"Indian summer" spell of September 1956

[Weather-history]

Summer 1956 was abysmal, one of the worst of the 20th century. September 1956 did produced some last summery weather that was much welcomed.  

 

        

 

Manchester Airport

Warm and sunny

24th September

Max: 74°F  Min: 58°F  Sunshine 8.0hrs

 

 

 

[Summer8906]

 Weather-history It looks however that September was an unsettled month overall, in Southampton it was wetter than any of the summer months, more than twice as wet as June and almost twice as wet as July.

(rainfall figures 52.0, 57.5, 88.9 and 111.3 so September in particular looks like it was extremely wet but June and July not far from average).

July almost seemed half-decent in Southampton with 21.4C mean max (not bad for the 50s) and 187.5 hours sunshine (somewhat dull but not desperately so). Perhaps one of those months when most of the rainfall occurred from convection in slow-moving setups? It looks like the following July and August, 1957, was actually worse than 1956 in Southampton with more rain and somewhat less sunshine. (The parallels between summer 1957 and 2023 have of course been discussed a few times before!).

Seriously dry weather arrived in October and continued in November, to add to a very dry Feb, March and May. May was very sunny with 267.6 hours. So 1956 easily had its fair share of decent months - but none were in the summer!

I also notice that the "80 degree" temp on Sep 1, 1954, was quoted as the "climax of the hot August" in one of the articles! 1954 was of course even worse than 1956, by all accounts.

Edited September 22, 2024 by Summer8906

[hillbilly]

 Summer8906 There are plenty of poor summers where good weather does finally arrive in September or October notably 1985,1986,2002,2008 and 2023

[Summer8906]

 hillbilly Doesn't look like autumn 1956 was especially good for warmth or sunshine though, just dry.

 

Edited September 22, 2024 by Summer8906