The very cold, wet & dank autumn of 1896.

[LetItSnow!]

125 years ago, Britain was suffering through one of the most unpleasant looking autumns I can find in the record books. An exceptionally wet September, the fifth coldest October on record & a very cold November.

 

To set the scene, the first half of 1896 had been remarkably dry. The previous winter had been bone dry & apart from a wet March, the spring proved to be even drier. Then summer only provided average rainfall. To top it off, it had also been a mild winter & spring and June was exceptionally warm. We hadn't had a notably wetter than average month since Jul. 1895; drought!

First signs of change came in August, which while not wet, was cold with a C.E.T of 14.3. The first signs of change came on the 25th/26th with a divebombing low pressure system introducing rain and cold northerly winds. This would set the scene for the next couple of months. Let's start with...

September, 1896

Extremely wet with frequent gales and rather cool temperatures. It was the wettest of any month since Oct. 1891. Sunshine was in very short supply too, with large swathes recording 60-70% of their average. Even the sunniest (to average) places, such as Stornoway, recieved 85% of their average. The C.E.T stands at 13.1. This, to me, looks like a classic case of mild nights but very cool days, backed up by how dull it was.

Early September generally featured weak pressure over and to the south of the country with rather cool weather, showers and thunderstorms.

A more sustained push from the Atlantic came on the 9th. This was the warmest part of the month, though few places exceeded 21degC. It became cooler on the 13th when the SW flow got cut off.

The second half of the month became very cold with weather more akin to November with deep areas of low pressure, unusually so for September, crossing the UK in succesion.

The chart for the 25th looks exceptionally wet. A real soaker!

The final day of the month saw pressure rise, perhaps giving false hope for a fine October, but it was not to be...

 

October, 1896

Spectacularly cold, with a C.E.T. of 6.9; the fifth coldest October. A very changeable month with many gales and an unusual excess of lightning and thunder. Sunshine was once again in short supply, the strange exception being the southwest and southern coasts. Brighton recorded 141% of their average sunshine.

Despite this, the first week of the month was actually quite mild, showing how exceptionally cold the second-half was. Winds generally came from the Atlantic and were strong to gale force.

Cold air flood south during the 9th/10th, introducing much colder -5 upper air temperatures across all of Scotland and into N England. The 10th and 11th saw widespread falls of snow, particularly in the north. Crazy by modern standards!

It then goes into a very blocked pattern mid-month. I imagine this must have been very dull, chilly, raw and wet.

Northerly winds persisted for the entire rest of the month, with many falls of snow, particularly in the north, a regular occurence. On the night of the 24th/25th the temperature dipped tp 17degF/-8degC.

Severe penetrating frosts for the time of year were common everywhere

Winds veered NE for months end.

That takes us into the final month...

November, 1896

Another very cold month, though a flick through the archives doesn't look spectacular, one has to remember that it was a lot easier to get cold weather under high pressure. The C.E.T. stands at 4.3. Speaking of high pressure, the dry theme of 1896 came back! A very dry month with one fourth of the average rainfall across the south and west, though some big thunderstorms occured on the 1st and the 19th. Sunshine was in excess, being a very sunny November.

An unstable and quite cold flow from the northeast to start the month, continuing the sharp frosts from late October, then briefly dry and fine under high pressure before a cold NE flow bringing snow on the 7th/8th.

The 9th to the 14th was somewhat milder with winds reverting to a west direction, but not overly unsettled as pressure remained high. The 14/15th was the only truly unsettled period of the month, though not a normal Atlantic driven set up, the flow is NW/SE.

 

Another quite mild period came, but high pressure came back to rule the roost by the 21st. This was quite mild in the north with temperatures reaching the mid-teens celsius.

It turned much colder at months end with easterly winds. This is when the coldest temperatures of the month were recorded, the coldest being 18F at Braemar (not as cold as Octobers minimum!). Quite random, but that chart for the 30th of November reminds me a lot of New Year's Day 2002.

 

Overall...

Sept. 1896 is currently the 6th wettest September on record, while Nov. 1896 is the 10th driest on record! Oct. 1896 is the 5th coldest on record.

Autumn, 1896 is the 10th coldest on record. Only 1919 and 1952 have been colder since.

 

After such a cold autumn, the following winter wasn't much to write home about, but not complete interest. The winter of 1896/1897 was changeable. December was mostly very mild but with a very cold snap in the run-up to Christmas. Jan. 1897 was cold, especially in the second half, but Feb. 1897 was very mild everywhere.

Edited September 21, 2021 by LetItSnow!
incorrect info has been corrected