Past Summer Comparisons

[J10]

This summer has been noted for its split in the weather in particular between the South East on the one hand on one hand and North Western areas on another, however is there any data out to to see how this compares to previous years.

[Snowyowl9]

Going by todays heatwave I got 22c max which is the lowest august high max temp here since 1993

1992 was the only other august where the highest max temps were 1c/2c lower.

Last august it made 22.2c on the 20th

Previous year 22.9c on the 25th higher max early in the month.

[Thundery wintry showers]

In Cleadon, for the third consecutive summer June and July combined gave much above average rainfall (2007 184mm, 2008 160mm, 2009 183mm), and a mean temperature slightly above the 1971-2000 average, mainly due to the overnight minima.

2008 and 2009 both had a statistically near average June followed by a wet July, while in 2007 June and July were both wet. Unusually, all three of these wet Julys had slightly above average temperature and near average sunshine. July 2009 with its repeated cloudbursts was like a wetter and more thundery version of July 2007, while July 2008 had quite a different character- very wet, dull middle but dry sunny last third.

2009, like 2007, has featured a notable lack of very warm days. There has been no maximum of 25C or above so far, though 2007 surpassed that with no maximum of 24C or above.

Adding August so far into the equation, it looks like Summer 2009 is likely to be about level with 2007 but rather drier and sunnier than 2008 owing to that exceptionally dull wet August. 2007 had a duller wetter June but also a fairly dry, sunny August.

In my current location (Norwich) Summer 2009 is set to be warmer, drier and sunnier than the last two, but still only about average as far as temperatures and sunshine are concerned.

[Summer of 95]

Yet again the dreaded "Southeast versus the rest" syndrome has been endemic this summer, in fact it's been one of the hallmarks of post-2000 summers- before that it happened in some months, but rarely characterised nearly a whole summer as in 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008 and now 2009. (Honourable mention to August 2003) London, Surrey, Kent, East Anglia get 25C+ for several days, in places like Northern Ireland and most of Scotland it's just wet, cold and dull, and everywhere else it's variably wet and variably sunny with lots of 20Cs but very few 25s. The post-2000 summer pattern seems to favour heat in that SE corner but suppress it elsewhere- how often recently has the year's maximum not been in the SE?

[Guest]

I would say that it is quite the norm for the SE to be subject to the warmer patterns than elsewhere since we are so much closer to the continental influences.

[Summer of 95]

I would say that it is quite the norm for the SE to be subject to the warmer patterns than elsewhere since we are so much closer to the continental influences.

The long-term average max for most of the SE in summer (from the sites I've seen) is 22-23, compared to about 21 in the Midlands, 20 in Wales and 18-19 in N Ireland and most of Scotland. So only about 4-5C from NW to SE. However in recent years there has a tendency for the SE to be repeatedly 6-8C warmer than anywhere else (even elsewhere in England), to see London 10C+ warmer than Belfast and Glasgow hasn't been uncommon. So what I'm getting at is that the gap which has always been there is becoming much wider- ie the SE seems to be getting the lion's share of any warmth/warming.

The statistic which really emphasises this can be seen at http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~taharley/hottest_days.htm; which gives the location of the hottest temp in the UK that year. Prior to the 1990s it was not unusual to see it being recorded outside the SE/East Anglia region (sometimes way outside, see 1977 and 1978); yet it has been in the SE every year since 1997. There does seem to have been another run of SE-biased summers in the 20s and early 30s though.

[Snowyowl9]

2006 would be the only summer from 1997 that sticks out with very high maxes outside of the SE,a SE-ly east wind would balance things out more and the best summer in that respect hot and dry,but not the driest.

The summers of the 70`s first half of the 80`s and 1989, were much more blocked and some very drysummers in the distant past incl 1989 to 1991.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Yes, there has been a strong amount of SE bias in recent summers- presumably due to the hottest spells predominantly featuring winds from the west or south-west, creating a bias towards south-east England.

However it is worth noting that hot months do traditionally have a habit of being hottest relative to average towards the SE. Summer 1995, which had much of northern and western Britain report similar temperature anomalies to south-east England, was pretty unusual in this regard (the only other example I can recall is Summer 1955, which at the time was the hottest since 1911). Certainly, the summers of 1976, 1989, 1990 and 2003 were all most anomalously hot towards the SE as far as daytime maxima were concerned.

The first 12 days of June 2006 and much of July 2006 had predominantly southerly winds which resulted in the heat being rather more widespread- in July 2006 conditions were as anomalously hot over much of northern England as over south-east England (which, again, is pretty unusual) although the north and west of Scotland and parts of SW England had lower anomalies.

[Methuselah]

Ian,

1989 was marvellous up here...My kids were on holiday, and the weather was brilliant - 26-28C day-after-day. Or, so it seemed?

[Thundery wintry showers]

I think you're remembering correctly. I forgot to mention that in cases when the SE is slightly warmer relative to average than Scotland (as was the case for May-July 1989) this is only relative, and such months in Scotland still often end up notably warm, sunny and dry- just not quite as anomalously warm as further south.

Looking at the MetO's stats for Scotland, July 1989 was the second sunniest July on record (after 1955) and only 2006 was more than a few tenths of a degree warmer than it. Also May wasn't far short of being the sunniest on record.

The SE bias in 1989 resulted mainly from the August that followed, when the fine weather broke for most northern and western areas but hung on in eastern England.

[Snowyowl9]

We use to be able to get a get a good 3 weeks dry spell years gone by,going by this summer we`re lucky to get a 3 day dry spell 6 dry days in early June as I noted,doesn`t make any difference to me now the summer is now all but over and I got what I wanted to do in the end.

[Summer of 95]

I think you're remembering correctly. I forgot to mention that in cases when the SE is slightly warmer relative to average than Scotland (as was the case for May-July 1989) this is only relative, and such months in Scotland still often end up notably warm, sunny and dry- just not quite as anomalously warm as further south.

Looking at the MetO's stats for Scotland, July 1989 was the second sunniest July on record (after 1955) and only 2006 was more than a few tenths of a degree warmer than it. Also May wasn't far short of being the sunniest on record.

The SE bias in 1989 resulted mainly from the August that followed, when the fine weather broke for most northern and western areas but hung on in eastern England.

Yes, my memories of 1989 were of a summer not unlike 1994 and 2006, with a fine July but somewhat unsettled August which prevented it being in the same league as 1995. It's worth mentioning that I spent a week of that August in NW Wales which I remember as a couple of "washout" days, a couple of fine ones and a couple of showery ones- that's probably the main reason I don't remember it being a good month.

August 1990 was surely less SE-biased than 2003; the maxes in London/nearby in the latter were 5-6C higher than anywhere outside the SE (10-15C on the 10th, it was cloudy elsewhere) while in the former the hottest temp was in the SW while much of the SW, SE, Wales and Midlands were above 32C and within 3C of London.

The worst summers of all for this phenomenon are the "average" and "poor but not terrible"- these seem prone to a) short hot spells topping 30 in the SE but struggling to reach 25 in the rest of southern Britain, often below 20 in Scotland and B) long spells where the SE is sunny and in the mid-20s while it rains in Scotland and Ireland and is cloudy and boring everywhere else. The worst summers for these were 2005 for the former- that late May spell when London was 21C hotter than Edinburgh was the single worst case of SE-bias I can recall, worse than Aug 2003; and 2002 and 1998 for the latter, 2002 in particular was a consistently dull, damp summer in the N and W.

[Weather-history]

The Manchester Summer index is 200

Better than the two previous two summers but nothing special.

[Bottesford]

Certainly better than 2007 or 2008 but no where near 2006 standard. July was mostly dreadful (perfect for my mid July holiday -not!) with June being good at times and August being quite nice if not a little cloudy. August has at least been dry and more consistently warm - only one 'hot' day with warmth coming from high night minima again.

Not reached 30c at all this year (29.7c being my max) which even summer 2007 just about managed. Certainly pails in comparison to July 2006's day after day of 30c+ days with ample sunshine. Next year maybe...

[Snowyowl9]

Yes, my memories of 1989 were of a summer not unlike 1994 and 2006, with a fine July but somewhat unsettled August which prevented it being in the same league as 1995.

1989 was one of the driest years I`ve seen from May to september.

[Snowyowl9]

1989 was dry until october,anyway to one extreme to another this summer is one of the wettest once again,despite this month being somewhat dryer but getting wetter,measured in inches.

2007...15.2"

1998...11"

1997...10.25"

2008...9.7"

2009...9.7" after todays rain.

Another poor summer after a very mixed June the cold and wet weekened everyone seems to forget especially the media

Exceptional wet July,Daytime temps about average here,nightime above.

[Tucco]

1989 was dry until october,anyway to one extreme to another this summer is one of the wettest once again,despite this month being somewhat dryer but getting wetter,measured in inches.

2007...15.2"

1998...11"

1997...10.25"

2008...9.7"

2009...9.7" after todays rain.

Another poor summer after a very mixed June the cold and wet weekened everyone seems to forget especially the media

Exceptional wet July,Daytime temps about average here,nightime above.

Certainly not forgotten the expectionally cold Friday in early June here. Most the day the temp was around 3/4C degrees with max only reaching 5.9C. Snow lying down to 1800ft.

Mark

Teesdale,Co Durham

[Stargazer]

Here in central southern England I think we've had a near average summer overall, with a poor July being offset by a reasonable June and (so far) quite a decent August.

June: temperatures above average, rainfall and sunshine near average. Hot at the start and end of the month, rather cool mid month.

July: pretty dismal after a hot start. Cooler, wetter and cloudier than average. Statistically not much different from 2007 and 2008 but with more wet days than either.

August (so far): warm and dry, with the added bonus that nearly all our rain has been overnight on weekdays. Not sure about how we're doing for sunshine, but probably near average. Since we've had a run of average to poor Augusts, it could turn out to be our best August since 2003.

[J10]

Sort of in between here, July was very wet, but August largely dry, and quite a lot of warm days but with mixed cloud, and a real shortage of hot days.

In comparison 2003 and 2006 were much better, with 2004 and 2005 both having more hot days.

[fine wine]

The differances this summer regionally are really quite stark. I think that the area that has faired best this summer is east of a line drawn north and south of say west London. This leaves a relatively small area but I can honestly say we have had a good summer with just a handful of poor days, but even thay were not that bad. The wet July didn't really materialise here and most of the rain that did fall was convective in nature, mostly occuring in late afternoon after a warm and sunny day.

[MP-R]

August (so far): warm and dry, with the added bonus that nearly all our rain has been overnight on weekdays. Not sure about how we're doing for sunshine, but probably near average. Since we've had a run of average to poor Augusts, it could turn out to be our best August since 2003.

Don't forget August 2005, that was a decent month with plenty of sunshine in Bristol anyway and mostly warm after a cool few days in the first week and around the 24th. And the storms at the end!

[Thundery wintry showers]

The wet July didn't really materialise here and most of the rain that did fall was convective in nature, mostly occuring in late afternoon after a warm and sunny day.

July was much the same in Norwich and this almost certainly helped my opinion of the month. I think East Anglia was merely fairly wet that month, in contrast to most other regions which were exceptionally wet. Also with temps and sunshine a little above average.

In Norwich if anything I say this has been a pretty good summer. July was as described above, June ended up fairly warm dry and sunny, and Norwich is sleepwalking into a very warm August, which after a cloudy first half is turning out reasonably sunny and dry.

For Cleadon only about average but still an improvement on the last two. Sunshine close to average in all three months, with temperatures near average in June, slightly above in July and much above in August. Rainfall was exceptionally high in July, though again mostly of a short sharp convective nature, while June was near average and August has been pretty dry.

In contrast Summer 2007 featured a notable lack of sunshine in June (exceptionally so in the case of Cleadon) and a very wet July, partially offset by a relatively dry sunny August, while 2008 had that phenomenally dull August which sent sunshine totals well below average, and ensured that rainfall ended up rather above.

[Summer of 95]

The one thing that made this July so bad here was the number of wet days- from about the 6th onwards there seemed to be only 1 or 2 days when it didn't rain at some point, even if the sun did come out from time to time in between the rain. Also there was only one day with thunder- suggesting that if most of the rainfall was convective it wasn't of the classic summer-convective "three fine days and a thunderstorm" variety- in fact it seemed to be a mix of autumn/winter style frontal rain and "April Showers" type. The only other summer month I can remember with this rainfall pattern was August 1992, which had a similar lack of dry days even though it was not as dull as some wet summer months.

30C in August outside the SE seems to be very rare nowadays, unlike in June and July or the Augusts of the 90s.

[damianslaw]

Well my take on this summer from a Lake District perspective in overview has to be a poor one, one half decent month in June followed by two poor months in July and August; July for consistent wetness and cool maximum temperatures excluding the opening 4 days and August for its general unsettled weather and dullness - once again a very dull August we have had very very little sunshine this month which has made for a rather depressing feel.

Apart from late June and early July we have had no real very warm conditions to speak of, I've lost count on the number of days that have failed to hit 20 degrees..

In overview a poor summer here in the Lake District, not as bad as 2007 or 2008 but perhaps on a par with the relatively poor 2002.

[Whether Idle]

My criteria about summer months is sunshine and lack of rainfall, temperature is less crucial to me. Here in Dover Summer 2009 is proving to be very good. This month to be the 2nd warmest on record here (Oct 05 start of records) mean will be around 18.3. More crucially, currently only 6mm of rain!, and it may well be one of the sunniest months ever, though August 1989 would take some beating!

The Met office contoured maps show the story of July very well. In summary - a very good summer, with August excellent.