Summer 1993, not brilliantly hot overall but usable.

[Addicks Fan 1981]

Hiya guys and girls,

Decided to do a thread on summer 1993, it was a cool season overall, but a mostly usable season.   

It had mostly a thundery warm june which boded for excitement from a meteorology perspective.    

July then came and it was the first time since 1981 that 32 C hadn't been breached as the top temperature for the entire summer was 29.7 C.  It was also a dull and wet month too with it being the coldest at the time since 1988.   

August then came and it was a pretty cool month overall, dry and sunny though with winds often from the NW quadrant and I think there were some unusually cool nights for the time of the year as well.   

Overall a season that didn't bode for a great deal of excitement from a heat lovers perspective or anything else, but you could also suggest it was a season that didn't really bring the worst of anything either.   

June and August were usable whereas July was disappointing.   

Also this was when we had the pinatubo cooling effect and warming seemed to resume the following year in 1994.     

[Harry233]

Probably one of the worst summers of the 1990’s but then again compared to a few of the summers of the 2000’s and 2010’s it wasn’t as bad as them. I’m too young to remember summer 1993 but it certainly doesn’t seem to be overly bad. Definitely cool but with useable weather. I think June 1993 was generally a ok month in most areas but I think Scotland had a pretty poor month being cool, wet and dull. July had a very cool spell of weather in the second week but was generally cool and unsettled throughout, but far from as wet as some recent Julys. August 1993 while very cool certainly seemed to have a lot of pleasant sunny weather.

[A Face like Thunder]

Philip Eden reported thunderstorms and severe flooding from 9th to 11th June, with a destructive flash flood at Helston in Cornwall on the 9th, Llandudno collecting 175mm of rain on the 10th, Aberporth 151mm on 11th/12th, and flooding at Bude being the worst since 1904. My recollection was of being caught in a huge and totally unforecast storm at Scorton near Lancaster on Bank Holiday Monday, 31st May, and returning to Blackpool in the late afternoon to find not a drop of rain had fallen there all day. Even Ian McCaskill looked a bit sheepish when he presented the weather forecast that evening. 

[hillbilly]

 Harry233 There was only one bad summer in the 1990s and that was 1998.

1993 wasnt a great summer,i rate it as 'average',it had average rainfall and average sunshine but it was rather cool but those conditions didnt stop us making hay on the farm that year,it doesnt need to be hot just dry and sunny,lovely.

[LetItSnow]

June 1993 was a warm month everywhere and unexceptionally sunny in most places, the exceptions being Scotland and Northern Ireland where it was dull. Extremely wet in the south-west, south Wales and the Midlands but drier elsewhere. Culdrose, Cornwall saw 443% of the average rainfall, a large chunk of that being the 123mm of rain that fell on the 8th. The month was slightly wetter than average overall (103%). June 1993 was probably most memorable for the very thundery spell mid-month, otherwise it wasn't anything to write home about. The highest temperature of the month was 28.6C at Northolt on the 8th.

Here are some reports from those violent thunderstorms:

The C.E.T. of 15.0C was quite warm (+0.8C above normal). It solidified the first-half of 1993 as very warm indeed (January-June averaged +1.0C) with perhaps some ideas that 1993 was heading the same way as the likes of 1989 and 1990 in terms of being a very warm year. But things change very quickly... well, they still just about could back then.

July 1993 spoiled the hopes of a hot summer. It was cool with a C.E.T. of 15.1C, just +0.1C above June's C.E.T. and a full degree below average. It was dull in most places though not quite as dull in the east and the Midlands. Poor Culdrose in Cornwall really had the **** end of the stick with rain as after a June with 443% rainfall, July 1993 had 255%. The same areas tended to be wet, the south-west and south Wales, though it was a wet month overall but not by much (112% of normal).

The first few days of the month were fine and the year's highest temperature was recorded on the 4th, a tame 29.7C at East Bergholt, Suffolk. This is the last time the annual maximum failed to reach 30C. The month is best remembered for a vigorous cold front that came down on the 9th and changed the entire course of the year. It was so strong that mid-day temperatures widely fell into single digits as low as 7-8C in places. Whipsnade had a midday temperature of 7.5C. At Heathrow the temperature fell from 18.5C to 10.7C in minutes in the early afternoon.

August 1993 was the coldest but driest month of the summer with a C.E.T. of 14.6C (-1.2C) and 66% average rainfall overall, though east and north-eastern coastal areas were wet (Whitby had 278% the norm). It was sunny in the southern-half of England and Wales but very dull in Scotland. 

There is a very interesting video to send you back in time, it's VHS footage of a trip round London. It was taken on the 4th of August, 1993 on a very grey and rainy looking day.

The highest temperature of the month was just 26.7C at Elmstone, Kent on the 20th.

September 1993 was a cold and very wet September, dashing any ideas of an Indian summer. It has a C.E.T. of just 12.3C (-1.2C) and 148% average rainfall. Only the far north-west of Scotland was sunnier and dryer than average. Sunshine totals were as low as 50% around Shropshire and rainfall exceeded 300% of the norm in parts of East Anglia.

Nonetheless, a very pleasant start to the month with the warmest temperature of the month being 27.2C in Great Malvern on the 1st. The high quickly repositioned itself to something colder from the north afterwards.

Extremely unsettled from the 7th to the 16th with two vigorous low pressure systems coming in from the south-west. Thunderstorms across the SE on the evening on the 7th with further storms around on the 8th. Further heavy rain spread north on the 12th with very heavy outbreaks across many parts of the country accompanied by gale force winds. Fylingdales, North Yorkshire saw 75mm on the 13th. Wet weather remained over the east until the 16th.

A remarkably cold end to the month with the 27th being one the coldest September days since 1918.

The summer of 1993 stats for the C.E.T. and the EWP series:

14.9C (-0.5C)

211.8mm (93%)

 

Edited May 6, 2024 by LetItSnow!

[Summer8906]

Copying this from the 1913 thread and fleshing out a bit.

Summer 1993 could be summarised as follows in the south Hampshire area:

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 and produced some notable storms elsewhere. There was a brief ridge on Sunday 13th and 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, sometime after the 5th but before the 9th. I think the Azores high slipped south allowing cyclonic W-lies to spread over the country, and initially (the 9th) it was unseasonably cold. 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. The weekend of the 7th/8th was bright and pleasantly warm. There was some changeability the following week but it settled down by the 13th and turned sunny. 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 producing, if I remember right, maxima of only around 14C. 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.

At the time it was seen as a disappointing summer, as 1989 and 1990 were recent memories and 1991 (goodish July and very good August) also recent. But looking back now I'd rate it as higher than many recent summers. Both June and August had much in the way of usable, mostly dry weather.

For the summers since 1989, I'd rate the following better than 1993: 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2014, 2018, and 2022.

And the following worse: 1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023.

That leaves three which are about the same: 2009, 2010 and 2016.

This would place it as a pretty average summer for the period since 1989, but 8th out of 10 for the 90s.

Edited May 6, 2024 by Summer8906

[cheeky_monkey]

On 05/05/2024 at 08:38, Addicks Fan 1981 said:

July then came and it was the first time since 1981 that 32 C hadn't been breached as the top temperature for the entire summer was 29.7 C.  It was also a dull and wet month too with it being the coldest at the time since 1988. 

i think you mean 30c..neither 1985,86,87,88 or 91 got above 32c

[Harry233]

 hillbilly yeah you’re right, not saying that 1993 was a poor summer at allbut compared to other summers of the 90’s it was great in comparison. The 90’s was a good decade for summers. 

[Scorcher]

Apart from June, 1993 seems like a poor summer to me. I was very young at the time so have no recollection of it. I could never be happy with a 14.6C August. It's hard to fathom a summer month that cool in today's climate.

Even the poor months tend to reach 16C now.

At Manchester Airport the temperature didn't reach 23C after June 30th. The highest temperature in July and August was 22.7C on August 31st. A shocking lack of warm days.

Edited May 7, 2024 by Scorcher

[Gedmack]

1993 was definitely one of those years when the weather ‘felt better’ than the figures would suggest. June had a lot of beautiful weather as did the first week of July (one of the few Wimbledons to be completely dry and sunshine figures actually approached 1976 levels- though not obviously the extreme heat) Admittedly the last 3 weeks of July were awful but August, though never hot, had a lot of beautiful sunny days followed by crisp nights. Figures show Aug 92 to have a much higher CET than 93 but the actual ‘weather’ was much nicer in the latter year (though the last week or so was VERY cool which heralded the start of a very cold autumn).

[Summer8906]

Just doing the "scoring" for 1993 which I did for a couple of other years recently.

June: 7/10

july : 3/10

August: 6/10

Total 16/30

This places it as very average, and slightly ahead of 2004 (14/30) and 2016 (14/30).

[damianslaw]

The most notable element of Summer 93 was the persistant cool temps, I think we barely scraped 25 degrees all season. 

I don't recall it being particularly wet, but lengthy dry spells were few and far between. Often very cloudy will chill winds.

Overall second poorest summer of the 90s, and generally ranks low in the ratings since 1990, but not on a par with the likes of 98, 07, 08 and 2012. 

Edited June 5, 2024 by damianslaw

[LetItSnow]

An interesting statistic:

For Scotland 1993 is the 3rd dullest summer on record, only 1980 and 1912 were duller. 

Meanwhile England had 102% sunshine so actually very slightly sunnier than average. Seems Scotland really in particular bore the brunt.

[damianslaw]

 LetItSnow! Probably echos with my memories of a cloudy summer here often if Scotland is dull we are too, our weather more akin to there than much of rest of England.