Coldest spring on record for UK and most of Europe

[UK_Palms]

The west of North America and Russia/Siberia/Arctic are both experiencing record breaking heat and high pressure. Consequently the eastern US and western Europe are cooler and wetter. This cycle will faze out in a week or two. Western Europe will get high pressure and hot weather again, while eastern Europe, Russia, Siberia etc are cool and wet. It always balances out and goes in 2-3 week cycles, usually. Also, following the record cold spring, proper summer has not got going yet in western Europe and I expect to see quite a bit of seasonal lag this year due to that. July - September will be pretty warm and dry. Proper summer weather. Peak heat will be mid-late August. 

Unbelievably I have not had a drop of rain here today in Surrey... yet parts of Essex are flooded out completely. I can't believe what I am seeing...

 

 

F1 Tornado as well in the outskirts of east London. Nothing compared to the 'other' major tornado...

 

 

 

Now onto the more serious stuff. The storms that caused the flooding and hail in Spain, France, Germany etc has now caused a massive tornado in the Czech Republic too, killing 6 people and leaving almost 300 injured. The storms have also struck Austria and Slovakia, with Austria getting flooded out...

Here is the huge Czech tornado on Thursday night, which has killed 6 people and injured nearly 300 others. The footage is unbelievable...

 

 

This video is absolutely terrifying! That is possibly an F4 tornado that hits them...

 

 

Watch those trees collapse... 

 

 

Holy crap! This guy is at a safe distance, but check out those flashes/explosions towards the end! 

 

Bad damage. Those people are effectively homeless...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some horrific pictures coming out of the Czech Republic today...

 

Every building damaged in some areas, with entire neighbourhoods loosing all their roofs and windows...

 

It looks like a war-zone...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's an overhead drone shot showing the damage to one of the villages...

 

 

The European storms of June 2021 will go down in history. This has been a 10 day long event, starting in Portugal and Spain, before passing through France, Belgium Netherlands and then on to Germany and Switzerland. However it seemed to save the worst for last, with Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia getting hit badly on Thursday. The Czech's hit especially badly with that possibly F4 twister causing absolute carnage. Northeast London got an isolated thunderstorm and tornado on Friday evening, but that's about as bad as we got here.

Edited June 25, 2021 by UK_Palms

[Hutch]

Unreal...UK Palms....nice documentary....the Czech looks more like Oklahoma....scary stuff...i agree the pattern will eventually shift....we need rain..ourselves...!

[sipalms]

@UK_Palms I hate to harp on but I'm still not convinced that your climate is transforming as we speak into a Csb climate (a.k.a warm-summer mediterranean).

The next week looks much like the last 10 days.

[UK_Palms]

Massive rainstorm here right now. It is absolutely chucking it down with rain. I have just registered 37mm in the past hour and 54mm today. The first half of June was warmer than average and bone dry, but the second half of June has been abysmal with a lot of rain and below average temps. I barely reached 20C here today. The past few days have been okay to be fair, no rain and highs of about 22-23C, but today has been shite. Incredibly poor for late June. This isn't the normal. Spain, Portugal, France, UK, Belgium, Netherlands etc all seeing 'poor' weather for the time of year. Some low pressure systems have been forming in the Bay of Biscay, just west of France, which have been wrecking havoc in western Europe. They are to blame for the tornadoes & storms. 

We're still not even 1/3 of the way through meteorological summer yet though. It can only get better from here on (touch wood). The jet stream will shift further north bringing high pressure and heat to western Europe, instead of Eastern Europe, Russia, Siberia, Arctic etc, who currently have record breaking heat. The warmest period here is usually in late July - early August, which is still 4-5 weeks away. Last year the major heat didn't come until later on, in mid August. The peak heat may be even later this year though, due to the extended lag from the cold spring. So peak heat could be 7-8 weeks away still, if it arrives in late August this year. Plenty of time for things to warm up. I think September will be warmer and a lot drier than June too. Let's see how July - September pans out.

@sipalms Despite this evening's heavy rain, the forecast in general isn't as wet as the Google weather forecast suggests. Temperatures are 2-3C below average though.

 

Hopefully some proper heat and 'summer' conditions arriving late next week, as temperatures out east plummet back down to normal...

 

More on the tornado in northeast London on Friday. ..

 

Check out that flying bin/trash can hurling through the air. The plastic UK trash cans are bulky and weigh about 120 pounds. You're dead if that hits you.

 

Another trash bin projectile sent flying in the air... must be about 100 foot high...

 

Tornado in the Islamic Republic of Barking...

 

 

Nothing compared to that Czech tornado I posted. The one in northeast London was probably an F1, with the Czech one possibly being an F4. The dramatic music sums up tornadoes in the UK. 

 

Another Funnel cloud in Essex...

 

And some more footage of the crazy Czech tornado...

 

 

 

 

 

Reports of a tornado in Belgium / Luxembourg on Sunday as well...

 

 

 

 

 

The weather has to start improving over western and central Europe. The whole of 2021 has been pretty poor so far, with the exception of the late May - mid June warm spell. Other than that, it has been atrocious for most of us. Probably just a freak chain of events for us though. 

[Samuel]

Still waiting for our summer med climate to arrive this June will go down as wetter and duller then average a very common theme of summer months  since 2007 looks like more rain is on the way as well no sign July will be any better 

[sipalms]

Non-Mediterranean (Oceanic/Cool Temperate Climate)

Here is a look at a non-Mediterranean, non-subtropical, but oceanic/temperate climate’s forecast in mid-summer.

- - -

Now, compare this to:

- - -

Actual Mediterranean Climates

Here is a quick look at a bunch of Mediterranean locations’ forecast in midsummer. Consistently we see: mostly sun/clear skies, perhaps some cloud at times. Near zero rainfall. Hot, dry, arid conditions in the late twenties through to late thirties. The kind of place if you lived in say the UK, you’d go to kick back on a beach in sunnies and boardshorts with a bin of coldies. You could book a flight there, and know that it wouldn’t be hit and miss, weather wise. You could turn up, get your tan and Vitamin D, brush up your swimming (and drinking) skills, and head back to the cooler, cloudier, wetter climes of the far north.

 

[UK_Palms]

I don't know what the hell is going on this year, but I think it's fair to say that the whole of 2021 has been pretty bad. From the below average temperatures in January and February, to the coldest April on record, followed by the wettest May on record. It's a similar story for the rest of western Europe. Something is massively 'off' this year.

The first half of June was great with temperatures well above average and zero rainfall, however it has reverted back to type again. 2021 in general has been terrible. I think only about 4 weeks out of the past 25 have seen decent, above average temperatures, specifically in late March and then in late May - mid June. The rest of the year has been poor.

This is anything but normal. Temperatures are reaching about 21-22C each day here, which is close to average, but there is barely any sun or proper heat. It's just damp and dull. Like abnormally dull. I have never seen a 10 day run as bad as this in late June, although it's also made even worse by the fact that we have seen so many poor spells of weather this year so far. 

 

 

Fortunately for us, it has just been overcast and wet here, whereas across France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czechia etc, the storms are still raging on there. Damage is extensive from the strong winds, floods and hail. The UK has probably fared the best out of them all this summer, especially northern England and Scotland, which has remained largely dry, sunny and decent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The French haven't fared much better... biblical hail storms...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks like the UK missed the 3rd wave of storms too...

 

 

I wonder whether this is all linked to El Nino, or record cold Atlantic sea temperatures...? Either way it has been a rough year so far. The UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Czechia etc all suffered from an abnormally cold winter, followed by the record cold spring too. And now all these storms and crap summer weather... 

[JohnnyKarelian]

@UK_Palms I think July, August are considered the really hottest summer months in that part of the world, so you still have at least 2 months for your summer weather. I have grown up in coastal Holland, lived in Germany as well as London UK, and as far as I can remember, weather is always unpredictable and unstable, the difference I notice now from reports that there are more extreme weather events regarding rainfall and heat (less so cold events). You can have hot and dry summers, but just as well summers that completely rain away.

As @sipalms also noted, northwestern europeans will go get their dose of summer holiday in the real med. climates such as southern France, Spain and Italy as well as Greece, because you will never be certain when you get it at home. (And you don't see it the other way round, Southern Europeans traveling to England or holland for their summer weather.)

If after august you still didn't have a heatwave or a dry spell, I agree with you, your summer is crap, but for now, you already had 2 over average temperature events, in march and June, you're spoiled in previous years so now it just looks less nice. 

[UK_Palms]

@JohnnyKarelian The bigger concern for us now is that 5-6 months of below average temperatures have left the land and sea temperatures about 2-3C below average for the time of year in western and Central Europe. I don’t know what effect that will have on temperatures later on in summer, but I believe it is already a factor in the unseasonal storms and unstable weather across the region.

If anything, it should mean a drier than average August and September due to lower sea temperatures, but nothing is a given this year. It’s very hard to predict anything. Just this morning they are saying that August may be the hottest month on record here, as temperatures are yet to build up, but I will take that statement with a pinch of salt after everything we have been through this year. Plus the colder than average trend that has been present throughout 2021.

I suspect we are are going to see the most extreme case of seasonal lag on record though with September potentially being warmer than July. Everything is behind on where it should be this year. My outdoor cacti are flowering 4-5 weeks later than usual this year. Other flowering plants still seem to be about 3 weeks behind schedule too. Given that mid August was the warmest part of summer last year, I wouldn’t rule out late August - early September being the hottest period this summer. 

While there is an argument for us being spoiled in recent years with warm temperatures and decent summers, this year in general is just totally off the scale in terms of how bad it is and how bizarre the weather has been. It is definitely out of character, given the sheer number of extreme weather events that have happened so far in 2021 in this part of the world. Something is definitely ‘off’ this year.

I can’t believe that some parts of Germany are going to have single digit highs today, with temperatures widely 10C below average. What is going on this year!?

[Ryland]

It might just be different for me in the north of England, but it's seemed a fairly normal year to me so far.  January was cooler than normal (but not freezing), March-April were sunnier than normal with April on the chilly side, May was wetter and much cooler than normal, and June was drier, sunnier, and warmer than normal.  That sounds like a lot of "abnormal" weather but the problem is that "normal" is based on long term averages where these kinds of things happen all the time.  I think in this climate there are always a few months of the year that don't match the averages, but in the long run it evens out.  Again, maybe it's just been more normal for the north.  Remember how bad last July was?  Almost never getting above 20 degrees here... but that was preceded by several nice Julys in a row, so I think it's still normal to have a bad one every now and then.

By the way @UK_Palms I did finally get some rain in June after all, but it was only 1-2 days with a few light scattered showers right at the end.  A very good month more my palms to dry off after May

[Samuel]

June was the first summer month since 2017 to not record 30c in the uk despite that it came out warmer then average and wetter then average it was also the dullest in the London area since 2016  so overall a pretty poor start to summer but not as bad as some June’s such as 2012/2007 July is also looks pretty rubbish at least the first half anyway so still the wait for our supposed summer med climate goes on

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by Samuel

[UK_Palms]

@Ryland I think northwestern England and southeastern England have been worlds apart this year, for different weather related reasons. Firstly, both January and February were far colder than average down here with several cold air masses coming across the channel from the continent, which may not have hit you guys as badly up in the northwest. I had some snow and two separate occasions where the temperature did not rise above 0C for 48 hours due to cloud cover. So no daytime warmup. One night went down to -7C as well, which was my coldest night in 3 years. You may have been warmer than me due to Manchester's UHI effect. I am right out in the countryside here with no UHI.

I think your winter temperatures were closer to average, whereas mine here were definitely below average. Our coldest January in 11 years down here and our coldest February since the 2018 'Beast from the East'. So overall, winter was pretty bad compared to the previous two mild winters. Our winters are dull in general, obviously, but it was especially dull here last winter too, as the map below shows. Overcast days during polar events mean little to no daytime warmup. It prevented severe radiation freezes at night, but also meant I had some -3C nights followed by -1C days. Surrey had some of the lowest sunshine hours all winter...

 

April was the driest and sunniest April on record here, as well as having the lowest average minimum on record and the most ever frosts on record due to the constant clear skies at night. Then May was officially my wettest May on record, my 2nd dullest May in terms of sunshine hours and my lowest average high on record for May as well. I also recorded my lowest ever May temperature on record in the early hours of May 1st. So May was absolutely dreadful here. The worst May on record for me here. A complete reversal from the previous month of April that was dry and sunny, although both April and May had below average temperatures on what was an awful spring for us. We also experienced two major storms coming off the Atlantic in late April and mid May, which is a first for me here. The first 3 weeks of May felt more like late October. I have covered it extensively in this thread.

 

It seems you guys up north have been as dry as a bone this June. It looks like the Manchester area has only had about 10% of your average monthly rainfall, which is crazy considering we have had about 140% of our monthly average rainfall down here. Parts of Essex have had 200%. The southeast of England is the driest part of the UK, especially during summer, however those freak, unseasonal storms that terrorised mainland Europe have clipped the southeastern regions of England, causing some very heavy rainfalls on two particular days (18th and 27th). Still only a fraction of what they have received on the mainland in western Europe though, from those storms...

Given that we are the driest part of the UK, especially during summer, it certainly makes for an interesting anomaly. And it is just that... an anomaly. No doubt due to the fierce storms that have ravaged mainland Europe during the second half of June, clipping the southeastern region as they moved northeast through western Europe. So the rainfall anomaly isn't just confined to southeast England, but also France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland etc. Those places got hammered by multiple, unseasonal storms with many areas seeing 5 x their monthly rainfall totals. They have experienced record June rainfalls for parts of France, Germany and Switzerland.

Look at that rainfall on the continent that we actually missed here. We have dodged a bullet to a degree. The UK in general was probably the least effected country in western Europe, with northern regions being especially sheltered from the whacky weather that Europe saw this June...

 

 

You guys appear to have had a pretty good month, like in general, up north. Down here it was really good for the first two weeks, with very dry conditions and above average temperatures. It's just the last two weeks that have been crap as the storm systems moved through western Europe, clipping us down here as they moved northeast across the continent. As far as anomalies go, it may well have been the dullest 2nd half of June ever on record for us down here, as well as the wettest 2nd half of June ever. Plus the coldest summer solstice on record for me here. Whereas in the north of the UK it has been one of the warmest, sunniest and driest June's on record. You guys have had it good all month. The UK still had the coldest June temperature in 40 years though up in Scotland. So typical of this dodgy year...

 

 

It's also pretty rare that the north is ever drier than the southeast during the summer months. But then again those whacky storms across France, Germany, Netherlands etc were anything but normal for the time of year. That is the reason for the contrast in rainfall between southeast England and northwest England. Thankfully we were just on the edge of it. However these summer storms could become more common due to climate change, although they have not been a feature of recent June's across Europe, so it's hard to say. The recent storms have been a total blip on the map. A freak of nature. Much like the whole of 2021 in general. Record cold north Atlantic waters may be to blame. I have never seen western Europe's water so cold in early July. The coast of Portugal is as cold as southeast England. 

 

Here is a map from France's equivalent of the Met Office, showing the intensity and severity of thunderstorms over western Europe in June. As you can see, the UK largely escapes, even in the southeast. The rest of the region got absolutely battered during the last week of June. Some parts of northeast Switzerland saw 15 inches of rainfall in 36 hours...

 

France on Tuesday...

 

 

Frankfurt town centre on Tuesday...

 

Netherlands got it on Tuesday too...

 

 

Switzerland got the hail too, as well as floods...

 

 

 

 

Western Europe has never had storms like this before in June. Not ones of this intensity that have also effected such a large area of the continent over a 10-14 day period. Never before in June, let alone the last week of June. They've had stuff like this before in October or December, but never in early summer. This year is a total blip. Western Europe has an abnormally cold winter, followed by the coldest spring on record and then the worst June storms on record too. All in the space of 6 months. Nice one 2021. Not. This year isn't really reflective of recent years. Hopefully it fizzles out and things return to normal in a week or two with no more below average temps. We need the Russian Arctic/Siberian high to break down really. 

[Ryland]

@UK_Palms I don't doubt that it has indeed been a cool year in general so far, with lots of ups and downs - it seems like it has been worse in the southeast, especially the stark contrast in precipitation for June.  It was also a very cold January for me, but there were no days that failed to get above freezing (the last time that happened around here in some localities was one day in 2018, but before that you have to go back to 2009).  I think the proximity to the continent of the southeast exposes it to both ends of the weather spectrum.  One think I like about the northwest is it's pretty moderate in all ways - we don't tend to ever get really severe weather, except occasionally localised flooding.  It does fluctuate a lot, but in my experience there is a lot of variability year to year.  The spring of 2013 was also a poor one, maybe comparable to this spring but in 2013 the worst month was March.

Yeah those storms in Europe were something else - I saw in the news a huge amount of hail accumulation in a French town.  They do tend to get more summer thunderstorms, heavy rain and hail on the continent but that just passed was exceptional.

Have your palms managed to get into their growing stride yet despite the inconsistent weather?

[UK_Palms]

1 hour ago, Ryland said:

@UK_Palms Have your palms managed to get into their growing stride yet despite the inconsistent weather?

No, my palms are not growing anywhere near as quickly as they have in recent years. Most of them are snails this year, compared to last year, or the year before. The abnormally cold winter, followed by the record cold spring and poor second half of June have limited the potential for growth during the first half of the year and slowed everything down, whether that is palms, flowers, cacti, tomatoes etc. Everything is behind this year. It is certainly the coldest first half of a year on record for my location, but records only go back to 1981. It’s possibly the coldest first 6 months of a year since the mid 1800’s here. Possibly.

Trachy’s are close to normal and doing okay, but my Washies are only growing at half their usual speed. If that even. Butia and Jubaea are barely moving. CIDP is slower than normal, but less so than other sp. I have hundreds of palm seedlings that haven’t really grown much this year. My queens are only growing at a fraction of the speed that I would like them to. The Cycad Revoluta is refusing to flush. As I have said before, outdoor cacti are flowering about 4-5 weeks later this year and growing very slowly. Everything is behind schedule and growing slowly. 

Hopefully they will all pick up when the weather shifts, as it won’t stay poor all summer long. Touch wood. I’m expecting mid July - mid September to be pretty hot here. A delayed onset to proper summer following an extended cold spring. Although I wouldn’t be shocked if this summer is a write off too though, like the rest of 2021 in general so far. I have never known a year quite like this one. Both bizarre and just all-round crap weather this year. August better be an absolute scorcher!

Strangely the bananas, canna and grapes are all doing pretty good this year. Arguably better than they were doing this time last year. All that stuff came back from the cold winter and record cold spring, with minimal ill-effect. I can’t for the life of me explain why that is, but it is the case. Some stuff has definitely done better than others. This has been such a strange year. There will probably be more surprises in store, both weather-wise and in regards to what plants end up doing well and what else struggles. 

Here is my Abyssinian Banana last weekend. Clearly it never knew that we had an abnormally cold winter and a record cold spring. All I did was put a bit of straw around the stem for winter protection.

[Samuel]

1 hour ago, UK_Palms said:

No, my palms are not growing anywhere near as quickly as they have in recent years. Most of them are snails this year, compared to last year, or the year before. The abnormally cold winter, followed by the record cold spring and poor second half of June have limited the potential for growth during the first half of the year and slowed everything down, whether that is palms, flowers, cacti, tomatoes etc. Everything is behind this year. It is certainly the coldest first half of a year on record for my location, but records only go back to 1981. It’s possibly the coldest first 6 months of a year since the mid 1800’s here. Possibly.

Trachy’s are close to normal and doing okay, but my Washies are only growing at half their usual speed. If that even. Butia and Jubaea are barely moving. CIDP is slower than normal, but less so than other sp. I have hundreds of palm seedlings that haven’t really grown much this year. My queens are only growing at a fraction of the speed that I would like them to. The Cycad Revoluta is refusing to flush. As I have said before, outdoor cacti are flowering about 4-5 weeks later this year and growing very slowly. Everything is behind schedule and growing slowly. 

Hopefully they will all pick up when the weather shifts, as it won’t stay poor all summer long. Touch wood. I’m expecting mid July - mid September to be pretty hot here. A delayed onset to proper summer following an extended cold spring. Although I wouldn’t be shocked if this summer is a write off too though, like the rest of 2021 in general so far. I have never known a year quite like this one. Both bizarre and just all-round crap weather this year. August better be an absolute scorcher!

Strangely the bananas, canna and grapes are all doing pretty good this year. Arguably better than they were doing this time last year. All that stuff came back from the cold winter and record cold spring, with minimal ill-effect. I can’t for the life of me explain why that is, but it is the case. Some stuff has definitely done better than others. This has been such a strange year. There will probably be more surprises in store, both weather-wise and in regards to what plants end up doing well and what else struggles. 

Here is my Abyssinian Banana last weekend. Clearly it never knew that we had an abnormally cold winter and a record cold spring. All I did was put a bit of straw around the stem for winter protection.

You must have a very short memory if this year is the worst you can remember where we’re you  in 2012 every month from April till the end of the year was wet and cold when you go back further there even worst spells of weather July 1988 for example didn’t get above 22c anywhere in the uk now that is what you call dreadful 

[UK_Palms]

1 hour ago, Samuel said:

You must have a very short memory if this year is the worst you can remember where we’re you  in 2012 every month from April till the end of the year was wet and cold when you go back further there even worst spells of weather July 1988 for example didn’t get above 22c anywhere in the uk now that is what you call dreadful 

Well in 1988 I hadn’t been born yet so I can’t speak for that summer, and in 2012 I was still a teenager in college and had not yet taken up gardening as a hobby. I mean I certainly wasn’t paying attention to the weather really back then. I had no reason to, unlike now. So it is pretty hard for me to compare 1988 and 2012, weather-wise. It does seem that the summer of 2012 was one of the worst on record though and certainly the worst one in recent decades. But that is the summer period specifically. 

I have been referring to the first half of 2021 being the worst January - June period on record. Like the worst ever first 6 months of a year. Whereas it seems winter 2012 was a lot warmer than average, unlike winter 2021 which was colder than average. Also spring 2012 was warmer than average too, whereas spring 2021 was our worst, coldest spring on record. So the first 6 months of 2021 were clearly FAR worse than the first 6 months of 2012. Even if 2012 had one of the worst summers on record still. But that is irrelevant at this stage as we were taking about  the January - June period, plus we haven’t really been discussing July as we are only 2 days into the month. 

We still have 8 weeks of summer left yet, before we can draw up any summer comparisons. Potentially 12 weeks of summer if September is a belter due to extreme seasonal lag this year. I suspect this summer will pick up in the next week or two though. August saw the hottest weather last year. France and southern England may get pummelled by yet another storm next week, but there are signs of some very hot weather arriving by mid-July as the Azores high comes back over Western Europe and a hot plume of air comes up from North Africa.

The bigger question is whether having months of below average temperatures will further effect the second half of the year now too, due to cooler than average sea and land temperatures? GFS model has high pressure firmly in control by mid month with some significant heat moving in. It looks to be setting up for a hot second half of July and a hot August. Potentially very dry too. The models could of course change between now and then though. 

[Ryland]

Your banana is looking fine @UK_Palms, as is the Chamaerops behind it.  Hoping for a nice summer for their sake!  I generally try to appreciate what I can get since I never know when it will come again, which so far is a brilliant June.  If that continues then marvellous, but if not at least June was good

[UK_Palms]

50 minutes ago, Ryland said:

Your banana is looking fine @UK_Palms, as is the Chamaerops behind it.  Hoping for a nice summer for their sake!  I generally try to appreciate what I can get since I never know when it will come again, which so far is a brilliant June.  If that continues then marvellous, but if not at least June was good

Thanks man. I've got a few bananas, which were all pretty small and unimpressive last year, however they have all really kicked on this year, despite the poor winter and spring weather. The same with the Canna and grapes. The Canna's weren't protected at all, but regrew from last year's shoots and are doing great. But then stuff like palms, cacti, flowers, tomatoes etc are all slacking behind where they should be. I mean it's just such a weird year.

 

 

I really need to get the CIDP in the ground...

 

I'm hoping my Cycas Revoluta will flush this summer, since it didn't last year...

Cacti and cucumbers...

 

You say June was brilliant for you guys up north, but I would say that overall it was a very mixed bag. Maybe a 5/10 overall. The first 2 weeks were at least 9/10 down here. Hot, dry and sunny. However the last two weeks were like 2/10. Wet, cool, overcast. I had my coldest summer solstice on record with a high of just 13C, however temps have generally been around 20-22C during the second half of June. Nights around 10-13C. Nothing overly cold. Or warm. I could maybe push June up to a 6/10 due to the extent of the warmth during the first two weeks.

Anyway, I reached 24C here today and it is still 21C here at 9pm. Trending downwards again over the weekend though, which isn't good for all my tomatoes and peppers especially... 

[Samuel]

19 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

Well in 1988 I hadn’t been born yet so I can’t speak for that summer, and in 2012 I was still a teenager in college and had not yet taken up gardening as a hobby. I mean I certainly wasn’t paying attention to the weather really back then. I had no reason to, unlike now. So it is pretty hard for me to compare 1988 and 2012, weather-wise. It does seem that the summer of 2012 was one of the worst on record though and certainly the worst one in recent decades. But that is the summer period specifically. 

I have been referring to the first half of 2021 being the worst January - June period on record. Like the worst ever first 6 months of a year. Whereas it seems winter 2012 was a lot warmer than average, unlike winter 2021 which was colder than average. Also spring 2012 was warmer than average too, whereas spring 2021 was our worst, coldest spring on record. So the first 6 months of 2021 were clearly FAR worse than the first 6 months of 2012. Even if 2012 had one of the worst summers on record still. But that is irrelevant at this stage as we were taking about  the January - June period, plus we haven’t really been discussing July as we are only 2 days into the month. 

We still have 8 weeks of summer left yet, before we can draw up any summer comparisons. Potentially 12 weeks of summer if September is a belter due to extreme seasonal lag this year. I suspect this summer will pick up in the next week or two though. August saw the hottest weather last year. France and southern England may get pummelled by yet another storm next week, but there are signs of some very hot weather arriving by mid-July as the Azores high comes back over Western Europe and a hot plume of air comes up from North Africa.

The bigger question is whether having months of below average temperatures will further effect the second half of the year now too, due to cooler than average sea and land temperatures? GFS model has high pressure firmly in control by mid month with some significant heat moving in. It looks to be setting up for a hot second half of July and a hot August. Potentially very dry too. The models could of course change between now and then though. 

Fair enough lol yeah you have a point the first few months of 2012 weren’t to bad tho not great other then March however The first half of 2013 was much worse then this year every month from January to June had below average temperatures March that year was the coldest since 1962 

[sipalms]

Looks like no let up in clouds and rain and cool oceanic temps.

[UK_Palms]

Dreadful weather here right now. A high of 19C / 66F on Monday with quite a bit of rain and temperatures running about 3-4C below average. The temperatures in large swathes of France and Germany are still running a good 7-8C below average. Hurricane force winds are now battering the west coast of France as a new storm moves in. There's just no end to how shit the past 6-7 months have been for western Europe. Apart from the 3 week period between late May - mid June, temperatures have been below average for months on end. This whole year is an anomaly.

Plus the insane heat anomaly continues in Scandinavia/arctic/Siberia, while poor western Europe shivers. The arctic circle starts at 66N, yet they recorded 34C up at 70N on Monday...

 

 

 

 

 

 

It looks like western France is recording its highest wind speeds on record for the summer months at least. They've just recorded 150kmh in the past hour. No doubt there will be plenty of destructive videos doing the rounds tomorrow. That wind will be pummelling the south coast of England by sunrise. 

 

 

@sipalms It's dreadful weather for the time of year, that's what it is. Unfortunately for us, 2021 has produced dreadful weather for about 20 out of the past 25 weeks! Temperatures consistently below average, with the exception of like 4 weeks this year. Definitely oceanic driven though. I am not disputing that. The warmer/drier trend of recent years has gone AWOL this year. It is off the scale bad and is is a freak, off the scale anomaly to have this much bad weather in the space of a few months.

 

If I had to give 2021 a rating out of 10... I would probably give it a 2/10 so far at best. Possibly a 1/10. The spring just gone was so terrible that it was definitely a 1/10, with the winter before that being no better than about 4/10. Probably a 3/10 even. The first 5 weeks of summer get a 4/10 from me, but that will be 3/10 by end of the week. So overall, a 2/10 rating for 2021 at best so far. Absolutely disgraceful. At this time last year, I probably would have had 2020 down for about a 7/10 rating so far. Unlike the abysmal 2/10 rating for 2021 so far.

I'll need to check the records, but I think the first 6-7 months of 2021 have been the coldest since the late 1700's here. Just the sheer number of weeks that have seen below average temps. We've had poor winters, terrible springs and rubbish starts to summer before, but never all 3 in the space of 6 months. Not like this year. This is something else entirely. I have never seen such a prolonged period of crap weather. The only positive is that we didn't get the severe storms, tornadoes and floods that the mainland got in recent weeks.

Mid-July cannot come soon enough. It still feels like summer is yet to properly get going due to extreme seasonal lag this year. At least we have to hope that is the case...

[UK_Palms]

 

This is the sky over my workplace in Guildford right now, looking pretty menacing. It’s about to bucket it down with rain as the storm moves in. Hopefully the winds don’t get up too much either, as they haven’t been as bad as forecast. Western France has been hit severely over the past 12 hours or so though. Can’t rule out the possibility of a tornado with the current setup. Disgusting conditions for July here. 

[Samuel]

8 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

Dreadful weather here right now. A high of 19C / 66F on Monday with quite a bit of rain and temperatures running about 3-4C below average. The temperatures in large swathes of France and Germany are still running a good 7-8C below average. Hurricane force winds are now battering the west coast of France as a new storm moves in. There's just no end to how shit the past 6-7 months have been for western Europe. Apart from the 3 week period between late May - mid June, temperatures have been below average for months on end. This whole year is an anomaly.

Plus the insane heat anomaly continues in Scandinavia/arctic/Siberia, while poor western Europe shivers. The arctic circle starts at 66N, yet they recorded 34C up at 70N on Monday...

 

 

 

 

 

 

It looks like western France is recording its highest wind speeds on record for the summer months at least. They've just recorded 150kmh in the past hour. No doubt there will be plenty of destructive videos doing the rounds tomorrow. That wind will be pummelling the south coast of England by sunrise. 

 

 

@sipalms It's dreadful weather for the time of year, that's what it is. Unfortunately for us, 2021 has produced dreadful weather for about 20 out of the past 25 weeks! Temperatures consistently below average, with the exception of like 4 weeks this year. Definitely oceanic driven though. I am not disputing that. The warmer/drier trend of recent years has gone AWOL this year. It is off the scale bad and is is a freak, off the scale anomaly to have this much bad weather in the space of a few months.

 

If I had to give 2021 a rating out of 10... I would probably give it a 2/10 so far at best. Possibly a 1/10. The spring just gone was so terrible that it was definitely a 1/10, with the winter before that being no better than about 4/10. Probably a 3/10 even. The first 5 weeks of summer get a 4/10 from me, but that will be 3/10 by end of the week. So overall, a 2/10 rating for 2021 at best so far. Absolutely disgraceful. At this time last year, I probably would have had 2020 down for about a 7/10 rating so far. Unlike the abysmal 2/10 rating for 2021 so far.

I'll need to check the records, but I think the first 6-7 months of 2021 have been the coldest since the late 1700's here. Just the sheer number of weeks that have seen below average temps. We've had poor winters, terrible springs and rubbish starts to summer before, but never all 3 in the space of 6 months. Not like this year. This is something else entirely. I have never seen such a prolonged period of crap weather. The only positive is that we didn't get the severe storms, tornadoes and floods that the mainland got in recent weeks.

Mid-July cannot come soon enough. It still feels like summer is yet to properly get going due to extreme seasonal lag this year. At least we have to hope that is the case...

You need to stop exaggerating coldest period since the 1700s :D:D don’t make me laugh The first half of 2013 was colder then this as we’re plenty of years in the 60s/70s/80s you really have no idea of what the normal uk climate is this year hasn’t been great but it’s not as unusual as you are making out 

[Samuel]

This sums up uk summers in a nutshell we are cool and wet typical of an oceanic climate of course and proper summer med parts of Europe are nice and hot 

[UK_Palms]

@Samuel The current situation does not sum up UK summers in a nutshell, especially for southeastern England. It is rarely, ever this poor in summer and this is clearly just a freak year in general. As far as the weather goes, 2021 is totally off the radar. It’s a freak anomaly, which we probably will never see again in our lifetime. The abnormally cold winter followed by the record cold spring has probably skewed summer temps and weather this year. 

Are you saying the Arctic circle usually sees hot, dry weather with temperatures above 30C in July up at 70N… while Western Europe sees wet, stormy weather and highs of just 20C…? Because that is definitely not the norm. Something is clearly ‘off’ this year. The fact that France just recorded its highest ever wind speed in summer last night says it all. We have had unseasonal storm activity this spring and summer too. Temperatures have been below average for many months now, since January really.

 

Frankly 2019 and 2020 were good years. Very mild winters, decent springs and warm summers. 2021 is a total blip on the weather records. From the colder than average winter, to the record cold spring, to the wet, cool summer so far. It’s just one big anomaly. The cool-wet summer is probably the result of the record cold spring. It almost beggars belief that it can be this bad and that so many different factors can go wrong in recent months. I said last night that I rate this year 2/10 overall so far, but I am seriously close to pushing it down to 1/10. It has been crap. 

Guildford is supposedly close to 21C / 70F right now at 2pm. Yet I am only reading 17C / 63F in Compton. Probably due to Guildford’s slight UHI, or they’ve just had breaks in the cloud cover. It’s blowing a bit of a gale here as well. Definitely not ‘warm’ to be out in, although the skies have cleared a bit now…

 

Edited July 6, 2021 by UK_Palms

[Samuel]

2 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

@Samuel The current situation does not sum up UK summers in a nutshell, especially for southeastern England. It is rarely, ever this poor in summer and this is clearly just a freak year in general. As far as the weather goes, 2021 is totally off the radar. It’s a freak anomaly, which we probably will never see again in our lifetime. The abnormally cold winter followed by the record cold spring has probably skewed summer temps and weather this year. 

Are you saying the Arctic circle usually sees hot, dry weather with temperatures above 30C in July up at 70N… while Western Europe sees wet, stormy weather and highs of just 20C…? Because that is definitely not the norm. Something is clearly ‘off’ this year. The fact that France just recorded its highest ever wind speed in summer last night says it all. We have had unseasonal storm activity this spring and summer too. Temperatures have been below average for many months now, since January really.

 

Frankly 2019 and 2020 were good years. Very mild winters, decent springs and warm summers. 2021 is a total blip on the weather records. From the colder than average winter, to the record cold spring, to the wet, cool summer so far. It’s just one big anomaly. The cool-wet summer is probably the result of the record cold spring. It almost beggars belief that it can be this bad and that so many different factors can go wrong in recent months. I said last night that I rate this year 2/10 overall so far, but I am seriously close to pushing it down to 1/10. It has been crap. 

Guildford is supposedly close to 21C / 70F right now at 2pm. Yet I am only reading 17C / 63F in Compton. Probably due to Guildford’s slight UHI, or they’ve just had breaks in the cloud cover. It’s blowing a bit of a gale here as well. Definitely not ‘warm’ to be out in, although the skies have cleared a bit now…

 

It really does we are always on the edge of the heat that sits on the continent and what we are experiencing is not unprecedented it’s typical weather of an oceanic climate e.g sunshine and showers it what keeps everything green through the summer also summer 2020 was not a good summer it had a week at the end of June that was hot then we had to wait till the end of July for proper summer weather for many nationally it was the coldest July since 2012 then the first 2 weeks of august were very hot before it broke down and the rest of the month was very changeable and dull summer 2019 had a crap June an ok  July with and very hot week at the end and august was warm and wet until the end of the month when we had a hot bank holiday in between those hot peaks it was typical low twenties and showers and lots of cloud you need to accept that we are oceanic and not summer med and we will see and have seen plenty of summers the same if not worse then this summers  have gotten 20% wetter since the 90s this is a fact which I have stated before 

[UK_Palms]

Unbelievable! This evening I experienced torrential downpours in the Guildford/Woking area at about 5pm. I got absolutely soaked just going from the car to the store and visa versa. There were torrents of water pouring down the streets in Woking and the drains were all overflowing. On the way back towards Guildford, I saw several residential streets totally flooded out, with standing water at least a foot deep in places, as well as a car almost totally submerged on the outskirts of Guildford, with the driver standing on the roof to escape. Just crazy.

The rainfall was similar to this video here from London today...

 

 

The road that I would normally take to get back home was cut off by floodwaters too, with an underpass on the A3 full up with about 6 foot of water. All the traffic had backed up as a result and there were so many cars that nobody could turn around. We had water coming through the doors as well as there was almost a foot of floodwater on the road. Police eventually turned up and started turning people around and then on the way back through Guildford there were several abandoned cars with flooded engines and steam pouring out the hoods. Some roads and residential areas in the northwest of Guildford were under at least a foot of water. Quite a few houses were flooded. 

 

The funny thing is that I got home and there has barely been any rainfall here, at least compared to Guildford and Woking. My rainfall gage at home says we have only had 8mm here today, however parts of Guildford and Woking must have seen at least 50mm for the flooding to be that bad in those places. Localised heavy downpours no doubt. I must have just missed it here, fortunately, plus there are no rivers nearby to me. Guildford and Woking both have big rivers cutting through their town centres, which will exacerbate any flooding. Even still, I am shocked at the extent of the flooding in those towns. I have never, EVER seen it that bad here in summer before. Certainly not in July. I mean 2021, the freak of nature anomaly year, delivers again...

You can see the Guildford area on the forecast map getting blitzed...

 

 

The past 3 weeks have been the worst run of summer weather since June 2016 now. That's the worst stretch of summer weather in half a decade. That's off the back of the coldest spring on record and all the other shit weather this year. If someone told me how bad 2021's weather will be back in say January, I never would have believed it. Such is the extent of how bad it has been. I am so close to ranking this year a 1/10 so far now. From start to finish, it has been an absolute disaster in the weather department so far. 2021 is just like one massive, crazy anomaly. It has been off the scale bad this year. I suspect a weather event or climatic disturbance has caused these abysmal conditions in western Europe over the past 6 months. 

[Samuel]

Another cool summer day here but thankfully no rain still not much sign of are summer med climate arriving surprise surprise

 

[sipalms]

18 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

I am so close to ranking this year a 1/10 so far now. From start to finish, it has been an absolute disaster in the weather department so far. 2021 is just like one massive, crazy anomaly. It has been off the scale bad this year.

Hello Ben,

Sorry but you have to really scale things back a bit in terms of emotion and gut feel and actually look at the stats.

You talk about how bad this year is, we know that spring was actually bad, but the damp oceanic summer seems quite normal.

I have just been onto the Met Office database and retrieved all climate data for every June since 1948 at London Heathrow. That's 73 years of data (including 2021).

The reason I picked June is that you were screaming about how bad June was for abysmal weather when to most of us it seemed quite normal.

 

Here's what I found:

Out of the last 73 Junes, June 2021 had the 12th warmest daily average max temp. 

• The average max was 22.5C.
• There was only 11 years with a warmer average max; 1976 (25.5), 2018 (24.2), 2017(24),  2006 (23.7), 1950(23.6), 1957(23.6), 1970(23.6), 2010(23.5), 2003(23.3), 1996(22.8) and 2005(22.8). 

Out of the last 73 Junes, June 2021 had the 3rd highest average min temp!

• The average min was 13.3C. 
• There were only 2 years with a warmer average min; 2017(13.9), and 1976(13.7). 

Out of the last 73 Junes, June 2021 had the 12th highest rainfall.

• The total rainfall was 88.2mm.
• There were 11 years with more; 1971(127.7mm), 2012(110.8mm), 1964(110.1mm), 1980(106.2mm), 1958(104.3mm), 1999(98.2mm), 1954(95.3mm), 2016(93.4mm), 1998(89.6mm), 1985(88.9mm), and 1991(88.6mm). 
• While definitely in the upper quartile, it's not 'extreme' or unheard of by any sense of the word. As recently as 2016 more rain was recorded.

Out of the last 65 Junes*, June 2021 had the 15th lowest sunshine hours. (*Sunshine Data not available pre 1957)

• The total sunshine was 159.6 hours.
• There were 14 years with less; 1998(158.4), 2013(157.5), 1958(152.2), 1981(152.1), 1997(151.6), 1971(145.4), 1979(140.3), 2007(139.7), 1991(135), 1977(134.8), 1987(132.9), 1990(132.5), 2012(118.5), and 2016(101.7).
• Interesting to see 2016 and 2012 had substantially less, so nothing out of the ordinary in the last decade.
• Also, the average is 198.9 hours of sunshine for June. So while less, only around 40 hours less - in other words about 1hr20min less per day on average. 

 

So in summary, don't get too carried away with emotional distraught at how abysmal this summer is so far; it is quite a bit warmer, with slightly more cloud and slightly more rain but nothing record breaking. 

And certainly not mediterranean. In fact by chewing through data for hours, it is ever more apparent that London/Southern UK is most definitely nothing like a mediterranean climate.

And you should be thankful for the rain, previous years you were screaming about how bad it was for your plants?

I'll wait till July's provisional results are entered and we can take a look at that to.

Edited July 7, 2021 by sipalms

[UK_Palms]

@sipalms While I appreciate you going to the time and effort of formulating an accurate breakdown of the temperature and rainfall stats for June, it does not reflect the bigger picture. The fact that the first two weeks of June were warmer than average, with dry and sunny weather. That's great. However the last two weeks of June had below average temperatures, lots of rain and overcast conditions. So it was obviously a mixed bag. A tale of two June's. Doesn't seem like an issue at face value.

The problem is that the colder two weeks fell on the side of the summer solstice, resulting in my coldest summer solstice on record with a high of just 13C. It also meant the longest days of the year (1 week either side of the solstice) were wasted due to the poor, overcast, wet conditions. If you were living here and experiencing it first hand, you would know why I have been annoyed. If it was the other way round and the hot period was in the 2nd half of the month, instead of the first, we would have saw 30C+ temps here.

To further rub salt in the wounds, I have never gone 3 weeks in summer without observing a 25C temperature here. This summer I have. The last time I reached 25C was on the 16th of June. So 3 weeks ago now, which is just awful, even for here. Again, the averages that you posted are not going to reflect that heat drought right now, if ever. Even if July warms up massively next week, the soon-to-be 4 week period during the 2nd half of June and first half of July, where 25C was not reached once, will not be reflected in either of June or July's averages. 

Let's not forget that this is off the back of the coldest spring on record here too. So now I have now also had my longest ever run of <25C days in summer. Certainly in my lifetime, if not since the 1981 Guildford records began. I can't see us hitting 25C until mid next week at best, so it will definitely be the record longest run by then. Again, you can post up June averages to say that "June wasn't that bad" or "it was average", but when you also factor in the coldest spring on record which included the dreadful May, then the 3-4 week period this summer that has failed to get above 25C, it really makes it look and feel a whole lot worse. You're not living here and experiencing it, so perhaps you are perceiving it differently when you just look at the averages for one month.

Also, the only reason why June 2021 had such a high average minimum was due to all that cloud cover during the second half of the month. June aside though, the whole of 2021 has been pretty poor with months upon months of below average temperatures, especially daytime highs. Except for March and the first half of June, the weather has been colder than average. I heard a BBC weather presenter say last weekend that the first half of 2021 (January - June) was the coldest first half to a year in London since 1946, I think it was. Certainly in terms of the daytime highs. Winter was a lot colder than average too. I have good reason to be annoyed about the year in general, so far. We have not had a 'normal' year. Not even close.

[UK_Palms]

On 7/8/2021 at 10:54 PM, UK_Palms said:

So now I have now also had my longest ever run of <25C days in summer. Certainly in my lifetime, if not since the 1981 Guildford records began. I can't see us hitting 25C until mid next week at best, so it will definitely be the record longest run by then.

Typically, the day after writing this we pretty much hit 25C here in Surrey... 

I recorded a high of 24.8C here and the official Met station at Wisley in Surrey recorded 24.9C, which was the highest in the UK. It looks like central Guildford may have been running at 25-26C on Friday afternoon with western Surrey being the UK hotspot. 

 

 

Still need some proper heat this year. A high of 24-25C is nothing to write home about during mid-summer. Yet the weather today is crap again compared to yesterday. A high of 19C and some rain this morning. Signs of high pressure and heatwave potential starting late next week. Potentially setting up for a very hot end to July and a hot August. Long overdue frankly...

[Chester B]

Saw this - holy cow!  According to the Sun once this passes you'll be basking in a 27C scorcher.  Great for the plants I suppose as long as they didn't get washed away!

 

[UK_Palms]

@Chester B I was going to post about this. Biblical rainfall in parts of London on Monday from some extremely heavy, yet somewhat isolated thunderstorms. Parts of London recorded their highest ever hourly total and their highest ever daily total, whereas just a few miles down the road they barely had any rain at all. If any. This year has just been crazy here.

Unbelievable that the Met station in Kew Gardens had its wettest day in 38 years yesterday with 46.8mm falling. Almost all of that coming in the space of an hour! More than the entire long-term monthly average in about 45 minutes I believe. Rumours of unofficial stations around Hampstead recording a staggering 120mm yesterday.

No wonder there were flash floods. London's drainage system and infrastructure isn't built to handle extreme deluges like that.

 

 

This is how it started...

 

And it escalated quickly...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good grief, those basement properties... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw the drains do this in Paris a few weeks back...

 

 

That flash and thunder at 00:13... 

 

 

Yikes this is supposedly a back garden in Maida Vale, west London... how is that even possible? 

 

No way, Lords cricket ground flooded out. The home of English cricket. Good job they played the New Zealand game last month!

 

 

I may live in a bit of a rain shadow here. When I left work in the northern Guildford suburbs, it was pouring with rain. They must have had about 10-20mm of rain there. Not quite flood conditions, but it was coming down pretty hard. When I got back to Compton it was relatively dry here. We had a brief shower pretty much and then the same again about an hour later. Only 4mm of rain in total though. Compared to the 47mm at Kew and the supposed 120mm in Hampstead. Or maybe I just got lucky due to it being isolated thunderstorms.

 

 

 

 

 

It looks like the southeast is going to be pushing 30C from Saturday onwards. This summer has been poor so far though, so it has a lot more making up to do. We need a consistent run of good weather, from now until late September. Some proper heat in the 25-35C region, for literally weeks on end. No more floods. There's still 6 meteorological weeks of summer left, plus September. If we reach 40C in mid August and 35C in mid September, and we stay relatively dry, I will then consider it even. As it stands right now, this summer is a 4/10. This year is a pathetic 2/10. 

 

The whole of Europe in general is heating up as we go into the height of summer now...

 

GFS, ECMWF and GEM all showing the same pretty much

 

Tuesday looks to be the peak of the heat for here. Maybe 35C at Heathrow or Kew. Depends how much heat is pushed up from Spain and north Africa.

 

The GFS is predicting the potential for a major heatwave towards the end of the month here. Long overdue frankly. It looks pretty warm going into August. We have 6 weeks to save summer. 10 weeks if you include September, which has a record high of 35C. August looks relatively promising. Too early to say for sure though.

 

We'll probably have another flood next week now... 

[UK_Palms]

High of 25C / 77F here today. You can add an extra degree C on to that for Guildford, looking at what the nearby stations were reporting earlier. It's currently 18C at 1am. 

We're gearing up for the heat now. It's massively overdue. The next 6-10 weeks has an outside chance to make up for what has been a dreadful year so far. While it's warming up quite a bit in the coming days, I still expect to see much hotter conditions in the coming weeks to atone for the past few months. I want to see a 35-40C at some point to make up for this abysmal year.

 

Google says it is 15C at 1am. My temperature sensor says 18C here. Still I'll take the 8 day Google forecast that they are giving...

The bookmakers have slashed the odds on this coming August being the driest on record after all the rain during the first half of summer. Hopefully from mid-July to mid-October it is dry and warm/hot here. A delayed 'Indian' summer hopefully, due to the record cold spring. That's probably just wishful thinking though. Chances are the 'disappointing' theme of this year will return at some point. This is just a freak year that is off the scale, full of extremities and unusually cold in general. Next year, 2022, will almost certainly be better, by the law of average.

[UK_Palms]

The crazy weather continues around Europe still, even though it has settled down and improved here in the UK. Last night, more than 40 people were killed in the floods in Germany alone. Another 7 people died in Belgium and 3 in Luxembourg. Those numbers are still going up by the hour. Worryingly there are reports of 100+ people still missing just in Germany.

Summer 2021 will be known as the summer of storms and floods in western and central Europe. Is this tied in to the record cold spring for western Europe? Who knows. It's pretty clear that 2021 has been a bad year for us all though in this part of the world. The German floods and Czech tornado being the worst of the disasters.

Horrific images and videos emerging showing the floods...

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately someone was trapped in one of these cars... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some really bad videos coming out of Belgium...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Netherlands got it pretty bad as well...

 

 

 

 

Luxembourg hit as well...

 

 

 

 

Yikes, these floods may get a whole lot worse yet...

 

 

For many of us, 2021 cannot be over soon enough. What a dreadful year for western and central Europe...

[UK_Palms]

The number of people to have died in Germany alone is now at over 120. There's still as many as 1,400 people missing there as well. 20+ deaths in Belgium, 5 in Luxembourg and 2 in Italy. Roughly 1,500 people still unaccounted for in total. The waters are still rising in some places as well and more heavy rain is forecast over the next 48 hours. A dam is about to burst on the border with Belgium and Germany. 750,000 people have been evacuated and officials expect the total number of deaths to be close to 1,000 once this is all over. Holy crap. 

 

 

 

 

It's already the worst flooding event in western and central Europe for at least 25 years. It could turn out to be the worst flood in Europe for 75 years. Only the Russian one in 2012 was potentially worse, although this one is definitely going to have more fatalities. The fact there are still almost 1,500 people missing is pretty worrying. 

This is the same low pressure system that flooded London on Monday, although not to the extent that it flooded Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg etc. It seems the UK got lucky again and missed the worst of any storms. Sadly entire villages have been wiped off the map in Germany. The village of Schuld is practically destroyed. 

 

 

 

 

 

Good grief...

 

 

 

 

It looks like a war-zone...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terrible seeing a horse swept away like that in Belgium...

 

 

 

 

More deluges are forecast as well over the next few days, especially for Germany. This could turn very, very bad. Not that it isn't already. Austria and Czech Republic are about to see record rainfalls too as the storm moves east. The Bulkan region is expected to see extreme levels of rainfall over the weekend as well. More floods are inevitable, sadly. I never could have imagined this would happen in Europe during the middle of summer. I don't know whether it is due to El Nina, or climate change, or just freak bad luck. Probably all 3 contributed to it. Can this summer, and year, get any worse...!?

[UK_Palms]

As it stands 190 people have died and approximately 1,200 are still missing in Germany. 30+ killed in Belgium and another 100 people missing there. Over 8,000 houses destroyed. Another 150,000 homes damaged. At least 2-3 billion Euros worth of damage. Certainly the worst natural disaster to hit Europe in about 75 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy crap, I think this is at the Luxembourg border!

 

 

 

 

 

271mm of rainfall in just 48 hours in some places...

 

Just unbelievable. 

[Samuel]

Well we finally have some proper summer weather after weeks of rubbish my palms are loving it unfortunately by next weekend we will back to cloud and rain but that’s what you get when you a oceanic climate 

[UK_Palms]

On 7/18/2021 at 2:44 PM, Samuel said:

Well we finally have some proper summer weather after weeks of rubbish my palms are loving it unfortunately by next weekend we will back to cloud and rain but that’s what you get when you a oceanic climate 

Whether we are oceanic or not is irrelevant. This year in general has been terrible, with months upon months of below average temperatures and volatile weather, since like January. It has just been a freak year. A blip on the radar. Possibly caused by abnormal El Nino or La Nina patterns. I'm not sure. However the abnormally cold winter paved way for a record cold spring. 

 

That cold theme has then had a knock on effect for the summer too, such as the 3-4 week period from mid June - mid July where northwestern Europe had below average temps, even record low temps, storms, floods, hail, tornadoes etc. It's all recorded in this thread. I have only just had my longest ever run of days in summer that failed to reach 25C. That epitomises 2021 as a year in general for us. Below average temps with erratic weather and storms.

It's a total blip on the radar when you consider the sheer duration of the below average temps and the biblical floods and storms in places. It has just been a freak year so far. I'm pretty sure the people in Texas who have had similar below average temps and volatile weather this year, they won't be saying "that's what you get for being a humid-subtropical climate". I mean something is just off this year, in a few different places around the world. Winter, spring and summer are usually better than what we have had this year.

The weather has a long way to go to make up for the past 6 months. I have had 3 consecutive days above 30C here already now and soon to be 6 days, come Thursday. I would still only rate this summer a 5/10 so far though. This year, 2021, is barely a 3/10. Probably a 2/10, it has been that bad. If August and September turn out good, I will put those ratings up a few notches.

 

It was always going to warm up again here at some point, and despite the current hot spell here, that cooler than average, volatile stormy theme is still lingering around. I can't see us shaking it properly until August. Hopefully it doesn't last into autumn/fall. It has been a very weird year. I am optimistic of some hot, dry conditions in mid-late August this year though, possibly lasting well into September. Major seasonal lag from the record cold spring. Time will tell though. An abysmal year in general though, even if it has been warm-hot lately.

[sipalms]

Looks as thought the standard oceanic summer is returning. 

It was good you got that heat burst though, I bet your palms would have loved it. How are the Queens going? Hopefully you'll get at least one decent frond out of it this season?