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Posted
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
Posted

Continuing the run of looking back over the xxx5 years, what are your memories of 2005? 20 years ago now. I would consider 2005 as an interesting year for weather, though not in the regions of 1995, 2003, 2018 etc. It was very dry but there were good thundery spells. The winter wasn't great overall but the second half of February and first half of March delivered an extended spell of wintry weather for some. The summer is rather forgotten. It was changeable and had poorer spells but seems to have been consistently nice without many extremes, plus punctuated by some big storms. June 2005 had big storms, July had the infamous Birmingham tornado, and I've read that August 2005 had big thunderstorms associated with the hot spell. The autumn was also interesting with a strong contrast between a very warm September/October and then going into a very snowy and cold second half to November. December seemed seasonable too.

What are your thoughts/memories of 2005? 

As usual, the Heathrow stats... this time against the 1971-2000 average:

(NOTE: SUN FIGURES ARE ADJUSTED BY 1.1X TO ACCOUNT FOR NEW SENSOR FROM SEP 2005 ONWARD TO ROUGHLY COMPARE TO OLD STATISTICS)

JANUARY 2005: Very mild, very sunny and exceptionally dry.

Max: 9.5C (+1.8) Min: 3.8C (+1.8) Rainfall: 21.6mm (40%) Sunshine: 72.1hrs (130%) Highest Max: 14.4C (7th) Lowest Min: -0.1C (26th)

FEBRUARY 2005: Dull, but very dry with average temperatures.

Max: 7.3C (-0.9) Min: 2.5C (+0.7) Rainfall: 19.7mm (55%) Sunshine: 62.4hrs (88%) Highest Max: 13.5C (12th) Lowest Min: -4.7C (28th)

MARCH 2005: Mild, but dull with average rainfall.

Max: 11.5C (+0.6) Min: 4.5C (+1.0) Rainfall: 43.6mm (101%) Sunshine: 96.7hrs (88%) Highest Max: 20.1C (19th) Lowest Min: -4.8C (4th)

APRIL 2005: Warm and very dry but with average sunshine.

Max: 14.6C (+1.2) Min: 6.2C (+1.2) Rainfall: 30.0mm (69%) Sunshine: 153.0hrs (99%) Highest Max: 21.5C (30th) Lowest Min: -1.2C (9th)

MAY 2005: Sunny and exceptionally dry but with average temperatures.

Max: 17.7C (+0.3) Min: 8.5C (+0.3) Rainfall: 19.8mm (40%) Sunshine: 228.3hrs (115%) Highest Max: 30.7C (27th) Lowest Min: 2.5C (11th)

JUNE 2005: Hot, sunny and very dry.

Max: 22.8C (+2.4) Min: 12.9C (+1.7) Rainfall: 32.6mm (66%) Sunshine: 219.3hrs (113%) Highest Max: 32.6C (19th) Lowest Min: 5.8C (7th)

JULY 2005: Wet with average temperatures and sunshine.

Max: 23.3C (+0.2) Min: 14.1C (+0.6) Rainfall: 45.8mm (119%) Sunshine: 202.5hrs (98%) Highest Max: 30.9C (14th) Lowest Min: 10.1C (5th)

AUGUST 2005: Dry and very sunny with average temperatures.

Max: 23.2C (+0.3) Min: 13.0C (-0.3) Rainfall: 42.4mm (90%) Sunshine: 250.4hrs (124%) Highest Max: 31.8C (31st) Lowest Min: 10.1C (26th)

SEPTEMBER 2005: Dry, sunny and very warm.

Max: 21.4C (+1.9) Min: 12.7C (+1.8C) Rainfall: 47.5mm (88%) Sunshine: 158.3hrs (109%) Highest Max: 29.4C (4th) Lowest Min: 5.7C (17th)

OCTOBER 2005: Extremely warm but wet and dull.

Max: 17.8C (+2.6) Min: 11.3C (+3.4C) Rainfall: 73.4mm (114%) Sunshine: 98.9hrs (87%) Highest Max: 22.9C (9th & 10th) Lowest Min: 5.8C (3rd)

NOVEMBER 2005: Very dry and exceptionally sunny but with average temperatures.

Max: 10.7C (-0.1) Min: 3.5C (-0.9) Rainfall: 29.2mm (56%) Sunshine: 102.6hrs (143%) Highest Max: 17.5C (2nd) Lowest Min: -3.0C (20th)

DECEMBER 2005: Cold, dry and exceptionally sunny.

Max: 8.2C (-0.4) Min: 1.9C (-1.1C) Rainfall: 44.4mm (79%) Sunshine: 72.3hrs (147%) Highest Max: 12.6C (16th) Lowest Min: -3.5C (18th)

Posted
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine and 15-25c
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
Posted

outside of the sunny and warm June i struggle to remember much of 2005..much like the years 2002-08 they all seem to a bit a of blur 

Posted
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
  • Weather Preferences: All 4 seasons and a good mixture of everything and anything!
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
Posted
16 hours ago, LetItSnow said:

FEBRUARY 2005: Dull, but very dry with average temperatures.

Max: 7.3C (-0.9) Min: 2.5C (+0.7) Rainfall: 19.7mm (55%) Sunshine: 62.4hrs (88%) Highest Max: 13.5C (12th) Lowest Min: -4.7C (28th)

Can just remember the last 7 days or so into March being bitterly cold at times with huge amounts of snowfall here. Probably up there with some of the best snow events I've had in the 21st century. But it was all somewhat localised with large swathes of the country missing out on any notable snowfall.

 

16 hours ago, LetItSnow said:

OCTOBER 2005: Extremely warm but wet and dull.

Max: 17.8C (+2.6) Min: 11.3C (+3.4C) Rainfall: 73.4mm (114%) Sunshine: 98.9hrs (87%) Highest Max: 22.9C (9th & 10th) Lowest Min: 5.8C (3rd)

This is still the 2nd warmest October on record as far as I know unless I'm mistaken. 

 

Looking at your summary it looks like an extremely dry year. Not sure of the rainfall stats. 

16 hours ago, LetItSnow said:

NOVEMBER 2005: Very dry and exceptionally sunny but with average temperatures.

Max: 10.7C (-0.1) Min: 3.5C (-0.9) Rainfall: 29.2mm (56%) Sunshine: 102.6hrs (143%) Highest Max: 17.5C (2nd) Lowest Min: -3.0C (20th)

A very cold end to November if I recall correctly. 

Posted
  • Location: Twickenham, London
  • Weather Preferences: Csa/Csb
  • Location: Twickenham, London
Posted

I don't remember much of the start of the year, but without looking at the stats, I remember March/April being fairly average, with May being similar to May 2023 in that the first half was absolutely diabolical, and the 2nd half was much better.

The summer was a pretty standard British summer. September and October were warm, dry and sunny. November and December were quite cold.

Posted
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: cold and snowy. Summer: hot and sunny
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
Posted

The easterly spell in February was quite memorable. It was a weird one though, with lots of falling snow over a 2 week period, bit quite often not cold enough to settle. There was some settled snow, but it didn't last too long. 

The Summer was fairly decent, quite a warm July after a cool start, August also had some decent warm and sunny weather. There was also a brief hot spell in June. 

Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Posted (edited)

I remember 2005 primarily for being the year when we saw a big step-change in the climate of the Arctic, especially the Norwegian and Russian Arctic, where we get a lot of our cold air masses from. For example, at Ostrov Vize in the Russian Arctic, the mean annual temperature jumped from -14C to -10C. Until 2004, northerlies originating well to the north of the Arctic Circle could generally be relied upon to bring snow showers to North Sea coasts from east Yorkshire northwards between early December and mid-March, but since 2005 they have become a lot less reliable. Between late December 2004 and mid-February 2005, on the back of a fairly widespread white Christmas for Britain, there was a regular stream of south-westerly winds heading into the Russian and Norwegian Arctic and nullifying the potency of our northerlies. The northerly blast on 13 February 2005 was the most extreme case, when that afternoon it rained for a time even at 200-300m in Yorkshire.

The easterly during the last third of February 2005 was often regarded as a very strange one at the time. I remember Ian Brown saying that he had never seen an easterly like it. It produced plenty of snow showers, but temperatures kept rising to 4 or 5C during the day, and so areas that saw lying snow overnight tended to see it thaw away around midday.

I remember 2005 being when the impatience for summer and dislike of cold and snow after a cut-off around 1 March peaked on these forums, and so the spring ended up rather over-hated, April was a bit warmer and sunnier than average for most despite a cold blast on the 8th, and May started on the cold side but it was generally sunny and the month's average temperature was about normal. It certainly didn't bear comparison with, say, the very cold May of 1996.

The summer was close to being a classic for me, the second half of June in particular combined warmth and sun with thundery outbreaks, and the first half of July had a long warm sunny spell, as did parts of August. A very cloudy and rather cool second half of July let it down. I remember the summer not having an especially high frequency of thunder, but having some intense thunderstorms in places. As well as the ones in late June (19th, 24th and 28th), and the Birmingham tornado on 28 July, I recall an intense thunderstorm in Leeds on 31 August. The Tyne and Wear area also got heavily hit by that one.

Autumn was pretty interesting, a warm and sunny September, but I remember the warm October being very dull in the north of England, apart from the memorably late warm sunny day on the 27th. November saw an abrupt flip from warmth to cold weather, often with sunshine by day and sharp night frosts. December was memorable for the post-Christmas easterly, I remember having four days of lying snow from that. November and December 2005 combined were the sunniest on record for England and Wales at that time if I remember rightly. I didn't get much snow from the late November northerlies but I remember that unusually the West Country was heavily hit by the northerly on the 25th, even at low levels.

Edited by Thundery wintry showers
  • Like 2
Posted
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
Posted

 StretfordEnd1996 2005 was locally the driest year since 1973 and perhaps longer in parts of the south. Very dry year. 

Posted
  • Location: Hampshire
  • Weather Preferences: Warm-by-day sunny thundery summers , short cold snowy winters.
  • Location: Hampshire
Posted (edited)

The main impression I had from the year was of a year that had relatively little unsettled weather but also relatively little in the way of very prolonged fine spells. Essentially a year that could be considered 'benign' on the whole.

Strangely I have two or three 'blanks' during spring 2005 which is unusual for something so recent.

The Heathrow stats suggest a duller March, a drier April, a sunnier May and a duller October than I remember in south Hampshire.

January wasn't too unlike that of 2015, ten years later, but the mildness persisted longer. The first part was mild and dull until around the 22nd, mostly fairly dry but I do remember a more active system producing strong winds and heavier rain around the 9th. It then changed to much colder and brighter for the final 9 days starting on Sunday 23rd which I remember being very sunny and distinctly cold. I recall a forecast of likely snow in the south sometime that week but it came to nothing. Nonetheless the cold persisted until the month's end if I remember right.

February started fairly cold and then had a period of coolish zonality, if I remember right, with a lot of WNW winds and hail showers and temps close to average. Towards the end of the month a more notably cold spell took over with wet snow showers in this area but no settling. Strangely, more or less the exact same thing happened at the end of Feb 2004 and Feb 2006: for three years on the trot we got a notable cold spell albeit without settling snow in all three cases. I remember the final Saturday (I think it was the final one, anyway) being cold and sunny.

March I remember as being a good deal sunnier than the Heathrow figures suggest. It started with a polar low which just produced rain here (oddly very similar to an event that took place at the end of Feb 2001) followed by cold showery weather than then very cold sunny weather for a day or two. Shortly after that however there was a change to warm sunny weather which I believe set in by the weekend of the 12th/13th and persisted until around the 21st/22nd. The end of the month was dull, damp and Atlantic-driven.

April was one of the more relatively unsettled Aprils of the past 20 years or so, following another unsettled April in 2004. It started with a short two-day warm sunny spell before a NW-ly plunge set in on the 4th with showers and persisted all week, becoming N-ly later. The following weekend was cool and rather cloudy. Then I have a bit of a blank (oddly for something so recent) before Sunday 17th which I recall being thoroughly dull and wet. I think it might have been unsettled Atlantic conditions that week, but cannot be sure. The following week produced a sunny but relatively cool spell followed by a low from the SW on around the 22nd/23rd which produced a second wet Sunday on the 24th if I remember right, albeit more showery. The next two or three days it's another blank (again maybe more Atlantic westerlies?) but then I remember a short spell of very warm weather for April at the very end accompanied by night-time lightning on the 30th (in the distance) - unusual for April.

Interesting that May was sunnier than June at Heathrow as I recall the converse here. May was a fairly quiet and benign month but I don't remember it being especially sunny, maybe even a bit on the cloudy side. The early part of the month was mostly cool NW-lies if I remember right. Mid-month is another blank, strangely (perhaps another zonal spell?), though I do remember a short spell of intensely hot weather just before the bank holiday weekend. Unsettled westerlies took over at the end.

June was a good month on the whole, mostly sunny with not one but two thundery outbreaks locally and a further one sighted in the distance. The initial days were dull and unsettled but the first full week (week of 6th) produced highly unusual weather for June in that it was very sunny but also cool for the season. Maxima were around 17-18C, if I remember right. It's about the only time I've ever experienced such a combination of cool and sunny in meterological summer. By Sat 11th it got a bit warmer but a minor disturbance produced showery rain in the afternoon following a sunny and rather warm morning. Then a short Atlantic spell I think before sunny and increasingly hot conditions took over the following week. By the weekend of the 18th/19th it was sunny and very hot and on the 19th, some very large Cbs were visible far to the north associated with severe thunderstorms over the Midlands. The 20th featured a cooldown before the heat built again to break down in more widespread thunderstorms on Friday 24th. Oddly, the previous occasion June 24 had been a Friday (1994) also featured a severe thundery breakdown. Sat 25th was dull I think then Sun 26th became sunny again as was Mon 27th but this time the thundery breakdown was very rapid, with a further thundery trough moving S-N on the evening of the 28th. The last two days were cool and unsettled.

July started with a week of cool, dull and often wet weather before it started improving on Fri 8th and more definitely over the weekend of the 9th/10th. The 10th-17th inclusive were hot and very sunny with little cloud at all. Early on the 18th a weak cold front produced a cooldown but the next two or three days were once again moderately sunny. A more definite front produced cooler cloudier weather at the end of the week followed by a deep low on the 24th producing prolonged heavy rain. The remainder of the month was cyclonic and cool with slack lows producing a mix of cloudy and showery days with the odd sunnier day. A distinctly mixed month: rather like 2003, July was the poorest month of the summer.

August started with more cool showery weather but it quickly became sunnier. For a few days we got lucky and had a period with sunny days and frontal systems producing rain by night. These died out by the 7th and a sunny week followed, becoming increasingly warm by the 11th (I remember being in London that night and seeing a 21C reading on an electronic indicator maybe around 10 or 11pm). The 12th was cooler but still sunny. The 13th/14th was unsettled but the 15th-18th featured sunshine and increasing heat. The 19th produced a thundery breakdown early in the morning but if I remember right the cold front was weak and the thunder occurred on a frontal wave which attempted to return the front westwards. Unusually it then cleared rapidly to cooler and sunny conditions on the 19th-21st. There then followed a spell of alternating wet and sunny days: 21st (sunny), 22nd (wet), 23rd (sunny) and 24th (wet - this one featuring a sharp frontal clearance at sunset with dramatic skies). It then became showery for a couple of days, before finally warm and sunny again with a breakdown late on the 31st. A notably sunny August but one which is overlooked due to a lack of much heat. Only 2022 has surpassed it since.

September started with a clearance of the cold front, thundery in places, late on the 31st (a Wednesday) and three sunny days, with warmth building again. A further breakdown took place on the 4th (a Sunday) with another cold front, thundery in places. Another strange historical analogy there for in May/June 1978 Wed 31 May and Sun 4 June also featured thundery outbreaks with sunny weather in between. The rest of the month was cloudier and cooler but still mostly dry before zonality kicked in for the final week, but even then not especially wet.

October was quite an interesting month, at least for the first two to three weeks. Sat 1st was a classic NW-ly day with bright sunshine and a few light showers (it being too late in the year for serious land-based convection). The 2nd was sunny and rather cool and then the following week saw an anticyclone and progressively warming temps, though often rather cloudy. Sat 8th saw a fairly active cold front and rain before Sun 9th was sunny and relatively warm at around 18C. The following week then became very warm with southerlies, and generally sunny. Rather like 2001 there were, if I remember right, two separate attempts for cold fronts from the Atlantic to break down the weather but the first one didn't succeed, though I do remember following a sunny and warm Sat 15th, Sun 16th produced unexpected showers. At some point (can't remember the exact date) a full breakdown occurred and the final part of the month was very mild but dull and wet.

November was a month of two parts, initially mild, dull and wet but it transitioned to dry and cold perhaps around mid-month and persisted that way until more or less the end.

December started with a further short mild and wet spell but by Sun 4th a deep but filling low produced cold, bright weather with coastal showers. This low then filled in situ and was rather rapidly replaced by a frosty high. This period was notable for the Buncefield fire near Hemel Hempstead which produced a massive smoke plume heading westwards, clearly visible from as far south as the hills above Winchester. This early-to-mid month period was particularly settled, it became more unsettled later with alternating mild and cold if I remember right, before a more potent cold and frosty spell near the end of the month. As is typical though, mild and wet weather got in by New Year's Eve. Interestingly this was the fifth successive December with long spells of more settled weather - in fact 00s Decembers were a relatively benign lot on the whole. That said, some of them (2002 in particular) were wet due to relatively short but extremely wet spells.

 

Edited by Summer8906
Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury
Posted

I always think it was a year which had a lot of fantastic looking synoptics that for some reason failed to deliver. That Feb/Mar easterly is infamous among those of us who remember it and weren't living in one of the few lucky spots (mostly high elevations exposed to the east coast as far as I can see). I wouldn't be surprised if scientific papers have been written about it, there were so many theories on various forums as to why it was such an epic fail for most. The one that it was too late in the winter for snow to last the day has surely been disproved by the March easterlies of 2018 and 2013 (and also to some extent the non-easterly March snowfalls of 2006 and 2023).

The December easterly was also mostly a fail, very little snow in most parts and the breakdown was a huge disappointment. It was very cold for 2 or 3 days but wasn't the classic we had been (again) expecting.

August was dry and anticyclonic and I often feel it should have been warmer and sunnier given its synoptics. It wasn't a disaster (it was quite sunny by the standards of recent Augusts, but not those of the 90s) but it seemed like it should have been better. That hot spell at the end was horribly confined to the SE (as was a similar one in May).

October was very warm but horribly dull round here. 

June was the only month that really delivered on the good synoptics. The thunderstorm on the 19th was the standout event of the year, and there was a notable contrast between the hot days in the second half and a few really cold nights for June in the first half.

Great November for snow if you lived in Cornwall, but virtually nothing round here. This was another feature of the year, interesting events being confined to small areas (again the storm of June 19th the exception, it stretched from here to north Yorkshire). The temperature contrast between the first and second halves was striking though.

As for April and May, they weren't classics but were actually better than in 2006. It did take an awfully long time to reach 21C here, May like August was on the dry and sunny but not very warm side for the most part. 

Posted
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
Posted (edited)

What makes the impotency of the February 2005 spell strange is that this was a genuinely cold easterly.

image.thumb.png.61358d5fffd108be26a2ff78b85b128b.png

Edited by LetItSnow
Posted
  • Location: 10 mins SE of Tunbridge Wells (150m/450ft asl)
  • Location: 10 mins SE of Tunbridge Wells (150m/450ft asl)
Posted

Interesting to read people's memories of that February/march 2005. My most prominent weather memory of 2005 is of the 7 inches of snow we got on 2nd March here in East Sussex, from a feature that popped up last minute in the low countries I think. It swung through early enough that I was snowed in and went sledging all morning...

So I remember 2005 as a rare triumph in the generally barren stretch between 1996 and 2009...

Looking at that chart above, that's a cold chart but not really a snowy chart. Surely those uppers weren't present when things were set up for showers and ppn??

Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Posted

Yes, that really cold easterly at the end of February just grazed the south-eastern corner of Britain. The easterly that brought most of the snow had 850hPa temperatures generally between -8 and -10C. Normally I would expect that to be cold enough, but perhaps the air mass was heavily modified - being an east-north-easterly it did have a long track over the North Sea.

image.thumb.png.8a05fa27fb7bd13f7bed717c23e7b07c.png

Posted
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine and 15-25c
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
Posted

 Thundery wintry showers probably because Jan and the first half of Feb had been very mild..Jan 2005 at the time was the mildest January since 1990 so I'm assuming most of Europe had been mild so not much cold air to tap into by late Feb plus the North sea would have been warmer than usual adding to the moderation.. had the same set up occurred say in Late Feb 1991 or 1996 it would have been much colder 

Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
Posted

 cheeky_monkey That doesn’t explain why the easterly in Feb 2006 was even more useless than 2005… the continent was certainly cold that winter. Wasn’t until winds turned northerly that it turned properly cold.

Posted
  • Location: Perth, Scotland
  • Location: Perth, Scotland
Posted

At least for me quite an underrated year for weather. Often a year that gets missed out but it had some very decent weather.

Winter 2005 was a mixed bag it had a very mild at at times stormy and wet January. February was a month of two halves. It was mild in the first half but the second was very cold at times. I don’t remember much snow however. 

Spring was a rather disappointing affair. March was pretty average, April was often wet and May was generally cool and wet although May did have a brief hotter spell in the middle of the month but turned much cooler after. There was a hot spell in the south towards the end but it didn’t affect us. I’m sure some parts locally to me had a 20.C difference in terms of maxima.

Summer 2005 was actually quite a good one here. June wasn’t great but it was dry and often fairly warm but rather dull. July 2005 the driest July I have on record and no other July has even came close to beating it we had just 11mm of rain. July had a excellent first half being often warm, dry and sunny and it turned hot during the second week with 30.C being reached here only the sixth time in twenty five years here the temperature has exceeded 30.C. The second half was rather disappointing but it still remained dry was just very cool and often dull. August 2005 was another pretty good summer month with some good heat in the middle part of the month. 

Autumn 2005 I remember being very mild. September was rather warm in the first half and October was extremely mild at the end we hit over 20.C near the end. November seemed to be the same but then turned much colder towards the end. December was a mixed month but was quite decent.

Probably one of the better years of the 2000’s.

Posted
  • Location: Leitrim (ROI) and London
  • Location: Leitrim (ROI) and London
Posted

The easterly spell of mid-February was so strange, memorable (at least to me) for a big forecasting fail. The BBC really ramped up a spell of heavy snow moving in one Friday, with London expected to see heavy snow all day.

In the event, most of lowland England ended up getting rain and sleet, as the temperature was a degree too high. I vividly remember the rain switching to wet snow, and back to sleet, again and again - maddening! The Pennines got hammered.

Funny how these let-downs linger in the memory...

Posted

How warm was 2005?

it must have made the top ten warmest years in at least 2005 with January June September and October being very warm and July August march and April being slightly warmer then average 8 out of 12 being warmer then average.

Posted
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
  • Location: Islington, C. London.
Posted (edited)

 Jackmonday06 14th warmest year on record at the time on the legacy CET, actually was 6th. Now it's 16th. Annual CET of 10.52C (10.48C in the legacy).

Edited by LetItSnow
Posted
  • Location: Cardiff
  • Weather Preferences: Sunny, dry and preferably hot. Snow is nice in the winter
  • Location: Cardiff
Posted

The year I was born! Looks like quite a good year with a lot of sunny and dry months. May, June, August and September all being a fair bit sunnier than average plus a sunny cold end to the year, with no properly wet months at all. Apart from that nothing that notable to speak of. Must've been one of the better years this century.

I was born on April 11th and my parents tell me it was a sunny but cool day in the SW.

Posted
  • Location: North Leeds
  • Location: North Leeds
Posted (edited)

I was 11/12 so have a pretty decent memory of 2005. The January was really stormy, New Year’s Day was a complete washout and we had a notable what would be now be a “named storm” in the second week.

The rest of winter was quite snowy, especially the last week of February and the first week of March. April I remember being a very typical April, cool and showery.

May, June and July were all warm with some brilliant thunderstorms (first week of May and in mid June). The last day of August also produced an absolute monster of a storm.

Autumn was warm but we had a notable cold spell in November and we had more snow just after Christmas. A very decent year weather wise. 

Edited by Summer18
Posted
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
  • Weather Preferences: All 4 seasons and a good mixture of everything and anything!
  • Location: Saddleworth, historically West Yorks, 225m asl
Posted (edited)
On 08/01/2025 at 22:40, Frosticle said:

The Pennines got hammered.

Yes - I was only 9 years old at the time so cannot remember the full detail (some of the detail I'm finding out from various NW threads over the years of the event, and threads from at the time) - but I remember waking up on the morning of what I think was 24th February (?) and as a 9 year old thinking this was some scene from a different world, I lived on the hillside at the time and the drifts were beyond belief possibly 20-40+cm widely - as I said earlier I think this may of been up there with one of the best snow events my area has seen in my lifetime in terms of the depths, certainly up there or maybe even better than some of the events from 2008-2013/2018. But don't remember the official full statistics - I think the snow stuck around for a good fair while (I mean with those depths it's harder to shift in any case!) - but it's always intrigued me this Ely in Feb 2005 as I gather for most it was considered something of a forgettable one which did not deliver for many.

Edited by StretfordEnd1996
Posted
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: cold and snowy. Summer: hot and sunny
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
Posted

Don't remember this:

 

Posted
  • Location: Coventry, 95m asl
  • Weather Preferences: Snow Nov - Feb. Thunderstorms, 20-29°C and sun any time!
  • Location: Coventry, 95m asl
Posted (edited)

2005 was part of a dry period lasting from Nov 2004 - July 2006, and there was somewhat of a drought which had started back with 2003 being an even drier year. Winters 2004-05 and 05-06 were also quite dry, which is another factor meaning water resources wasn't restored much. An RMets journal was written in the summer of 2007 discussing this dry period and its impacts in southern UK. England and Wales reported its 5th lowest 21 month rainfall since 1932–1934 with the highest regional deficiencies in the Thames and Southern region. A repeat this year however would be very welcome though!

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2004 to 2006 drought south UK.pdf

Edited by Metwatch

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