How Did You Find Summer 2023?

[BlueHedgehog074]

With the mixed preferences we all have, what makes a season great will understandably vary. Cool and damp being a rocking Summer for one person and, for another, a mundane Summer. Some might not feel as though Summer gives up the ghost until later this month and/or sometime during October depending how the weather conditions. 

For me, this Summer was easy to find during June. Cool start, but a good deal of sunny spells and sone much warmer periods developed. Reasonable for storms too, though the intensity of the strongest downpours tended to divert to the West and East of this part of Solihull. 

It then seemed like Summer was difficult to find during July. Mostly pretty wet and underwhelming overall. Had a few okay moments though.

During August, Summer felt up and down like a yo-yo, but was a fairly reasonable month overall. Pretty rubbish for storms, however.

It feels like just as September steps into the spotlight, Summer has seemingly decided to sneak on back… 

How did you guys find this Summer?

[Sunny76]

Revolting. 
 

June was lovely, but it went downhill after that and the nice sunny warm days of mid to late August weren’t enough to save it. 
 

A summer for the bin. One good thing was the storms. Had a decent on over the August bank holiday weekend, but other than the hot sunny weather in June, it was pretty meh. 

[sundog]

Thought it was OK overall.  July was poor but I'm not mad about heat so at least it was comfortable temperature wise. August was mixed but not too bad overall. Give me a summer like that over a very warm dry one. Comfortable. 

[In Absence of True Seasons]

A season of disparities. A fantastic start, proceeding by a woeful middle and mixed-bag end. If it was a sandwich, the top layer of the bread would be fresh and soft, the filling nigh-on mouldy, and the bottom layer of the bread bearable but a bit soggy.

A great June (for the most part, although the summery conditions didn't really land until a little way into the month IMBY). Can't complain at all about the month as a whole. 

However, what followed was a solid 6-7 weeks of utter dross, with the worst weather specifically being on the weekends, which just added insult to injury on the whole thing. 

Probably the worst high summer period I can recall from the perspective of summery conditions (aka sunny, warm and dry). Doesn't get much worse than some of the Saturdays in summer we had this year - heavy rain, chilly breeze and temps in the low to mid teens. 

The latter part of August faired better, but it was too little too late and couldn't make up for the write-off that was July to mid August. 

Another notable element of this season was the complete absence of any real heat, especially prolonged heat. Very few 30c+ days recorded this year, with none at all in July or August (in my area, at least). Quite insightful when we think of the summer we had last year in comparison to this. Neither are the norm for our climate. 

[baddie]

June was delightful, with a heatwave mid-month and T-Storms on the 12th and 18th. It was hot again on the 25th. This gets a 10/10
July was awful, not summer at all, that month felt like November. That one hot day on the 7th is nowhere near enough to forgive this month, and the short-lived dry interludes were almost always overcast. This gets a 2/10
August was okay, but onthing special. The first 5 days were dross, but the 6th-24th were decent, with a hot day on the 10th. The last week was cool and mostly cluody again, similar to August 2021. The 30th was lovely and sunny. THis gets at 6/10

Overall : I would give this summer a 6/10

[Rain All Night]

In my back yard, June (and half of May before it) were amazing, some of those Saturdays in July and early August that were awful in much of the country were usable down on Bournemouth seafront, the rest of August was okay, and it looks like the first half of September will return to being amazing, so to be perfectly honest, for me personally this has been a better than average summer.

[cheese]

Bad. Not catastrophic, but bad. 
 

June was obviously excellent (except the first week which was spoiled by cool, cloudy easterlies).

July was horrid in every sense. 
 

August was mostly average but it was still cloudier than normal.
 

I’d give it a 4/10. 

Edited September 3, 2023 by cheese

[Weather Enthusiast91]

I voted for bad. Had it not been for the June then it would have been revolting.

[Azazel]

Revolting and because I grade summer based on heat AND storms, it was worse than 2007 and 2012 in my location. 

[Metwatch]

Copying over the review post I made on Tuesday.

In summary, quite an average, but unevenly spread out summer with an amazing June, poor July and average August. Combined season rating of 17/30.

[BlueHedgehog074]

Apart from a some very warm/hot days in June, it did seem like the Sumner was empty of warmth. Still an okay Summer, personally, but I think it would be easy to feel more disappointed by it had June turned out appalling. 
 

1 hour ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

A season of disparities. A fantastic start, proceeding by a woeful middle and mixed-bag end. If it was a sandwich, the top layer of the bread would be fresh and soft, the filling nigh-on mouldy, and the bottom layer of the bread bearable but a bit soggy.

A fascinating way to describe it. That’s how I would see the sandwich of Summer too. 

The contrast between the boiling weather of last Summer and that of this year is just incredible (even without ignoring the fact that fluctuations between the general temperatures of one Summer to another can vary). 

[Froze were the Days]

16 minutes ago, Azazel said:

Revolting and because I grade summer based on heat AND storms, it was worse than 2007 and 2012 in my location. 

If you're going to grade our summers on storms a vast amount of them will be bad now days...too much high pressure dominating towards the south when a front/cooler conditions come through - hence why you see more of the way of storms towards the north (when certain conditions arise).

But heat wise, yes fairly poor...still waiting to break the 30c barrier this summer which seems to have occurred at least once for the last number of summers.

Edited September 3, 2023 by Froze were the Days

[Azazel]

36 minutes ago, Froze were the Days said:

If you're going to grade our summers on storms a vast amount of them will be bad now days...too much high pressure dominating towards the south when a front/cooler conditions come through - hence why you see more of the way of storms towards the north (when certain conditions arise).

But heat wise, yes fairly poor...still waiting to break the 30c barrier this summer which seems to have occurred at least once for the last number of summers.

It does appear to be that way:( I live in hope that the plumey summers will return one day though!

[simshady]

Excellent. Could have been colder though

[Andrew Hurcomb]

It has taken this long this summer/autumn to have more than 5 consecutive dry days together since June. . Thats how bad this July and August have been West Midlands/Wales border.

[NorthSeaCloud]

June was okay, but the first 9 days were often dominated by North Sea cloud and were very cool, from the 10th to the 16th of June, it was mostly sunny here with temps of 20-25c, which was very nice. There was more cloud then weekend, before a mixed week of weather arrived, some days were warm and sunny such as the 19th and 22nd of June and some days were dull/wet such as the 20th and 23rr of June, we then had a muggy weekend and the final days of the month were also mixed. I’d give June a 7/10

July was poor overall, the first half was a mixed bag, there was some good days but also some poor days, there was also a thunderstorm on the 15th. The second half of July was truly awful, with rain almost every day, hardly any sun and cool temperatures. I’d give July a 3/10

August started off like how July ended with no sun whatsoever until the 6th. After the 6th the weather did improve with some decent sunny days, but also some poorer days. August was overall a pretty standard month, but lacked any real heat. Similar to August 2021 in this area, which was also mundane. I’d give august a 5.5/10.

Overall I’d rate summer 2023 a 5/10, which isn’t great, but better than 2012 or 2020.

Edited September 3, 2023 by NorthSeaCloud

[raz.org.rain]

June was perfect, couldn't ask for a better June to be honest. July was pathetic and August was disappointing. September so far looks to be filling their heat quota for this year.

[CharlieBear9]

As the Met Office charts on the home page article show, temperature, rainfall and sunshine were all bang on average, so a normal British summer, just how I like them.

[alexisj9]

I put ok, June was great, July, well, not the great at all, August avarage June and July cancel themselves out when talking avarages, which is how we finished with an avarage summer.

[Schnee]

I've mixed feelings over summer.

The stressed engineer in me loved the cool sunless months that made several parts of my job way easier but, the lazy wekeend cold blooded Yorkshireman in me thought it was overly poor. In a way it is in every way, a reverse of the unseadonal winters we get almost every year!

[BlueHedgehog074]

Just something else to add - Although it would have taken a lot to have got a repeat of Summer last year (mind, it did get a bit too firey at times ), I thought ironically June this year was better than the one last year. 

Having said that, June 2022 was fairly good. Still one of the somewhat better ones at least.

[Frigid]

June: 4/10. Would've given it lower if it weren't for those thunderstorms. Some of the best I've seen. 

July: 8/10. Most comfortable July since 2012.

August 6/10. Kinda boring, a bit like Aug 15. 

Overall 6/10. Nothing too exciting, June was possibly the worst I've ever endured and July was bliss. I've already made up my mind for September three days in.. 

[Weather Enthusiast91]

June - Great

July - Rubbish

August - Average

 

Whilst it officially came out as being an average UK summer, in my personal opinion it was rather poor, even for UK standards as there was little in the way of sunshine and usable days. Whilst some hot weather during the summer is nice, I would have been more than happy with days consisting of temps in the low to mid twenties accompanied by sunshine and low humidity (as I am sure many of us would be), but even they were hard to come by. July in particular was poor and in my opinion equally as poor as July 2007. I would go as far to say that July 2023 was worse than July 2012, because at least the latter did provide us with a few days of warm sunny weather later in the month.

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Captain Shortwave]

As it balances out this summer was okay, one excellent month, one poor and and one in between.

However the way the weather ended up panning out, in particular the order of which those months came probably tells the story of why so many found this summer to be poor. June 2023 was exceptionally warm compared to average, but of course June is on average the coolest month and the CET of even this June only compares to a decent to good July or August. Secondly a lot of the worst weather occurred during the parts of the season that are average the warmest, even more prominent is that a lot of recent summers have tended to have the best weather loaded into July, so having a poor July was a bit of a shock.  I think the last element is despite the very poor conditions seen at times during this summer, you didn’t have to go too far south to see your fortune change, so it was a little disappointing that at times some very hot conditions were merely a few hundreds of miles away, yet the pattern across the northern hemisphere was relentless at preventing even a weak ridge from veering the winds towards the south for even a brief period that could have landed a few more days in the low 30s maxima. Ironically this week may very well be a “This is what you could have had” moment where we seem unprecedented temperatures at 850hpa level across the UK. A set up during the summer could have landed another shot at hitting 100f, that said the very hot conditions across SW Europe have cropped up most years recently (The underwhelming UK summer of 2021 saw records fall further south for instance), so it wouldn’t surprise me if we see a chance of exceeding 35c next summer.

Overall 

June - 8/10 - The first 9 days weee quite chilly and often cloudy (Though there were a couple of sunnier days or warmer days if the wind eased off), the rest of the month was excellent and very warm, though we barely scraped a 30c just once during this period.

July - 4/10 - Rather poor but there have been worse, temperatures did reach decent values at times. One note was the weekend where Saturday was a write off, yet Sunday saw temperatures reach the mid-twenties. 
August - 6/10 - Poor start, a lot of pleasant conditions for a good part of the month, yet we were close to getting much more of it weren’t again for the long wave pattern preventing a more significant push of heat from the south. In the end I can’t really recall much from this months. 
Overall - probably a 5/10, there is a large weight put on the school holidays, unfortunately there were too Many poor days and not enough days that could offset this.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

we haven't had Sept yet!!!!!!! could be warmest week of year for certain areas, these ratings very premature as Sept will definitely raise them