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Monday 7 August 2017

August

August is a rum month. On the one hand it is still the height of summer but on the other it isn’t as the days become noticeably shorter and even the trees seem ready to shed their leaves. That delicious green of spring is long gone, leaves are darker, almost dusty in appearance.

It’s not that I dislike August. A bit more summer is always welcome, but September seems more honest somehow, more inclined to be what it is supposed to be. August isn’t like that. So far, here in Derbyshire August is a bit crap. It has sneaked in too much cloud and rain for a start. Give me honest September any day.

While we are on the subject of weather, I'm sure the Met Office forecasts are less reliable than they were a few years ago. Maybe it's their ridiculously expensive new computer - perhaps nobody really knows how to work it. Or maybe it relies on wind power.

8 comments:

Sam Vega said...

Get thee to a re-education centre. The increasing unreliability of weather forecasts is surely due to changing weather patterns which we have created.

James Higham said...

September seems more honest somehow

Not sure why but have to agree.

Scrobs. said...

September is the month when there really is no turning back from a cooler autumn, and then a cold winter.

Even these days, there's a slight hesitation in the decision to wear shorts, or perhaps 'thin' trousers first thing in the morning...

September for me as a young lad and again when I was much older, was always hop picking. It was my life as dad was so closely involved we never saw him, just 'smelt' him every morning!

wiggiatlarge said...

A crap August follows a crap July, same as last year, it was forever thus in this "temperate" zone, we even have a dense mist this morning after a rainy cold, for this time of year night.
The only time I can remember having really decent weather and seasons that corresponded to the "book" was the 88-89-90 trio of years the start of the cafe culture, never returned.

Curmudgeon said...

Yes, the weather is often less reliable in August than people imagine. And the past week has been distinctly autumnal!

Demetrius said...

In the book "Three Men In A Boat" by Jerome K Jerome there is a very funny bit about the men relying on the weather forecast in their newspaper. It was always hopelessly wrong. Bigger computers mean machines into which more and more complicated variables can be put to grind away at. However, it just needs a twitch or two in some of the variables occurring after input to change things for bigger or smaller or better or worse. Time to pray for rain.

Graeme said...

I think the meteorologists make it way too complicated with all their models. You just have to check which way the wind is blowing and find out what the weather is like a hundred miles upwind. The shipping forecast is a much better indicator. If there's a big low near Ireland, it will probably be raining in London in a few days. Vice versa for a big high. It's not rocket science

A K Haart said...

Sam - I admit it, I am an emitter of emissions.

James - rained all day today - that's August for you.

Scrobs - in my case any decision to wear shorts requires blazing sunshine.

Wiggia - whenever I look at a globe and see how far north we are I'm slightly surprised that our weather isn't worse.

Curmudgeon - it's wet and cold here in Derbyshire. We have the gas fire on.

Demetrius - we rely on the Met Office forecast when planning a walk, yet these days it seems a little less reliable than it was only a few years ago. Maybe twitches in the variables have become a little more frequent.

Graeme - yes, forecasts seem to be most accurate when weather systems are large and moving predictably. In those cases the arrival of rain is sometimes predicted with remarkable accuracy.