BruenSryan

Not UK but in Ireland for wind and snow, all it takes to close schools with the current system is a red warning. 8cm accumulations is the minimum red criteria for snow and 130 kph gusts/80 kph sustained winds are the minimum red criteria for wind. Had school shut on 16 October 2017 for Ophelia and the next day too for supposed damage clean ups - it was the nicest day all month. Then 28 February to 2 March 2018 had schools shut too. Some places stayed shut for longer including 5 March due to deeper depths. Before that, only had schools closing where I am over weather in January 2010 and November/December 2010 but for very long periods of time. Think parts of the west had schools close on 14 January 2015 due to a red wind warning.

As 2010 is an obvious one and something I speak all the time about, here are some others I found good or ok with. 2009 - The only other competitor to 2010 but even it doesn't come close. A fair number of days with snow falling but never accumulating or sticking for long. Least it was nice and seasonable. Easterly gales and heavy rain on the 30th (the failed frontal snow event) also gave some high waves that don't happen often here as compared to west facing coasts. 2008 - Like 2009, nice and seasonable a lot of the time except mid-month and the run up to Christmas. 2001 - Was only a year old but would have loved it due to it being the sunniest Dec on record and a good bit of frost later on. All the others I've seen were just rubbish or boring.

Remember it very well, doesn't stand out on its own as an individual event but for such a calm year like 2010 (which was the calmest on record for a good few), it was notable. For large parts of Ireland, it was the windiest day of the year. Mean wind speeds of around 58 mph (93 km/h) were recorded on western and northern coasts. Belmullet had a max gust of 75 mph (121 km/h). Same station had 86 mph on 5 April 2010. Image from Nov 2010 Irish monthly weather bulletin.

1916-17 has been mentioned a few times recently as quite a cold winter. It and 1928-29 are commonly regarded as the only severe cold winters between 1895 and 1940. With a CET of 1.9C, December 1916 started off the winter on an appropriately cold note. The first appearance of anything wintry came about the 10th when an area of low pressure became slow moving around the UK and filled over time before allowing a more gentle northerly feed. Snow or wintry showers often occurred up until the 17th/18th when fog became an issue. Snow lay 30cm at Darleith on the 18th and 10cm at Mayfield on the 19th. A more disturbed and milder period ensued from the 20th after an early morning frost where -11.7C was recorded at Garforth and West Linton. It became very mild by the 28th with maximum temperatures well into double digits by then. This wasn't the end of the cold though, in fact it was going to get worse. Early January continued on the mild side but it gradually became cooler through the first into the second week as the winds veered more northwesterly to eventually northerly. January 1917 CET was 1.6C, slightly colder than December. 14 January was an especially cold day as the snow showers piled in from the east courtesy of a bitter northeasterly wind. Maxima did not get above freezing all day in parts and even those that did not get much above 1-3C at best. Conditions stabilised for a while so the snow shower risk eased but severe frosts and fog followed. High pressure began to become centred over Scandinavia and ushered in a polar continental airmass so stayed cold into the final week of January. There was an attempt at an attack from the Atlantic by the 25th which caused a huge snowstorm for southern and western parts of Ireland. Ballinacurra in Cork recorded 52mm on the 24th and 19mm on the 25th. At Seskin, the total amount of snow on the 25th and 26th yielded, when melted, 47mm of water (25mm on the 25th, 22mm on the 26th and 10mm on the 27th). There was an accumulation of about 56.4cm of snow at Seskin. Drifts from the snowstorm were nearly 3m deep and the average depth on level ground was at least 30cm. Due to the cold end to January and first half of February, it took ages for this snow to fully melt. The UK tended to stay dry however under the influence of a dry continental airmass but still very cold with subzero maxima for some day after day, particularly if there was freezing fog. This would continue into the first half of February too This second half of January to mid-February with a northerly push for a time which brought back the shower risk briefly before an anticyclone developed over the UK and brought frosts of unusual severity for widespread parts of the country. February 1917 with a CET of 0.9C was the coldest month of the winter and the coldest February since 1895. Some of the lowest temperatures seen in February 1917. -20.0c at Benson on the 6th -19.4c at Wellington on the 6th -16.7c at Ross-on-Wye on the 6th -16.7c at Gwernyfed Pk on the 6th -16.1c at Braemar on the 6th -16.8c at West Linton on the 6th -15.6c at Woburn on the 7th -15.6c at Buxton on the 7th -15.0c at Wisley on the 7th -13.9c at Canterbury on the 3rd -13.9c at Aldershot on the 7th -15.0c at Clongowes Wood College on the 6th -13.9c at Markree Castle on the 6th -13.3c at Phoenix Park on the 6th -12.8c at Kilkenny on the 6th -11.1c at Glasnevin on the 6th The Atlantic finally broke through by the 19th February - for the first time since early January. Yet again though, nature had other plans in store for early spring. It was more changeable and much milder to end February into the start of March. March 1917 had a CET of 3.2C, the second consecutive very cold March at the time (March 1916 had a 3.3C CET) and was the fourth consecutive well below average month overall yet was not going to be the last. High pressure returned to Scandinavia in early March and a deep depression out to our west created a strong gradient between the two. The low lost the battle temporarily as an easterly took over by the 7th with the 8th March being a very cold and snowy day for some. The rest of March tended to be variable with a lot of alternating air masses but always favouring the cold side. Days of snow falling were of a large quantity during March, even in southern regions. Only limited parts of the extreme southwest had very few or none at all. April 1917 was exceptionally cold for the time of year. The CET for the month was only 5.4C and is one of the coldest on record. It started off with an intensely cold northerly as low pressure set up shop close to the UK and a blocking high out west. Some parts didn't get above freezing all day and we're not talking limited to the highlands. The monthly weather report states: "The cold was at its greatest intensity on the 1st and 2nd, a number of stations in England and Ireland returning maxima as low as 271a (-2.2C) to 273a (-0.2C)". If that wasn't enough... Newton Rigg in Cumbria observed -15.0C early on 2nd April 1917 which is the UK record low minimum for April. Eskdalemuir had -14.4C at the same time. Truly remarkable for April. Yet another snowstorm hit Ireland on 2nd April as an area of low pressure developed over Ireland and slowly pushed eastwards. The northeasterly winds increasingly became gusty. There was exceptionally heavy snowfall from this. There was as much as a snow depth of 1.3m and drifts up to 3m in the south and west of Ireland from this system. East Clare measured a depth of 46cm on level ground. This competes with the worst mid-winter snowstorms Ireland has had in its history. The maximum temperature did not rise above 1.1C all day at Birr Castle. Further wintry conditions continued into the second week of April but not even close to the severity of the first week. The number of days with snow falling again was high and even snow lying days with Greenwich having 5 days of snow lying. High pressure stubbornly sat over the UK & Ireland or just to the west for the rest of April generally with the exception of some rain at times in the final week over Scotland and the northeast of the UK. Much of Ireland and the west of the UK were completely dry throughout this period and this in fact continued up to the middle of May making it possibly the longest drought in the regions since Spring 1893. May was a much warmer month and in fact, one of the warmest of the 20th century ending the very long severe winter. Some facts and figures for the winter - I'd like to thank Mr. Data for some of these. CETs December 1916: 1.9C January 1917: 1.6C February 1917: 0.9C Winter 1916-17: 1.47C (joint 3rd coldest of 20th century) March 1917: 3.2C April 1917: 5.4C 1st-28th December: 1.1C 2nd half of January: -0.5C 1st half of February: -2.2C 13th-19th December -0.7C 14th January- 16th February: -1.1C 1st-10th March: 1.3C 1st-10th April: 2.1C

If it can snow in Jersey on Bonfire Night, I'm sure it can snow in mainland UK in November

Still around only 71mm in Dublin (not counting today's light rainfalls) which is below the October average of 79mm and October is the wettest month of the year on average. On 111.2 hrs of sun, it has been sunnier than both July and August. Only in Ireland is a (relatively) late autumn month sunnier than high summer... hasn't been exceptionally sunny either by any means. October 2018 and 2019 were both sunnier. Judging by this sunshine map, Ireland has certainly gotten on better this October than the UK! Not often it is twice as sunny here as London

Still one of Ireland's coldest and snowiest winters ever recorded. It was exceptional for this country.

I enjoyed it because it was sunny and not that wet here. Escaped the deluges that some others had and ended up with 99% of average rainfall. Still haven't had a wet October since 2014. Nice seasonable month. Loved October 2018 and hated October 2017.

It was a great last taste of summer that even eastern Ireland got a bit of for the last few days of September 2011. 25.7C at Phoenix Park on 28 September was the warmest day all year in 2011. That wasn't to last though as persistent heavy rain then occurred on 30th Sep and 1st Oct with up to 40mm on 1st Oct. Can see that rain that lingered over me in the CFS reanalysis.

Casement here in Dublin fell to -0.7C on Sunday morning beating a September record from 1972 of -0.3C. Definitely the earliest frost I've seen. I've seen a September record low, October record low and November record low in past decade. Seems so easy to get record autumn frost in comparison to winter even if the autumns aren't especially cold

You're thinking of 22 October that year. I was too young to have any recollections of it but it seriously must have been amazing to witness. https://www.rte.ie/archives/2013/1022/481962-thunderstorms-in-dublin/

Ireland really in general. The R.O.I December record low of -14.6C (seemed ridiculously high) from Dec 1961 was broken many times in Dec 2010 with a new record of -17.5C, whilst Northern Ireland had -18.7C. R.O.I. November record low of -11.1C from Nov 1919 was also broken with -11.5C. December 2010 was the coldest month for the nation since January 1881 with the lowest ever "recorded" monthly mean temperature at a station in the country of -1.5C. Then March 2018 brought the only March ice days that Ireland has had in a digital record since 1941 and 3 of them at that too, not just 1. I digress with my slight off topic ramble, I could go on and on. Funny how the previous Northern Ireland Sep record low was set only 2 years ago in September 2018.

Pure guesswork predictions for Dublin (tmean, rainfall, sun). Though La Nina has some saying in them - I would have gone colder for Feb otherwise. Dec - Sunnier than avg, cool and dry. (4C, 30mm, 65 hrs) Jan - Wet with avg sun and temps. (5C, 80mm, 60 hrs) Feb - Very dull (dullest since 1993), wet and mild. Not Feb 2020 standards but still stormy. (6C, 80mm, 50 hrs) Have had 3 consecutive sunny Februaries (all 100 hrs+) so due a dull one and 2 dry Januaries too.

31.3C

I knew I was missing one year, 1961!

August 2006 failed to reach 30.0C, the first August to do so since 1993. So another near miss like 1933 and 2005.

If the UK hits at least 30C during this spell, it'll be the first time that every month from June to September has had an absolute max of at least 30.0C somewhere in the UK since 1949 presumably (cannot 100% confirm this due to limited data at hand). 2005 almost did it but missed by a few tenths of a degree in September and May that year also had 31.4C. Other years that come to mind are 1911 and 1949 which successfully achieved the 30C in every month from June to September whilst 1933, similar to 2005, missed the mark somewhat in September. 1947 (and possibly 1868) is the only year in recorded history that 30.0C or more has been observed somewhere in the UK every month from May to September although as previously mentioned, 2005 almost achieved this too.

I thought I was the only one who felt September was often a "nothing" type month, granted I only have Septembers 2009-2019 to go off of in terms of personal observation rather than relying on stats. September 2012 is one of the more interesting ones with a very nice first week and my sunniest September I've seen but deluge on the 24th. 6th Sep 2016 had a higher overnight minimum than any summer night I've experienced. Funnily enough, this "minimum" of 18.9C was higher than any max (17C) I got throughout Sep 2015. 13th-20th Sep 2019 was easily my favourite period of September weather because of the abundant sunshine but Sep 2019 as a whole is mediocre. Sep 2010 is probably my favourite overall because it had some of everything, followed by Sep 2018. 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2017 I found very boring whilst 2011 was poor though I did have a few nice days with the UK heatwave period at the end before the deluge hit me on 30th.

I'm like a broken record this summer. With it now looking guaranteed to be my dullest summer on record (since 1942), safe to say it was the worst summer of my lifetime. Wetter than average but not exceptionally so with average temperatures - average June, cool July and mild-ish August. 1 ok thunderstorm in late June and that superb Saturday (only 19C though) a few weeks ago were the highlights of it. That's my last comment on it anyway, goodbye "Summer" 2020 and hello autumn.

Similar in Dublin with around less than 70 hrs of sun as of August 21st. Need more than 73 hrs of sunshine during the last week of August for this summer to be a non-record dull one and I have a feeling that's not going to be achieved. Most summers have had an ok to decent month with reasonable amounts of sun for standards here but each of the months have been very poor in 2020.

Going by how little sunshine this summer has had in Ireland, it might as well be winter. At least won't be looking at low lying cloud for 16 hours a day. As for autumn, well just hopefully it's better than the last one. 2018 was perfect for me up until the dreadful November.

Autumn 2011 would just mean more cloud and rain with severe floods here in October that year, no thanks.

Wouldn't be summer 2020 without another flop here, this "warm spell" here in Dublin: Friday - Mostly cloudy but some nice sunny spells at times. 24C, warmest day since 2nd June.. Saturday - Lots of sunshine, 19C. One of the best days of the year Sunday - Cloudy throughout, 18C. Monday - Cloudy with rain at times, 16C. Tuesday - Cloudy, misty and murky. 19C Wouldn't have liked the 30s southern and SE England have had but some more sunshine would be nice especially after one of the dullest Junes and Julys on record. This summer all round has been a disaster here.

Yup and same is true for Ireland. It's sad May/June is often the peak of our summer with average monthly sunshine dropping from 196 hrs in May to 156 hours by August. Need a complete reverse of the normal flow to get a half decent summer. I'm in one of the "sunnier" places of the country too so don't know how on earth the north and northwest manage with even less sunshine.

Country averages for July 2020 UK - 142.4 hrs, dullest since 2012 England - 163.9 hrs, dullest since 2012 Wales - 140.7 hrs, dullest since 2010 Scotland - 136.7 hrs, dullest since 2017 Northern Ireland - 83.0 hrs, second dullest on record (1986 - 82.8 hrs)