September 1991

[damianslaw]

Just looked at some weather stats for here, and September 91 was exceptionally sunny, dry and warm here. Max temps 2.5 above the norm at the time.

It was very anticyclonic in the first half.

I have no recollection of the month weatherwise other than a deluge at the tail end visiting Bournemouth.

Anyone share any memories of the month? Was the best weather confined to here unusually?

[Summer8906]

I was living in south Hampshire at the time and I recall it being very dry for the first three weeks. Sunday 1st was hot but cloudy then the first week warm and sunny, it then turned notably cooler the 2nd weekend but still sunny with cool nights. I only vaguely remember weeks 2 and 3 but they continued dry but with rather variable cloud amounts, some cloudy days, some sunny days. It was always bright, though, even on the cloudier days: it had the typical 1989-91 "long warm summer" feel with summer refusing to let go.

It was Saturday 21st when the weather dramatically changed. I was walking the eastern part of the Coast to Coast walk over the North York Moors from the 21st-23rd. Sat 21st was warm, sunny and humid though became increasingly cloudy with rain by evening. Sun 22nd was a bright, cool NW-ly, the kind of day that might produce showers but I don't think we got any of note. Mon 23rd was dull and breezy with another frontal system moving in but being in the far east with substantial areas of high ground between where I was and the Atlantic it wasn't overly wet.

The rest of the month was dull and unsettled, specific memories are restricted to the Thursday (?) of that week, the 26th being very cool but fairly bright in a slack airmass and the final weekend being very wet. I think the days preceding the 26th were also wet, dull and cool: if I had to guess I'd have said the system moving in on the 23rd then "parked" itself for two or three days. There was, the following week, a bright but somewhat breezy day in a ridge but cannot recall if it was still September or whether it was October by then.

Perhaps not dissimilar to Sep 2019 although being very much younger in 1991 I much preferred it to 2019....

Edited September 4 by Summer8906

[Harry's House]

I was working at Herstmonceux at the time. It was warm and sunny, and would have been dry, but for some wet weather near the end. Sadly the month is most memorable for me for the passing of my father-in-law on the last day of the month.

[damianslaw]

 Summer8906 It came in a very dry 4 year period roughly Autumn 88 to June 92, there were a few wetter episodes mostly further NW, but overall it is a period I associate with alot of fine very sunny settled weather with quite a bit of anticyclonic influence. 

Edited September 4 by damianslaw

[Summer8906]

 damianslaw Indeed, I remember thinking that it might be the new norm, particularly as this was the era when climate change first started being a big issue. We had a run of two very good summers (1989, 1990) and a third summer which was often warm and sunny, particularly August (1991). We had three extremely mild winters from 87/88 to 89/90, albeit followed by a rather cold one in 90/91 but then 91/92 continued the somewhat mild and snowless theme, albeit very dry.

May and June 1992 were then very hot, so you could be forgiven for thinking the climate was trending towards having Mediterranean characteristics.

Sadly it flipped very suddenly at the end of June 1992 (I can still remember the deluge on the transition day of June 30) and it was then mostly wet to very wet until March 1995, when it suddenly flipped again, introducing a further dry period (but a more continental one, with colder winters) until the start of November 1997.

[damianslaw]

 Summer8906 Another flip to mild and very wet Nov 97 through to Dec 00 culminating in the very wet Autumn of 00.

 

[Catherine91]

My parents told me that the day I was born (20 September 1991) had great sunny weather!

[SunChaserWales]

 Summer8906 The parallels between then and now are actually very similar. After a very dry run from Aug 21 - Jun 23, once again the transition occurred on June 30th 2023 with a huge deluge and since then we've been stuck in a very wet pattern! Hoping we don't have to wait until March 2026 to get out of this rut.

[Don]

All I remember 'weather wise' about September 1991 was the final weekend being wet!

[shunthebartlett92]

The month i was aherm (June 92 baby)

[Summer8906]

 Sun Chaser I know what you mean though I would place the start of the current wet period as October 2022, rather than June 23. All months from Oct 22 to April 23, aside from Feb 23, were wet in my area IIRC, with some very wet periods. Late 2021 wasn't especially dry either, only Aug and Nov being below-average in my area if I remember right and Oct distinctly wet. The recent "dry" period was restricted to Jan-Aug 2022.

So for the 24 month period beginning Oct 22, assuming this month is wet (too early to tell perhaps but certainly a wet start in places) the only non-wet months have been Feb, May and June 23 and June and Aug 24. 19 out of 24 months wet!

To be fair July 1992 - Feb 1995 wasn't constantly wet. There were some decent spells in there too. 1993 featured a very dry Feb and March and pleasant-enough May, June and August, for example. If autumn 2024 is like 1993 we can look forward to a very dry second half of October and cold and dry November. Admittedly 1994 was not a great year for weather but it did have a very good June and July, at least. So perhaps July 2025 will be a rare hot, sunny July...

Edited September 6 by Summer8906

[SunChaserWales]

 Summer8906 Oct 22 - June 23 was a very respectable period of weather I'd say. Oct was sunny and not all too wet. November and March were horrendous but in between we had most of December being very cold, mid Jan to early March was bone dry as was mid May to late June which were two very exceptional dry periods. April wasn't a washout either just a bit on the wet side.