Summer Of 1976. 30th Anniversary

[iand61]

So many memories of summer 76.

Weeks and weeks of constant heat and hardly any rain.

steams completely dried up and the more substantial ones down to a trickle.

Evenings spent baling hay which was only cut the same morning.

What would usually be green turning brown.

Moorland fires which got down into the peat and smouldered for months we’ll into the winter.

A minister of Drought.

reservoirs almost empty leading to standpipes in the streets and then just like someone flicked a switch, a record breaking dry and hot June, July and August turned into a record breaking wet September.

round here at least, the standpipes were never used.

1995 came close but 1976 will always always set the bar for me as, growing up in poor conditions of the late 60’s/ early 70’s I had no experience of lengthy hot conditions.

[saintkip]

I was a year old and little did I know it would be the only major cup my team would win in my 46 years on this planet, what a beautiful year.

[Methuselah]

10 minutes ago, saintkip said:

I was a year old and little did I know it would be the only major cup my team would win in my 46 years on this planet, what a beautiful year.

A game immortalised by Jasper Carrot:

 

[Weather-history]

Aug 2     Aug 3      Aug 4    Aug 5  

Aug 6   Aug 7     Aug 9 

Aug 10    Aug 11  

 

 

[Weather-history]

 

Aug 12   Aug 13 

 

Aug 14  Aug 16  Aug 17 

Aug 18   Aug 19  Aug 20   Aug 21 

 

[saintkip]

22 hours ago, Ed Stone said:

A game immortalised by Jasper Carrot:

 

Brilliant, never seen that. Cheers

[A Face like Thunder]

On 19/03/2022 at 09:02, saintkip said:

I was a year old and little did I know it would be the only major cup my team would win in my 46 years on this planet, what a beautiful year.

As the legendary David Coleman was wont to say, "One-Nil!". I digress but I loved the 'Coleman-balls' - "Chester 1, Chesterfield 1, a score draw in the local derby".  

[hillbilly]

Lets not forget that 1976 would not have been the Drought year it was without 1975.Indeed 1975 had a hotter and sunnier August  and  a sunnier June which would have been hotter than 1976 had it not been for the cold first few days.Sorry,this is data from my area,am not sure wether that was the case in other areas.

Edited March 20, 2022 by hillbilly

[Weather-history]

Aug 23   

Aug 24 

Aug 25 

Aug 26   Aug 27  Aug 28  Aug 30 

Aug 31

1977 jan 30 

 

 

 

[Weather-history]

Remarkable how the weather completely flipped going into September 1976

Regionally

Aug 76 is the 3rd sunniest on record

Sep 76 is the dullest on record

Aug 76 is the 2nd driest

Sep 76 is the 12th wettest.

 

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Weather-history

[iand61]

Nice to see my home town mentioned here and it brings back memories of standpipes being put up in the rain at the start  of September.

thankfully they weren’t needed.

Edited August 17, 2022 by iand61
Spelling

[Summer8906]

The big weather event of my lifetime which sadly I don't remember, as it occurred when I was very young.

Its breakdown seemed to be distinctly unusual, anyone remember that first hand?

It appeared low pressure arrived from the east or southeast and pushed the high out into the Atlantic. This produced some rain, then a north or northwesterly type took hold (with the high in the Atlantic) before it turned extremely cyclonic in September.

[A Face like Thunder]

I am not into the technical side of weather, but I recall camping in Kent the week of the bank holiday at the end of August 1976. The week was actually quite dry, but we had lost the heat of earlier times and our return home on the first Saturday in September was, I recall, the start of the very wet spell. Philip Eden noted 'severe flooding' in the period 11th to 28th September, notably Stokesley in N Yorkshire, N Wales, Polperro in Cornwall and central Glasgow. I was in S London at the time and noted over 2ins (52mm) of rain overnight mid-September, although in the context of the stormy spell, that unusual level of rainfall (for the area) seems to have been forgotten.   

Edited August 20, 2022 by A Face like Thunder

[Summer8906]

Sorry, to follow up, have just looked at those Guardian weather reports from above which gives an insight into the breakdown, and aligns with what I remember when I read up on 1976 (many years ago now).

There was an initial attempt at a breakdown from the SW on the 24th before high pressure pushed it back on the 25th and 26th, which was sunny and hot.

It appeared a NE-ly developed over the SE, and unexpectedly brought cooler, showery conditions in associated with lower pressure to the SE. The outlook on the 26th was for hot and sunny, yet it turned cooler and changeable on the 27th. The "uncertain" outlook on the 28th is quite notable!

The pressure pattern over the bank holiday weekend looks, on the face of it, quite benign so it's not too surprising it was expected to stay dry. What happened - cold pool? Was meteorological knowledge more limited then and forecasters just didn't have experience of this kind of setup?

It was then followed by a NW-ly type going into September, though there seemed to be a further brief anticyclonic period around the 6th before a strong low produced cool wet weather from the NW just afterwards. Then, from what I gather, the low track seemed to shift to SW-NE, and as often happens with a cyclonic SW-ly type, rainfall occurred in large quantity and sun was limited. Perhaps, from more recent times, rather like late September 1981 or 1999?

The breakdown of the good weather in summer 1995 had some similarities in that it was unexpected (I remember right at the end of August, a dry September was the forecast): an anticyclone over the country got unexpectedly pushed out into the Atlantic, with a cold front moving from NE to SW (which produced brief thunderstorms). Then with the high out of the way, the Atlantic floodgates were opened and the first half of Sep 1995 was extremely wet (the second half much less so).

 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Summer8906

[Weather-history]

Met Office long range forecast was for a drier average September-November 1976 period.

 

[Summer8906]

6 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

Met Office long range forecast was for a drier average September-November 1976 period.

 

Interesting. So this unexpected breakdown from the E or SE was perhaps the trigger for the cyclonic autumn, in that it unexpectedly pushed the blocking high out of the way?

It's certainly interesting how the complete pattern change from the very dry 1975/76 period into a very wet period which would last throughout the autumn (and by some measures, until the end of 1981) began in such an innocuous way. No dramatic cold front from the Atlantic and fast pressure drop, for example.

Edited August 21, 2022 by Summer8906

[Weather-history]

45 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

Interesting. So this unexpected breakdown from the E or SE was perhaps the trigger for the cyclonic autumn, in that it unexpectedly pushed the blocking high out of the way?

It's certainly interesting how the complete pattern change from the very dry 1975/76 period into a very wet period which would last throughout the autumn (and by some measures, until the end of 1981) began in such an innocuous way. No dramatic cold front from the Atlantic and fast pressure drop, for example.

[78/79]

Left school that year, and joined the Army as a boy soldier at Bovington in Dorset. It was hot running around in it that's for sure. 

[Summer8906]

It's interesting that I don't recall 1976 despite it being after my very earliest memory (which was sometime in the first half of 1975).

I guess it's possible that I experienced memories of the summers of 1975 and 1976, but as I don't remember any before that, my very young mind just took 1975 and 1976 to be "normal" summers?

Certainly when summer 1978 came round (which I do have some memories of) I do remember percieving it as a "bad" summer. Given I was in the NW (where 1977 was relatively fine) I guess 1978 would have been the first poor summer I really experienced?

[A Face like Thunder]

We always camped in the SE in the week of the Spring Bank Holiday and, strangely, the best weather we encountered (by far) was in 1978, with wall-to-wall sunshine throughout the week and hot. Must have been the only good week of the summer! By far the worst was 1984 when it rained continuously from Saturday to Monday. 

[Summer8906]

5 hours ago, A Face like Thunder said:

We always camped in the SE in the week of the Spring Bank Holiday and, strangely, the best weather we encountered (by far) was in 1978, with wall-to-wall sunshine throughout the week and hot. Must have been the only good week of the summer! By far the worst was 1984 when it rained continuously from Saturday to Monday. 

Now that I do remember clearly; in fact the first hot spell I actually remember so a notable event personally.

Was in the NW at the time and it was sunny and hot for about a week. I also remember thunderstorms on the night of Wed May 31st, during the afternoon of Thurs June 1st, and the final breakdown during the afternoon of Sun June 4th.

The rest of the summer (with the caveat that I was still in the early years of primary school, so memories are a little hazy) was pretty poor, rain was very frequent, and sunny days were rare. I think there was a brief fine spell around mid July (I have a memory of seeing a very red sunrise during this, so I must have been awake very early), and a longer one (though quite cool) towards the end of August. Nonetheless apparently down in Hampshire, August 1978 was both drier and sunnier than normal!

I also remember the late May holiday 1984 as being abysmal, following a very cool, wet May after the first week or so. But the summer of course was much better.

Edited August 21, 2022 by Summer8906

[Weather-history]

Interesting news article that I came across from the Evening Standard of 19th June

 

 

 

 

 

...however this was not 1976....this was 1973.  Water issues hit home during the summer of 76 but the issues were starting to build up as early as 1972-73