A Face like Thunder

I was on the south coast for about 10-12 days round about the time of the eclipse in August 1999, and I recall it was hot and muggy for most of that time, with a temperature of above 30 degrees C on some days. If the circumstances (a family bereavement) had been different, I might have enjoyed the hot weather on the beach.

'Summer of 95' has mentioned the eclipse which took place on 11th August 1999. I was on the south coast in Sussex that day and the weather was decidedly sunnier there than further west in Devon and Cornwall where the total eclipse took place. I recall the temperature dropped by several degrees on the coast as the eclipse (about 80% there) took place but warmed up quickly as the sun reappeared. A memorable day even though I missed the total eclipse!

I think this would probably have been May 1985 when the start of the Spring Bank Holiday weekend was very warm and thundery in the South East. The thundery activity petered out on the Bank Holiday Monday and the rest of the week was sunny and quite warm but with very cold nights for the end of May.

With the Spring Bank Holiday upon us, I was reminded of a disastrously wet SBH in 1984 when we had the misfortune to be camping in rural Kent. The rain started as we arrived at the camp site on the Saturday and did not really stop until the day after the Bank Holiday Monday when we were packing up to go home. I seem to recall that the weather that weekend in the far South East broke a record for continuous rainfall which had stood since June 1903. And what made it worse was that some friends got in touch from the North East coast of England and they had been enjoying blue skies and sunshine. I don't know the stats but clearly it was a divided country that weekend. We fared little better the year after when the weather over the SBH weekend was quite muggy and thundery, and a friend had a lucky escape as lightning hit a wire fence close to where he was digging a pit. It was certainly the closest I came to a lightning strike in the UK.

Yes, a beautiful sunny afternoon with blue skies but a really strong gusty wind here in South Cheshire.

The initial post was about 'very wet and cool 1960s' and I am sure this is correct, certainly so far as cool years in the 1960s is concerned. In 1962, the temperature in London never got above 25 degrees C, 77F all year, a low maximum temperature not seen in any other year of the 20th century. In 1965, there were places where the highest temperature of the year came at the end of March. 1968 was known for its cool temperatures and severe flooding. July 1963 has been mentioned but even this had a mean max of -2.2 below average in London (Brazell) and it was certainly not tropical in the North East of England. Perhaps that should be 1964 which was +1.2 above average and pleasantly warm at times in the NE. The winters were cool / cold with periods of heavy snow noted in London & the South East by Philip Eden in Dec 1961 - Jan 1962, Jan - March 1963, Jan 1964, Jan 1965, Jan 1966, Jan 1968 and Feb 1969. Whatever the cause, I believe the hypothesis is correct, at least in terms of 'cool 1960s'.

I do not know what to make of this theory, but I do know that the 1960s were seen in the media as the beginning of a 'mini-ice age'. Certainly I recall the winters were almost all cold and miserable and with frequent and sometimes heavy snowfall in the South East, particularly of course in early 1963. The summers were also uniformly lousy, particularly 1968 when I can recall only one very hot day at the beginning of July and September brought heavy rain and floods to the South East. My understanding is that there were no really good summers between 1959 (when my family was abroad) and July 1975 leading into the hottest summer of them all in the 20th century in 1976. I am sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.

.... until 2020 by any chance?

Heavy rain here in South Cheshire at about 9-10pm last night but no sign of lightning or thundery activity. Dry this morning so far, but with a fresh wind making it appreciably cooler than yesterday, as predicted.

Yes, this was on Saturday 1st August 1998 and was at Chalgrave near Oxford. involving three boys, one of whom sadly died. A report of the inquest can be found in the online Oxford Mail. I remember coming south that day from Lancaster to visit my mother near Worthing and being caught up in frequent thunderstorms, the last of which, on the road from Winchester to Petersfield, was particularly frightening and accompanied by serious flooding. As is the nature of things, when I arrived at Worthing, I found that they had been basking in the sun and seen no rain whatsoever that day!

In 1980, I recall a breakdown in the weather round about 31st May / 1st June from what had been dry to very wet, although I have no details.

I remember 1985 as being a particularly poor summer in the south east, coming after two good summers in 1983 and 1984, and it was not until the autumn of 1985 that there was something approaching an 'Indian summer'. Philip Eden supports this view in his book on Great British Weather Disasters, and he points out that the summer of 1985 (June to September) was particularly disastrous for farmers in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Northern England. It could not have been much better for farmers further south.

Heavy shower just passed through this part of South Cheshire (3.30pm to 4pm) but starting to clear now. Hopefully these showers will be clearing in time for the weekend when the forecast looks better.

Re damianslaw stats post, I certainly remember the warmth and sun of early May 1976 which of course led on to a heatwave during June to late August. At the other extreme, we had sleety snow one evening on the North Downs in early May 1979, at the end of a long and at times brutal winter, and I don't recall the weather improved much during the summer that year either.

We used to camp at the end of May in the South of England and I recall the best years were 1978 and 1982. The Spring Bank Holiday in 1985 was interesting, starting off muggy and very thundery and ending up with blue skies and very cold nights. The SB Holiday at the end of May 1984 was by far the worst, with rain pretty well all the way through the long weekend.

Monsoon rain shower here in South Cheshire for about 10-15 minutes max at 2.30pm, then sunny and blue skies within another 15-20 minutes, presumably after a front moved through.

I saw a newspaper article recently drawing comparisons between this April and 2007, and most of us will remember the floods of that summer. I'm not into predictions but I suspect there will be many who will not wish to see a repeat of 2007, notably those who have still not been able to return to their homes after the floods of early 2020 (remember them?), and will probably not be able to return for some time to come. Some contributors have talked of the lockdown ending by June. Hmmm! I suspect that some politicians will be hoping that this summer is a cold washout, with sleet and snow helping to keep people off the streets and out of trouble. And that is a purely personal, non-political view!

Yes, Philip Eden has confirmed that this was 24th to 26th April 1981, three days of heavy snow which affected large parts of the UK., with snow depths of 30-50cm typical above about 150m above sea level. A rapid thaw then led to flooding in the Midlands and Yorkshire and there were seven weather-related deaths. Looking further back, 70 years ago in April 1950, there was (according to Philip Eden) an exceptional late snowstorm on 25th - 26th April, with 15-20cm falling, mostly within 6 hours above the 100m contour from Wiltshire to Kent. I had been christened three to four days previously close to our family home near the North Downs on what was the warmest day of April, and although I remember nothing about this event or the snow, I was told that the snow caused widespread damage to trees and plants, along with 600 telegraph poles either felled or snapped in two with the weight of the snow on the wires, as reported by Mark Davison and Ian Currie in their 1990 book on Surrey Weather. The snow storm was apparently caused by a polar depression which crossed Surrey and pulled down Arctic air. Now does anybody know the forecast for 25th April seventy years later?!

Thanks very much for this information. I seem to recall 2013 was a strange year from the weather point of view, with the weather reflecting the seasons almost to the day. Jan to March (including Easter) was very cold, April to June was mild and damp, and July to September was very warm and sunny. Or was that my imagination?

Yes, I remember attending a football match in Sheffield on Easter Saturday 22nd March 2008 (which was about as early as it could get) and being glad that the snow did not settle until shortly before the end of the game, as it was thick on the ground by the time we arrived back in the City centre. The Sunday was no better on the East Coast and the pipes in our caravan froze overnight Easter Sunday into Monday. Easter Sunday 1975 was on 30th March and was similarly cold and snowy in the south east, as described elsewhere under Historic Weather.

According to Mr Google, it was 20th March 1986 when a wind speed of 150.3 knots or 173 mph was recorded on Cairngorm summit. Presumably there was nobody physically around who witnessed this historic moment!

In the context of gale force winds in 1987, the gale of Friday 27th March came a poor second to that of The Great Storm of 16th October. However because it occurred during the working day, it had severe effects, particularly in Southern England and South Wales. I remember this day because our office in Sutton overlooked a half built block of retirement flats. The workers seemed to be having a long weekend off (perhaps fortunately) and when some uncovered roof beams came crashing down in the wind in a heap on the ground, there was nobody around to clear up the mess. This happened the following Monday and replacement beams soon followed and, to the best of my knowledge, they are still there today, with the present retirement home residents unaware of the drama 33 years ago. The gale of 27th March 1987 brought local tragedy as three men were killed in their van by a falling tree on the A217 at Lower Kingswood, and a train passenger was badly hurt by a tree which speared his carriage at Dormansland. Both incidents are referred to by Mark Davison and Ian Currie in their very good 1990 book on Surrey Weather. Top wind speeds were 107 mph at Gwennap Head in Cornwall and 100 mph at Burrington in Devon (Philip Eden). What a contrast to the calm sunny weather of today, 33 years later.

Yes, I remember this although I was in the South East of England close to the North Downs at the time. I was in bed with flu for much of the Easter weekend and was glad that I didn't have to go out. My abiding memory was of Easter Sunday, 30th March, when I staggered down to the local Church in the evening to hear the final sermon of our Vicar. Snow was falling throughout the service and the Vicar rather surprisingly chose the Wrath of God as his final sermon theme. As he reached the climax of his sermon, there was an enormous flash of lightning followed by a deafening crash of thunder and all the lights went out. Sermon over and we didn't know whether to laugh or get on our knees and pray! Philip Eden referred to this snowy spell, which lasted until 10th April, in his book of 'Great British Weather Disasters'.

The weather of Sunday 15th March 56 years ago was remarkable, even by the standards of the 'little ice age' which was supposed to be affecting the UK in the 1960s. In our part of Surrey close to the North Downs, it rained heavily all morning but this turned to heavy snow after lunch which settled to quite a depth by the evening and did not start to melt until the following days. Surrey was not the only area of the country to be affected and Philip Eden, in his book 'Great British Weather Disasters', referred to 'extensive snow, deepest in the Midlands and Yorkshire where 25-30cm fell'. It would be interesting to know what caused this heavy snowfall in what was supposed to be 'Spring'. And a far cry from the weather 56 years later!

Agreed, I was struck by the unusually squally winds here in South Cheshire from about 9pm to 10.30pm last night. After a nice day today, wind seems to be picking up again and a few spots of rain on the windows now at 4.15pm.