Generally the same here. June was duller than average, July was 107% of the average, and August will probably end up below average, so in terms of sunshine, overall, nothing special, in fact quite poor bar July (and even that was nothing special).

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Interesting points regarding the sunshine totals.

Here in Folkestone June came in at 79%, July 111% and August will come in close to 100% assuming an average of 8 hours a day for the remainder of the month.

Despite the very dry theme throughout and the warm feel to July and August...it ain't been a sunfest here !

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My perception of the summer is plummeting fast.

Our long weekend in the Lakes (Thurs-Sun) looks like it'll be a washout. Considering just a few days ago it was looking like a great end to a good overall summer, my expectations were raised and so, as is the way, my sense of disappointment is substantially heightened.

 

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I think that my overall final view of this summer will be that it has been an average one; not a classic but considerably better than anything we saw from 2007 up to and including 2012. The best spell of the summer will no doubt have been the July heatwave, which in itself was easily the best summer weather any part of the country has had since 2006.

As far as past good summers go, I have seen several times that 2003 has been mentioned in the same class as 1976 & 1995. Obviously I can't speak for anywhere else and I can't comment on 1976 as it was before my time, but speaking from the point of view of my area, 2003 was nowhere near as good overall as 1995, and was little if any better overall than 2006 for me. In fact, I would say that 06 was a little better than 03 as June & July 06 where I live were IMO both better months overall than the same months three years earlier, even if August 2006 was not as good as that month in 03. I have often thought that 2003 is only remembered as fondly as it is largely because of the record-breaking heatwave in the first half of that August; had it not been for that then I think that it would likely have gone down as a fairly decent summer overall rather than anything great or exceptional.

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Around here, the incredible surplus of sunshine in July will be remembered for a long time.

IMBY June saw 230.3 hours, 23.2 more than the LTA.
July... that month saw 334.1 hours, which is some 110.6 hours above the LTA 

August has seen 164.9 hours to 22nd (it looks to be sunny through to sunset today so I extrapolated).
The LTA is 208.3 hours, so over the 9 remaining days an average of 4.82 hours per day would leave be bang on average.

If I averaged 8 hours per day I'd finish above average at 236.9 hours and a good match for June's total

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Been a good summer here but like D.M.P say's not has good as 1995 that was a great i year do remmber 76 very hot till september then it rained like hell.

June here had 157.2 hours of sun (LTA is 189.3), July had 221.4 hours (LTA is 205.6), while August currently has 118.6 hours (LTA is 182.8), so I am almost positive August will be duller than average. Overall, probably a dull summer, even including July. Even if average August values were reached, the total would be 562 hours (LTA is 578).

Certainly big differences in terms of sun with eastern areas faring much worse than western areas. It seems getting a warm summer month is not impossible, but getting sunny summer months is quite hard over the past few years. A good summer for warmth, and dry weather, but really quite poor for sunshine with the exception of July, so nowhere near as good as 2006 or 1995 for that reason alone.

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After fearing a Lake District washout for our 3 days away, we had one warmish, cloudy & almost totally dry day (Fri), a dry & warm day with increasing sunny spells (Sat) and a gloriously sunny, warm & dry day (Sun)

Shorts, t-shirt & sandals every day.

 

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I fear cloud could be a problem here for the next few days. Varying cloud amounts here right now, form mostly clear to totally overcast, tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy according to the Met Office.

Not good at all. Hope they're wrong.

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Well - as its the last day now of the meteorological summer I'll give my opinions fwiw of this summer. Basically very good and very pleasant once we got June out of the way.

I've mentioned that June was a disappointment in part of the country and this was verified by a few people I know well whose words to me last week, "A very nice summer indeed once we got June out of the way".

We all know July was basically hot, dry and sunny and this was an amazing welcome from the past 6 summers from 2007 to 2012 inclusive. Indeed 2012 was almost as bad a summer as it could be.

August this year following on from the excellent July was almost as good in my opinion. I had many days this August which was in essence perfect summer days - fine with long sunny intervals, light broken cumulus cloud and temperatures from 22C to 25C. I must have had 10 of these days like this if not more. There were no dire and horrible days.

I think I can say that this summer is in my top 10 best ones that I recall - and what an improvement and a welcome one as well.

The prognosis was very bad with the statistical pattern matching discredited as that now is was pointing to a 1962 type summer and the chances of a good summer - which that has turned out to be less than one in ten of being a good one.

Amazing - but sure was welcome.

 

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Somehow I forgot to post this back at the start of the month - never mind, serves as a source of cheer in the face of recent model output:

IMBY in 2013:

Summer Rain Total: 78.8mm. The LTA is 152.7mm, around twice as much as seen this year. It was the driest summer I've recorded (starting in 2005 for rain stats), with 2010 in second place at 102.5mm. A very dry August, with just 21mm, followed a dry July (25mm) and a fairly dry June (32.8mm). The previous driest August had twice as much rain (42.4mm in 2009).

Summer Sun Total: 791.9 hours. The LTA is 639.1 hours so the surplus is a staggering 142.8 hours! No other year comes close, with the previous record being 692 hours in 2006. 2013's achievement comes in part from July 2013 beating July 2006 with 334.1 hours compared to 297.5 hours respectively, and in part from having a decent August with slightly above average sunshine, as opposed to the rather dull one of 2006 (just 154.1 hours compared to a LTA of 208.3).

The temperature stats (for which my records go back to 2003), while decent, are beaten with ease by 2003 and 2006, with 2005 just about ahead of 2013 as well, so they're not worth shouting about really

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LRF in inaccurate shocker 😉

Lesson learnt I hope, Gav?

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Just goes to show IMO that relatively long runs of summers or winters of a particular type are eventually broken. We had nearly 20 years of mostly mild/very mild winters (with a few exceptions) in this country until around 2008/09, and look at how different things have been in the last few years. The same applies to summers; most from 1989 up to 2006 were in the very warm category with some very good/excellent ones thrown in, although there were less good ones during that time also.

Pattern matching really doesn't mean much if anything when it comes to our weather, in my view.

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