Summer 2021: Moans, Groans, Ramps and Banter

[East Duckling]

As far as I can see it really depends on where you live as to how you viewed Summer 2021 as we head in to Autum.

If you live in East Anglia or the SE then it has been trully appaling with most of August Completely Cloudy with rain (Mostly light drizzle that stops you doing anything but doesn't amount to anything in rainfall totals so weather people with gauges go "Not above Average" ) July we had 1 hot week the rest the same cloud cover with occasional Sun. As for May it was more like March temperature wise.

Not proffesional measurements but as a guide, Air-Conditioning Unit in South Facing "Office" (It was a bedroom but having moved from a 3 bed house to a 1 bed house/2 offices building !) only switched on 4 times this year. (Compared to 2020 when it was 5 or 6 weeks). Temp in Ipswich not above 23 Degrees for the whole of August and most days not above 20. Limited watering of plant pots on patio from every day to once a week. Trees in Garden turning on 1st Sept rather than 20th ish of October. Tomatoe plants at least 4 weeks behind to rippening. Grass, field edges green for the whole of summer and wheat harvest not complete until last week of August when normally complete by the 1st week. And to cap it all as a Ginger I've only had to put sun block on twice this summer. 

I think if you lived in the North and especially NW your year has probably been better than average because your average and thus expectations are so much lower than EA/SE. But 2021 has definately been the year of no summer in the South. The only hope is this Easterly/Northerly flows set up in December/January and we have a decent snow season. It really does feel that the weather is settling in the British Isles in to a yucky grey cludy rut of temps 10 to 20 degrees all year round. Not asking for weeks of 35 degrees or in the other extreme -20 for weeks in winter. But some variation so I can top up my vitamin D levels in the summer would be nice  

[Scorcher]

This has got to be the cloudiest high pressure I've ever seen. Quite bizarre really as it's not the typical type of North Sea cloud by any means.

Looking at the satellite though it seems as if we may get some good breaks in the cloud here this afternoon.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Scorcher

[Atmogenic]

I agree that this is the worst August for me, no storms, no good length of sunshine, no good or great duration of heat. Just cloudy muck. Although yesterday and today (so far) the cloud broke quite a bit and the sun was shining from time to time so when I saw the light, my mood went up quite a bit just seeing the light again and hopefully this is the end of this crap.

[MP-R]

40 minutes ago, Scorcher said:

This has got to be the cloudiest high pressure I've ever seen. Quite bizarre really as it's not the typical type of North Sea cloud by any means.

Looking at the satellite though it seems as if we may get some good breaks in the cloud here this afternoon.

The extent of this cloud would be notable even in late autumn and winter from this setup! The sky has had a very wintry anticyclonic gloom look about it the last few days. 

Fortunately, up until Sunday, the cloud broke up most days here by the afternoon.

[TheOgre]

There’s a chance it could get warm again by next week, maybe up to 27C It just came out of nowhere!

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by TheOgre

[B87]

A pathetic end to a poor summer in London. One of the worst Augusts of all time; very cool and extremely cloudy (only beaten by August 1958). The absolute max of 25.3c was pathetic, and the lowest for 35 years.

Edited September 1, 2021 by B87

[Summer8906]

In Hampshire I'd consider it a very cloudy summer, one of the cloudiest though don't have figures to back it up. It's also been near constantly changeable, apart from the first half of June and around 10 days in the middle of July - the former being sunny and warm with low humidity (with some cloudier interludes at times) and the latter being almost too oppressively hot - didn't help that we went from weeks of temps struggling to reach 20, to around a week of 31 by day and almost 20 by night.

Second half of June and early July seemed to be very notable for shallow lows repeatedly forming near southeast England. Roughly the same synoptic pattern reformed about four times if I remember right, tending to coincide with the weekend with midweek offering some slightly better days. Then the heat, before late July produced a cool and wet W-NW pattern.

August was notable for its cloudiness. The first few days produced some pleasant weather at times as July's pattern shifted eastwards but then we had a lengthy period of cyclonic SWlies with little sunshine and a fair amount of rain, it was also very muggy. A particularly unpleasant mix of low daytime temps and high night-time temps, ISTR around 19 max 15 min was common in this period.

Finally of course the high moved in for the last 10 days or so of August, though as we all know sunshine was restricted. From the 22nd to the 29th though it was reasonably bright most days, the real gloom coming in the last two days of the month.

While the CET may not be too low, I suspect daytime maxima for the southeast were very suppressed outside the June and July warm spells, rarely reaching average.

I think I'd place this summer third-from-bottom for all years from 1989 onwards, with 2007 and 2012 being worse. From the 80s perhaps comparable to 1985.

Aside from early June, pleasant summer weather with maxes in the twenties has been rather lacking this year. But the cloudiness, while particularly marked this year, has been typical of many recent years: 2007-2012, 2015-2017, 2019 and 2020 all, if I remember right, coming in cloudier than average for this area across the whole summer.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

18 minutes ago, B87 said:

A pathetic end to a poor summer in London. One of the worst Augusts of all time; very cool and extremely cloudy (only beaten by August 1958). The absolute max of 25.3c was pathetic, and the lowest for 35 years.

Since 1986, the year most famous for Hurricane Charley over the bank holiday weekend. I can't remember much detail about the rest of August other than a lack of warm spells and a lot of cloudiness, though I was in a warm and thundery Germany for the first 12 days or so - though apparently it wasn't just Charley, the whole month was pretty bad.

I wonder if we have had Decembers sunnier than this August just gone? 104 hrs translates to around 3.5 hours per day out of a theoretical maximum of 8, so I can imagine December could in principle reach that figure if it was unusually northerly or northwesterly (sunny directions down here in winter). Perhaps the notably sunny December 2001 might have come close?

Edited September 1, 2021 by Summer8906

[B87]

Just now, Summer8906 said:

I wonder if we have had Decembers sunnier than this August just gone? 104 hrs translates to around 3.5 hours out of a theoretical maximum of 8, so I can imagine December could in principle reach that figure. Perhaps the notably sunny December 2001 might have come close?

I think the sunniest December recorded around 90-95 hours of sun. August 2008 was famously duller than February 2008 though.

[Summer8906]

3 minutes ago, B87 said:

I think the sunniest December recorded around 90-95 hours of sun. August 2008 was famously duller than February 2008 though.

Thanks, that would figure from what I remember of Feb and Aug 2008. The sunniest January must come close I guess, given January has more daylight than Dec.

Interestingly Aug 2008 also had a high late in the month which was disappointingly cloudy, apart from one day (Sat 30th) just as it was moving away. However that time it was due to embedded tropical maritime air and SW-ly winds, so it was considerably warmer with temps in the 20s despite the cloud.

[Ross90]

It's been quite sunny up here.  i'm not sure i'd say above average for August but definitely near average with a few days of 20c +. It seems like it has been drier than average too with only 3/4 days of rain. The summer in general has been drier than average in the north since way back in mid May.

[Guest]

Today’s a mess (again) what started of as low relatively thin cloud that looked ripe for breaking has turned into thick SC. 
 

[Stabilo19]

Without sounding like a broken record.. What a terrible summer for most in the SE!

I can only hope that a lack of extreme heat has kept the SST anomalies down and we get less moderation of cold autumnal/winter air. 

 

[stainesbloke]

26 minutes ago, Alderc said:

Today’s a mess (again) what started of as low relatively thin cloud that looked ripe for breaking has turned into thick SC. 
 

That satellite pic is actually giving me a bit of anxiety and I don’t even live in the UK lol Vile, pointless, depressing rubbish. Scotland looks nice, though! Hasn’t been much better here for the last 10 days or so but quite sunny today

Edited September 1, 2021 by stainesbloke

[damianslaw]

August 2021 reflecting how I've felt since March 2020.. 'flat'..

[Sunny76]

We had more sunshine last december in London, especially during the Christmas period when it was cold.

[Sunny76]

1 hour ago, Summer8906 said:

Since 1986, the year most famous for Hurricane Charley over the bank holiday weekend. I can't remember much detail about the rest of August other than a lack of warm spells and a lot of cloudiness, though I was in a warm and thundery Germany for the first 12 days or so - though apparently it wasn't just Charley, the whole month was pretty bad.

I wonder if we have had Decembers sunnier than this August just gone? 104 hrs translates to around 3.5 hours per day out of a theoretical maximum of 8, so I can imagine December could in principle reach that figure if it was unusually northerly or northwesterly (sunny directions down here in winter). Perhaps the notably sunny December 2001 might have come close?

I remember August 1986 being cool and cloudy, but there was also a humid cloudy spell, which lead to overnight storms on a weekend night in the London region. Not sure if anyone else remembers the thunderstorms, or maybe that was July.

[Summer8906]

 

12 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

I remember August 1986 being cool and cloudy, but there was also a humid cloudy spell, which lead to overnight storms on a weekend night in the London region. Not sure if anyone else remembers the thunderstorms, or maybe that was July.

I can't remember them specifically; I think they must have been while I was out of the country (approx 1st-12th) as I am about 99% sure that there was nothing remotely thundery after that (West Sussex) and the weather was completely dominated by cool, cloudy airmasses.

However there were two quite severe thundery episodes in western Germany (Black Forest) in the first 12 days, about a week apart, and it was also generally warm there. Certainly possible that the warm air got into SE England for a while as it's not all that far away - the first set of storms was definitely a weekend (Sunday 3rd/Monday 4th overnight) and the second was around the second weekend, so that might tie in with the same event.

As an aside, there was also an extraordinary all-day summer fog event around the time we returned, covering large parts of western Germany and eastern France, and persisting for about two days. It only cleared once we got into the Reims area.

Don't think I can recall storms in July either, though I do remember the first half, as well as much of June, was warm-hot and sunny: 1986 seemed rather like 2017 in some ways as a summer of two contrasting halves, though the latter year had no 'Charley'. I do remember some evening storms on Saturday June 21 due to a temporary incursion of a Biscay low which then retreated again.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Summer8906

[TwisterGirl81]

1 hour ago, Stabilo19 said:

Without sounding like a broken record.. What a terrible summer for most in the SE!

I can only hope that a lack of extreme heat has kept the SST anomalies down and we get less moderation of cold autumnal/winter air. 

 

For the southwest too

[TwisterGirl81]

Well on the positive side...Next year has got to be better summer wise and an end to these draconian rules we've been living under, travel should be easier too....It's no wonder this summer has been depressing even more so when you think of the rules we've been living under and the fact that in the south overall it has got to be one of the poorest summers in decades, really really bad timing.

Next week looks like it's going to be lovely too

Next year will be a much better year for us all I'm sure   

[Guest]

I can’t think of any other countries where high pressure can bring such poor conditions? Maybe parts of Greenland northern Canada, northern Russia and Alaska? 

[BruenSryan]

2 hours ago, B87 said:

I think the sunniest December recorded around 90-95 hours of sun. August 2008 was famously duller than February 2008 though.

Indeed 93.3 hrs in December 2001. Image below is every month ranked sunniest to dullest for Heathrow as of July 2021. Reservations have to be made for months from September 2005 however as they were recorded with a K-Z sensor instead of C/S recorder.

Edited September 1, 2021 by BruenSryan

[B87]

9 minutes ago, BruenSryan said:

Indeed 93.3 hrs in December 2001. Image below is every month ranked sunniest to dullest for Heathrow as of July 2021. Reservations have to be made for months from September 2005 however as they were recorded with a K-Z sensor instead of C/S recorder.

The equivalent values from 2006 onwards are on the spreadsheet. May 2020 was Heathrow's sunniest month on record with 329.6 hours.

CS0044355 Heathrow Monthly Sun Hours 2006-2020 (002).xlsx

[Summer8906]

29 minutes ago, BruenSryan said:

Indeed 93.3 hrs in December 2001. Image below is every month ranked sunniest to dullest for Heathrow as of July 2021. Reservations have to be made for months from September 2005 however as they were recorded with a K-Z sensor instead of C/S recorder.

So it does look like there have been a couple of Novembers sunnier than this August at Heathrow - given that November is a month with very short days, significantly more so than February, this is quite a statistic.

Surprised to see 1984 is the 2nd sunniest January... I recall that one as distinctly wet and stormy.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Summer8906

[Thundery wintry showers]

Waddington came in at 103.7 hours.  An approximate K-Z to C/S conversion would place it at around 120-125 hours, which would make it the dullest August in this region since 1963 (which had 109 hours).  The only other duller August in a record from 1949 was that of 1954 (which also had 109 hours).

Regarding January 1984, it was indeed a wet and stormy month, and also unusually snowy in the north.  But in the south-east in particular, many of the fronts passed through overnight and the days were often bright and showery.  December 1999 and November 1996 also spring to mind as wet months that were also exceptionally sunny at Heathrow (and I can see them on the list - 1999 ranks as the 2nd sunniest December and 1996 as the sunniest November).

Edited September 1, 2021 by Thundery wintry showers