Summer 2005

[Summerlover2006]

The recent thread about 19th June 2005 has inspired me to create a thread about the summer of 2005 about peoples memories and stats about the summer.

June 2005 

overall a warm but very contrasting month with a cool not very summery first half but a very hot second half a high of 32.4C on the 19th June being the hottest June day since 1976 and I believe the hottest June since 1976 as well there was also a tropical night 19/20th. Despite the very not second half there was also some flash flooding that night and also during Glastonbury that famously turned it into a lake

 

July 

again quite a contrasting with a cool and cloudy beginning and end but a hot spell from around the 9th to the 18th parts of Scotland has there hottest day in 15 years with highs of 30C on the 11th and 12th else were in the country I think I read somewhere that some places had 4 days in a row over 30C but someone would have to confirm this. Nevertheless this hot spell was overshadowed by the truly terrible last 10 days in Durham on the 28th there was a high of only 10.9C which made it feel more like March I also think London had its coolest July day in years on the 28th with highs of only 15C. Despite this terrible weather it did bring some very interesting weather with a tornado in Birmingham.

August 

average temperatures overall but there was some cool nights with a low of +0.8 on the night of the 8/9th. it was slightly drier then average in the south and slightly wetter then average in the north sunshine hours were also a bit above average as well. There was a very hot finale day of the month with 32.1C at Northolt London on the 31st. Overall quite an unremarkable month. 
 

If you count September as summer it was also a very warm month being the  fifth warmest on record there was a short spell right at the start of the month with a high of 29.7C at Northolt London on the 4th there was also a tropical night on the night of 3/4 with a minimum of 20.4C at Guernsey which I think has to be one of the latest dates for one. 

 

overall a very respectful summer with frequent hot spells in each month the only thing that really let it down was the bad periods that brought some of the worst summer periods since the 1980s but overall I think this summer was good and very forgotten but I see why it is forgotten because it was in-between two very interesting summers that get talked about a lot. 

[B87]

2005 was a very traditional British summer, along the lines of 1996 or 2001.

A mix of warm, cool and average conditions throughout, and wasn't constantly wet or overcast like many recent summers have been.

[Scorcher]

2005 is memorable to cricket fans because of the fantastic Ashes series that year. The weather was pretty dry for the cricket with not too many rain delays across the five tests.

The 2nd half of June was fantastic- I recall it well having just finished my A-Levels and spending a lot of time in the sunshine.

There were cool, cloudy periods at various points during the summer but there was a lot of dry, usable weather throughout and not a huge amount of rain.

August was unremarkable but was a decent month overall.

[Harry233]

I had a pretty good summer in 2005. It wasn’t in the same league as some of the best ones but it was still very decent.

June 2005 was probably the worst month of that summer but it wasn’t all bad, temperatures were slightly above average even if it was a bit duller than normal. The first half was quite cool and unsettled but the second was warm and settled with some good sunshine. 

July 2005 was actually my driest July on record by some way. I recorded less than 15% of average rainfall. It started quite cool and dull but then from the 7th-22nd it was very good, with some very warm temperatures peaking at a high of 30.1.C on the 11th. Would’ve been the hottest temperature since 1995 locally. It was very sunny during this period as well. From the 22nd the weather deteriorated but it remained very dry but it was also very dull and cool, there was a high of just 13.9.C on the 27th here.

August 2005 was generally quite warm and dry with slightly above average sunshine, there was some good warm weather again in the second week in with temperature consistently in the mid 20’s. The weather got a little bit worse after that but it improved into the final week and it turned into a very decent start to September as well.

[Summer8906]

I'll echo other comments here.

It's not known as a spectacular summer but it's one I'd rate as "above average". For comparison, the only summers since then which I'd rate above average have been 2006, 2013, 2014, 2018 and 2022. With 2003 taken into account this would mean 2005 would be, IMO, the joint 6th best summer of the 21st century so far (about equal to 2014).

June was mostly dry and bright though there were changeable spells at times. I remember a few days of very sunny but surprisingly cool weather in the first full week (will have been the 6th-10th) with highest temps only around 19. A very unusual combination for June.

It was then changeable for a while before becoming warm and sunny though I forget the exact date, would have been around the 16th, probably. The weekend of the 18th/19th was hot and on the 19th in particular I remember seeing huge Cbs in the far distance from the Winchester area, far to the north. This day was very hot and rather humid. Apparently there were big storms with hail over the Midlands which was evidently what I was looking at.

It then turned cooler on the 20th and then the heat built again the following week, followed by a more general thundery breakdown on Friday 24th. Very oddly, the last time June 24th had fallen on a Friday there were also thunderstorms, in 1994. The storms were quite active but not as severe as 1994.

We weren't done yet. Sat 25th was cool and cloudy, but then yet more warm sunny weather developed on the 26th and 27th. A third thundery outbreak occurred on the 28th with a northwards moving cold front and this completely broke down the weather, as it was cool, dull and wet until around July 7th. But June overall could be considered a good month.

From July 9th a new hot spell developed which produced day after day of clear blue skies from the 10th until the 17th, a spell very reminiscent of the similar spell exactly two years earlier. Ac Cast to the SW signalled a change late on the 17th though there was no thundery breakdown. Instead a cold front introduced cooler weather on Monday 18th and this was again followed by a few days of dry and fairly settled weather with variable cloud and one or two sunny days, but with only average temps. The wind was W or NWly during this spell.

On the 24th a more general breakdown arrived from the W or NW and the remainder of the month was cool and cyclonic with occasional spells of organised frontal rain, or showers.

Overall July was distinctly mixed, a very good middle period but very poor start and end making it very average overall, neither good nor bad.

August started with more cool and changeable weather but it was quite sunny with a number of pronounced ridges between fairly weak frontal systems, and a NW bias to the wind making it relatively cool. From around the 7th a sunny but not overly warm spell developed for much of the week, followed by a cold front overnight 11th/12th and a fine day on the 12th.

The weekend of the 13th/14th had a more active frontal system so was wet, but this was then followed by a four day fine spell and it actually turned hot this time. Early on the 19th a breakdown occurred: this appeared to be initially a weak cold front producing just cloud, but then, if I remember right, a frontal wave returning westwards produced a spell of prolonged heavy rain with occasional thunder. Later in the day it became sunnier but fairly cool, and the weekend of the 20th and 21st was bright, in fact increasingly sunny, but still only average by day and cool by night.

The week of the 22nd-26th featured alternating sunny and wet days, if I remember right, with Atlantic systems but strong ridges in between. There were 2 wet days and 1 very sunny day, I think the wet days were the Mon and Wed and the sunny day was the Tues (23rd) if I remember right. The frontal system of the 24th, I think, cleared just before sunset producing some spectacular lighting effects around sunset. The 25th was showery rather than sunny but then a further fine spell developed for the past few days, before (in an echo of summer 1983) a front produced thundery rain during the evening of the 31st - again funnily enough just like 1983 this was a Wednesday.

August I'd rate as pretty good, sunny but not overly warm due to cold nights and a lot of fairly average days, little real heat.

Summer 2005 very much feels like an antithesis of recent summers. Fairly changeable at times, cool at times, but sunnier than average with repeated anticyclonic periods, as opposed to the mild and dull nature of recent years.

 

Edited Friday at 19:27 by Summer8906

[LetItSnow!]

June 2005, a month of great contrast. The C.E.T. up to the 14th was only 13.1C. There were some pretty cool charts.

Spectacular flip in the second half. The 15th to 30th averaged 18.2C with a remarkable daily C.E.T. of 23.2C on the 19th. There was an unofficial high of 34.4C this day but the accepted high was only 32.8C.

I think June 2005 is one of the months that got the largest increase to the overall C.E.T. when the dataseries was updated in 2022.