Where has the English summer Got to?

Answer 1

It moved to the southwestern US. My dad lives in Oklahoma and they've had a rainy English summer instead of the typical dry and dusty summer.

In actuality, this could be the first signs of the thermohaline shutdown from too much freshwater melting from the glaciers.

Answer 2

A more meteorological explanation...

At this time of year the Jet Stream is usually positioned midway between Scotland and Iceland bringing with it repeated pulses of low pressure from the Atlantic.

This year, possibly in part due to the El Nina effect, it is lying much further south and is currently running across Wales, Central England, the North Sea and on to Denmark and Southern Scandanavia.

At this time of year the 'Azores High' usually moves up from Southern Europe bringing with it warmer and sunnier weather but the Jet Stream is acting as a barrier. Consequently Southern Europe is experiencing a heatwave, the one which should be the English Summer. Further, the Jet Stream is pulling in low pressure from the Atlantic and this means wet weather.

This in itslef isn't all that unusual, what's been incredible this year is the amount of rainfall. Just a month ago we had the worst flooding in documented British history, that was followed by more flooding and now the record has been broken again. The odds of such extensive flooding occuring twice in such a short space of time can be calculated at one in 160,000 - each event should happen once every 400 years, not twice in a month.

Because you've asked this question in the global warming section I'll address that as well. Although it may not seem like it right now, this year is set to be the warmest on record. Last year was the warmest on record for the UK, the year before was the warmest on record globally, the year before we had the highest temperatures ever recorded in the UK. Add to that the droughts, missing winters, heatwaves, floods, tornadoes and everything else and it's clear that the UK weather is very different from what it used to be.

Since the turn of the millenium the UK has had about 50 adverse weather events, far in excess of what would be expected. No one event can be blamed on global warming but it is fair to say that global warming is affecting the climate.

The recent floods for example have probably been exacerbated by global warming. As temperatures rise there is more evapouration of water from the seas and oceans and ultimately increased rainfall. This isn't restricted to the UK, globally there has been an increase in rainfall levels.

The past predictions that were made regarding the weather in the UK have proved to be correct. If future predictions are also correct then we can expect to see more adverse weather events occuring more frequently.

Answer 3

Trust Trevor, above, to turn this into an “it’s all down to global warming” scare-fest.

The following is a piece in the Sunday Telegraph from, well, Sunday, obviously.

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Rain is making it a “retro summer.” A look back shows the Sixties were just as soggy.

One of this column’s most important tasks is to place destructive or exceptional weather events into a proper historical and statistical context. “I can’t remember the last time it rained like this” is all very well as an opening gambit down the pub, but such subjective remarks should have no place in news bulletins or weather reports.

Usually it is easy to find many examples, quickly forgotten by most folk, of earlier examples of extreme weather. The Yorkshire floods in late June, for instance, mirrored similar floods in the same county in June 1982 and July 1973.

Although this summer is starting to look like a record-breaker in terms of quantity and frequency of rain, the prolonged downpour over such a large part of England and Wales on Thursday night and Friday [19th – 20th July] has been equalled or beaten a number of times in the last century.

On Friday, two inches (50mm) or more of rain fell across a huge triangular-shaped zone stretching from Maidstone in the east to Bristol in the west to Shrewsbury in the north – an area twice as large as that hit by the late June deluge.

Four inches (100mm) or more fell over much of Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and small parts of Wiltshire and Warwickshire. Pershore had 5.73in (145.4mm) in two days and RAF Brize Norton reported 5.02in (127.6mm).

In the last 50 years, the only high-summer downpours to match last week’s in both volume and geographical extent were on August 25, 1986 – the bank holiday washout associated with hurricane “Charley” – July 28, 1969, and July 10, 1968. On that latter date the four-inch threshold was topped at 65 rain-monitoring sites in a huge area extending from Devon to Lincolnshire, and 6.83in (173mm) fell, mostly within six hours, at Chew Stoke, Somerset. The resulting floods were more extensive than any this summer.

It is tempting to describe this as a “retro summer” because in many respects it is reminiscent of the appalling summers that some readers will recall from the Fifties and Sixties. It is also interesting that summer floods occurred more frequently during epochs (1912-1931 and 1948-1974) when summers were relatively cool.

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So, not actually that unusual, then?

Also note that one of the most important factors in the recent flooding is the fact that the government has allowed 2 million homes to be built on flood plains. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to recognise that, if you concrete over the flood plains, the flood waters will have nowhere to go.

And what’s the government’s cunning plan to resolve this? Build another 3 million homes on the flood plains.

Brilliant!

As ever with global warming - don't believe the hype.

Answer 4

Well, I think it's hanging out in California. One summer could not possibly be this hot by itself.

Answer 5

Deckchairs and Suncream at the ready .
If the weather forecasters are right Summer is coming back THIS TUESDAY !!!!!! (but gone by Wednesday.)

Happy tanning.
Best wishes.
Dave.

Answer 6

the english summer has always included lots of rain...so really if u think about it this year we've had an excellent 1...don't know what any1's complaining about!!!

Answer 7

Global warming, they say. We could certainly do with a bit
of warming in the U.K. right now!

Answer 8

I think it's gone on holiday abroad

Answer 9

we never had summers and if we did it was b4 my time and it went abroad

Answer 10

Global warming. Better get used to it as it gonna be a regular occurance now.