On Jun 8, 10:53*am, haaark wrote:
I am heartily sick of BBC weatherpresenterettes endlessly parroting
the phrase "this weather is most unusual for the time of year". Girls,
didn't they teach you anything at how- to- stand- in- front- of-a-
weather- chart- looking- pretty- school?. The default British summer
is disturbed, with occasional bouts of quite severe weather. It is
replete with cancelled ferries, wrecked boats, downed trees and gale-
damaged buildings.That must be true because I hear you repeating this
litany once a month or so in most summers.
Admittedly this particular bout is a little more disturbed than usual,
but rare it is not. Doubtless there is someone out there who can tell
us when we last had a "green autumn" in June-I bet it's not that long
ago.

Some wet days might be normal for summer, but pushing 24-hours of
strong winds only seen 5 times maximum in the preceding autumn and
winter
can surely not be considered usual in June, just like 25C is not
normal in October. Can happen, but I still think the phase "most
unusual" is a valid
one, as it would be for March (20C+) or October (25C+) heatwaves.

It's only six years since we last had a settled summer. I'd guess,
statistically speaking, one isn't even coming up over the horizon.

But in the 1983 to 2006 period, we had settled summers pretty
frequently.
1983, 84, 89, 90, 94, 95, 2003 and 2006 were all definitely good
summers in the south
of England and if you also count the "good weather predominating over
the bad" summers of
1991, 1996, 1997 and 2005, this gives a "decent" summer once every two
years in that period.
Since then, I'd struggle to consider any summer decent, but June was
rubbish in 1990 and 1997 so who knows,
maybe this year.

Having said that, what's worrying looking back on the apparently-
ghastly summers of the 50s and 60s, that thankfully I didn't have to
endure,
is that the recent period ending in 2006 was an aberration. I really
do hope not.

Nick