Weather-history

The Cheltenham Gold Cup has been delayed (1987 was a well known instance) and or raced through snow in the past but on the 16th March 1978, the meeting was postponed until the 12th of April as disruptive snowfalls hit parts of the south.

The lighter evenings are become more evident. Can still see a bit of twilight to the west at nearly 7.30pm

A Face like Thunder

10 years today, I recorded my first ever timelapse, that of a setting sun.

reef How bad has it been since the start of February, sunshine wise?

Just in time for Easter.....

Dee Atkins-Greig Welcome Dee Looks like it was an increasingly wet day

Summer 1940 is seldom mentioned probably because the previous winter overshadowed it but June 1940 was an outstanding month, exceptionally sunny. July 1940 was poor but August was exceptionally dry.

Summer 2020 was a really poor summer up here. Anyone remember Storm Francis at the end of August 2020? It was a very dull and the 4th wettest summer on record for the region.

Harry233 For the NW Eng/N Wales region, summer 2013 was the sunniest summer since 1995. That is a surprising stat that it came ahead of summers, 2003 and 2006 for sunshine

The wettest Spring on record for the EWP is 1782 with a total of 363.0mm and its also the 4th coldest Spring on record for the CET with a value of 6.1°C April and May were especially bad with the 3rd wettest April (it was the wettest until 2000) followed by the 2nd wettest May on record. April had a CET of just 5.1°C and is the 3rd coldest April on record followed by the 8th coldest May on record for the CET. Diary entries from the spring of 1782, written by an unknown man near Manchester From a framework knitter called Simon Reddish of East Bridford. "Memmorandum concerning the very floody spring. In 1782 April 25, a great flood May the 17: a great flood May 22 on Whitsun Wednesday, a great flood and a great many very heavy showers besides doth fall many days., and are intermixt with very cold weather, cold and bad for the time of the year." Referring to 22nd March 1782 17th May 1782

Interesting stat for my region, is that 5 of the last 8 summers have been wetter than any summer of the 1960s, whilst the other 3 were drier than any summer of the 1960s. It seems the summer of the 1960s were less extreme either way and that is borne out in the Manchester summer indices. Nothing sensational, either way. Compare that to the summers of the 1950s when sensational summers were mixed in with some absolute stinkers. Look at 1954-1955-1956. Two of the worst summers of the 20th century sandwiching one of the best.

Bristol Max, Min (°F) 10. 46, 34 11. 41, 28 12. 37, 26 13. 29, 14 14. 34, 20 15. 35, 25 16. 29, 20 17. 37, 24 18. 41, 29 Birmingham 10. 45, 32 11. 38, 30.5 12. 37, 26 13. 26.5, 19 14. 36.5, 13 15. 35.5, 22 16. 30, 23 17. 36, 19.5 18. 39, 23.5 A report from Ipswich, 13th March Max: 25.5°F 2pm: 21°F 4pm: 19°F 6pm: 15°F 8pm: 12°F 10pm: 10.5°F min: 5°F Bremen: 9°F on the 12th March, ice in harbour Belfast Evening of 13th March 5pm: 26°F 6pm: 20°F 7.30pm: 15°F 9pm: 10°F 10pm: 14°F

LetItSnow! A Manchester summer index of 243, so it was a good one up here. I have a lot of newspaper reports of thunderstorms and heat from that summer.

9th/10th March 1948

These 4 summers encompassed all of my high school summer holidays. 1987 was bad. June was awful until those last couple or so days. It was the wettest month of the 1980s here, that’s how bad that June was. I posted this before but there was a day during the first week of August, it only got to 12C 1985 wasn’t great as well. That started off well. Remember how pleasantly warm and sunny the last day of May 1985 was but that went downhill. Period around the Live Aid concert was decent but August was bad until the last few days. 1986 is an interesting summer, recall it being warm and sunny during the Mexico World Cup. August was chilly but a lot of the rain for that month fell during the last week. 1988 had the dire July but the June and August were not too bad at least compared with that July. I think 1986 was the best out of the bunch probably more so because of the second half of June.

B87 Not a lot of your post I actually agree with but that shows how much it is dependent on your location. Never going to get universal agreement with summer 2021. Not sure why you say 1981 is overrated, it was never rated that much anyway other than for those thunderstorms. August 1981 is a good example of where rainfall totals are not the best method to determine how good/bad a month was. Most of the rainfall around here for that month fell on one day. Most of the month had no rain days at all. Summer 1984 was a really good summer up here. Summer 2019 was so so. There was about 3 weeks of dry weather here from late June to mid July but mid July-mid August was a washout

mountain shadow

25 years ago today, snow fell on my side of the Pennines that Saturday morning as it did over parts of Yorkshire.

Snowed here that Saturday morning of the 6th March 1999, 25 years ago today

Metwatch Summer 2020 was one of the better summers of recent times around here.

SunSean There was some right old twaddle posted in this thread, not referring the original post. "We don't even have proper Atlantic weather systems anymore. It's been dead for ages." If it had been dead for ages, we would have returned many more drier than average months but infact since 2000, wet has dominated over dryness.

I think some of the summers of the 1960s might be a little underrated or not as quite as bad as some make out. They seem to be tar brushed as being cool, unsettled. Manchester Summer indices 1960 217 1961 203 1962 197 1963 194 1964 197 1965 189 1966 192 1967 223 1968 215 1969 234 There are 5 there that of at least 200 Compare them with the summers of 2007-12 2007 174 2008 168 2009 194 2010 191 2011 179 2012 164 Summer 1969 has a pretty decent index.

It all depends on location as it always does with these type of threads, so you really only can compare to what other people's experiences were from a similar area. I do think summer 1990 is overrated, I think the early August heatwave magnifies it. June 1990 was not particular great.