Is this the worst (britishes) summer ever?

not that we don't moan phatically about the weather in lieu of whatever more purposeful discourse happens in other countries....but months of this is actually very dispiriting

i don't think i have seen a shadow for weeks now...everything is murky, half-lit

It is relentless.

Leaving for work this morning at 1am I opened the front door and the rain must have been chucking it down so rapidly that it was faster than the human eye. I could see a torrent coming from the top of our front porch and 'cos I couldn't actually see the rain I thought a pipe had burst or some such. Took one step outside and still couldn't see the rain clearly, but judging from the fact that I was soaked to the skin within 5 seconds I trust that it was in fact raining.

It was crazy then, got a taxi home for what would normally be a leisurely 10-minute walk. It was so wet I had to stop for cans on the way and invite 30 friends over.

my brain has actually broken

About half eleven the rain had eased off to just a light splattering, so I thought I'd take a chance and try and squeeze in another bike ride. I got absolutely drenched again. The country lanes basically had streams running down either side of them and one point I had to ride through a giant puddle that was more than a foot deep (totally submerging my feet and bottom bracket). I'd had enough of this, so thought I'd head home on a main road instead, only to find this:
http://youtu.be/WXH9R0E-1v8
I tried walking down the grass verge for a couple of hundred yards but it ended up with a stream that had burst its banks and there was no way through. I had to go on a massive detour and ignore a load of 'road closed' signs to get home. My saturated cycling shoes are smeered with something indescribable which might be bits of dead slug.

for all the doom and gloom, i have just managed to cut the grass in lovely sunshine.

that said, yesterday was truly dreadful, and no doubt it will go off in the next hour or 2, but still ..

that monsoon's turned up in lewisham again.

OK, I take back what I was saying earlier about British summers always being this rainy.

This weekend has seriously got past the "just a British summer" territory into "holy shit will the rains ever cease this is the end times!"

How can there be that much water in the sky? For so long? Doesn't it ever run out?

y'know that large watery thing just to the left of Ireland?

Cornwall?

200 people are being laid off from a local caravan company but i think they're missing a trick, they could repurpose the statics as arks

Hurrah! The drought is over!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18764953

rather than going to rhythm factory

700 strong queue apparently so was prob for best

I CANNOT DEAL with the way this weather is so changeable

torrential downpour
bright sunshine
torrential downpour
bright sunshine

all within a two-hour span

MY BRAIN FEELS SO FRAZZLED

like if you're going to rain just fucking RAIN and be grey and miserable all day

my mood is just swinging horribly because of this

I've been wondering about this for ages, but do you guys have air-conditioning in your homes? It seems like almost a mandatory installment here on the Gulf Coast.

lol

I take that as a "NO! IDIOT!" then. I suppose it's all mad dogs and Englishmen then, as regards to heat.

What is this 'heat' of which you speak?

given that most of us are holding our fingers over the 'on' button for the heating in sodding july, then you read LGs answer correctly.

f*ck this summer.

xpost.

Well, you know, not now. But surely there has been some summers where it hits 35-40+? Right?

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/long-hot-summer-the-great-british-heatwave-of-1911-408738.html
80°F? Ok then! Fuck this shit.

There was that one summer recently that it got so hot that train tracks melted and warped? When was that, 2003?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5193486.stm

Yup, that was the one.

Blood-flavoured ice lollies. Mmmmm. Keeping Britain's vampires cool since 2006.

It basically never goes above 35 (I remember this happening once in my lifetime and it made the news). We might get a couple of days around 30-32 in a "hot" year. PS 30 is way too hot for me so I'm not complaining about that.

In general some workplaces have A/C but I don't know anyone with A/C at home.

PS 30 is way too hot for me

It's the humidity that really makes it miserable though. Seems to be higher on average in the UK compared to the US.

I don't know anyone with A/C at home.

My parents have a small-ish portable AC on wheels, but it doesn't get used that much, even during a hot year.

I bet the rest of the world is really looking forward to coming to this soggy shithole of an island next month.

Just got caught in the heaviest downpour I have ever seen. Thank fuck I had an umbrella.

You have enough 35+ days, and even a soggy shithole of an island looks appealing. Hell, I'd be in Seattle if it wasn't for my irrational fear of Mt. Rainer exploding.

The eyes of the world have already seen the morose jubilee floatilla in the endless grey pissing rain, soggy Wimbledon in the same, and next The Olympics (if we haven't been completely submerged by then). Instead of showcasing the city to future tourists, we'll be sending out the message that London is a miserable place where it always rains. Only freaks will come to visit us.

Sounds like a winner. Tourists? We don't need their scum.

http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/8/8b/Piett_btm.jpg

Not a bad likeness tbh.

Just roof the fucking place already Boris

You mean put the whole of London under a William Gibson style geodesic dome?

I'm up for that. Like The Truman Show, but without the cameras.

get norman foster to design it

in yr face astana

Or everyone else secretly being an actor.

Don't like that idea. They'd only really roof Central London and the outer boroughs would end up getting drowned in the runoff.

Sounds like a winner. Outer boroughs? We don't need their scum.

No dome anywhere the riots happened. Rioters don't deserve domes!

make the drainpipe empty out on to the london "pleasure" "gardens", may as well put it to some use

Just got caught in the heaviest downpour I have ever seen. Thank fuck I had an umbrella.

ha... then you, my friend, can appreciate what it was like to be in a vest and shorts, out running, during said downpour. i have never been so soaked in my life. joggers were sharing mutual wry laughter as they passed. if i get away without a cold or chest infection it'll be a miracle.

Sounds like a winner. Joggers? We don't need their scum.

i lived in a house with air conditioning

you'd probably get 10-20 days a year when it might be useful

probably about 2 days so far this year

that was when i was a kid so i don't think air conditioning was a big priority

Something dreadful's happened - the sky's gone a terrifyingly blank and gaudy shade of blue, of all colours.