A couple of days off while I make a new computer for my sister. The component prices are up around 40% on 15 months ago when I last made one.
Some bits may have improved a little, we shall see if it’s any faster when Windows is
installed. While we shelter from the rain, put the lights on in the
middle of the afternoon and wonder if the heating should go on an email said
this is the worst July the sender could remember. I agreed but what do the records actually say?
As mentioned before my solar panels have recorded their accumulated output power every 15
minutes since January 2011. That equates to the amount of light falling on them
which is not the same as sunshine hours but it is likely to follow a similar pattern.
Taking this month’s lousy figures as the reference point and assuming that
tomorrow is about the same as today, 2012 put on an identically bad show.
2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021 were all poor too with the best of them only 5%
better than this year. 2011 and 2016 managed to be 8% better than this year but
the best by far was July 2013 (27% up) with 2014, 2018 and 2022 not too far behind.
Sun worshippers should not holiday in the UK in July.
Note: In the event the 31st July was even worse for light
levels than the average of the 30 previous days so that the month as a whole
was the worst July of the past 12 years by a margin of 2% and 24% worse than last year.