The coldest summer of the 20th century - Summer 1907

[LetItSnow]

When the topic of a bad summer comes up, one year that often comes to mind is 2007. However, 100 years before occured the 6th coldest summer ever recorded since 1659 & the coldest of the 20th century. There hasn't been a colder once since, only 1922 is on a similar level. Let's take a look at how this summer was so cold.

 

After an exceptionally sunny March and warm start to April, the weather became cooler and May proved to be mostly cold and dull with the sole exception of a hot spell mid-month, giving the hottest temperatures of the year in places. That takes us into...

Jun. 1907 - Very cold, wet and dull with an unusual excess of lightning & thunder. Thunder was reported somewhere on 26 out of 30 days. Daytime temperature were shockingly depressed, many areas could not exceed 70F all month. This was the coldest June since 1860 with a C.E.T. of 12.4. Unusually foggy.

The month was disturbed from the very start with low pressure atop the country and a fair amount of northern blocking. Thunderstorms struck the SE on the 1st. Much of England & Wales were hit by thunderstorms on the 9th/10th, then N England and Ireland had its turn on the 12th. This period is generally cold and dismal, though a weak attempt at a warmer pattern occurs on the 8th/9th with the low spinning up humid S/SW winds. Before that, there were reports of sleet in Surrey on the 3rd.

The 17th was the only true "fine" day of the month under this weak ridge. It was soon followed by very cool westerly winds.

The month ended without a single fine and dry day.

         

Jul. 1907 - Exceptionally cool, though not as wet as June. A cold, damp, foggy July with no real warmth, let alone heat. Remarkable thunderstorms and hailstorms which I will go into detail below. It was the coldest July since the frigid July of 1888 with a CET of 14.1. The west was the best place to be, with sunshine closer to average and below average rainfall, however the east was wetter and duller than average. 

A cold, dreary start to July with low pressure stuck over the country, more akin to October. An exceptional hailstorm occured at Cirencester on the 4th, however I haven't got any more information on size or duration.

The mid-section of the month was an approvement with high pressure building, giving a dry and windless period. The charts look warm, but at the surface things were different. Because high pressure centred over Scotland, much of E. England suffered greatly with cloud and depressed temperatures during this time, even fog was reported on many days. In the far west it was much better & the reports suggest this was may have been a decent spell of hot weather across Ireland. Reminds me of late Aug. 2021...

Pressure broke on the 21st and it led to the most noteworthy weather event of the summer. Trevor Harley writes, "     a ferocious hailstorm in South Wales stripped leaves off trees: 80 mm of rain fell at Pandy (Monmouthshire). There was flooding in Watford as 68 mm of rain fell in under two hours." 66mm of rain fell at Bath in 3 hours on the 21st and 41mm in half an hour at Rochford.

The month ended changeable and unsettled and eventually cold again with N winds.

Aug. 1907 - The least remarkable of all three months. A very cool August (adding to the plethora of them during the late 19th/early 20th century) with abundant westerly winds. The CET stands at 14.3. Very wet with rain on most days in the north but a little drier in the south. Another month with a lack of any heat, though warmer sectors gave the occasional warm and humid afternoons.

A generally cool and unsettled opener to August. I can't imagine how grating this could have been, especially being used to warm summers in this day and age.

The occaisonal warmer afternoon occured, but never due to a sustained area of high pressure

.

The most notable feature of the month was the very cold air minimum of 1C at Barnet on the night of the 27th/28th. However, in true British fashion the weather was about to turn as we went into September...

 

Sep. 1907 - After such a cold and bland summer, September proved to be a stellar month. Temperatures were above average with warm days and cool nights. One exception was coastal areas which suffered greatly with fog. Some stations reported 26 days with dog. Another notable stat is how dry it was. After the 7th many areas recorded two weeks without rain. Some would have to wait until October for their next rain. Exceptionally dry with an average of 22.7mm, the 8th driest ever recorded.

The month started cool and unsettled but a change was coming. Pressure rose on the 7th and began a long, fine beautiful spell of weather. 

Aside from a cooler interlude from the 12th to 14th, the month was completely high pressure dominated. These are beautiful charts and would have been welcomed a couple of months earlier!

A push of southerly winds on the 25th gave much of northern and eastern England the hottest day of the year; stations across Norfolk reached 25C.

The month ended warm and fine but with some thunder in the south.

 

The stats show no one month was a record breaker, but put together it creates the sixth coldest summer on record.

Sixth coldest summer on record. June and July both 17th coldest and August 38th coldest.

In contrast, September is the 8th driest on record with an average of 22.6mm.(!)

After such a bad summer we would go through three more very poor ones until 1911 came along and was extremely hot and dry. What a shock that must have come as!

Edited September 27, 2021 by LetItSnow!

[Terminal Moraine]

Until you posted this I hadn't noticed just how cool the summer of 1907 was.

Looking back through the record at Buxton, which began in 1871, albeit with 4 years missing in the 1890s, it's the coldest summer on the whole record with a mean temp' of 11.6c and with only 1919 and 1922 coming close at 11.7c.  Since the end of the second world war the nearest approach to 1907 was in 1954 with a summer mean temp' of 11.9c. The summer of 2007 at Buxton was a comparatively balmy 13.7c.

[LetItSnow]

Can you imagine if 2022 did a 1907? I wonder how we'd all react to a summer like that. Considering the reaction to the summer just gone here in the SE I think quite a few would be driven to literal insanity. I suppose back then summers like this, while grim, weren't as shocking as it would be now.

1 minute ago, Terminal Moraine said:

Until you posted this I hadn't noticed just how cool the summer of 1907 was.

Looking back through the record at Buxton, which began in 1871, albeit with 4 years missing in the 1890s, it's the coldest summer on the whole record with a mean temp' of 11.6c and with only 1919 and 1922 coming close at 11.7c.  Since the end of the second world war the nearest approach to 1907 was in 1954 with a summer mean temp' of 11.9c. The summer of 2007 at Buxton was a comparatively balmy 13.7c.

 

[A Face like Thunder]

Thank you for this very informative post. Strangely, Philip Dunn makes no mention of the summer of 1907 in his book on Great British Weather Disasters, with a focus instead on 1912 which was 'arguably the worst summer of the 20th century'. With June and July 1903 producing copious rainfall, and 1911 being a v hot summer, it is clear that the early part of the 20th century was 'turbulent' in terms of summer weather.

[hillbilly]

Just by coincidence someone posted this image on a local history forum yesterday so i decided to have a look what i could find.The only info i could find was that it was listed a s a drought year but whilst looking i also found that two years later in 1725 it was very wet and Cold.Not just ordinarily cold but Trevor Harley has it listed as the coldest summer of the entire series.

[LetItSnow]

3 hours ago, hillbilly said:

Just by coincidence someone posted this image on a local history forum yesterday so i decided to have a look what i could find.The only info i could find was that it was listed a s a drought year but whilst looking i also found that two years later in 1725 it was very wet and Cold.Not just ordinarily cold but Trevor Harley has it listed as the coldest summer of the entire series.

1725 is indeed the coldest summer in the entire series, even colder than anything from the 1690s.

[Summer8906]

On 27/09/2021 at 08:52, A Face like Thunder said:

Thank you for this very informative post. Strangely, Philip Dunn makes no mention of the summer of 1907 in his book on Great British Weather Disasters, with a focus instead on 1912 which was 'arguably the worst summer of the 20th century'. With June and July 1903 producing copious rainfall, and 1911 being a v hot summer, it is clear that the early part of the 20th century was 'turbulent' in terms of summer weather.

Strange coincidence about 1907/12 and 2007/12, certainly - though 2011 was of course not at all like 1911.

[Summer8906]

On 27/09/2021 at 05:26, LetItSnow! said:

After such a bad summer we would go through three more very poor ones until 1911 came along and was extremely hot and dry. What a shock that must have come as!

 

Was 1908 so bad? I am sure I remember reading about that year as a whole and the impression I got was that it was an interesting year without too much bad weather, with snow in January, April and December, a mixed but fairly average summer, and some very warm weather in October.

[LetItSnow]

2 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

Was 1908 so bad? I am sure I remember reading about that year as a whole and the impression I got was that it was an interesting year without too much bad weather, with snow in January, April and December, a mixed but fairly average summer, and some very warm weather in October.

The summer overall compared to 1907 was a Godsend, but overall it wasn't much to write home about. No month was above average and August was very cool. June was dry but July and August were both notably wet, particularly August. The interesting weather that year occured outside the summer. A brief flick through the charts showed the summer was very episodic. Despite being wet, it was never unsettled for weeks on end and even the poor August managed some high pressure spells. Short version, yes quite poor but much better than 1907 and 1909.

[A Face like Thunder]

If I may quote from Brazell's very good book on London weather to 1964:

" Noteworthy features are the 12 cool summers during the 14 years 1879 - 92 and the 14 cool summers during the 18 years 1907 - 24. Warm summers were more frequent during the period 1931-60 than any previous 30-year period since 1871. There were only 2 warm summers in the period 1901-30 and three in the period 1871-1900. The coldest summer on record was in 1888 when the mean temperature at Kew was only 58.3F. The warmest summer on record (to 1964) was in 1846 with a mean temperature of 66.5F at Greenwich".

[Summer8906]

18 minutes ago, LetItSnow! said:

The summer overall compared to 1907 was a Godsend, but overall it wasn't much to write home about. No month was above average and August was very cool. June was dry but July and August were both notably wet, particularly August. The interesting weather that year occured outside the summer. A brief flick through the charts showed the summer was very episodic. Despite being wet, it was never unsettled for weeks on end and even the poor August managed some high pressure spells. Short version, yes quite poor but much better than 1907 and 1909.

Thanks - that might have been why I was of the impression 1908 wasn't so bad - when I was reading about it (think it was a historic MWR) there must have been 'enough' fine weather in July for me to rate the month as 'not too bad' and the single, perhaps, bad month of August wasn't enough for me to consider the summer as a 'bad' one.

Most of the 190x summers were pretty poor though if I remember right, with 1902 and 1903 being particular shockers too (?)  - though 1900 and 1906 were pretty decent.

[LetItSnow]

1 hour ago, Summer8906 said:

Thanks - that might have been why I was of the impression 1908 wasn't so bad - when I was reading about it (think it was a historic MWR) there must have been 'enough' fine weather in July for me to rate the month as 'not too bad' and the single, perhaps, bad month of August wasn't enough for me to consider the summer as a 'bad' one.

Most of the 190x summers were pretty poor though if I remember right, with 1902 and 1903 being particular shockers too (?)  - though 1900 and 1906 were pretty decent.

1903 is perhaps the worst summer in the London area ever recorded. Jun. 1903 featured an immense deluge of rain some time around the middle of the month and I think it rained for three days straight or something ridiculous like that. Might still be the wettest June on record in places. July and August were also extremely wet and very cool. It was, by all accounts I've seen, just miserable.

[Summer8906]

17 hours ago, LetItSnow! said:

1903 is perhaps the worst summer in the London area ever recorded. Jun. 1903 featured an immense deluge of rain some time around the middle of the month and I think it rained for three days straight or something ridiculous like that. Might still be the wettest June on record in places. July and August were also extremely wet and very cool. It was, by all accounts I've seen, just miserable.

So no coincidental 100-year-similarity there

[Weather-history]

18 hours ago, LetItSnow! said:

1903 is perhaps the worst summer in the London area ever recorded. Jun. 1903 featured an immense deluge of rain some time around the middle of the month and I think it rained for three days straight or something ridiculous like that. Might still be the wettest June on record in places. July and August were also extremely wet and very cool. It was, by all accounts I've seen, just miserable.

 

42 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

So no coincidental 100-year-similarity there