It's been a dismal Scottish summer - will August be better?

Umbrellas were the required accessory at The Open in Troon in July

We're now two thirds of the way through meteorological summer and for many in Scotland the weather has been dismal.

June was cool with average amounts of rain and sun. July was also cooler than average, but it was dull and dry.

Even Taylor Swift had to don gloves to stop her hand cramping when her Eras tour came to Edinburgh.

And as we head into August you're probably asking if we can expect any improvement. Spoiler - not in the immediate future.

On the last day of July, you would have been forgiven for thinking you'd woken up in Autumn.

In the early hours of Wednesday temperatures had fallen to a rather chilly 1.7C at a couple of spots in the Highlands, including Tyndrum and Tulloch Bridge.

The weather station at Bishopton near Glasgow recorded 5.1C - its lowest July night time temperature since records started there in 1999.

Sunshine has been in short supply but it did make an appearance in Edinburgh's princes Street Gardens on 31 July

The daytime has not been too bad. We had some temperatures in the low 20s during the final week of the month.

But overall, sunshine has been in short supply. Most areas were dull, with far less sunshine than normal.

The Western Isles in particular were short-changed, with 50% less sunshine here than we might normally expect in July - and it was the same disappointment for the archipelago during June too.

For many, July has been drier than normal. Central and Southern Scotland only clocked around 50% of their normal July rainfall.

But there were exceptions - North East and South East Scotland were wet - in some spots up to double the amount of rain than normal, thanks to slow-moving heavy downpours.

None of this screams summer.

The month of June saw our warmest day of the year so far - a toasty 28C at Oyne in Aberdeenshire on the 24th.

But despite this burst of warmth, the monthly mean temperature was 0.5C below average.

July followed the trend and was even cooler, recording a mean temperature 0.6C below normal.

The monthly mean temperature is calculated from daily maximum and minimum temperatures obtained from a network of observational stations and relates to the 1991-2020 average.

We haven't seen 25C at all during July - a feat not recorded in Scotland for several years.

Dunbar reached 24.7C on 19 July but in the last few years it was the 30C mark we'd been seeing.

This July, we were several degrees off that.

Why is this summer so bad?

It is due to the position and orientation of the jet stream, a fast-flowing stream of air in the upper atmosphere which blows west to east across the Atlantic and drives our weather here in Scotland.

The jet has been rather active at times, often blowing either right across us or to our south. Ideally we'd want it to the north of us. The pattern we saw meant often unsettled conditions. It makes low pressure a frequent feature to our west and northwest, bringing cooler air off the Atlantic.

Also, rather than rain-bearing weather fronts, it's been showers - which are always hit and miss - and which helped the drier conditions in July. The really wet spots were due to convective downpours, focused over the far north east and south east.

There has been a few days where high pressure has built, drawing up some humid and warm weather from the south, but they've been short-lived, with the cooler Atlantic air dominating.

Can August turn it around?

The first half of the month looks like the sort of conditions we're expecting this weekend.

Low pressure systems continuing to pass eastwards near Scotland, with associated frontal systems bringing rain at times, with wet and breezy conditions.

The second half of August could see the track of these low pressure systems move further north, allowing high pressure to build and bring the benefit of some drier conditions and a bit more warmth - no doubt just in time for the schools to return.

Summer in Scotland is often best served with a good dollop of hope, so we'll remain optimistic.