For the first time in a while, we've had a lot of hot and sunny weather
in both June and July, something which has only happened rarely in
recent years, namely 1989, 1994 and 1995, as well as (though I was not
old enough to remember) 1975/76.

Looking at all these years, the fine conditions persisted into August
in all but 1994, the majority of years being famously hot and sunny
summers.

The very settled summers seem to have a pattern of Azores ridge
following Azores ridge, very weak cold fronts coming through every days
followed by an immediate return to fine weather with no prolonged
breakdowns. Up to the middle of last week, and with the exception of
the changeable spell July 5th-10th, this seemed to be the pattern this
year too. However now the pressure pattern seems to have got itself
into a much less anticyclonic (albeit warm) set up likely to persist
for the rest of the month - there's something of a high early this
coming week but it's not particularly intense.

A non-expert conclusion from this would suggest that the 'hot summer'
pattern has broken and that August is unlikely to be as notable as the
earlier part of the summer but any thoughts?

Nick