There are a couple of things which strike me here.

First of all, the fact that we're having such a poor summer would be perfectly understandable if there were a quick transition from El Nino to La Nina in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean because that is something which is thought to favour a poor summer as was the case in 2012.

However, the developing La Nina appears to have stalled, leaving us stuck on ENSO neutral for now and when that happens, or when there is only a very slow transition to La Nina from El Nino, that is thought to favour a decent summer overall as highlighted in Gavin P.'s excellent summer update videos not all that long ago.

In addition to that, we have a positive NAO at the moment which is backed up by a positive AO which at this of the year, would be expected to favour a decent summer as a result of a stronger Azores High building in towards the UK.

All in all, this shows that there are actually quite a few factors in place which would be expected to favour a decent summer and yet not one of those have been of any help to us whatsoever up until now which for me, is the most frustrating aspect of this summer up until now.

I guess this is probably the summer equivalent of what has happened in our most recent winters in which we have had two easterly QBO winters in the last three years, only for neither of those easterly QBOs to be of any help to us whatsoever in terms of us actually getting a cold winter out of any of that.

In winter, we would typically be looking at a major SSW event to shake things up whereas what is needed now at this time of year is for an ex-hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean to shake things up by taking a track to our west and north over the Atlantic in such a way that it then promotes the building of high pressure either over the UK or just to our east.

That to me, is probably our only route now to any decent summer weather. At the moment though, I can't see any signs of that happening any time soon.

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This adds some perspective.

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What a vile day it has been here. Cold, wet and windy. 
It’s even worse further north with over 72 mm of rain at Forehill WS near Peterhead and reports of flooding. The A90 further north is currently closed.

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The living hell just goes on and on. Not even half way through and yet again the whole monthly average has been smashed. A ludicrous 84mm with drizzly depressing crap persisting along with subarctic temperatures of 10.8C. Need heating on and there's been barely more than a few days at a time when it's been kept off in this stinking year of filth like no other within living memory.

Only six other months in my 19-years of records have got off to such a horrifically wet start and three of those have been during this past two years of near relentless poison and all were autumn/winter (Jan 2016, Dec 2023, Oct 2014, Oct 2020, Sept 2022, Oct 2023).

Came close to having four consecutive days with 10mm for only the second time (after last December) but Monday fell short at 9.8mm. 

Sunshine of 28.7 hours lower than any other first third of July apart from 2012 but even that was nowhere near as wet with only 32mm. Only 2015 came anywhere near as close on rainfall but that was partly down to a thunderstorm and sunshine levels were near average. 

All of the past three Novembers had sunnier first thirds while 2020 had exactly the same total so the last time November began with less sunshine was in 2019 and none of those Novembers were sunny. Just average/below average levels of sun.

You couldn't make this crap up. It was beyond ludicrous a long time ago and new depths keep being plumbed. This month is truly the worst yet. Can't even get the odd scrap of good weather that everywhere else is seeing. Just a constant stream of vile rubbish putting it well on course to rival July 1957 as the wettest/dullest on record. 

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Extraordinary rain stat there Richard. Here in the traditionally wetter west of Ireland Ive only recorded 11.2mm so far this month, which is well below even the July 1st -10th average. Grant it, it looks like it raining most of the time but it has been very dry here. 

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I also heard that a pre-season friendly match which Aberdeen FC were due to play in tonight was cancelled because of the weather.

That is something which typically happens in the winter months, but not at this time of the year in what is supposed to be high summer and so, this just shows how bad the weather actually is in many parts of the country just now.

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A couple of years ago, we were pushing towards 40C, this year we are struggling past 20C. Not sure we have even surpassed 25C here. Maybe once or twice last month. I don't think I've ever known it so mediocre and time is ticking away. I always feel a change from mid August towards autumn, up here at least. It's very depressing.

And from memory, those of us who were around in the 50s would say that summers were no better then than in the 60s and 70s..

Now you realise why foreign holidays became the thing as soon as cheap air transport became available.

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That time we had decent winters and more variety to keep us interested but all gone now. 

True David, though, I was still a fragment of DNA in the fifties and yet to meet the egg.
For anyone who wants a feel of the Seventies, try looking at almost any of the Giles cartoons that capture the dire feel of weather back then. Winters were snowy, summers washouts, and the rest as bad as those two mentioned. Bleak.

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I said in the spring it'd be interesting to see the whinging if we got a typical 61-90 summer. Nearly halfway through and it has been interesting - although my friends have enjoyed being able to get on with things (from a coder to a farmer to a horsey person). Even the wolves at the wolf centre have been more active, rather than just conking out in the deep shade all day long.

It's also pleasant to experience what I had in my childhood. It's only warmed up a couple of degrees since then (e.g. Faversham max 21.2 in July, 61-90, max 23.1 July 91-20), but those two degrees have made all the difference - my bedroom going from 23-25 back then, for example, to 25-30 in a typical summer these days, and meaning when extreme warmth arrives it's amplified that bit more.

It's unlikely to continue, and I fully expect the second half of summer to be comparatively warmer - we really have been incredibly lucky in being in one of the few cooler spots of the hemisphere so far this summer.
For those who feel depressed for whatever reason, now you know how I feel every summer!

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The first half of summer has definitely been the worst since 2012 around here. It might even be on a par with 2012, to be honest. The complete lack of any proper warmth (bar that two day spell in June) and the consistent rain/drizzle and dullness has been stark this year.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the second half. Summer 2012 did improve slightly in the second half. The last week of July seen a few days of warm and dry weather and August wasn't bad overall. If this one doesn't see something similar, it will very easily dip below 2012 then.

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That's very much true. The summers of the 50s and 60s were all bad apart from summer 1959. In the 1960s a mate of my father's said. "You can't have a proper holiday here in Britain. You've got to go abroad ". That's how bad it was.   🙂 

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But I recall 'Our days were a joy and our paths through flowers.'

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Yet another repugnant stolen weekend and it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse with each putrid soul destroying write-off horror week that passes devoid of anything remotely normal for the time of year, or indeed any time of year.

Day after day after day of wrist-slittingly awful stupefying cold, grey unpleasant filth. The worst summers of my childhood were like heaven compared to this heinous rubbish akin to being in a bleak subarctic wasteland unfit for human habitation.

Day after day of this vile grey blanket suffocating the life out of everything. I was supposed to be in Italy but had to cancel and reschedule the holiday and this is the crap I'm being slapped in the face with. 

On course for a duller first half of the month than even the infamously grotesque abomination of June 2007. July 2012 is the only summer month even remotely comparable to this extreme sunless horror in the last 50 years. Nothing from the 70s, 80s or 90s was anywhere near as dreadful. It is worse than any of the terrible dull wet Novembers we've endured since 2018.

Every single day is utter crap. Not one day has managed 6 hours sun. Highest daily duration has been 5.7 hours - the same as was managed on 1st December last year. Not even the wettest December in 150 years could put together a string of relentless filth like this. Not even close. 

Also not one day has managed 19C when that was achieved during the rotten cold, dull, wet April we just had. 21st Century summers are a sick joke you couldn't make up unless you had a truly warped mind. I've said it before and I'll say it again the 50s and 60s summers were nowhere near as unrelentingly poor as the tenth rate rubbish we are subjected to in this godawful century of bottom of the barrel scraped tripe.

Supposed to be the warmest time of year and need central heating on as the cold sunless crud drains the house of warmth. Down to just 16.6C indoors this morning following only 2 hours sun in three days and yet another sunless weekend horror today.

This is the 9th worse than average July out of 10. A consistently awful run like nothing ever seen before. Even the 60s had four acceptable Julys with over 170 hours sun and under 50mm of rain - 1964, 1966, 1967 and 1969. Only 2018 has managed 170 hours in the last decade and even it was over 50mm due to the horrid wet end. It's just unreal. 2014 was the last July under 50mm and 2006 the last time under 40mm. An absolutely disastrous run.

Unless there is substantial improvement soon this month will end up even worse than the absolute worst of the 1960s - August 1963 and July 1968. At the moment it seems well on course to be the worst summer month of all time.

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As a casing point, I can remember the temperature reaching around 14°C here in Edinburgh on Christmas Day back in 2011 with some drizzle and a mild wind from the SW.

As for today, I ventured outside a short while ago and it actually felt quite chilly in that wind which is coming in from off the North Sea. It certainly doesn't feel like summer out there.

As I write, it's into the afternoon with a temperature of only around 12°C here in Edinburgh. That is actually even lower than that Christmas Day temperature which I mentioned above and yet, this is supposed to be high "summer".

Absolutely pathetic!!😡

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It was 15C with sun on Christmas Day 2011 here and 14C and sunny on Christmas Day 2016. 2nd February this year was sunny with a max of 15C.

All vastly superior and more summerlike than the 13 days of unadulterated pigswill we have endured this month. In fact scrap that description - if you tried feeding something like this to a pig you'd be prosecuted under an animal cruelty act.

February was more of a summer month than this pile of festering filth. Final 13 days of the month had 67.7 hours sun, more than double this months surreal total of 30.8 hours and temperatures got up to 13.5C as opposed to the rancid 12.9C it is now.

Sat out in the garden far more in February than I have in this month. Even in 8C and sunshine it is more pleasurable than attempting to do under a chilly wind and blanket of relentless overcast that even the worst climates on earth don't have to endure constantly when it is supposed to be summer.

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Santa Claus Village temps had never drop below 14C since I started viewing them last month, rained once and mostly sunny.   Currently 17C and that warm for an Arctic circle than Scotland.

It’s just so dull.
Day after day of leaden, overcast, drizzly skies. 

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The torture goes on and on with yet another vile Sunday. Cold, grey, windy like every Sunday in the past two years, a complete write-off. Absolutely ridiculous rattling wind like nothing on earth ever endured at this time of year before and a diabolical 13.3C following on from a hideous 13.4C max yesterday and an even worse 12.4C on Wednesday. 

Each day seems determined to sink to new levels of depravity. Weekend after weekend of grim grey rubbish. Not a single day mainly aunny day in almost 3 weeks. 2 hours of sun in 5 days. Not only can I not face leaving the house but I struggle to get out of bed. 20 consecutive days of utter crap that even the worst of winter months, such as last December, would never sink low enough to produce.

This is on course to not only the worst ever summer month but the worst month at any time of year. It's just an absolute disaster that not even the harshest words of condemnation could do justice to.

This country does not have an appalling quality of life. It has no quality of life whatsoever. Wish it would just sink into the Atlantic and allow us all to be evacuated somewhere with a liveable and survivable climate.

Having to endure this, while the rest of the Northern Hemisphere enjoys summer, is a human rights abuse. 

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I agree Richard, Eastern Scotland and NE England have had such a cold, damp July and it's hard to keep positive........however I've just come up into SW Scotland heading back to Edinburgh and it's 21 C with, very hazy, sunshine! Maybe we are turning a corner?

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No corner being turned here. Just continuing on the one way trajectory to hell on earth with yet another mind-numbingly depressing and unpleasant day of overcast cold drizzly garbage. Nothing can illustrate the tediousness of this more than the minimum being exactly the same (10.8C) three nights running.

It's beyond surreal. None of the clearer skies to the south could make it up here and now it's all filled in. Stuck under the permacast cloud that has been sitting there refusing to move since last Tuesday. Once again it defies rational explanation.

6.1 hours of sun in the past week. 31.1 hours for the month which even beats the first half total for June 2007 which used to be the ultimate horror sunless summer month but now there is just no floor on how low things can sink.

What is most preposterous is that we have not had a sunny November since 2017 yet every single November since then recorded more sunshine by the 15th except for 2019 which still managed 29.1 hours so higher in percentage terms.

2018, 2022 and 2023 all horrendously wet and dull Novembers but managed respective totals of 37.8hrs, 32.9hrs and 45.1hrs by the 15th. What the hell is going wrong when a summer month is so catastrophically bad it compares poorly against terrible Novembers?

Even more incredulous, we have had a glut of dull and wet Octobers recently yet none of them have had a first half as sunless as this with the lowest total being 39.9 hours in 2010. June 2007, July 2012, August 2012 and now July 2024 all below that.

21st Century summers truly are the work of Satan.

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First crud night's sleep in a while - 24 when I got up this morning, 15 outside, and of course I was woken up by the rain in the middle of the night (not in itself a bad thing, but it took ages to get back to sleep - my room now resembling a sauna as the warmth from the other rooms had seeped in).

Tonight might be a bit better (depends on whether we get a random, illegal (C) Jiries, warming in the evening like yesterday)... and then after that, three nights of pure hell.

And as the final turd on top of a manky cake, MetO is now showing 28C on Friday... so not only will it be hot, humid and very unpleasant, but the air will no doubt stink due to barbecues, and getting to sleep will be even harder thanks to the noise... as people suddenly think everyone shares their tastes in music, etc.

Pah, I hate summer. At least we're now losing 2 minutes a day of daylight, I guess, we're only a month away from that magic time when the sun starts to noticeably get weaker!

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Into the fourth week of unremitting hell with each putrid week, in defiance of reasonable belief, even more gruesome and horror filled than the unseasably disastrous write-off which preceeded it.

Absolutely stinking awful day of overcast and drizzle without even a hint of brightness. 2.3 hours of sun in the past week which can only be beaten in summer by 1.6 hours from 5th to 11th June 2012 and 0.8 hours for 7th to 13th July 2012.
Not even June 2007, which at the time was thought to be as vile a summer month as it was possible to get, can match this depraved soul destroying filth. 

Many recent winters have been so dominated by W/SW winds that even they can't match this grot. Winter 2021/22, even with the hideously dull Festive period, never went below 3.9 hours for the lowest 7 day total. Winter 19/20 lowest was 5.9 hours, 18/19 lowest 8.7 hours and 14/15 didn't even have a single weekly period under 15 hours which is astonishing.

There are truly no words at having to endure worse conditions than terrible winter months produced in the middle of summer. Can't imagine anywhere else being this sunless in the entire Northern Hemisphere. It would be easier for the sun to permeate an underground cave system.

Never once during my childhood on the 80s and 90s was there ever such a putrid spell of misery like this in summer. Purely a 21st Century phenomenon. In fact I'm struggling to remember such a wrist-slittingly awful run at any time of year. 2012 managed 26 conseuctive mostly cloudy days in July. Currently the total stands at 22. 

I think even amongst the darkest months of the year only January 1996 could manage that with every single day of that revolting month being mostly cloudy and only 10 hours in total. Even that was nowhere near as depressing occurring in mid-winter as opposed to mid-summer.

July 2012 and July 2024 are simply the two worst months I have ever endured closely followed by June 2007 and June 2012. 20 years ago, when mobile conditions dominated, would never have believed it possible to get such unceassingly awful dross in summer.

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In reply to Retrons post i recently brought a mobile air con unit from Amazon, its brilliant!
My bedroom is on 2nd floor of new build house and the heat builds quickly, this air con unit lowers the temperature from 27c to 22c in half an hour while lowering the humidity as well. Its a bit noisy so I turn it off before going to sleep and the room doesn't really heat up again as the temperature outside falls.
For £200 it's worth every penny.
Andy

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