I cannot agree Nick and I quote from my previous posting in response to a
Tudor
Hughes excellent post. This July has been a good month in the South. I have
had several engagements putting up a weather display at various weekend
summer shows out in the open and they have all been blessed by fine, dry
weather though sunburn was a problem. Luckily though I was not involved in
anything last Saturday. Since 1976 this July in my area is amongst the top 5
warmest.. Rainfall is only just above par and there have been 16 entirely
dry days and 20 days have exceeded 21C with the lowest 17.9C. Now let me
repeat 1954 July, a poor month. One day above 21C peaking at 21.7C with 15
completely cloudy days and 94mm of rain. Mean temperature was only 14.3C in
my area compared to 18.4C so far this month. Even today with drizzle falling
it is still quite warm currently 18C -16 days were cooler than this in 1954
and there were several days below 15C.
Having written weather articles for newspapers now for over a quarter of a
century I am well aware of it being impossible to please everyone. I once
forecast a fine Weekend and when it turned out correct I received a letter
to say and I quote" I prefer it cool ,wet and cloudy in the summer". He
wrote two sides of A4 with reasons why and top of his list was less barbecue
smoke wafting over his garden when it rains. You cannot please everyone.

Ian Currie-Coulsdon and Chipstead Valley-Surrey
www.frostedearth.com


"N R Whitelegg" wrote in message
...
I know there were 7 consecutive very sunny days, but overall I would rate
this a disappointing July in central southern England.

Those 7 sunny days were the only truly sunny days of the month (assuming
no more), there have been a large number of cloudy days and what looks
like
a persistent wet spell for the last 9 days of the month.

I'd say it was little better than 2002 down here in the south (July 2002
had
a similar number of warm sunny days, about 5 mid month and another 2 at
the end; and a similar wet spell for the first 10 days of the month) and
beaten for warm, sunny days by 2001, 1999, 1997, 1995, 1994 in the last 10
years; 1996 was also narrowly better. However, it was significantly better
than the abysmal July 1998 which just had one all month! Like many recent
months of July though, it has been an unexciting month for storms - these
days November seems a more thundery month than July!

Here's hoping for a warm sunny August broken by a few big storms...

Nick