The showers that didn't quite die out in the afternoon...

[xmetman]

Yesterday the promise in the early morning forecast was for showers to die out in the afternoon well I'm afraid they didn't, I notice they are spinning the same yarn for today, we'll see.

The forecasters are still being very upbeat about today's forecast though (exactly what tablets are they on). At 8.57am Simon King said "Today's weather is going to be a typical summer's day" but in the next sentence he quickly adds the proviso "we've got some sunny spells and it's going to stay dry for many of us" adding  "I say for many of us because they are a few showers around" - for many of us read northern Scotland.

It makes you wonder If this is how they're excluded from the rest of the country in the weather forecast, how much of the same kind of thinking permeates down into the finance meetings in government when they divi up the budget?

I would rather him say it like it really is: There is a strong thermal contrast across the UK with the north of Scotland remarkably cool for the time of year (sub 546 dm thickness likes its been for extended spells from mid May) whilst further south warmer air (~564 dm thickness) still hangs on. It may be a summers day today in the south but yesterday driving up into Sutherland in those showers it felt more like October.

The thickness at Lerwick was just 538.1 dm at midnight which for July is really quite something, especially as just four days before it was 569.4 the 28th of June Scotland's heatwave, I say heatwave because the WMO has made a special dispensation for countries the likes of Scotland, Iceland and Greenland in that heatwaves only have to last one and not three consecutive days.

[Graham Easterling]

You're going to have to get used to Scotland in Summer!

Meanwhile, in Cornwall, at Porthmeor, St Ives facing due north & catching the breeze, @ 13:15.

It's been a  sunny few months here. Sunshine for 2019 should hit 1000 hours on the nearby moors by Friday. Shame no recorders on the coast, where it's bee a good deal sunnier of late.

Graham

Penzance

[xmetman]

I knew about the climate differences that a move from Devon to Ross-shire would mean, and I can live with that, although I would contend that the spring and summer up here have been exceptionally cool and changeable at times north of 57°.

But what particularly galls to me is the attitude of weather presenters  at the BBC when they apply their southeast centric spin to forecasts such as Susan Powell did today in the 13.27pm weather forecast, replete with her blinkers firmly fixed, and uttering choice phrases such as:-

1. "The weather is being particularly well behaved" - it maybe in Wimbledon SE 9 but it's not here.
2. "but it's fair weather cloud..." - funny it looks like CUSC to me.
3. "perhaps just the odd light shower for northern and western Scotland" - they may be fewer showers than yesterday but in no way are they light.
4. "temperatures ranging from the high teens in the north of the UK to 21 or 22°C further south" - since when has 11°C been the high teens?
5. "this fair weather is all courtesy of high pressure"
6. "quite fresh actually.. in rural Wales... part of the Brecons could be in for a chilly start" - this ones a nice touch spending more time than she did on the overnight temperatures in the 'Brecons' than she could muster for getting a description of temperatures in the 'north of the UK' (4) where actually it is rather fresh by day at the moment.

I know what I'm saying will sound all rather petty and trivial to folk further south, as you pour yourselves another glass of Pimms, and retreat back indoors to escape the sun, and watch another match at Wimbledon on TV.

It's probably part of the acclimatisation process involved in moving to this part of the world that I've still to go through, and by next summer the treatment we get in what is purportedly the national forecast will be like water off a duck's back.

 

[Graham Easterling]

I would like to point out that I don't live in 'the south', I live in Cornwall! Climatically and culturally very different to most of southern England, and certainly totally different to Devon. Cornwall is historical an industrial County, China Clay, tin, copper etc. The landscape still dominated by it's industrial past. It was a very sad day when Geevor shut, and even sadder day when South Crofty shut for the want of £5m because the SW development agency (based in Bristol) didn't see mining in their 'Vision for Cornwall', I won't mention there other decisions as it's bad for my blood pressure! At least the EU did a few things for Cornwall.  Also, no time for Wimbledon, after the great F1 race on Sunday, I've still got Glastonbury to catch up on.

Anyway, back to the weather, the sad thing about the current set up is the complete lack of any decent surf.

I do appreciate what you say about forecasters bland generalisations. I had to put up with it being 'the hottest day of the year so far in the south' on 28th, when it struggled up to 19.1 say, under low cloud, compared with 25.1C 2 days earlier. Newquay was 12C colder early afternoon.

Graham

Penzance

[xmetman]

The surf might pick up by the end of next week Graham.

[Julian Mayes]

Bruce, you'll be pleased to hear that down here within range of the traffic jams for both Wimbledon AND the Hampton Court flower festival (the latter causes far more disruption locally), we currently have 6/8ths CUSC. I thought your part of the world looked distinctly chilly (choosing my words carefully) on the latest obs.  

The public around here seem to expect a Mediterranean style climate now. 

Julian 

[xmetman]

At least there are some advantages to living north of latitude 57° then!

You're right about the public expectation of Mediterranean like summers, which I think the media are partly responsible for, although many people are so well travelled, and have experienced these kind of conditions in other countries and can't understand why our summers aren't like it too. 

The sea breeze is making for a sunny day along some western and southern coasts I notice, and a sheet of what looks like some lovely contorted SC has been sitting off the west coast of Ireland all day.