Summer 2007!!!

You know I remember the so called summer of 1985 been a total wash-out, very frustrating for everybody, not just amateur astronomers. To cap it all we had one enormous lighting storm that I have not seen the like of since in this country.

I remember that well. I sat up all night with my late Mum watching that storm. It was incredible. Thinking about it now, that was only three years after the great snow storm of 1982 that brought the country to its knees for three weeks. As a school kid at the time, I though all my birthdays had come together.

Funny that '85 was close to solar mimimum, as we are now. I wonder if that's the connection between the two bad summers. However my bets are on the gear buying frenzy we've seen of late. I just got a new CCD camera that I have only had about 1/2 of clear skies since I got it. However it does look glorious outside at the moment. Pity it's a weekday.

I powered up my mount on Sat/Sun and saw that it hadn't been powered on since May 29th. That's how bad it's been.

Michael:

El Nino phenomenon have a drastic effect, particularly outside the americas and australias. It is highly likely that an el nino driven european monsoon (like we had in 85 and probably a couple of years either side) would have a drastic effect on the likelyhood of the annual rains falling in Africa.

Dave: I was watching John Eagleton too when he talked about the high pressure on Thursday. There was almost a look of resignation on his face.

He said something like 'Well <shrug> in keep with the pattern this summer, the high pressure won't last long.......'

I remember that mid 80s weather, its just rained the entire summer, wasnt that around comet Halley, think of all the SCTs bought back then for that. :lol:

As the jet stream is now in a different place to last year, I wonder could it have any effect on noctilucent clouds, they don't seem to be as visible as in previous years, or at least at the same time of the day.

That "Icelandic Low" which hovers between Iceland and Greenland is such a semi-permanent feature of the atmosphere that I call it "Earth's Great Red Spot".

It has been responsible for Ireland's cloudy weather for at least 10,000 years, since the end of the Ice Age.

It is also the reason why Northern Europeans have such pale sun-starved complexions.

There is nothing new about our present weather.
It is the norm.

Peter.

I've also never seen so many thunder storms

I'm not seeing any, and I LOVE lightning... I've been having withdrawl symptoms from all the media coverage of these thunderstorms and I haven't even seen any yet...

I'm not seeing any, and I LOVE lightning... I've been having withdrawl symptoms from all the media coverage of these thunderstorms and I haven't even seen any yet...

Fairly reliable thunder and lightening during the downpours in Dublin every other day or so. No sepectacuar storms, just the odd clap of thunder.