George II may have been right once but now AGW has put an end to all that

[xmetman]

I think it was George II who came up with the idea of three fine days and a thunderstorm.

But now scientists have found that due to global heating, that old chestnut should be amended (at least in the UK) to one fine day and a thunderstorm.

This certainly looks like being the case this evening as the thunderstorms now gathering of the coast of Brittany move north.

[Julian Mayes]

For E Anglia and South East England more like three fine weeks and a chance of a thundery shower. Thunder frequency here diminishing steadily over recent decades. 

 In the South east I think there is a much greater sense that the climate has really changed, especially in summer. In the north and west, fewer local temperature records seem to have been broken recently. I blame the 'trapped' Rossby waves (i.e. more intense summer blocking with upper ridges over Europe rather than to our west).   

Julian  

[Trevor Harley]

In Scotland it's one fine day and a thunderstorm, but usually without the fun of the thunder.

[Tudor Hughes]

Over the period of my records (1983 to the present) I find that July is the driest month (52 mm out of an annual total of 820 mm).  This would have been unthinkable when I first started getting interested in weather in the mid-fifties.  Summer weather in the SE is better than it was but less interesting and less synoptically active. Your explanation certainly seems to make sense.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, NE Surrey, 557 ft, 170 m. 

 

[Graham Easterling]

Summer thunderstorm frequencies have been low here in recent years

Starting in 19992 simply because my records start in 1992

Summer (June-August) Thunderstorms

1992-2001   26

2002-2011   27

2012-2019    7

Thunder is actually most common here in autumn, the showers off the warms sea often give 1 or 2 claps as they go overhead.

Gales have shown a big decrease in frequency since the 1990s.

Graham

Penzance just had a few large drops of rain, but I struggle to see where it came from!

[Keith (Southend)]

Definately, fortunately I now do my lawn care business part time, with generally only the spring and the autumn the two busy times. Summer in SE Essex just gets too dry and sunny and I just wait for unsettled weather to be in the outlook before venturing out in the van.

Keith (Southend)