totals really though, with over 100 hours of sunshine in the past week alone taking the monthly total above 200 hours.

Edited May 28, 2012 by Aaron

[AderynCoch]

As others have mentioned, it's funny how we get a nice last Monday of May when the Bank Holiday is moved. This would have made a perfect extended Jubilee weekend.

The Queen's coronation in 1953 and Silver Jubliee in 1977 were both cool, wet affairs. Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 saw temperatures up to 32C with severe thunderstorms.

[Cheese Rice]

So when was the last time you had 7 days of crystal blue skies without interruptions? I for one cannot remember any spells which gave that quality of weather.

No chance. No where in the UK gets 7 days of cloudless skies in a row in a regular summer.

July 2006

[Scorcher]

It has been a pretty remarkable period of weather in my opinion. Okay no really high temperatures but it's the sustained warmth and consistently clear skies that have been impressive, especially after April and the first half of May. There have also been some pretty warm nights for May- particularly last Thursday/Friday. It looks like it will remain warm until Wednesday at least here, which will mean around 8 days of very warm temperatures and virtually unbroken sunshine (Thursday morning the exception)- there haven't been too many spells this long in the past few years.

[AderynCoch]

July 2006 was an exceptional month.

[Cheese Rice]

If you think about warm lovers haven't done all that bad. We had a week of hot weather in October, March and May. Compared to the last few dire summers thats pretty good.

[AderynCoch]

July and August on the other hand have been real letdowns since 2006. Well they have here at least.

[Snowy Easterly]

why do northerners think the south is much better for sun, trust me its not, its is rare for us to have 7 days of wall to wall sunshine too you know

now we have some horrible, pointless northerly later in the week which will give us cool cloudy depressing days, with the cloud magically melting away at night to leave it very chilly i hope it don;t get too cold otherwise my crops will die, and that will be it for this year, too late to re plant some seeds for certain veg

Edited May 28, 2012 by Snowy Easterly

[Aaron]

I don't. The UK is one of the cloudiest countries in the world, the sunniest place only has around 1,900 hours of sun a year on average. Southerners who boast about the great climate down there are only speaking relatively - London for example is pretty damn cloudy.

Edited May 28, 2012 by Aaron

[Derp Patrol]

I don't. The UK is one of the cloudiest countries in the world, the sunniest place only has around 1,900 hours of sun a year on average. Southerners who boast about the great climate down there are only speaking relatively - London for example is pretty damn cloudy.

We don't have a great climate, but it is a lot better than northern England and Scotland for hot weather IMO. Nowhere in the UK is particularly sunny relative to the rest of the world, but at least in the SE we have decently warm summers that can make up for that. London is pretty much the same as Paris and the northern quadrant of France in that sense.

[Aaron]

Actually Paris is quite a bit warmer than London in the summer. London has more in common with Warsaw and Minsk in the summer than Paris.

[reef]

How anyone can call a spell with temperatures some 7-10C above average with almost unbroken sunshine in some areas for almost a week unexceptional is beyond me. Although 30C wasnt reached that is quite unusual in May in the UK and despite this many areas did actually break their May maxima records.

[Aaron]

How anyone can call a spell with temperatures some 7-10C above average with almost unbroken sunshine in some areas for almost a week unexceptional is beyond me. Although 30C wasnt reached that is quite unusual in May in the UK and despite this many areas did actually break their May maxima records.

Maximums here for the past 7 days:

24.5 26.4 27.2 24.3 24.4 24.5 27.4

Nothing noteworthy really.

[geg1992]

Is the potential still there for Wednesday?

[reef]

Maximums here for the past 7 days:

24.5 26.4 27.2 24.3 24.4 24.5 27.4

Nothing noteworthy really.

Anything above 25C is pretty unusual for Northern England in May, to get 7 days in a row above 24C in Leeds when the average May maximum is around 15.5C is very much exceptional.

Indeed, such a spell would be pretty impressive in high summer.

[Aaron]

Actually a temperature above 25C here in May is not unusual at all. There's no long term data for Leeds either.

So no, exceptional is not the word I would use.

Edited May 28, 2012 by Aaron

[ZONE 51]

How anyone can call a spell with temperatures some 7-10C above average with almost unbroken sunshine in some areas for almost a week unexceptional is beyond me. Although 30C wasnt reached that is quite unusual in May in the UK and despite this many areas did actually break their May maxima records.

I read some have not had much sunshine and quite cool...

I agree with what you are saying here, it has been one for the books, it is a heatwave i can add to the collection! 90% sunshine for most of the time, if it's going to get cool and cloudy then make sure it goes out with some fireworks!

Edit..it's still a heatwave here now

Edited May 28, 2012 by ElectricSnowStorm

[Derp Patrol]

How anyone can call a spell with temperatures some 7-10C above average with almost unbroken sunshine in some areas for almost a week unexceptional is beyond me. Although 30C wasnt reached that is quite unusual in May in the UK and despite this many areas did actually break their May maxima records.

It was a good spell.. but in practically every May I can remember we have had a similar spell.. I don't have time to look now, but i'm sure if you look at the past few years we have recorded temperatures ranging from 27-31C in pretty much every May. All you need in May for such temperatures to occur is some high pressure close by or to the east, in fact if the winds had been more southerly it would have been maybe 4-5 degrees warmer in some places. I accept that for northern areas it has been a pretty exceptional event though, especially in Scotland who have recorded some high maxes

Actually Paris is quite a bit warmer than London in the summer. London has more in common with Warsaw and Minsk in the summer than Paris.

It's not too much different, Paris tends to get more heat waves than London because of it's more favourable location, but sunshine hours are pretty similar, and average temperatures aren't too much different. Paris peaks at about 25C in July which is about 1C warmer than London

Edited May 28, 2012 by robthefool

[95 Degrees]

Although this spell has been very warm and pleasant it isn't a heatwave but a sunny warm easterly spell, the met office for example class is when temperatures are classed 30-32C (day) for three or more days and 16-19C (night), this varies by region though.

[Cheese Rice]

We don't have a great climate, but it is a lot better than northern England and Scotland for hot weather IMO. Nowhere in the UK is particularly sunny relative to the rest of the world, but at least in the SE we have decently warm summers that can make up for that. London is pretty much the same as Paris and the northern quadrant of France in that sense.

The difference is around 1-2.c temperature wise. Yorkshire South Eastwards sees very similar temperatures. It's only North of Yorkshire that see cooler weather people associate with the north.

A good example been the NAE temperature forecast.

Leeds is a good example as its always a good 1-2.c higher than the surrounding area.