Review of 2021(good and bad)?

[Sunny76]

2021 will be a year that goes down as one of the most boring for me personally.

It started off well, with a mostly cold theme, some snow and a decent dumping in late January for my neck of the woods in west London. A very nice warm snap in late March, cold sunny April.

After that it was very much downhill, starting with a dreadful May, which for the most part was cold and dull with strong north winds and temps in London only reaching 10c on some days, which is colder than what we are experiencing now in the south.

Only 3 warm to hot sunny weeks between June and August, two weeks at the start of June and the last few days of May, a hot week in July, and a dull cool august with a few humid cloudy days, and the odd warm sunny day. 
 

September was pleasant enough, but I always find a good September never makes up for a poor summer.

The remaining months unremarkable and boring.

Lack of storms and prolonged sunshine make this is very tedious year. 2020 on reflection was much better in weather terms.

My guess is going forward, 2022 will provide more variety and those summer storms will return with a vengeance.

[Norrance]

A cold, dull and wet January with cold rain, sleet, slush and icy pavements.

A snowy first half of February with over a foot lying here at 20 mtrs asl.

A cool, wettish Spring followed by a dry, quite sunny and warm Summer. (The rain was further South for a change).

A warm Autumn until November which ended with a cold spell with snow showers and the Northerly storm.

A boring December.

Pic from early Feb.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Norrance

[Sceptical]

2021 was excellent overall.

Top three winter since 2004 followed by a sunny warm summer.

 

[Sunny76]

6 minutes ago, Sceptical said:

2021 was excellent overall.

Top three winter since 2004 followed by a sunny warm summer.

 

Strange how Scotland had a better year, but the south had one of its worst summers in recent times.

August was really bad and felt almost like late autumn on some days.

2021 has made me consider moving abroad. 

[Weather-history]

One of the more interesting years until the autumn when it became a borefest.

January was snowy

Storm Christoph was a highlight of the year.  The way it went from very mild to snow cover in a few hours was the closest I have come to the winter storms of the US

April was ridiculous with how many air frosts they were. 

6th April was a highlight

16th May 2021 was a good convective day

 

[Freeze]

The only thing that stands out for me in 2021 on the south coast was that it's the first summer in god knows how long that never featured any brown or yellow grass in the spring and summer. Even the recent average summers had long periods with no rain where grass eventually scorched.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

2021 will end up being a forgettable year for weather, with hardly anything of interest happening. 

 

January: Nothing particularly spectacular, but the best one out of the winter months for that winter.

February: Quite a teasing month, as there were some cold days and it did snow. But the snow didn't settle.

March: A fairly mixed month as March often is.

April: Not a great month for gardeners as it was very dry along with it being frosty at night. Only saving grace was that it was sunny.

May: In my opinion, it was the worst May since 2012.

June: First half was decent with some pleasantly warm sunny days without it feeling particularly humid. Second half was meh.

July: Temps around average for the most part, though there was a hot spell around the middle of the month which felt rather humid. No plumes though.

August: Nothing remotely interesting happened this month. Fairly dry with temps around or just below average and generally mostly cloudy.

September: A generally warm sunny month with the exception of a couple of short blips. Was hot around the 8th.

October: Wet at the beginning as well as the end. Other than that it was mild and dry. A cooler version of August.

November: A very mild month - as well as being cloudy most of the time and rainfall being well below average. This all changed late in the month however.

December: A few coldish days during the first half of the month. Other than that, nothing to shout about.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Weather Enthusiast91

[LetItSnow!]

I enjoyed the winter for its seasonable nature, even though where I was living in West Kent, January didn’t see much if any snow at all. It was the consistency of the seasonable weather I liked, which peaked with a cold and snowy first half to February in which snow lay for an entire week with freezing cold days. It was lovely to have snow last that long as it had been a long time. Where I used to live in NW Kent may have fared better during the winter with its extremely high elevation. The second half of February I really believed would continue to deliver the goods but alas it collapsed (I believe due to the extreme cold in America which forced the blocking south). The second-half of February was very non-descript and spoiled the winter for me. 

 

Onto the spring, I liked how unusually cold it was bar the warm end to March. I remember how 30 March felt like a July afternoon. However, much of March 2021 was quite cool until this spell. April and May, as a cold lover I absolutely loved. April 2021 actually didn’t seem as sunny as April 2020 did but that may be due to how cold it was. May was like nothing in memory I can think of. We were getting to like the 23rd and it was still cold, grey, rainy and strong winds. Living in the countryside it felt very surreal and made me feel just what it might have been like to be alive during the cold 18th century. 

 

Summer came along and it was perfect for me. I relocated to London in June. The first half of June was often very sunny and warm (bar a freak day on the 4th where it was wet all day). It collapsed on the 17th and the rest of the month saw nearly no sunshine, often heavy rain and cool temperatures. The switch was extreme to say the least. As a heat hater there were no notable heatwaves at all and that was brilliant for me. There was a very oppressive spell in the second week of July, otherwise it seemed like a fairly non-descript month, often changeable and wet but never overly hot or cold. August remained similar and the end of the month felt truly autumnal. Bank Holiday Monday was very grey, misty and cold. 

 

Then autumn til now… Probably my least favourite autumn since 2014. Often lacking any real weather. Autumn warmth can have charm but it seemed like September didn’t have that. There were no chilly nights or pleasant anticyclones. It often felt miles too warm and quite sticky. October had some nice autumnal days but often was very non-descript. November seemed eternally mild and misty until the lovely crisp snap at the end. Way too far in the city and south to receive any snow from it but it did feel bitterly cold. December was doing alright until the first-half. Lots of moans about cold rain but I much prefer seasonable weather than mild gunk. That soon faded and the anticyclone proved me wrong as I thought it would quickly become a clear and frosty high. I was wrong and the cloudy nothingness returned. When the idea of a cold spell vanished it was quite a blow and now it’s been forever since I’ve seen a proper sunny day. It’s getting quite taxing! 

 

Overall I’d say a 5/10. It had some fantastic moments, proof that we can still get really cold weather AND cold months, two back to back! However, the autumn really let it down for me. Here’s to a colder year for 2022. 

[Sunny76]

8 minutes ago, LetItSnow! said:

I enjoyed the winter for its seasonable nature, even though where I was living in West Kent, January didn’t see much if any snow at all. It was the consistency of the seasonable weather I liked, which peaked with a cold and snowy first half to February in which snow lay for an entire week with freezing cold days. It was lovely to have snow last that long as it had been a long time. Where I used to live in NW Kent may have fared better during the winter with its extremely high elevation. The second half of February I really believed would continue to deliver the goods but alas it collapsed (I believe due to the extreme cold in America which forced the blocking south). The second-half of February was very non-descript and spoiled the winter for me. 

 

Onto the spring, I liked how unusually cold it was bar the warm end to March. I remember how 30 March felt like a July afternoon. However, much of March 2021 was quite cool until this spell. April and May, as a cold lover I absolutely loved. April 2021 actually didn’t seem as sunny as April 2020 did but that may be due to how cold it was. May was like nothing in memory I can think of. We were getting to like the 23rd and it was still cold, grey, rainy and strong winds. Living in the countryside it felt very surreal and made me feel just what it might have been like to be alive during the cold 18th century. 

 

Summer came along and it was perfect for me. I relocated to London in June. The first half of June was often very sunny and warm (bar a freak day on the 4th where it was wet all day). It collapsed on the 17th and the rest of the month saw nearly no sunshine, often heavy rain and cool temperatures. The switch was extreme to say the least. As a heat hater there were no notable heatwaves at all and that was brilliant for me. There was a very oppressive spell in the second week of July, otherwise it seemed like a fairly non-descript month, often changeable and wet but never overly hot or cold. August remained similar and the end of the month felt truly autumnal. Bank Holiday Monday was very grey, misty and cold. 

 

Then autumn til now… Probably my least favourite autumn since 2014. Often lacking any real weather. Autumn warmth can have charm but it seemed like September didn’t have that. There were no chilly nights or pleasant anticyclones. It often felt miles too warm and quite sticky. October had some nice autumnal days but often was very non-descript. November seemed eternally mild and misty until the lovely crisp snap at the end. Way too far in the city and south to receive any snow from it but it did feel bitterly cold. December was doing alright until the first-half. Lots of moans about cold rain but I much prefer seasonable weather than mild gunk. That soon faded and the anticyclone proved me wrong as I thought it would quickly become a clear and frosty high. I was wrong and the cloudy nothingness returned. When the idea of a cold spell vanished it was quite a blow and now it’s been forever since I’ve seen a proper sunny day. It’s getting quite taxing! 

 

Overall I’d say a 5/10. It had some fantastic moments, proof that we can still get really cold weather AND cold months, two back to back! However, the autumn really let it down for me. Here’s to a colder year for 2022. 

I feel 2022 will bring us a hot summer, and maybe a decent warm august. I’ll gladly trade that and put up with another mild winter. 
 

Another poor summer will just be too depressing to even comprehend. 

[Bradley in Kent]

For my review I'll jump into a monthly breakdown before giving my overall thoughts.

Like many, my idea of 'good' is essentially continental with just enough rain to keep the plants happy. So without further ado I'll rate the months from 'terrible', 'very poor', 'poor', 'okay', 'good', 'very good', 'excellent':

JANUARY - terrible 

A very dull and wet month which was cold but not cold enough to snow. Missed out on all snow events marred by numerous busts. In fact it was the worst month for weather in my memory! 

FEBRUARY - very good.

A decent 8 day cold spell with good snow cover helped by North Sea showers in the first half. Then we had very mild weather towards to end. 

MARCH - okay

Near average on all parameters with a couple of warm days at the end.

APRIL - good 

A very sunny month but temperatures did struggle and there was a nagging breeze at times which dragged cloud in on some days.

MAY - poor

Quite a cool, wet and dull month. Convective showers are interesting but do get on your nerves after a while.

JUNE - okay

A good first half (sunny and dry) but poor second half (cool, damp and cloudy). The two halves end up cancelling eachother out. 

JULY - good

Just about made it to 'good' thanks to good storm activity and warm spell in the middle. Rest of the month was uninspiring not helped by rest of NH experiencing a hot summer; UK under one blob of green snot as it were...

AUGUST - very poor.

The only parameter which wasn't terrible was rainfall. Just grey, cool and windy most of the time. Felt like winter.

SEPTEMBER - very good.

Well when the kids went back we knew what was going to happen and it did! Lots of usable weather with nice evenings. If August and September were swapped nobody would've suspected anything. 

OCTOBER - okay

This is a hard month to rate as it's normally an uninteresting time of year. Times of rain and cloud with some warm sunshine. 

NOVEMBER - good.

Easy to say when you had 24/7 electricity which couldn't be said for all. Here it was reasonably sunny with a few frosts and not too much rain. Also had a smattering of snow towards the end which could be it for this winter. It certainly exceeded expectations! 

DECEMBER - very poor.

Taking into account the forecast, it was / is a dull, damp and mild month characterised, like other periods this year, with cloudy high pressure. Had a few cold days to begin with but weather has got less inspiring as the month progressed.

So, overall, 2021 comes in as 'okay'; haha, after all that typing...

Here in Kent we've enjoyed good years since 2016 with warm summers. 2020 especially (barring winter) was a fantastic year meaning this year had a job to compete. 

I do know the North and West of the British Isles had a much better 2021 with cold winter weather and warmer summer weather which youse up there definitely deserve after some very drab Atlanticy years.

Fingers crossed 2022 brings some good weather for all of us . I'd like a bit more sun this time please!

 

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Favourite day has to be 24th Jan! very good snow day

[johncam]

Well up here in the central belt of Scotland we had a good Jan and Feb for snow  and for us a good summer , back end of year has been dull and met 

[Eugene]

A great cold Jan to May period followed by a terrible June to October period with consistently awfully high humidity, improving by mid Nov onwards but turning awful again late Dec. Think 2022 will be a repeat of this year for first half but hopefully a cooler and fresher June to November period, can't get worse than this years Summer to mid Autumn period that's for sure.

[Sunny76]

4 hours ago, Bradley in Kent said:

For my review I'll jump into a monthly breakdown before giving my overall thoughts.

Like many, my idea of 'good' is essentially continental with just enough rain to keep the plants happy. So without further ado I'll rate the months from 'terrible', 'very poor', 'poor', 'okay', 'good', 'very good', 'excellent':

JANUARY - terrible 

A very dull and wet month which was cold but not cold enough to snow. Missed out on all snow events marred by numerous busts. In fact it was the worst month for weather in my memory! 

FEBRUARY - very good.

A decent 8 day cold spell with good snow cover helped by North Sea showers in the first half. Then we had very mild weather towards to end. 

MARCH - okay

Near average on all parameters with a couple of warm days at the end.

APRIL - good 

A very sunny month but temperatures did struggle and there was a nagging breeze at times which dragged cloud in on some days.

MAY - poor

Quite a cool, wet and dull month. Convective showers are interesting but do get on your nerves after a while.

JUNE - okay

A good first half (sunny and dry) but poor second half (cool, damp and cloudy). The two halves end up cancelling eachother out. 

JULY - good

Just about made it to 'good' thanks to good storm activity and warm spell in the middle. Rest of the month was uninspiring not helped by rest of NH experiencing a hot summer; UK under one blob of green snot as it were...

AUGUST - very poor.

The only parameter which wasn't terrible was rainfall. Just grey, cool and windy most of the time. Felt like winter.

SEPTEMBER - very good.

Well when the kids went back we knew what was going to happen and it did! Lots of usable weather with nice evenings. If August and September were swapped nobody would've suspected anything. 

OCTOBER - okay

This is a hard month to rate as it's normally an uninteresting time of year. Times of rain and cloud with some warm sunshine. 

NOVEMBER - good.

Easy to say when you had 24/7 electricity which couldn't be said for all. Here it was reasonably sunny with a few frosts and not too much rain. Also had a smattering of snow towards the end which could be it for this winter. It certainly exceeded expectations! 

DECEMBER - very poor.

Taking into account the forecast, it was / is a dull, damp and mild month characterised, like other periods this year, with cloudy high pressure. Had a few cold days to begin with but weather has got less inspiring as the month progressed.

So, overall, 2021 comes in as 'okay'; haha, after all that typing...

Here in Kent we've enjoyed good years since 2016 with warm summers. 2020 especially (barring winter) was a fantastic year meaning this year had a job to compete. 

I do know the North and West of the British Isles had a much better 2021 with cold winter weather and warmer summer weather which youse up there definitely deserve after some very drab Atlanticy years.

Fingers crossed 2022 brings some good weather for all of us . I'd like a bit more sun this time please!

 

Is ‘Atlanticy’ a word lol. I like it!

I’m going to use it next year whenever we get rubbish weather, cloudy damp humid muggy summer weather, or mild cloudy damp weather in winter.

Damn you Atlanticy!!

[Sunny76]

4 hours ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

Favourite day has to be 24th Jan! very good snow day

Yeah that was my favourite day of the year. 

[Sunny76]

2 hours ago, Eugene said:

A great cold Jan to May period followed by a terrible June to October period with consistently awfully high humidity, improving by mid Nov onwards but turning awful again late Dec. Think 2022 will be a repeat of this year for first half but hopefully a cooler and fresher June to November period, can't get worse than this years Summer to mid Autumn period that's for sure.

It was cloudy and muggy in July, but I remember it feeling cool or cold at times on some days, especially during August. 

[damianslaw]

Good overall despite alot of very benign weather. The reference to good being the lack of Atlantic domination and its associated wind and rain. Apart from late October we've been spared any heavy rain and flooding, a rarity in recent years.

Most notable aspects the very frosty April, Storm Arwen late November was a freak event and caught many by surprise. 

I enjoyed January and first half of February whilst never especially cold, there was alot of cold weather about and a few snowfalls.

May was a major let down often our best month it was terrible cold and very wet.

The summer was preety decent but nothing special. 

September yet again very good, fast becoming an extension of summer.

Autumn as a whole was a complete yawn fest.

December looked promising to start with and the lead up to Christmas was exciting with prospect of cold and snow but oh boy what a let down and in the end a very exceptionally nothing month.

[philglossop]

I think whilst pretty benign down here, the cold April took a lot by shock and then following on, May was just a shocker. 

We had a good spell at the end of July here- not overly warm but sunny and useable. September was good, still shorts weather at football even at the end of the month.

Then came Arwen which took a very quiet Autumn and threw that into the bin- proper wind and cold. 

 

Guess I knew December's cold wouldn't hit us as forecast (cheers Models!) but it's been long turgid month. 

As a football secretary- amazingly we've not had one game P-P this season either home or away yet due to weather- it's rained on Thursday and Fridays more giving the pitch chance to soak it up for Saturday which has been very pleasing.

[Harry233]

I have to say 2021 will probably be one of the most interesting years for me weather wise. Plenty interesting weather but nothing too extreme. 
 

The winter was definitely one of the better ones. It was mostly cold and frosty with two main snowy spells. January began very cold with lots of sunny frosty weather. It got very briefly mild before becoming very snowy on the 14th. The rest of the month after that was generally quite cold and sunny. February began quite mild but turned exceptionally wintry from the 8th. There was a snow depth of 33cm which was the highest since 2010 and a low of -18.C on the 11th. This was probably the lowest temperature locally in Perth in the last 30 odd years. Although 2010 came close. It got considerably milder from the 13th and the snow rapidly melted. It turned very springlike to end the month with temperatures approaching the teens and staying very sunny and dry.

Spring was generally quite a mixed season March was pretty uneventful but was generally pleasant, mild and sunny with the odd cooler, wetter day thrown in. It turned warm midmonth reaching 18.C then turned quite windy but remained very mild at the end. April was an extremely interesting month the average minima was below freezing at -0.6.C which is almost 4.C below average! Despite that maxima was actually not far off average and there was some very pleasant days during the month. There was some days of hail and snow especially at the start and the only heavy rain came right at the end. May however was truly dismal, cold, wet, windy for virtually the whole month. It took until the 27th to exceed 20.C although the closing days were very pleasant.

Have to say and I know this will probably be unpopular after seeing the UK’s data but I would rank summer 2021 as in the top 5 summers since 2000. Scotland had one of its best summers on record. June was extremely pleasant. Plenty of 20.C days with lots of sunshine and only occasional rain. It didn’t exceed 25.C but stayed very pleasant, especially with having cool nights. July had a few drab days between the 5th-7th but for the most part it was excellent with plenty of very warm sunshine which lasted right up until the last week before it turned a bit more unsettled. August began on the same note but still had a lot of nice days in between and from the 23rd-29th the sunshine in Perth was virtually unbroken for the whole period and combine that with 25/26.C temperatures it made for a smashing end to the summer.

Into the autumn and September was generally another very summery month and the warmest day of 2021 for Perth was recorded on the 8th with 27.7.C which I’d imagine would be a record high for September. The heat lasted well into the last week of the month and like the summer there was only the occasional downpour. October was very mild with no frost but was quite a drab month, generally quite wet but didn’t feel autumnal at all as the trees were still in full leaf and green until the last week! November was quite dry and sunny but cooler however not especially, the only frost came during the last week. December was pretty average from what I can gather anyway.

 

I’d rate 2021 highly for weather especially for the summer.

[Harry233]

On 29/12/2021 at 15:47, Sunny76 said:

2021 will be a year that goes down as one of the most boring for me personally.

It started off well, with a mostly cold theme, some snow and a decent dumping in late January for my neck of the woods in west London. A very nice warm snap in late March, cold sunny April.

After that it was very much downhill, starting with a dreadful May, which for the most part was cold and dull with strong north winds and temps in London only reaching 10c on some days, which is colder than what we are experiencing now in the south.

Only 3 warm to hot sunny weeks between June and August, two weeks at the start of June and the last few days of May, a hot week in July, and a dull cool august with a few humid cloudy days, and the odd warm sunny day. 
 

September was pleasant enough, but I always find a good September never makes up for a poor summer.

The remaining months unremarkable and boring.

Lack of storms and prolonged sunshine make this is very tedious year. 2020 on reflection was much better in weather terms.

My guess is going forward, 2022 will provide more variety and those summer storms will return with a vengeance.

What I find most unusual about 2021 is the south had a really dismal summer but for Scotland it was one of the best summers in the last 100 years. 

[ANYWEATHER]

For this location Winter was fairly cold with some snow, What stands out was Spring was a very cold one. Frequent frosts with snow. April saw a widespread covering of snow on the 12th ,2008 was the last time we had that kind of covering of snow, May was cold overall,  with with sleet and snow on the 5th, but severe local thunderstorms on the 19th , brought cloud to ground lightning which struck some houses in Evesham, ,Summer was overall bland , but the middle of July was hot, Autumn was non descript apart from snow falling and settling on the last weekend of November,  and December was rather cold except a very mild spell at the end...☺

[Summer18]

First half of the year interesting, second half fairly poor. Last winter was decent, coldest here for a good few years and the snow was a good distraction from the awful lockdown. March started cold but the really warm last week was the standout. 

April was very interesting, sunny days but many cold nights and the odd snowy day. Will stick out in the memory for the period of “outdoor dining only”, freezing my balls off to have the first pint in months! 

We had some decent thunderstorms in May but that month overall was rotten, cold and wet.

Summer was a mixed bag, June was average, July was the standout month whilst August was terrible. September was decent, I did the NC500 then and the weather was pretty perfect for that. The rest of autumn was fairly boring.  

I will remember this December for missing out on a white Christmas by 17 minutes, had a decent covering Boxing Day morning! Other than that fairly terrible.  

So a real mixed bag of a year overall. 

[B87]

An exceptionally cloudy year in London, infact only 1958 recorded less sunshine.

Edited January 1, 2022 by B87

[LetItSnow!]

13 hours ago, B87 said:

An exceptionally cloudy year in London, infact only 1958 recorded less sunshine.

How many years have there been where April is the sunniest month of the year??? At least in London. I remember reading once that April 1954 was sunnier than any of the summer months that year but that could be wrong.

[B87]

6 hours ago, LetItSnow! said:

How many years have there been where April is the sunniest month of the year??? At least in London. I remember reading once that April 1954 was sunnier than any of the summer months that year but that could be wrong.

It happened in 2002, 2007 and 2015 in recent years.