How Did You Find Summer 2023?

[alexisj9]

11 minutes ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

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 

This September will make autumn an above average season, unless we get a very cold month which off sets it.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Well I rated winter much higher this year, than I did if it was Dec to Feb, best snow was in March here, snow is snow, whenever it falls

[In Absence of True Seasons]

28 minutes ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

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 

Indeed, but considering it was basically dark at just after 8pm tonight, its a far cry from getting these sort of setups in, say, the middle of July.  

Edited September 3, 2023 by In Absence of True Seasons

[In Absence of True Seasons]

7 hours ago, Metwatch said:

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.

The unevenness of the spread is the main issue! In terms of how we experience weather, the warm sunny June followed by the dull, wet and cool July 'cancel out' eachother for all intents and purposes. 

If the summery conditions in June and the dross during July was spread out a bit across both months respectively, most people would have a far better feeling about the summer 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

6 minutes ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

Indeed, but considering it was basically dark at just after 8pm tonight, its a far cry from getting these sort of setups in, say, the middle of July.  

makes it hotter for me, late May to late Jul, can get away without lights on, this time of year lights on making it hotter

[Weather Enthusiast91]

If we were to have this current setup during the height of summer, we could be looking at another 40°C.

[NEVES SCREAMER]

Dreadful. After a cold spring we had a cool but dry first 8 days of June. In Dudley we then had 18 days of warmth but with 7 days of that characterised by thundery downpours showers. Not what I would call summer. July a complete write off. August maybe a third of it at best pleasant. I would give it 3 out of 10. And that is being generous.

[hillbilly]

Many farmers in the valley starting their haymaking after just making a satrt at the end of June.Never in my l50 years have we gone the entire July and August and not made hay,not even 2008 and 2012,truely shocking!

Edited September 3, 2023 by hillbilly

[Sunny76]

It was better than 2012, and 2007. But, 2023 has been worse than any other summer since the post 2014 period.

 

[Rain All Night]

20 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

It was better than 2012, and 2007. But, 2023 has been worse than any other summer since the post 2014 period.

 

Although I get why you would say that and that many would agree with you, I just can't bring myself to say such a thing about a year that contained this June. Perhaps it is because this June was even more glorious in my part of the country than elsewhere, and because the great weather started as early as mid-May here giving an even more extended period of good weather than elsewhere. There have been summers since 2012 which might be considered better than this one because they did not contain such a prolonged spell of dire weather in the high summer period, but for me personally, it was a price worth paying for what came before it (and for what is now coming after it!)

Anyone agree with me?

[Sunny76]

2 minutes ago, RainAllNight said:

Although I get why you would say that and that many would agree with you, I just can't bring myself to say such a thing about a year that contained this June. Perhaps it is because this June was even more glorious in my part of the country than elsewhere, and because the great weather started as early as mid-May here giving an even more extended period of good weather than elsewhere. There have been summers since 2012 which might be considered better than this one because they did not contain such a prolonged spell of dire weather in the high summer period, but for me personally, it was a price worth paying for what came before it (and for what is now coming after it!)

Anyone agree with me?

Yeah, but the problem is and was that June became easily forgotten by the time we reached early August, and experienced weeks of poor grey cloudy weather.

June 2009 and 2010 were just as good in London, but both of those summers overall went downhill and were poor. 

4 minutes ago, RainAllNight said:

Although I get why you would say that and that many would agree with you, I just can't bring myself to say such a thing about a year that contained this June. Perhaps it is because this June was even more glorious in my part of the country than elsewhere, and because the great weather started as early as mid-May here giving an even more extended period of good weather than elsewhere. There have been summers since 2012 which might be considered better than this one because they did not contain such a prolonged spell of dire weather in the high summer period, but for me personally, it was a price worth paying for what came before it (and for what is now coming after it!)

Anyone agree with me?

No, I’m sorry I will have to disagree there. I would have taken a poor June, even following the hilly spring we had and so so May, if July and August were warm and sunny.

[Sunny76]

I don’t think families who were limited to taking their main summer holiday during mid July until late August would have benefited from the sunny warm June. 
 

If they can afford to venture abroad fair enough, but if they were restricted to a U.K. break during high summer, if feel it’s been a raw deal for the kids.

[Rain All Night]

2 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

I don’t think families who were limited to taking their main summer holiday during mid July until late August would have benefited from the sunny warm June. 
 

If they can afford to venture abroad fair enough, but if they were restricted to a U.K. break during high summer, if feel it’s been a raw deal for the kids.

That I can certainly sympathise with. The fact I was able to be flexible and "do summer" in May and June probably influences my viewpoint significantly.

[Sunny76]

5 minutes ago, RainAllNight said:

That I can certainly sympathise with. The fact I was able to be flexible and "do summer" in May and June probably influences my viewpoint significantly.

Fair enough. It’s all about our own experiences. 
 

I did get to enjoy June, but I’m some ways didn’t fully appreciate it as it happened. It seemed to go too quick lol.

[Rain All Night]

6 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

Fair enough. It’s all about our own experiences. 
 

I did get to enjoy June, but I’m some ways didn’t fully appreciate it as it happened. It seemed to go too quick lol.

Some of my work colleagues have said since June that they did not bother making the most of it at the time because they assumed that because of climate change and the example set by the summer we had in 2022, it was inevitable that the heat would continue through the rest of the summer. Oops...

Of course, the heat did continue and indeed intensify through the rest of the summer - it was just stuck to the south of us for two months!

Edited September 4, 2023 by RainAllNight

[Summer8906]

If I had been in the UK I'm sure I've had hated July with a passion and found August distinctly disappointing, particularly as in coastal central southern England I get the impression August was dominated by cool breezy weather with onshore winds keeping the temp down compared to places further north and east. Fine weather in my area in August seemed to be restricted to the 9th-11th, 15th-17th and 22nd-23rd judging by the posts here.

June was good until the 25th.

Using a five point scale from -2 to +2:

June: +2

July: -2 (estimate)

August: -1 (estimate)

OVERALL: -2 (June weighted at 0.5 due to being away from the peak holiday season)

If July and August were as poor as my interpretation of the posts on here, it would have been the worst such Jul/Aug period since 1992 or perhaps 1988. July was very likely, for my tastes, the worst since 1988 or possibly 1974. August sounded pretty typical for the last 15 years.

Haven't seen the mean synoptic charts but I'd have expected an anomalous SW-ly for July and Aug.

Edited September 4, 2023 by Summer8906

[Rain All Night]

5 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

If I had been in the UK I'm sure I've had hated July with a passion and found August distinctly disappointing, particularly as in coastal central southern England I get the impression August was dominated by cool breezy weather with onshore winds keeping the temp down compared to places further north and east. Fine weather in my area in August seemed to be restricted to the 9th-11th, 15th-17th and 22nd-23rd judging by the posts here.

June was good until the 25th.

Using a five point scale from -2 to +2:

June: +2

July: -2 (estimate)

August: -1 (estimate)

If July and August were as poor as my interpretation of the posts on here, it would have been the worst such Jul/Aug period since 1992 or perhaps 1988.

Haven't seen the mean synoptic charts but I'd have expected an anomalous SW-ly for July and Aug.

I have mean Z500 charts for June, July and August if that is of interest:

[Summer8906]

3 minutes ago, RainAllNight said:

I have mean Z500 charts for June, July and August if that is of interest:

Thanks, so cyclonic WSW-ly for July but slightly-cyclonic WNWly for August.

[Sunny76]

13 minutes ago, RainAllNight said:

Some of my work colleagues have said since June that they did not bother making the most of it at the time because they assumed that because of climate change and the example set by the summer we had in 2022, it was inevitable that the heat would continue through the rest of the summer. Oops...

Of course, the heat did continue and indeed intensify through the rest of the summer - it was just stuck to the south of us for two months!

I fell into the same trap as your co workers. I wasn’t expecting a 2022 redux, but at the time I was confident we would be getting a decent sunny summer.

It really backfired on me lol.

The one good thing was the good late May and June weather coincided with the longer daylight hours. Lots of good twilight evenings after long hot sunny days.

Just a shame it ran out of steam in July, but that’s just me.

[In Absence of True Seasons]

17 hours ago, hillbilly said:

Many farmers in the valley starting their haymaking after just making a satrt at the end of June.Never in my l50 years have we gone the entire July and August and not made hay,not even 2008 and 2012,truely shocking!

Tell that to everyone here who keeps harping on about how typical, normal and average this summer season was!

[summer blizzard]

A bit more humid than other cool summers before late July so not the most pleasant and nights have felt warm but not too bad. I tend to prefer my heat early and autumn late.

[Rain All Night]

9 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

I fell into the same trap as your co workers. I wasn’t expecting a 2022 redux, but at the time I was confident we would be getting a decent sunny summer.

To be fair to you, there were a lot of signals pointing that way.

9 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

The one good thing was the good late May and June weather coincided with the longer daylight hours. Lots of good twilight evenings after long hot sunny days.

Yes, this!!

[Mark_p]

I will remember it for a very nice June then a long run of some the vilest summer weekends I can remember. I visited friends in Cumbria in late July and it was more reminiscent of a typical October. 

[Sun Chaser]

If you replaced the second half of July with the first half of September we're looking to be having, it would be a really good summer. But unfortunately it just felt weird this year, next to zero summery weather in the high summer period while everything before June 29th and after August 14th (including Sept so far) was pretty good.

It's hard to rate because this summer felt like three very different ones rolled into one year.

June was a 9.5/10, sunniest one in decades, a true classic from start to (almost) finish.

July was, on the other hand, a 2/10 with only one really good day (which I spent working a 13 hour shift) and the rest dominated by cloud and rain with very little to enjoy about the month. Some days in the first half weren't too bad so that counts for something. But the 10th onwards was miserable with it ending up wetter and duller than 2012. The final week of the month saw zero hours of sunshine

August was comparatively not too bad. Dull but I've come to expect this from August. I enjoyed a 2-3 week chain of low to mid 20s days that, while lacking sunshine were relatively dry and often felt warm so it was quite a usable month overall. Most of the rain was restricted to a few horrendous days spaced throughout the month, particularly the 13th which was an awful day. This was balanced by a couple of hot days like the 16th. The worst part of this month was the disappointment of the late month heatwave disappearing from the models but we had some nice days nonetheless. So a 5/10 overall.

Averaging the three gives 5.5/10 which seems reasonable but loses the nuance of how amazing June was and how miserable July was. I'd personally give it a 4.5/10 as the core high summer period (mid Jul - early Aug) was easily the worst since 2007/2008 which heavily swings the score for me.

[Summer8906]

24 minutes ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

Tell that to everyone here who keeps harping on about how typical, normal and average this summer season was!

It was indeed thoroughly average for a subset of summers consisting only of 1957, 1988 and 1992!