One of the things about this summer seems to have been an almost
complete absence of northerlies, which would partly account for the
unusually steep west-east improvement in conditions (e.g. Hampshire vs
Kent, and the good weather apparently experienced in north Germany
since mid July). I can't recall a time since early July that the
northern Rhine area, for example, has seriously been bothered by a
low. How unusual is that? Most summers seem to have one or two,
perhaps short, N or NW spells.

Nick