Summer 1927: Very poor.

[LetItSnow!]

Summers such as 1954, 1988 and 2012 are frequently mentioned when talking about poor UK summers, but one that seems to have been forgotten in the history books is the summer of 1927, a very wet and generally cool summer.

June 1927 was a very wet and cold month with a C.E.T. of 12.6C and EWP of 101.3mm. It was the wettest June since 1912 and there wouldn't be one wetter until 1958. Whilst it was a cold June for the C.E.T. series, it was even colder across Scotland where it was remarked as one of the coldest Junes in recorded history. Edinburgh saw its coldest June since records began in 1764, meanwhile the Channel Islands were around half a degree below average. It was dull everywhere except parts of Scotland.

The first ten days are generally described as being cool and unsettled with frequent thunderstorms. The 7th was particularly wet with falls of around 40mm across NI. Sleet fell in Ushaw Moore, County Durham on the 8th.

There was a brief spell of settled weather from the 11th to the 15th which gave the best conditons of the month, though cool uppers meant there was some exceptionally cold nights in the north. The temperature fell to -3C at Castleton, Yorkshire the night of the 14th into the 15th. In stark contrast, Greenwich saw the highest temperature of the entire month on the 16th as the ridge repositioned itself and 29C was recorded.

The rest of June 1927 deteriorated even further and there were gales and heavy rain on most days. Gales of between 50-60mph on the 21st. Further severe thunderstorms peppered the country in the final ten days, particularly the 25th and 26th where the latter day saw large hail in the Thames Valley region.

 

July 1927 is described as a very cloudy and humid month with mild nights but cool days and with violent thunderstorms. It has a C.E.T. of 15.9C. It was a warm month across Scotland but near-normal elsewhere. Rainfall generally tended to be above normal but there was large regional variation with parts of the south-east seeing over double the normal amount but around Great Yarmouth totals were around 70% and in the extreme north there was less than a third. It has an EWP of 96.0mm, the driest of the three months.

Unsettled and thundery conditions prevailed for the first ten days with severe thunderstorms. Severe thunderstorms on the 5th caused crop damage and lightning damage to buildings in the north of England. A large mass of torrential thundery rain hit the SE on the 6th into the 7th with particular flooding in the Dover area. Yet more intense storms on the 11th, this time focused on the Capital. The 11th brought daytime darkness to London (similar sounding event to 6 August 1981) as 1.5 inches of rain fell in 12 minutes in Balham, London. This was a day after the warmest day of the month, a meagre 28C in Calshot, Hampsire on the 10th. Considerable flooding damage was also reported across Staffordshire and Oldham.

Fine weather prevailed for a time mid-month but the final ten days renewed the unsettled weather though of a considerably less volatile nature. That said, there was further flooding on the 21st across Ashton-under-Lyne, Sunderland, Glasgow and Greenock.

July 1927 sounds like a pre-AGW version of a standard summer month of the past ten years, lots of winds from a S and W quadrant, lots of cloud and a humid feel.

 

August 1927 is described as a thoroughly unsettled month. It has a C.E.T. of 15.6 and an EWP of 139.5mm. A report from Halstead, Essex writes: "The month was remarkable for the long spell of wet weather which lasted almost without a break from the 5th to the 25th". Totland Bay on the Isle of Wight recorded its most humid August on record with a mean relative humidty of 84%. The mean wind direction was south-westerly and it was very dull away from the far north and NI. Only in the far north and north-west of Scotland was there a deficiency of rainfall.

The month actually started fine bar some heavy rain in the south-east on the 1st. High pressure built and the 2nd to the 5th was mainly warm, dry and fine and the warmest temperature of the month was on the 5th with 27C at Cullompton, Devon.

Thunderstorms broke out due to rapidly weakening pressure into the 5th and 6th and this marked the start of 2-3 weeks of exceptionally wet and cloudy weather. Exceptionally heavy rain across northern England and Scotland on the 8th with intense rain storms causing flooding in the Perthshire and Lothian regions. It was an extremely thundery month, particularly across Scotland with around 21 days of thunder on average. Four times the normal August rainfall fell in the Midlands from the 14th to the 20th alone.

There was a reprieve of the worst conditions in the south after about the 23rd and little rain fell across the south-east after this as pressure rose, but it stayed unsettled in the north. Chilly on the 25th with the temperature dipping to -1C at Braemar.

The summery charts at the end of September may have you believing that like can happen many times, a nice September followed a poor summer - however, it actually got worse! September 1927 was exceptionally wet, cold and very dull with a C.E.T. of 12.5C and an EWP of 154.0mm. Reports from this month include: 

Malvern: "The month was noteworthy for lack of sunshine, excess of rainfall and humidity above the average".

Eastbourne: "The total sunshine duration for the month is the second lowest total for September in 40 years, the lowest September total on record being 114-9 hours in 1905".

Many reports from across the country remark about flooded ground, no doubt due to the persistent heavy rainfall through the summer.

Similarly to August, the month began fine with the 2nd being the warmest day of the month with 24C at multiple stations across the east and south-east. "The thunderstorm which visited south and south-east Scotland on the morning of the 7th was the worst in severity experienced for many years it was accompanied by torrential rain which caused extensive flooding, particularly in the Lothians and border counties".

"Southern and eastern England experienced a period of recurring heavy rains from September 13th to 15th. The largest daily totals occurred between the mornings of September 14th and 15th and in most places were well above an inch. Amongst the largest measurements were 63mm at Brighton, 61mm at Portsmouth, 59mm at Grayshott and 58mm at Long Sutton. In many places, e.g., Norwich, Yarmouth, Marlborough, Brighton, Southsea, Bognor and Lowestoft, the total rainfall for the three days September 13th, 14th and 15th was well in excess of the normal for the month. Snow fell on the Cairngorms on the 17th; Deerness and Llandudno had each one day on which snow or sleet fell".

Exceptionally heavy falls occurred over widespread areas in the east on the 22nd and in the west on the 28th. Amongst the largest measurements were 83mm. at Stonehaven, 78mm. at Boghall and Abroath, and 72mm. at Montrose on the 22nd and 62mm. at Greenock on the 28th. At Edinburgh (Blackford Hill) where the total for the month was 201mm. (or more than four times the normal), September was the wettest month on record since August 1877 and the wettest September since 1785.

A gust of 70 m.p.h. was recorded at Dunfanaghy (Donegal) during the gale on the night of September 8th-9th. During the gale which affected the south-west of England on the 29th, the wind in a gust attained a velocity of 66 m.p.h. at Pendennis and 65 m.p.h. at Scilly (St. Mary's). -2C was recorded at St. Albans on the 27th as high pressure built in after northerly winds.

After a very poor summer, the first half of October 1927 was high pressure dominated and apart from morning fog, was mild and sunny with temperatures as high as 22C by the 7th. Typical!

The summer of 1927 is the 9th wettest summer on record for the UK as a whole. It ranks 2nd in terms of "wet days" meaning days where at least 1mm fell, indicating that while there may have been less severe floods than summers like 2007, it was more persistently wet.

Edited May 1 by LetItSnow!

[A Face like Thunder]

Philip Eden reported this as a 'poor summer with frequent flooding', particularly between 6th and 14th July. Brazell (London values) had 8 out of the last 9 months with below average temperatures, 8 out of 12 months with higher than average rainfall and 8 out of 12 months with below average sunshine levels. And of course the year ended with the Boxing Day blizzard, affecting a wide area of England and Wales, so yes, a truly memorable year, but for all the wrong reasons.

[LetItSnow!]

 A Face like Thunder 1927 ranks as one of the wettest years on record with an average of 1108.2mm. It seems many years in the 1920s had mild winters and poor summers. The grotty weather that has blighted the UK at times in the 2020s seems to mirror that of the 1920s, though much warmer. After that cold December and blizzard the rest of the winter that followed was very wet and mild and another poor summer followed in 1928. The 1920s in terms of UK weather sounded very grey…

1922-1928 was a very wet period.

Edited May 1 by LetItSnow!

[Harry's House]

1927 not only a very wet and cool summer but all three months were thundery as well. 

[LetItSnow!]

 Harry's House Cool and wet summers usually are actually. It’s a misconception that heat is needed to go bang. 

[Harry's House]

 LetItSnow! True, but I think 1927 more thundery than many other cool and wet summers.

[Weather-history]

The weather didn't quite ruin the viewing of the total solar eclipse of 29th June 1927, the first total eclipse visible from the British mainland since 22nd May 1724.

 

 

 

[A Face like Thunder]

My dad had a bird's eye view of the 1927 total eclipse and remembered seeing the shadow coming towards him on the beach near Redcar in North Yorkshire just after 6am on a previously sunny and cloudless morning.

[LetItSnow!]

August 1927 somewhat reminds me of August 2004 for some reason. The latter had more of a influence of high pressure in the first half but the overall pattern wasn't too dissimilar with high pressure over Scandinavia and a slack southerly flow. Both then transitioned into a spell of frequent low pressure domination with northern blocking. Both were exceptionally thundery. August 1927 was a lot cooler but actually the Met Office reports of the time report it as a slightly warmer than average month for the time. I did a crude estimate of what the same synoptics would produce nowadays almost 100 years later and it would probably be in the low 17s.