Summer 2023 chat

[Jon Somerset]

Utterly ghastly day here - mild and breezy with periods of rain and consistent dark low cloud. It’s 6.45 and I have lights on. Combined with my head cold this truly feels like late October. 
I’m holding out for what seem to be consistent forecasts for something better just as my holidays begin- fingers crossed…….

[Alderc 2.0]

1 hour ago, razorgrain said:

I always get mildly infuriated when I hear people from somewhere like California say they want to move here for the "cold climate" and have to hold my tongue a little! Always ends up with me telling them that it's warmer more often that it's cooler, which devolves to "30°c is cold!"

Lol, I work with someone who lives in Phoenix and we were talking. He spent a year working in Washington and described the climate there as dull, grey and too cold outside July & August. They have something like 2700 hrs of sunshine! 

[seabreeze86]

2 hours ago, danm said:

Surprised this July has been as high as 22.9c

Surprised I’m astonished, what location is that for most be London?

Edited July 31, 2023 by seabreeze86

[B87]

13 minutes ago, Alderc 2.0 said:

Lol, I work with someone who lives in Phoenix and we were talking. He spent a year working in Washington and described the climate there as dull, grey and too cold outside July & August. They have something like 2700 hrs of sunshine! 

Coastal California can hardly be described as hot though. LAX and San Diego have summer highs only slightly warmer than here, San Francisco and Malibu are cooler.

Eureka, CA summer highs are cooler than northern England!

5 hours ago, Daniel* said:

Seriously dull July in London dullest in 48 years, even if you add a correction as sun recorder changed in 2005 it’s still the dullest July of 21st century so far and there has been some shockers.

48 

With correction it'll be in the 160s, which is the dullest for 31 years (1992 had 159 hours). The next dullest was July 2009 with 178 hours.

Edited July 31, 2023 by B87

[B87]

22.9c is for London, might yet drop to 22.8c once today's values are in.

Edited July 31, 2023 by B87

[TwisterGirl81]

6 minutes ago, B87 said:

22.9c is for London, might yet drop to 22.8c once today's values are in.

Well the average is 23.9 (though probably near 25c the last decade) so it'll come out as at least 1c below average, dullest in 30 years and probably over 150% rainfall, I hope we are all well and truelly compensated for a really poor July with a beautiful August and September.  Like @SunSean said, after the cold poor spring it'll make winter a little more bearable....Hopefully next year we have better luck for spring and summer  

[In Absence of True Seasons]

2 hours ago, danm said:

Surprised this July has been as high as 22.9c

 

2 hours ago, danm said:

Surprised this July has been as high as 22.9c

Just goes to show that the average maxes don't really paint the full picture of how we actually perceive the weather in the flesh. 

A July with an average max of what's effectively 23c, on paper, sounds...well, not that bad! That is, until you recognise that most of those days felt nothing like 23c because they were thick overcast, chilly breeze, often drizzly or heavy rain, and generally lacking in sun. 

I actually think that figure is bumped up quite alot by the few days above 25c we had at the start of the month. Because I know for a fact there's been multiple days not just below 23c in London, but also below 20c (with a couple of days being as low as 16 and 17c). 

Which says to me that that average max paints a bit of a false picture of the general 'feel' of the month overall.

[B87]

Add 1c to all of those highs, and about another 70 hours of sun and it would feel decent, it would be an average month.

[andreas]

I agree - average max overlooks what was often the experience this month - a brief sunny burst lifting the temperature for an hour or two, but most of the daytime hours being much cooler. 

[NEVES SCREAMER]

1 hour ago, SunSean said:

Normally I'd make it a bit more seasonal but thanks to missing out on any kind of warmth or brightness in Spring, a pleasantly warm/mild and sunny Autumn would go some way to cancelling out the vile Spring we had.

And summer

[Addicks Fan 1981]

Three reasons why July has been so disappointing are an EQBO that meant a negative NAO, an el niño that made the azores high weak and our atmosphere behaving in a la niña like regime.   Very July 2009 esque, and that July had niña bits to it as well.    

[IcySpicy]

July has been very similar here in Estonia to that example of London high temps. Not too bad on paper, but very underwhelming in reality. For example today, the high was around 23C in the afternoon but we only had a few hours of hazy sunshine. The morning was cloudy and cool until around 1PM, then 2-3 hours of sun, then it clouded over again at 4PM and stayed cloudy until 7PM. Cleared up again but also got cold. Yesterday was also warm on paper (24C), but it was nice only until 3PM, then got cloudy and rained in the evening. I think we only had two days this month (the 15th and 16th) where it was sunny and warm from morning to evening. I have never seen a July like this, where we fail to get sunny weather for more than 2 days (tbf mostly it was just half a day here and there).

[B87]

And with today's max of 20.3, the monthly average max has fallen to 22.8c. The same as July 2008.

[stainesbloke]

1 hour ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

Seems to be somewhat of an unpopular preference on here, but I'm not a fan of warm autumns personally. I want the warmth to be in summer when the days are long and nature is at its best. I like seasons to be seasonal. 

I wouldn't want a cold spring either.

Normally I’d agree, I like a reasonably warm September and the light is beautiful, but prefer it to feel more seasonal after that. This year, however, I’d like it to stay warm, sunny and settled for as long as possible, after that horrible spring and July. 

[Metwatch]

Nice mackerel skies with it brightening up on an evening stroll.

Very different to the dryness last year in the woodlands, now moist but lush. The wildlife definitely loving the rainfall, but for us less so.

Edited July 31, 2023 by Metwatch

[B87]

13 minutes ago, stainesbloke said:

Normally I’d agree, I like a reasonably warm September and the light is beautiful, but prefer it to feel more seasonal after that. This year, however, I’d like it to stay warm, sunny and settled for as long as possible, after that horrible spring and July. 

Same. Average high in September is 20c here, but I want something warm, sunny and dry this year after the complete failure of spring and most of July. The only settled spells we've had all year so far were the 4 weeks in February, and about 6 weeks from late May to early July.

Bring on a repeat of September 1949, 1959, 2003 or 2018. Or 2016 temps with 1964 sunshine.

Edited July 31, 2023 by B87

[stainesbloke]

16 minutes ago, Metwatch said:

Nice mackerel skies with it brightening up on an evening stroll.

Very different to the dryness last year in the woodlands, now moist but lush. The wildlife definitely loving the rainfall, but for us less so.

Beautiful sky Landscape is looking lush, would be nice if the rain could be interspersed with sunny and warm days, seems to be feast or famine these days unfortunately 

[SunSean]

Really surprising stat for July (Heathrow)-

From 2006, only 7 days out of a possible 558 (around 1.25%) in July have been 35 degrees plus! And only one 35 degrees plus from 2007-2017. Could have sworn we hit 35 more than that in July but not as common as I imagined. 

30 degrees has been hit 55 times out of 558 (9.9%)

At the other end of the scale, less than 20 degrees has been achieved 60 times out of 558 (10.8%)

Edited July 31, 2023 by SunSean
Changed zero to One regarding 2007-2017

[NEVES SCREAMER]

I'll probably get my post removed as usual. But glad the rain relented enough this afternoon for the test match to reach an honest conclusion. Congratulations England on the test match victory. All the best Stuart Broad in retirement. 

[NEVES SCREAMER]

35 minutes ago, B87 said:

And with today's max of 20.3, the monthly average max has fallen to 22.8c. The same as July 2008.

Worse than 2012. Hideous month. Disgraceful. 

[B87]

Just now, NEVES SCREAMER said:

Worse than 2012. Hideous month. Disgraceful. 

July 2012: av max 21.3c, 72mm, 184 sun hours

July 2023: av max 22.8c, 62mm, ~167 sun hours

I think this month still edges it.

[marky810]

Arrived in Whitby today for a few days on the east coast. Never been in Nov before so surprised it's still light at 8.30pm. Quite mild for the time of year as well. Must have been 15c despite the rain. Oh hang on a minute.......is this 2023? 

..

[Snowyowl9]

Very heavy showers gone through now made July wetter than the record breaking wet snowy march..set in 2023..

Edited July 31, 2023 by Snowyowl9

[NEVES SCREAMER]

3 minutes ago, B87 said:

July 2012: av max 21.3c, 72mm, 184 sun hours

July 2023: av max 22.8c, 62mm, ~167 sun hours

I think this month still edges it.

It's just the degree to how rubbish it is !!

[Freeze]

21 minutes ago, SunSean said:

Really surprising stat for July (Heathrow)-

From 2006, only 7 days out of a possible 558 (around 1.25%) in July have been 35 degrees plus! And no 35 degrees at all from 2007-2017. 

Didn't Heathrow hit 36 degrees on 1st July 2015? Could be wrong though.