1826: 2nd hottest summer on record

[Weather-history]

Today, we are looking back at 1826 with the very cold January, the mild February and the second warmest summer ever recorded

Jan: 0.4 (-2.4)

Feb: 6.4 (+2.3)

Mar: 6.3 (+1.2)

Apr: 8.8 (+0. B)

May: 11.2 (0.0)

Jun: 17.3 (+3.1)

Jul: 17.9 (+2.0)

Aug: 17.6 (+2.0)

Sep: 13.6 (+0.5)

Oct: 11.1 (+1.6)

Nov: 4.4 (-1.1)

Dec: 5.8 (+2.6)

Very mild starts to March and April

March (1st-10th): 9.22

April (1st-10th): 9.83

Compared to May (1st-10th): 8.13

June 1826: 3rd warmest on record, 3rd driest on record

Summer 1826: 2nd warmest on record with a CET of 17.6, interestingly late June and early July also had a notable heatwave like in 1976. (26th Jun-7th Jul 1826: 20.72C)

Summer 1826: 10th driest on record.

[Terminal Moraine]

Strange how November managed to be well below average after 8 consecutive months which, apart from an average May, were well above average. December was then back to well above average again.

T.M

[Weather-history]

Temperatures at Tottenham

June

1 64f, 51f

2 62f, 47f

3 70f, 42f

4 70f, 52f

5 72f, 45f

6 76f, 54f

7 68f, 52f

8 74f, 50f

9 76f, 50f

10 80f, 52f

11 81f, 50f

12 88f, 52f

13 88f, 53f

14 82f, 56f

15 83f, 49f

16 75f, 45f

17 75f, 55f

18 83f, 48f

19 76f, 45f

20 75f, 43f

21 68f, 53f

22 75f, 48f

23 80f, 45f

24 84f, 45f

25 85f, 47f

26 88f, 57f

27 92f, 62f

28 91f, 58f

29 82f, 58f

30 87f, 62f

July

1 81f, 56f

2 88f, 52f

3 89f, 52f

4 86f, 60f

5 87f, 58f

6 87f, 66f

7 85f, 62f

8 83f, 64f

9 83f, 54f

10 80f, 56f

11 78f, 62f

12 78f, 64f

13 75f, 55f

14 78f, 60f

15 75f, 54f

16 73f, 49f

17 79f, 51f

18 78f, 58f

19 74f, 54f

20 72f, 59f

21 73f, 49f

22 74f, 50f

23 76f, 54f

24 70f, 55f

25 78f, 47f

26 71f, 44f

27 74f, 50f

28 78f, 46f

29 79f, 49f

30 86f, 52f

31 89f, 59f

August

1 85f, 62f

2 81f, 61f

3 81f, 60f

4 77f, 59f

5 74f, 50f

6 77f, 56f

7 78f, 59f

8 85f, 55f

9 81f, 59f

10 80f, 55f

11 66f, 48f

12 71f, 46f

13 78f, 46f

14 80f, 50f

15 75f, 52f

16 73f, 51f

17 74f, 60f

18 81f, 52f

19 84f, 52f

20 88f, 57f

21 77f, 57f

22 79f, 57f

23 76f, 58f

24 76f, 58f

25 80f, 60f

26 74f, 54f

27 73f, 50f

28 78f, 64f

29 80f, 58f

30 78f, 56f

31 75f, 57f

Weather observations

June

1st Night rainy

2nd Cloudy

3-26th Fine

27th Sultry, a thunderstorm from eleven to one.

28th Fine, sultry

29-30th Fine

July

1st-7th Fine

8th Fine day, evening showery

9-11th Fine

12-14th Cloudy

15th Fine

16th Morning cloudy, afternoon fine

17-19th Fine

20-21st Showery

22nd Very rainy night

23rd Rainy day

24-29th Fine

30th sultry

31st Thunderstorm at 10am

August

1st Sultry

2nd Fine

3 Overcast, a heavy storm at midnight

4 Rainy night

5-8th Fine

9th Fine, some rain at night

10th Fine

11th Rainy

12-19th Fine

20th Sultry

21st-22nd Fine

23rd Cloudy

24th Fine

25th Fine day, sky became suddenly overcast about 7pm and a violent storm followed accompanied with incessant lightning for two or three hours.

26th-31st Fine

[Weather-history]

June 1826

Liverpool: We have not had any rain since early part of March: the drought has caused great consternation for many miles round this town. The want of water for the cattle and domestic purposes is most severely felt. The fields, which used at this season of the year to wear their luxurant green, have at present the colour of high roads. A similiar complaint, we learn, prevails at Leicester, where no rain has fallen since Easter.

Public Ledger

------------------------

The heat has been excessive for some time. The thermometer has frequently benn at 84F in the shade and at 125F in the open air. The consequences are alarming. The mosses and and heath-clad muirs to the SW have been on fire for a week past and are still burning.

Glasgow Courier

-------------------------------

The drought with which we have been visited for the last two months still continues. In the early part of the last week we had cool breezes from the east, but on Saturday the wind veered to the west, in which quarter it continues. The heat on Saturday and yesterday was quite oppressive, the thermometer in the shade on both days being as high as 82F. Most of the rivulets are dried up and the rivers wanting so many of their tributary streams, the grain mills and other public works on their banks, are either stopped or working only a few hours a day. The wells and ponds about country houses are, in many places, dried up, and the farmers are under the necessity of either carting water from a distance, or driving their flocks and heards to the distant streams.

Edinburgh

The barometer during June 1826 never fell below 1015mb after the 1st of that month.

[Weather-history]

July

Aberdeen: The weather continues dry and sultry to a degree very unusual in this part of the country...The face of the country is parched and corns which till now had preserved a tolerably healthy appearance are becoming brown...The heat for the last few days has been most oppressive, the thermometer in the shade ranging from 75 to 82F. Many, wells, ponds and some of the small streams of water are entirely dried up.

Pembroke: Pembrokeshire and the adjoining counties have not witnessed such an extent of dry weather during recollection of the older inhabitants. Since 4th of March last but two showers have fallen, neither of which lasted more than three hours. The thermometer during the last week has been ranging from 78 to 83F in the shade. The excessive heat and drought has completely suspended vegetation, the grass lands are burnt brown....

Glasgow: The warmth during the last seven days has been higher than was ever previously known in this part of the country. The thermometer in Nelson street at 6 o'clock in the mroning, has on an average indicated 71F and near Rotherglen, at 3 o'clock, it stood as follows -- Monday 82F, Tuesday 84F, Wednesday 83F, Thursday 82F. The heat has had the effect of increasing the number of flies and giving continual vigour to gnats.

Croft of Glenmuir: All the trouts and eels in the hill burns have died and the people are gathering bags full of them.

Brechin: A desturctive fire has broken out on the hills in the parish of Strachan.

Chelmsford: It is now nearly 2 months since we have had any rain in this part of the county.

Leicester: The weather here is excessively hot and dry. The fields are parched up.

Bradford: Ilkley, Hawkesworth, Bingley, Burley, Thornton, Oaksworth, Ovendon, Home, Burnsall, Hebden and Grassington Moors on fire.

Worecester: The excessive drought which has prevailed so long is, we believe without a parallel since July 1785. Farmers are lopping trees to supply their cattle with food.

Manchester: Never, perhaps, was rain more universally welcomed by all ranks of people than that which fell here on Tuesday evening. It was received in the lap of the earth as the richest gift of Heaven and the evils which the people breathing with difficulty the almost tropical atmosphere were prognosticating in the shape of pestilence and famine, seemed to vanish at once as the lungs played more freely, feeling the immediate influence of the cooled air. On this change of the weather most heartily do we congratulate our readers.

[cheeky_monkey]

judging by the temp range there shows tht tottenham at that time must have been still a fairly rural location...29c max followed by 6c low..wouldnt see that today in tottenham

[acbrixton]

judging by the temp range there shows tht tottenham at that time must have been still a fairly rural location...29c max followed by 6c low..wouldnt see that today in tottenham

That occurred to me...from the Victoria History of Middlesex (before 1850):

"In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the spread of villas along some of the lanes branching off High Road was more noticeable than the growth of separate hamlets...The residential nature of most new building gave late-18th-century Tottenham the appearance of an extended, semi-rural suburb rather than a town. Industry, apart from brick-making, was virtually confined to riverside mills until the construction of a lace-factory in 1810 and a silk-factory five years later...As late as 1859 the authoress [sic] Mrs. J. H. Riddell described Tottenham as a very quiet and secluded town, where fortunes could be made by enterprising traders or craftsmen who secured the patronage of the local gentry. West Green, where she lived, might be a hundred miles from London and did not take easily to strangers from Tottenham itself..."

The description of Tottenham as a 'town' presumably came after the arrival of the Northern and Eastern Railway at Tottenham Hale in 1840. So, yes, in 1828 I would say a blend of country houses, smart outer suburban villas and farm land.

regards

ACB

From: 'Tottenham: Growth before 1850', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 313-317. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=26985. Date accessed: 17 November 2008.

[Nick H]

That occurred to me...from the Victoria History of Middlesex (before 1850):

"In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the spread of villas along some of the lanes branching off High Road was more noticeable than the growth of separate hamlets...The residential nature of most new building gave late-18th-century Tottenham the appearance of an extended, semi-rural suburb rather than a town. Industry, apart from brick-making, was virtually confined to riverside mills until the construction of a lace-factory in 1810 and a silk-factory five years later...As late as 1859 the authoress [sic] Mrs. J. H. Riddell described Tottenham as a very quiet and secluded town, where fortunes could be made by enterprising traders or craftsmen who secured the patronage of the local gentry. West Green, where she lived, might be a hundred miles from London and did not take easily to strangers from Tottenham itself..."

The description of Tottenham as a 'town' presumably came after the arrival of the Northern and Eastern Railway at Tottenham Hale in 1840. So, yes, in 1828 I would say a blend of country houses, smart outer suburban villas and farm land.

regards

ACB

From: 'Tottenham: Growth before 1850', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 313-317. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=26985. Date accessed: 17 November 2008.

Presumably the area known as Broadwater Farm (as in the riots of '85), is a reflection of Tottenham's early rural history.

[Summer of 95]

I can't help noticing, is that a temp OVER 30C on the 13th of June, "Enigma" day?

[Nick H]

I can't help noticing, is that a temp OVER 30C on the 13th of June, "Enigma" day?

It is indeed. Mind you, as I've said before, I think all weather "records" from the 19th c. and early 20th c. have to be taken with a massive pinch of salt.