Summer 1913 - The perfect summer for those who hate hot weather?

[Metwatch]

The summer of 1913 is one of the very few summers in modern records that was both quite cool while also being dry, and much drier than 1981, 1979 or 1977. However it was also fairly dull. England had about 465 hours of sunshine, 90 hours below the 1981-2010 mean. It came after a horrific summer of 1912, and before that the classic summer of 1911.

The pattern behind this summer is due to high pressure very frequently situated just to the west of the British Isles, so conditions would often be quite dry, but also cool and not very sunny as the flow is often from the northwest, north or north east.

CET of the 3 months:

June: 14.3C

July: 14.6C

August: 15.2C

Combined: 14.7C (84th coldest, around 1.5C higher than the coldest summers)

 

England Wales rainfall:

June: 39.9mm

July: 32.6mm

August: 41.9m

Combined: 114.4mm (9th driest summer in the EWP series, driest is 1995 with 67mm.

For the central - eastern England region (HadCEP), the summer had 88.6mm which is the 7th driest since records began in 1873. For the Midlands there was 93.3mm, the 6th driest since 1836.

 

Brief summaries by Trevor Harley:

June: Wet in NW Scotland but fine, dry, and warm elsewhere It was very dry in Southern England. 88F was recorded (about 31C) at Wantage (Oxon.) on the 17th.

July: On the 10th lightning during a severe thunderstorm in London killed a 3-year-old boy. There were 15 hours of heavy rain in the London area on St Swithin's Day (15th): after this, there was rain on only 9 of the 40 following days. In Scotland it was one of the driest Julys of the century. Across the country it was the driest month of the year.

August: Very dry overall, if cool and cloudy. There were thunderstorms in Yorkshire on the 30th, and the 31st was very wet.

The end of May however was quite warm with most of central and southern England reaching 26-27C for a few days and did have some severe thunderstorms though. "On the 27th thunderstorms with damaging hail swept across the Midlands and East Anglia. 60mm hailstones in Castle Hedington (Essex) hurt people and killed rabbits."

 

Some graphs via RoostWeather of the summer here in Coventry with data going back to 1911. Only a handful of days climbing above 25C, and many nights generally on the cool side. The warmest spells were at the start and end of August. Mean max of 20.1C, mean min of 10.6C. To compare, Today's typical summer mean max is about 21.1C, with the mean min at 11.9C.

Only 19 days with rainfall above 1mm, and 55 dry days for this summer in Coventry!

@LetItSnow! @Cheshire Freeze @markyo I think you guys would have liked this summer a lot

Edited April 24 by Metwatch

[Addicks Fan 1981]

 Metwatch I think summer 1993 was quite similar too although slightly wetter than 1913.   If anything i may consider doing a summer 1993 thread, as yes it wasn't brilliantly hot but it wasn't as wet as summer 1992 and felt pleasant when the sun did emerge.    

[cheeky_monkey]

1978 was also similar slightly cooler at overall 14.4c don't remember how wet it was though.

interestingly the period 1902-1922 had 7 summers that sit in the top 30 coldest summers in the records obviously 1913 doesn't make it

 Addicks Fan 1981  1993 sits at 112 coldest..in my lifetime the top 3 coldest summers are 1972 (too young to remember) at 23 on the list and 1977 at 38 and 1978 at 41.

Edited April 25 by cheeky_monkey

[Metwatch]

2 hours ago, cheeky_monkey said:

1978 was also similar slightly cooler at overall 14.4c don't remember how wet it was though.

2 hours ago, cheeky_monkey said:

top 3 coldest summers are 1972 (too young to remember) at 23 on the list and 1977 at 38 and 1978 at 41.

1972 had a terribly cold June with a CET of 11.8C, colder than most Mays these days, couldn't imagine a repeat of it these days!

1977, 1978 and 1979 are all clustered quite similarily, quite cool but not that wet, however for England it appears that summer 1979 is quite a bit drier than 1978 and 1977. 1977 did also have a very cool June. 1978 had quite a cool July.

 

Reanalysis for summers '77 '78 and '79 is interesting to see, all involving high pressure often placed to the west of the UK, so fairly dry but not that warm. Similar to 1913 but high pressure was closer hence that summer being much drier. Can also see why summer 1979 is the driest and warmest for England out of the three.

 

Edited April 25 by Metwatch

[Summer8906]

 Addicks Fan 1981 I guess if we hadn't had such wet weather in July 1993, then it might have been a similar summer to 1913.

Edited April 27 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On 24/04/2024 at 22:20, Addicks Fan 1981 said:

I think summer 1993 was quite similar too although slightly wetter than 1913.   If anything i may consider doing a summer 1993 thread, as yes it wasn't brilliantly hot but it wasn't as wet as summer 1992 and felt pleasant when the sun did emerge. 

I'd tend to agree here.

 

FWIW, in the south, Summer 1993 could be summarised as follows:

June - mostly warm and sunny. First 10 days hot at times with two attempted thundery spells around the 4th and 11th which came to nothing though the latter produced a couple of days of dull, wet weather. Then a week of wet, Atlantic conditions before a dry, warm and sunny final 10 days or so. The final Sunday of the month was notable for really intense sunshine - I got the worst sunburn of my life on this day, though admittedly I didn't take as many precautions as I should have done.

July - first week continued June's warm and sunny weather but then there was a change to cool, dull and wet but without a thundery breakdown. I think the Azores high slipped south allowing cyclonic W-lies to spread over the country. From around the 10th until almost the end of the month conditions were very similar to July 1988, but at the very end of the month it turned drier though still cool and cloudy.

August - first 12 days or so cool, cloudy, westerly weather but fairly high pressure so not that wet. Weekend of the 7th/8th bright and pleasantly warm. From the 14th to the 21st it was warm, dry and fairly sunny. Overnight 21st/22nd a Biscay low produced the month's only really significant rain event, with very cool northerlies behind. A few days of bright, very cool northerlies followed with occasional showers before the Atlantic high moved in and the end of the month was dry and sunny with average temperatures.

So a fairly good summer for a combination of settled weather and lack of heat, though July was perhaps the second-poorest of the 90s and third-poorest of the entire 1981-2006 period (behind 1988 and 1992). June and August on the other hand provided much very "usable" weather.

Edited April 27 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On 25/04/2024 at 16:10, Metwatch said:

1977, 1978 and 1979 are all clustered quite similarily, quite cool but not that wet, however for England it appears that summer 1979 is quite a bit drier than 1978 and 1977. 1977 did also have a very cool June. 1978 had quite a cool July.

1978 was the first summer I have any significant memory of, though I was living in NW England at the time. There, after the late May hot spell broke down, I do seem to remember it being consistently cool, dull and wet aside from a brief sunny spell around June 17th; a few days of fine sunny weather around July 12th; and a more prolonged spell of fine and dry weather in the last 10 days of August.

Apparently it was a much better summer in the south: dry if on the cool and cloudy side. August 1978 seemed to be very different in the south versus the NW: in the NW 103% rainfall and 72% sunshine, in the SE/S just 57% rainfall and 101% sunshine, along with maxima 0.8 below average.

1977 I really can't remember though I do remember people telling me that "1976 was very good, and 1977 fairly good" in the northwest. A look at archives does confirm that.

1979 I remember being cool, cloudy and fairly dry in June/July (in the northwest) then cool, dull and sometimes wet in August (in the south) but turning dry and sunny at the very end. The standout event of August 1979 was a notable thunderstorm on the 23rd, which I remember seeing approaching during the afternoon - it was a polar airmass, the morning had been fairly bright but a trough moved in from the NW later in the day. This was my first memory of a polar-air summer thunderstorm, in fact; until that date I always associated thunderstorms with warm or hot weather.

Edited April 27 by Summer8906