I'm in Australia at the beginning of a Melbourne winter and it's cold. (And wet, too.) And yet the late spring / early summer in the UK wasn't very warm either, so the weather here is hardly any colder than what I just left and definitely no worse than we were having in northern England a few weeks ago. I've had some fun sending my British friends photos of gum trees studded with raindrops against a relentlessly grey sky and pointing out that you won't see this in any of the tourist brochures, but this is what Melbourne typically looks like in winter!!  

Welcome back to Oz, Courtenay. Yes, so far, the weather has been bleak, rather wet and definitely colder than what I remember it was last year. Allegedly, according to one of my daughters, it has been actually snowing in the Snowy mountains. 

We have a heat wave here in Michigan with high temperatures in the 90’s, which isn’t my favorite weather. But I don’t think it will last all summer and it will probably change sometime soon. 

Here too, narnian78. Thankfully, since I last posted (nearly one month ago), the rest of May and well into June was very pleasant—cool (sometimes even frosty) at nights with comfortable daytime temps. But this week is a different tale: our first hot and humid week of the summer (the Solstice was yesterday at 4:50 pm EDT) arrived this past Monday. It peaked on Wednesday, with gradual more refreshing weather coming in this weekend, accompanied by some good ol' storms. But as we are headed into July soon, this is only a taste of what will transpire in the seventh month—my absolutely least favourite month of the year.  

However, the plus side is that we have had rain most afternoons as that humidity builds, including some gorgeous thunder, on and on. ♥ So, the gardens continue to thrive and are so lush and vibrant—both veggie and floral. They are tending to look like horticultural or botanical magazine photos.  

Next week as we head towards the respective long weekends of Canada and the US, the temperature is to moderate nicely, with reasonable and fresher temps at night for sleeping, and windows flung wide open during the daytime.  

Popping in to post the great news that Thursday night's temperature is dropping to 8°C / 46.4F in town, which means a potential 6 or 7 for us out here. Tomorrow night should be just above 10C; this coming Sunday night is about the same, which means four early morning walks in a week at the end of June - quite rare for our region this time of year. I'm very pleased! And I am hoping this portends a cooler-than-normal July, but we shall see. Now, to get to sleep by 9:30 each night prior, so I can be walking out of the house by 5:15/5:30, latest.  

This week is muuuch more comfy than last week, when the humidex was around 104F. No thanks! Daytime temps are below seasonal; nighttime temps are low. Windows are flung wide open to the cool, refreshing winds and breezes.  

I'm a native Texan and raised on the Gulf Coast and I'm officially whining. 6:30 p.m. heat index had dropped to 103F. 7:30 p.m. and it was back UP to 107 F. It's now after 9 p.m. and it's just gone down to below 100F. I know it's because the humidity level cranked up briefly, but this is nuts. 

Only 13 more weeks to go and we get a real break from the heat. Now... Hurricane or no hurricane? That is the question. Historically, years between El niño and la niña have a higher chance of storms hitting the Texas Gulf Coast. We've already had one.

I got back to the UK from Australia just in time for a "heatwave". Well, sort of... that is, it was a "yellow warning" for extreme weather (not as severe as an amber or red warning)... because temperatures went up into the high 20s C for two or three days.  

My dear British friends are probably getting tired of hearing "Oh come ON, it's not THAT hot!!" from me...  

(Seriously though, last summer it actually got up to 40 C here for a couple of days, for the first time on record, and that WAS definitely too hot even for me. But they seem to have all forgotten that — probably blanked it all out from the sheer horror of it — and we're back to complaining about weather that, for much of the rest of the world, is merely warm. I do love this country. )

After one of the driest winters on record Minnesota seems to be having one of the wettest summers. Parts of the state are experiencing horrible flooding and even the town nextdoor to my hometown has sandbags everywhere.

The trees are all very happy though, which is a relief. The local old growth hardwood trees had started to die off in alarming numbers after several years of drought so hopefully the remaining trees are able to recover their health.

Welcome to the Weather thread, @narnian-in-the-north! Nice to see another Minnesotan posting about our wet, wild spring.

It's hard to believe a year ago we were in a drought. Everything is lush and green with all the rain, but the rivers and lakes are the highest I've seen in years. The mosquitoes are also loving this weather!

Last year we'd had about a dozen days of 90F/32C so far, but this year we've had none (which is below average). It's partly due to all the rainy days we've had.

Lovely to meet another Minnesotan, @stargazer! 

The green is so refreshing after a winter of browns and grays and before that a summer of burnt grass and dying trees.

I do not do well in the heat so this weather is infinitely preferable (in my opinion) to the extreme heat of last summer.

I don't do well in the heat either, @narnian-in-the-north. In fact, once upon a time some coworkers dubbed me "the polar bear" since I was comfortable in the rather chilly environment of the warehouse we worked in.

Nature may provide some July 4 fireworks this evening, in addition to the man-made kind. A number of Twin Cities locations moved their displays to last night (which was a very pleasant evening), or cancelled or postponed them due to the forecast.

Trivia note: the earth is farthest from the sun just after midnight tonight (in this time zone).

@stargazer you were the one to show up to the Lion party for the LWW in shorts and no jacket and there was like 3-4 ft of snow on the ground! Lol.

It's been running feels like temps of 40-46C or around 108-115F down here. We've narrowly missed hitting 100F actual temps. The heat ridge is crumbling so we're going to get a break, but right now everyone is watching Hurricane Beryl. 

Meanwhile midwinter in New Zealand has been showing us all its weather variations this week, firstly a rainstorm with high wind (I'll have to repair my brushwood fence again), rain, cold temperatures and a general bleak feeling on the days I travelled by bus. This has been followed by two days of frost and clear skies, so today is the second day with morning sun shining into my bedroom.

Beryl keeps shifting northward on her track as she comes off the Yucatan. If she keeps on the existing path, we're on the dirty side of the storm. If she goes further north, we're not just on the dirty side, she could spin up into a Cat 2 or 3 again. 

Edit@6:45 p.m... it keeps shifting. Not much more of a shift and it's taking dead aim at me at probably a Cat 3 status.

If anyone wants a good breakdown of a hurricane in progress: https://spacecityweather.com/strong-winds-and-heavy-rains-peaking-as-beryl-making-a-beeline-toward-the-houston-metro-area/

My favorite, no hype, weather site. Lots of rain and wind right now. Still have power, but not sure how long it'll stay. Probably 6-8 hrs to go.