Nick wrote:
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).

Here in the Otter Valley for the summer so far:

N: 1.99 Days
NE: 4.80 Days
E: 7.52 Days
SE: 19.03 Days
S: 8.88 Days
SW: 8.16 Days
W: 17.23 Days
NW: 2.45 Days

Northerlies this summer are almost identical to last year, but much less
than 2007 when there were 9.71 days' worth.
________________
Nick.
Otter Valley, Devon
83 m amsl
http://www.ottervalley.co.uk