I would disagree re "this time of the year".
We do have regular crap weather in the UK in the autumn, but you only have to fly 200nm out of the UK, to the SE, and it's a whole different ballgame.
In the summer, you get a lot of convective weather because the sun heats everything up. And unless you are flying right after a thunderstorm has passed through, it's usually so hazy you can hardly get a decent clear picture. In the winter, you get clear crisp days with unlimited perfect viz.