Another Bad Start To Summer?

[Summer of 95]

Cheers for that :lol:

In your original post I remember you going into quite a descriptive rant about 1992 which I found very funny :lol:

I've gone into many rants about August 1992 in particular when discussing poor summer months (notably in "summers" 2007 and 2008 when rating those poor months alongside others I remember). I can't remember exactly what I said in the original post but it probably related to being sat in a classroom or behind an exam paper (which usually got turned into a fan) during all the hot weather of May and June 1992, then having at most one dry day a week during the summer holidays. The thing I always remember about that August is the number of days that started bright and dry, often bringing people outside by noon only to be hit with the memorable August 1992-style 2pm deluge which continued till 6 or 7 resulting in countless abandoned cricket games and some overloaded washer-dryers. Must have been 20 such days that month :lol: Sorry that's another August 1992 rant :lol: It was the :worst: summer imaginable for somebody still at school.

Now I think about it, it may have been in May or June 2006 that I posted the original description of those summer patterns, as I remember thinking it might be a "July Takes All" that year following the wet May. I don't need reminding that the wet May a year later didn't produce the same outcome, by the way :lol:

[Thundery wintry showers]

August 1992 was a month characterised by frequent Atlantic depressions, so there will probably have been a number of days when the morning was sunny and then a front came in during the afternoon giving a washout. Also worth a mention is my experience that in mobile westerly flows, summer half-year "sunshine and showers" days often tend to be overcast with the odd bit of sun and bits and pieces of drizzle, apart from parts of eastern England where continentality sometimes kicks in bringing more broken cloud and heavier thunderier showers. August 2008 provided some good examples early in the month, with big storms around Norwich, but dull showery thunder-free weather everywhere else. July 1998, which has been mentioned earlier, had alternation between bright showery days and dull days in Tyne & Wear, and some of the convective storms on the showery days were quite dramatic- but in the west it was pretty rank.

The first half of August 2000 was often dry and cloudy in Tyneside as well, including that anticyclonic spell, but like late August 2008 it had HP to the south and a moist tropical maritime westerly covering most of Britain- often a signal for cloudy high-pressure weather.

I have fond memories of the third week of August 2000 though, which had a slack westerly flow and a mix of sun and showers- this is the period that I was comparing 13-15 June 2008 to. The showers were often well-scattered, heavy and thundery, more like typical continental sunshine-and-showers days rather than the typical British westerly nothingness, and like on 13 and 14 June, unusually a lot of the thundery activity was centred over Ireland and western Scotland. Unfortunately 21st August 2000 was very like 15 June 2008, when most of the country had sunny intervals mixed with dramatic showers, thunderstorms, large hail and several minor tornadoes, while the Tyne & Wear coast stayed dry and cloudy all day with North Sea stratus. I say "unfortunately" because I was there on that occasion!

I'm sure there were worse Augusts than 1992 in the Shrewsbury area, but arguably none since the 1980s. August 1985 was similar to July 1988 with constant westerly winds, it rained on every day in parts of the west and it was also very dull in the west, while August 1986 had many deep southerly tracking lows and was particularly cold, dull and wet in eastern England.

[Summer of 95]

August 1992 was a month characterised by frequent Atlantic depressions, so there will probably have been a number of days when the morning was sunny and then a front came in during the afternoon giving a washout. Also worth a mention is my experience that in mobile westerly flows, summer half-year "sunshine and showers" days often tend to be overcast with the odd bit of sun and bits and pieces of drizzle, apart from parts of eastern England where continentality sometimes kicks in bringing more broken cloud and heavier thunderier showers. August 2008 provided some good examples early in the month, with big storms around Norwich, but dull showery thunder-free weather everywhere else. July 1998, which has been mentioned earlier, had alternation between bright showery days and dull days in Tyne & Wear, and some of the convective storms on the showery days were quite dramatic- but in the west it was pretty rank.

The first half of August 2000 was often dry and cloudy in Tyneside as well, including that anticyclonic spell, but like late August 2008 it had HP to the south and a moist tropical maritime westerly covering most of Britain- often a signal for cloudy high-pressure weather.

I have fond memories of the third week of August 2000 though, which had a slack westerly flow and a mix of sun and showers- this is the period that I was comparing 13-15 June 2008 to. The showers were often well-scattered, heavy and thundery, more like typical continental sunshine-and-showers days rather than the typical British westerly nothingness, and like on 13 and 14 June, unusually a lot of the thundery activity was centred over Ireland and western Scotland. Unfortunately 21st August 2000 was very like 15 June 2008, when most of the country had sunny intervals mixed with dramatic showers, thunderstorms, large hail and several minor tornadoes, while the Tyne & Wear coast stayed dry and cloudy all day with North Sea stratus. I say "unfortunately" because I was there on that occasion!

I'm sure there were worse Augusts than 1992 in the Shrewsbury area, but arguably none since the 1980s. August 1985 was similar to July 1988 with constant westerly winds, it rained on every day in parts of the west and it was also very dull in the west, while August 1986 had many deep southerly tracking lows and was particularly cold, dull and wet in eastern England.

Another way of describing August 1992 as I remember it would be to imagine a mobile wet westerly winter month- say January 2007 or February 2002- with the temperature turned up 10 degrees C. The brief periods of sunshine before the next lot of rain arrived were just like we got in those months, unlike August 2008 or July 1988 which just had periods of rain (just as often and more prolonged but seldom as heavy as in August 1992) with mostly cloudy skies in between, and less of the "blustery" conditions that also made August 1992 reminiscent of those winter months. "Sunshine and showers" doesn't describe August 1992 properly either: "Sunshine and rain" might :lol:

November 2002 was the winter half-year equivalent of August 2008.

Edited June 21, 2009 by Summer of 95

[Thundery wintry showers]

Another way of describing August 1992 as I remember it would be to imagine a mobile wet westerly winter month- say January 2007 or February 2002- with the temperature turned up 10 degrees C. The brief periods of sunshine before the next lot of rain arrived were just like we got in those months, unlike August 2008 or July 1988 which just had periods of rain (just as often and more prolonged but seldom as heavy as in August 1992) with mostly cloudy skies in between, and less of the "blustery" conditions that also made August 1992 reminiscent of those winter months. "Sunshine and showers" doesn't describe August 1992 properly either: "Sunshine and rain" might :lol:

November 2002 was the winter half-year equivalent of August 2008.

Thanks for the clarification on August 1992- seems pretty consistent with the stats and also the charts (some very tight isobars late on in August 1992 in particular). Indeed, it can be quite hard to get showers when Atlantic systems are constantly running through! I still think you'd be reconsidering how bad a month that was if you'd been through the likes of Augusts 1985 and 1986, the latter in particular being very windy at times (even windier than 1992).

Having lived through November 2002 and August 2008 I'm not sure about that comparison- in particular November 2002 was an unusually "southerly" month whereas August 2008 was "westerly". But I have to admit I was in Norwich in August 2008, which had rather different weather to most other parts of the country. Sunshine and rainfall wise, though, it's probably the closest to an analogous comparison you'd get.

[Summer of 95]

Thanks for the clarification on August 1992- seems pretty consistent with the stats and also the charts (some very tight isobars late on in August 1992 in particular). Indeed, it can be quite hard to get showers when Atlantic systems are constantly running through! I still think you'd be reconsidering how bad a month that was if you'd been through the likes of Augusts 1985 and 1986, the latter in particular being very windy at times (even windier than 1992).

Having lived through November 2002 and August 2008 I'm not sure about that comparison- in particular November 2002 was an unusually "southerly" month whereas August 2008 was "westerly". But I have to admit I was in Norwich in August 2008, which had rather different weather to most other parts of the country. Sunshine and rainfall wise, though, it's probably the closest to an analogous comparison you'd get.

I did actually live through Augusts 1985 and 1986, but was in South Wales rather than Shrewsbury- I can remember 1987 being a fairly rotten summer there (after a warm April) but not much of 85 or 86. There was a hot spell at one point in one of those summers because I remember people sitting outside for a whole week saying how hot it was; it was definitely not July 1983 (which hot spell was my earliest weather memory) because my family moved house early in 1985 and this memory was definitely in the "new" house. Looking at the records I think this was most likely late June 1986. If August 1986 was particularly bad in E England it may have been less wet in South Wales, hence my not remembering it? But then I don't remember February 1986's cold at all when I can remember January 1985 and 1987, so who knows?

:lol:

The Aug 2008/Nov 2002 comparison I made was based on the weather rather than the wind direction I have to admit; I was in Shrewsbury in the former and Newcastle in the latter- the feeling of endless gloom with frequent rain but no storms was a feature of both months in the places concerned.