Well for London at least its looking warm, then very warm, then a cool down (but no more than a 2 day blip, and that is not nailed on) before the warmth potentially returns.  In summary - a very respectable end to one of the all time great summers for the capital at least.:

What is there not to like? The only downside is my tomato season will finish early this year... because all the fruits will have ripened and been picked.

Three things of note -

1.  The consistency (apart from the blip) of the mean being  circa 2c above the LTA

2. The relative dryness

3. Summer 2018 is truly one the greats, to be close to 1976 is a massive honour.

WI

Looking at the ENS graphs there, I had a look at the evolution in P6 (the blue anomaly that keeps things warm at the transition, around 24th). The low to our WSW maintains form in P6, whereas in the Control, for example, it slackens then disappears. The P6 then uses the interaction between that low and the receding high to drag some warm European air over us. The high itself in P6 also retains more spatial coverage for longer.

An unlikely, but interesting, bridge for the warmth at 6 days out.

What’s not to like? Any chance of average of better than average weather is restricted to the southern half of the U.K.?

There you go, answered your question. Liking the weather hundreds of miles away is a bit pointless. 

As you say, unlikely, but still possible.  We will finish 2nd to 1976 as things stand, IMHO, but the scenario you highlight could edge us very close to first place, possibly, IMHO fascinating stuff!

Agree entirely. I suspect the model watching will step up a notch over the next 2 weeks if there are enough who like records or near misses.

A reminder of where we are at...fascinating.

-- HOTTEST EVER SUMMER CHALLENGE (top 6) ---

1. 1976 CET summer average was 17.77C
2. 2018 so far (to the 16th) ----17.74C
3. 1826 was 17.60c
4. 1995 was 17.36c
5. 2003 was 17.33c
6. 2006 was 17.23c

Truly incredible SC. Having had a summer like this has given me even more respect for the 'big daddy of 1976' 

I'm sure we'll beat it eventually. 

The tide is rising LL. It won't be too long. 

Very interesting.  By the way, worth noting that the ex-tropical storm is entraining some very moist tropical air, which will aid the night time minima to stay afloat in Lancashire

Perish the thought of any pesky northern site derailing the CET!

I wouldn't even say 'southern half', Michael. I'd say the majority of the UK has had a disappointing August

We're off to Lanzarote on Thursday, and I'm glad I've timed it when I have. August has turned into a real crapfest - NW England looks like having about 2 weeks of max temps mostly around the 16-18c mark (albeit with a few days reaching the 'heady' heights of 20/21c)

Yes, you could well be right. I would say you have picked your holiday timing very well! Enjoy. 

It’s been crap in the southwest too. I’m camping in Devon and it’s been 17-18C maxes and it’s currently grey and drizzly. We arrived on Wednesday and the wind and rain wednesday night was incredible. It flattened our tent at 2.30am and snapped the poles in three places. We almost gave up but managed to strap it up using table legs and did at least get a reasonably sunny day on Thursday. But yes, August has been rubbish away from the SE corner. 

It's a warmer and drier than average month so far here and is likely to remain so, that's two of my three boxes ticked and makes it far better than most summer months since 2007 already.

Not sure what will happen regarding sunshine though, depends on how much we get in the final 10 or so days.

It's not really been any better in the SE corner compared to the rest of the country relative to average looking at Reading university's weather page. It's also been wetter in the SE than in most of England with some stations in Kent and Sussex already above average for the month, while here we've had very little rain - less than 10mm to date.

Good to see Mother Nature balancing out the June situation where the SE corner was less well placed under NElies for much of the month, she always plays it her way

August has been a real disappointment here too, after the excellent weather we saw during much of June and July. It's almost been a throwback to what was commonplace last year and during many other summers over the past decade or so.

This year may have generally ended the long run of poor summers in years ending in 8, but the run of medicore Augusts, for many areas, seems to have continued this year.

It certainly does feel autumnal now and feels like summer has gone,this year summer was definatly May June and July.It seems over the past decade or so June and July have given the best summer weather and most years summer returns in September.

A pleasing run from the ECM, keeping the south clear of the coolest air until 26th August.  The majority of the run in the reliable is warm and settled for the south, the cooler interlude is diminished on this model, and deferred and brief. 

The Azores high then ridges across in FI out to day 10, which would bring further warmish and dry settled conditions quite widely across England and Wales, out towards the month's end.

My suspicion is that the month will end with another bit of real warmth, but we shall see in due course.

On paper it looks good but I think the reality like today will be cloudy skies for the south and wet and cool for the north. Apart from the first week August has been pretty average in the South worse in the north.

And meanwhile the ensembles show poor BH weekend here as they getting worse with the runs and more wetter each time, it show the GFS had been very poor and not accurate lately even like today at 13-14C uppers I don't see any sun yet to bring the surface temps to high 20's.  Really keen now to get out of August and hope September do a better job.