Has the weather really been that bad ?

[andy]

With this new "experts" view on Britain's climate and the forecast of 10 years of wash-out summers, i had a look back at some of my old diaries at work yesterday as i keep a daily record of the weather.

Now i appreciate i live on the south coast where we do tend to get the better deal but i found even last year, things probably weren't as bad as the experts are making out.  I appreciate that we had a cold and dry spring, just like this year really and maybe a few more showers that usual, but i was looking back at a mix of sunny intervals with temps averaging 18-23 c.   Ok we weren't getting lots of unbroken sunshine with temps up in the 80's but the last 3 or 4 years have been the same.

We had 3 or 4 pretty dry summers down here to the point that we were rethinking our planting schemes to go more "meditteranean" in the bedding displays to take into account the dry.  Since then, our summers have been cooler with a bit more rain, although don't forget that we had a hosepipe ban about 14 months ago.

Just throwing it open for discussion.....i can find what the weather was on any particular day over the past 6 years or maybe more.  One thing's for sure, yesterday registered 29c on the car and it killed me.  Today is a much more comfortable 18-20 !!!

 

[Auricula]

We haven't had a proper decent summer ( dry and warm - nothing outlandish) in Cornwall since 2007

[Auricula]

Our warmest day this year was in the first week of June when it was 23c in the shade and 35c in the sun. One Day Only when the temperature has been above 19c this year.... I take notes

[andy]

I think the other thing about this is that i don't do hot. 20-22c is perfect for me so maybe im being a bit bias.

[prodigal gardener]

I think the summer weather has declined recently. It just seems wetter and colder for longer. I don't really keep a record, but I vividly remember the summer of 1980 (I left school that year) and that was warm and sunny and I'm positive these last 2/3 years haven't been very nice. It seems a week of warm sunny days is just too much to ask for !

[Jasmine]

This report was in the weekend papers...

'The UK's recent run of damp summers could be down to a cyclical warming of the Atlantic Ocean, scientists and meteorologists have said.

At a gathering at the Met Office in Exeter, they suggested a 10- to 20-year pattern of Atlantic warming was shifting the jet stream, leading to washouts in six of the last seven summers.

The researchers said the location of the fast moving winds of the jet stream was critical to the UK's weather.'

And that's all we've heard since the first bad winter just over 3 years ago - the jet stream is in the wrong place.  Even Mum and Dad are noticing very untypical weather in Spain.

[Tig]

I don't mind the summers being cooler, I don't cope well in constant heat and I can't get a decent nights sleep if the temperature is above 15c overnight. More showers also help keep the pollen levels down which helps my hayfever

I do feel for those whose livelihood is weather dependent though.

[Rosefriend]

Same here in Germany - the situation at the moment is an example - 87l/m2 in just over 48 hours and still coming down - it isn't that we haven't had incredible amounts before but the extremes seem to be getting worse and worse.

The fact is also that the weather boffins work out the average and of course that is fine - doesn't show any drastic changes but the storms, flooding, high winds are worse - we have even got a tornado threat - never be known here in NW Germany.

Our last really good summer was 2006 according to the paper but on the whole the winters are wetter, colder and longer and the summers are even wetter...longest day today...can't say we have had much up to now!!

RF

[Geranium]

Well, as we were  flooded in 'extreme weather' last November, after a wet summer, I'd say the weather is behaving very strangely. We've had odd lovely summer days this year, but just when I think summer has arrived, the weather changes back to wind and grey skies.  I read that the cuckoos have already departed!

[Ladygardener]

I can't remember when the last really good summer was here. I know that since I got my allotment we've not had a decent spell of continuous good weather during the summer months.
Much stronger winds and more rain than you'd expect in summer have been all there is apart from a few days or the odd week with temps above 15c.

[Auricula]

In 2007 it was a gorgeous summer here and I spent the summer commuting ( weekly) up and down to London to look after my Dad in his last months, so I missed it. 2008 and 2009 I had my hip replacements ( both in July) but both summers were iffy so I didn't miss much. Since 2010 when I've been as fit as a fiddle and raring to go, what have we had...........no prolonged settled spells of good weather, that's what!!