We don't normally do our main holiday in the summer hols but had to this year. Wanting to avoid the Med heat, we plumped for the Canaries (Fuerteventura). So glad we did. Apart from really liking the place itself, temps were peaking around 28/29c and, with a keen breeze most days, it was perfect.

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Today was kind of weird.. highs of 23C but intermittent heavy rain, sometimes torrential, and very humid. Then the sun came out and stayed out after 3pm, but still felt humid. Apparently some lightning in the vicinity but didn't see any here, but was in an office most of the time.

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A low of at least 1.3c recorded in Katesbridge, Co. Down early this morning.

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In MBY, it's topped 21c almost every day since last Friday (when I came back from my jollies), peaking at 24.3c yesterday

We've also had, during this time, above average sunshine.

And yet, I can't seem to shake the perception of it not being great weather   I think it's because I can't see any very warm (ie, high-20's temps upwards) and/or a prolonged (7-10 days) of settled & warm weather in the models.

 

 

 

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I've just been using some code I wrote to look into the number of days reaching or exceeding 21*C this summer compared to during the whole of some recent summers.

Turns out 2015 is right in the middle of the pack; the value so far of 40 days is well ahead of the dismal 2012 which managed only 20 days, or 2007 which had 27 days. Yet it's a long way behind 2003's 68 or 2006's 73.

Last year saw 57 days reach 21*C or higher. I can see room for at least 10 more this year based on recent model output, so it might end up quite close to last year. Yet the feel of the summer is somehow worse... oh wait, that'll be the sunshine amounts;
Summer 2015 is on 532.8 as of sunset yesterday, while summer 2014 finished with 749.2 hours - the highest I've recorded going back to 2003 (or even as far as 2000 based on local reports). With the shortening days it would be good going to get much more than 100 more hours this month, which would leave it close to 2010.

Could be better, could be worse!

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I think August 2015 will end up being like 2012 and 2009 - nearly always close to average, no major deviations either way. Very pleasant, but yes, another August will pass us by without so much as sniff of a heatwave. It's 12 years since August was significantly warmer than Average - only 2 years for July and 9 years for June. It's strange, because August would often give the hottest weather of the year, but since 2006 that hasn't happened at all. I mean, yeah, in 2013 the hottest day occurred on 1 August but after that we didn't see another heatwave - though I guess some SE'ern areas did get some hot weather for a day or two in August 2012.

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Bar 2 weeks in late July it has been a decent summer here. Temperatures often 20c or above and rainfall very heavy but only odd 2 or 3 day bursts. August so far as I type we have had 0.6mm rainfall to date and today was the first day of the month to be below 20c, it was 19.8c. Currently 1.5c above average for daytime for month and had similar figure for July despite the cool end as the beginning had several days with temps over 25c. I think it's the many cloudy days we've had here that take the edge off the summer feeling. We have had some fantastic sunny days but July and August to date are below average for sunshine duration.

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This summer has had something for everyone has made it so unusual

Cold rain, sunshine, heatwave, showers, storms, wind, warm days, cold days, warm nights, cold nights

A taste to suit everyone

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I wish people would stop banging on about autumn.. how depressing.

Anyway, August average high for here so far is 21.7C, which is down from 22.1C a few days ago, but should increase again next week. So August 2015 will probably end up average here, maybe slightly above. I see a 25C forecast for my birthday on the 22nd.

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Just as I thought this summer was finally improving two of the vilest August days imagineable have sunk it well and truly back into the abomination category

Dreadful yesterday with rain almost all day and a max of 13.8C. Today started dismal so I headed south for better weather. Came back expecting the improvement that was forecast to arrive in the afternoon to find it still dismally grey, raining and overcast. Actually even worse than yesterday with an absolutely horrendous max of only 12.6C

It's beyond a joke. When do we get the equivalent weather from the other side of the spectrum to balance this out? The answer is never because it hasn't reached 24C in August since 2007. Absolutely shocking as even the 60s were not this lackng in warmth. Not even managed 21C this month and there is nothing like a dry spell. Can hardly even get a couple of dry days in a row.

Another rancid stinker of a summer that is beyond salvation now 

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Why are people bemoaning the model output? Looks warm to me. Pretty much a repeat of what we were having so far this August until the past couple of days - but I suppose that is very much location dependant. Just because the pressure is 'slack' doesn't mean it's going to be bad. Looks very similar to the final 2 weeks of August 2012 - not very settled but widely in the low to mid 20s and humid. Heck, I see high 20s even up here.

Meh, I guess we all have our own benchmark for nice weather, but if the current temperature projections come to fruition, then August 2012 will probably end up marginally above average here, probably warmer than August 2009 and August 2012, and that is absolutely fine by me. August will almost certainly end up the best month of summer - much like 2012, 2009 and 2007 (people tend to forget that).

An early taste of winter in November would be fine by me - but I don't want anything too cold just yet. I'd rather have a warm September and a normal October. After that, it can get as cold as it wants, because November is usually crap.

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I'm confused - are we supposed to take Jiries' posts seriously, or is he on a wind up? I've been a member here for nearly 5 years and I cannot figure him out.

September is almost always cooler and cloudier than August - very rarely does the reverse happen.

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After the last couple of years, a taste of winter sometime between November and March would be fine by me.  But I am not holding my breath!

Been a nice summer here.   Most of the rain fell on one day.

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Given this discussion, I was curious to see how things have changed here over the past 14 years or so vs the 1981-2010 averages, looking at mean max temps. Here's the changes for each month:

April +0.7C

June +0.6C

September +0.6C

May +0.4C

October +0.4C

March +0.2C

August +0.1C

July +0.1C

November +0.1C

February 0.0C

January -0.1C

December -0.4C

No sunshine figures - too many days missing.

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