30th July 1956: A Truely Horrific Summer's Day

[Weather-history]

30th July 1956 was a truely horrific summer's day even for this awful summer

The summer of 1956 was very poor, it was cool and often wet but few people were prepared for a gale at the height of summer but that's what happened on the 30th of July 1956.

On the 29th of July, a low pressure (995mb) was approaching the SW bringing with it rain. As the low moved into the North Sea it deepened to 990mb. A pressure gradient developed along it's SW flank and this brought NWly gales to England and Wales.

Winds speeds were averaged between 50-60mph with the highest gust recorded was at Lizard with a gust of 93mph. With trees in full foliage, the extra resistance caused trees to be uprooted and many trees were lost. Orchard farmers suffered badly with either fruit trees uprooted or the fruit stripped off the trees. This compounded the fact that the fruit crop was poor anyway because of the bad summer.

Many camping facilities were badly affected with tents wrecked by the gale. It certainly would have been an interesting day on Blackpool Prom in the NWly gale.

[summer blizzard]

If we get any tropical remenants near the end of August or the beggining of September, then we may get gale force easterlies

[kold weather]

Indeed looks like a horrible day.however you don't need to look that far back to find a awful July day.

Last year,Thursday July 8th saw a area of developing low pressure from the bay Biscay push its way northwards,deepening quite far for a system in July.It had a active front which pushed up through the south coast during Wednesday night,however by the time it reached the Midlands,it stalled,and stayed there...for 24hrs before being pulled westwards.This front dumped a fair amount of rain over the Midlands,with a few isolated areas getting 40-50MM,most areas getting 20-30MM.During that time it caused some very low temps dur to the amounts of rain,7C being the max temp at one location,making it the coldest July day for 50 years in that spot.

As the night of the 7th continued the area of low pressure continued to tighten,reaching 991mbs by 0z.the winds with this low pressure was quite high,esp for July,due to a fairly tight gradiant.Culdrose saw a wind gust of 65mph,with much of the south coast seeing 40mph+ gusts.The track of the low pressure system and the way it deepend rapidly also is worth mentioning going from 1007mbs on the 7th,to 991mbs on the 8th.So a fairly weird day for the U.K,heres a link to the fax chart for the night of the 8th:

http://www.wetterzentraleforum.de/archive/...cka20040708.gif

[Nick H]

1956 was indeed a very wet summer. 30th July was also the Monday when Jim Laker ran through the Australians at Old Trafford, taking his famous record haul of 10 for 53 in Australia's 2nd inns. No wonder the ball spun so much with all that rain..must have been a real sticky dog.

[summer blizzard]

Just think how much snow the system which stalled lasy year would of given had it being winter, approximately forty to fifty centimetres.

[Thundery wintry showers]

There were a number of poor summers in the 1980s (1980/81 and 1985-88 stick out), and August 1986 had a large number of gale-carrying depressions.

[summer blizzard]

This summer seems to be having a poor second half to it.

[Weather-history]

Its the 50th anniversary tomorrow and this is how that storm developed

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119560729.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119560730.gif

[Methuselah]

This summer seems to be having a poor second half to it.

But we haven't had a bad day yet?

[Thundery wintry showers]

But we haven't had a bad day yet?

Post: 1 Aug 2005.

[MP-R]

This is all very interesting. Indeed, the 7th and 8th of July 2004 were very cool for the time of year. That week was very strange:

Monday 5th - Sunny & warm 24C

Tuesday 6th - Sunny & warm, light cloud building up 25C

Wednesday 7th - Cool, cloudy and windy. Rain arriving later 16C

Thursday 8th - Cloudy, windy, cool and drizzly 12C

Friday 9th - Intermittent heavy showers with thunder 20C

The strongest depression I've seen in summer was last year in fact on Wednesday 24th. The highest gust I recorded was 57MPH at 3.24pm. At the same time it was raining buckets. Not a nice combination.

[summer blizzard]

This is all very interesting. Indeed, the 7th and 8th of July 2004 were very cool for the time of year. That week was very strange:

Monday 5th - Sunny & warm 24C

Tuesday 6th - Sunny & warm, light cloud building up 25C

Wednesday 7th - Cool, cloudy and windy. Rain arriving later 16C

Thursday 8th - Cloudy, windy, cool and drizzly 12C

Friday 9th - Intermittent heavy showers with thunder 20C

The strongest depression I've seen in summer was last year in fact on Wednesday 24th. The highest gust I recorded was 57MPH at 3.24pm. At the same time it was raining buckets. Not a nice combination.

Both the events you have described were caused by the Tropical remenants of Hurricane Alex and Hurricane Irene...

[Terminal Moraine]

I remember that gale. I was a small child and we had to visit relatives in Staffordshire that day. The roads were littered with sticks, branches, leaves and, in some places, whole trees, making it a very exciting journey (my dad would probably have said dangerous )

It was events like that which started my interest in the weather.

T.M

[Snowyowl9]

That does look an extreme gale for summer,to have 90mph gusts in winter is severe enough but in summer

It can happen in october as we all know.

S9.

[Weather-history]

Some more info

The low reached its lowest pressure at 9am BST on the 29th with a central pressure of 974mb.

Culdrose recorded an hourly mean wind speed of 46kts and a gust of 76kts, Shoeburyness and hourly mean speed of 52kts and a maximum gust of 72kts.

11 people were killed, 6 by falling trees.

[Weather-history]

From Guardian of 30th July 1956

[A Face like Thunder]

Thanks for this. I was 6 years old at the time and don't remember it, but Philip Eden has this down as 'the most severe and destructive high summer gale of the century'. A severe flood also affected N E Scotland, including Lairg, Dingwall, Inverness and Nairn, and 233mm fell in 48 hours at Arclach, Nairnshire.