Summer 2023 chat

[matt brid]

4 minutes ago, Wold Topper said:

Same here down the coast, the rain is torrential and the wind has picked noticeably,

It has been like an October or early November day with some torrential rainfall in Bridlington

[raz.org.rain]

10 minutes ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

Indeed, virtually nowhere in North America gets summers like us Brits have the potential to get. Even the dullest and wettest areas in North America, renowned for their grim summed (by American standards) such as Seattle or Portland, consistently have summers that - if we were to have - would end up ranking up there with the likes of 2018 lol. 

We are talking temps pretty consistently in the mid 20s and most importantly, alot, lot more sunshine hours. They get alot of rain too in those areas but it's generally condensed into just very rainy days.

The issue with Britain is that our rainfall in summer might not actually be as high as somehwre like Oregon or Washington, but it's spread out over numerous days where it just lightly drizzles from morning to night lol. No use to anyone...

People keep saying we're "warm" for our latitude and then compare us to places like Newfoundland which aren't massively different in the summertime, especially this year when they've had consistently warmer weather than us... really just adds to my scepticism that the ocean current is the only thing keeping us from being as "cold" as other places on our latitude in summer.

[Wold Topper]

3 minutes ago, matt brid said:

It has been like an October or early November day with some torrential rainfall in Bridlington

I am at work at Carnaby and our car parks flooded and the roads look like they'll be fun on the way home

Edited August 2, 2023 by Wold Topper

[danm]

1 hour ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

This year is very unusual for us. Worst July I can recall in my lifetime from a combo of warmth, wetness, cloud cover and wind.

 

Yes it’s rarely this bad. 

[stainesbloke]

1 hour ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

Absolutely blowing a gale in London now. I do love November. My favourite month.

It’s worse across the Channel, places like Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam are getting high wind speeds. But it’s 23°C in Paris and quite sunny, London at a rather pathetic 17°C

[raz.org.rain]

Seems the warm to hot trend being picked up by the models for around the 11th are picking up in strength at least. Some indication it could be a notably hot plume.

[cheeky_monkey]

28 minutes ago, cheese said:

Cities like Seattle have cool-summer Mediterranean climates because of their rainfall pattern (very wet winters, significantly drier summers). They also have very sunny summers compared to the UK because they come under the influence of the semipermanent North Pacific high from June to August. It’s like the Azores high moving over Southern Europe during the summer. 

Go check the forecasts for Seattle and Vancouver if you want to be jealous. They seem to get hot sunny summers every year now. 

Vancouver is an odd one because its right on the coast but also is circled by Mountains so has different climates across the urban area..mostly downtown isn't that warm in summer rarely does it get above 30c or that cold in winter ..ice days and snow are pretty rare..go a few miles inland to the out districts and suburbs it becomes much warmer even hot in summer and colder and snowier in winter as the elevation increases...i have spent a lot of time working in Burnaby which weather wise and streetscape very much remind me of England.

Edited August 2, 2023 by cheeky_monkey

[carinthian]

25 minutes ago, razorgrain said:

The American west coast climate is kind of bizarre to be fair. San Francisco is very mild and doesn't get as hot as often as the inland does, parts of coastal Northern California have a climate comparable to parts of Alaska and Scotland, then as you go further north it starts getting warmer again. British Columbia has Mediterranean climates on some of its coastline.

My son who lives out in Vancouver for the past 12 years or so tells me the summers have definitely got hotter over there during the past decade with record high temps last summer . The persistent  summer haze and stench of burning woodland from the interior also a noticeable feature. Obviously, mostly an oceanic climate prevails much of the time but increasingly whats becoming more common is periods of hot summer weather ridging up from Western States of America and severe cold from the interior.

C

[In Absence of True Seasons]

7 minutes ago, stainesbloke said:

It’s worse across the Channel, places like Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam are getting high wind speeds. But it’s 23°C in Paris and quite sunny, London at a rather pathetic 17°C

17c feeling like about 15c too haha.

Well, It can't get any worse can it! Oh wait...it can...Saturdays forecast

[Downburst]

What is called for is a national, UK and Ireland day that can be called in months like this. Something along the lines of a sport in a muddy field, or that crazy cheese rolling thing, or bog snorkling, use your imagination. There could be a home nations tournament and it could be televised. Something to make some fun and use of the rain and saturated ground. Remember Murry Walker doing the rally cross int the 80's. Something to lift the mood is what is needed, as the vast majority of people are sick of it and need to laugh at it somehow.

[marky810]

2 hours ago, Wold Topper said:

Shocking morning on the East Coast, torrential rain, roads covered in standing water, i haven't seen the stats but we must have had a chunk of Augusts total rainfall today so far

An absolute horror show in Whitby. Businesses must be suffering (except the arcades) It must be truly awful to rely on the british summer weather for your income.

[Sunny76]

47 minutes ago, Row w said:

tbf after 2006 it went downhill so I can't blame you there.

2005 was decent and 2009 was the best out of those very poor summers near the end of the decade. But 09 suffered from a poor July, but we did get quite a few thundery periods.

Winters became better for a time, but I don’t like losing our summers to achieve snowy winter periods. 

[Methuselah]

21 minutes ago, matt brid said:

It has been like an October or early November day with some torrential rainfall in Bridlington

Well, seeing as everyone's posting stuff unrelated to Summer 2023 (hardly surprising!), I'll post this in here: 

 

[raz.org.rain]

Chile and Argentina currently going through an unprecedented winter heatwave, even in the south which is the antipodal latitude equivalent of Western Europe. Really makes you wonder...

[Wimbledon88]

This soaking we are getting in London just nowwill do wonders for my allotment later in the autumn.  

[Sunny76]

41 minutes ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

Indeed, virtually nowhere in North America gets summers like us Brits have the potential to get. Even the dullest and wettest areas in North America, renowned for their grim summed (by American standards) such as Seattle or Portland, consistently have summers that - if we were to have - would end up ranking up there with the likes of 2018 lol. 

We are talking temps pretty consistently in the mid 20s and most importantly, alot, lot more sunshine hours. They get alot of rain too in those areas but it's generally condensed into just very rainy days.

The issue with Britain is that our rainfall in summer might not actually be as high as somehwre like Oregon or Washington, but it's spread out over numerous days where it just lightly drizzles from morning to night lol. No use to anyone...

The weird thing for me was, when I lived in Toronto between august 99 until March 2001, I experienced one of their hottest summers in 1999, with many days well into the 30s, but 2000 by contrast was fairly cool and disappointing. 
 

It was a very thundery summer, but temps failed to reach of exceed 30c on many occasions during summer 2000. 
 

Even in North America there’s no guarantees.

[Metwatch]

Sunny and barely a breathe of wind here at the moment. The pressure is bottoming out at 985 hPa, but if you didn't know what it was you'd think it's more high pressure.

Had about 8mm of rain so far today, majority of it early morning. 

[Catbrainz]

I really wish the UK was just 5 degrees further south the summers would be way better. I think itd look something like this (assuming we were still an island climate)

Cardiff at 46N 
Jun= 23/13 40mm 253 hrs
Jul= 25/15 26mm 301 hrs
Aug= 25/15 31mm 258 hrs

London at 46N 
Jun= 24/15 24mm 278 hrs
Jul= 27/16 17mm 314 hrs
Aug= 27/16 20mm 279 hrs

Manchester at 48N 
Jun= 22/13 44mm 239 hrs
Jul= 25/15 39mm 278 hrs
Aug= 24/15 45mm 248 hrs

Edinburgh at 51N
Jun= 21/13 55mm 209 hrs
Jul= 24/15 49mm 242 hrs
Aug= 24/14 53mm 229 hrs

Aberdeen at 52N (I think itd be sunnier and drier than the real Eastern England at 52N due to Highlands blocking westerly air)
Jun= 19/13 51mm 223 hrs
Jul= 23/15 44mm 262 hrs
Aug= 22/15 55mm 239 hrs

Only downside would be that outside of the Scottish Highlands we would wave goodbye to any snow and wintery weather. 

[Nick L]

10 minutes ago, marky810 said:

An absolute horror show in Whitby. Businesses must be suffering (except the arcades) It must be truly awful to rely on the british summer weather for your income.

Well surely the trade-off is that indoor entertainment venues will be doing a roaring trade in comparison? I suspect bowling alleys, cinemas, indoor mini golf, go karting etc. must be loving the fact folks are forced to remain indoors. Swings and roundabouts.

[In Absence of True Seasons]

3 minutes ago, Nick L said:

Well surely the trade-off is that indoor entertainment venues will be doing a roaring trade in comparison? I suspect bowling alleys, cinemas, indoor mini golf, go karting etc. must be loving the fact folks are forced to remain indoors. Swings and roundabouts.

They make fantastic trade the other 9 months of the year though when the weather is similar to this by default, but with less daylight hours...

The summer period is literally the MAIN window for some people's income in the tourism trade. Go karting and cinema business make plenty money in December. Surfing schools, or beach cafes, do not.

So imo it's not a trade off. It's nothing but a shame, not just for many people's livelihoods, but for all the children on school holidays.

Edited August 2, 2023 by In Absence of True Seasons

[Sunny76]

3 minutes ago, Nick L said:

Well surely the trade-off is that indoor entertainment venues will be doing a roaring trade in comparison? I suspect bowling alleys, cinemas, indoor mini golf, go karting etc. must be loving the fact folks are forced to remain indoors. Swings and roundabouts.

But, most people want to do outdoor activities at this time of year, not October to March indoor stuff. 

[raz.org.rain]

4 minutes ago, Nick L said:

Well surely the trade-off is that indoor entertainment venues will be doing a roaring trade in comparison? I suspect bowling alleys, cinemas, indoor mini golf, go karting etc. must be loving the fact folks are forced to remain indoors. Swings and roundabouts.

Personally I just wouldn't consider going to the seaside with weather like this. The only weather that would tempt me would be what we had in June. The current weather just leaves me wondering why spend money going to Blackpool with its cold and miserable weather when I could just go somewhere in the Med for slightly more money.

[Harry's House]

6 hours ago, IcySpicy said:

Sadly this is true and just a reality of living in N Europe, even the best summers are gonna have a dull and cold week or two. And "typical" summers are more like one bad month and two decent ones. But I think this year the problem is:

1) The bad timing of the poor weather ( if early June or late August was poor,most people wouldn't perceive it as so bad)

2) The contrast between the good June and poor July. Most other truly poor summers were already bad in June. It's rare for a summer to start so good and have all the right synoptic patterns and background signals for a hot summer and then crash and burn so badly. It almost feels like one of those airplane crash investigations lol, trying to find all the small factors, which added up to cause this disaster.

3) The lack of warm sunny days between the poor weather. Even in poor summers there usually are breaks of finer weather but this year every single day above 21C has been accompanied by wind and cloud and rain at some point in the day (and actually we haven't had any cooler sunny days either, it's just endless cloudy muck)

Regarding point 2, this summer reminds me of 1960. After the outstandingly good summer of 1959, June 1960 was good, but to use your expression, it 'crashed and burned badly' for July and August, and ended up a poor summer.

[Methuselah]

This week's Ten-Day Trend: mankind's last best hope for warmth: 

 

[Sunny76]

1 hour ago, razorgrain said:

People keep saying we're "warm" for our latitude and then compare us to places like Newfoundland which aren't massively different in the summertime, especially this year when they've had consistently warmer weather than us... really just adds to my scepticism that the ocean current is the only thing keeping us from being as "cold" as other places on our latitude in summer.

Temp has no barely on just how bad our summers can be at times.

25c and raining is just as bad as 19c and raining for high summer.