Memories of 1987

[Sunny76]

One of the most memorable from the 80s.

I remember the snowfall from January. It was well below freezing for a number of days. Coldest temps were recorded since 1947.

Warm sunny April, and Easter. Very warm and sunny, during the two week school break. 

May 1987 was wet, but we had a break in Bournemouth during the late May half term. I remember a few days being quite warm and sunny, despite the month overall being cool and damp.

June was a washout. Just remember lots of rainy weather.

Late July thunderstorms, during the daytime in London. This was at the start of the school summer holidays.

Mid August severe storms overnight, Friday 21st, Saturday 22nd August. Hot spell of weather, followed by some violent storms moving into the London area on the Friday evening and into the night. More storms arrived later into the night, and another thunderstorm rumbling in the distance during the Saturday afternoon.

September was warm and sunny to start. Think it became cooler later on.

The Great Storm in October. Hard to forget this night.

 

Christmas Day in London, bright sunny skies and very mild.

[damianslaw]

Yes memories of the freezing weather in mid January. It coincided with a weather project we were doing and remember measuring air temp each morning being -5 degrees. 

March 87 was snowy.

April I remember was warm and sunny around Easter.

May to August very poor often wet and cool. The third such period in the space of 4! 

Don't recall much about rest of the year.. we didn't have any effect from the October storm. A very mild Christmas.  The 80s were not renowned for cold Christmas or Decembers other than 81 though late 85 was cold.

[Sunny76]

1 minute ago, damianslaw said:

Yes memories of the freezing weather in mid January. It coincided with a weather project we were doing and remember measuring air temp each morning being -5 degrees. 

March 87 was snowy.

April I remember was warm and sunny around Easter.

May to August very poor often wet and cool. The third such period in the space of 4! 

Don't recall much about rest of the year.. we didn't have any effect from the October storm. A very mild Christmas.  The 80s were not renowned for cold Christmas or Decembers other than 81 though late 85 was cold.

Summer 87 seemed better than 86. I remember more warm sunny days in July and August, in between all the cool cloudy weather. It was also quite hot and humid in mid August during the night time.

[North-Easterly Blast]

2 hours ago, damianslaw said:

 

 A very mild Christmas.  The 80s were not renowned for cold Christmas or Decembers other than 81 though late 85 was cold.

The 2010s also were not renowned for cold Christmases or Decembers other than 2010; though late Dec 2014 was quite cold, and so was the first half of Dec 2017.

Edited February 14, 2022 by North-Easterly Blast

[HafrenLMP1]

I recall January being bitterly cold; I had a morning paper round, and I had handwarmers inside my gloves to keep my hands warm. Early March brought snow, but Easter which was late that year was very warm.

I remember June being wet; the first two Test matches v Pakistan were ruined by constant rain delays. I can't recall anything memorable for the rest of the summer, though I'm sure the autumn was wet, as I got a few soakings whilst delivering papers - and trying to save up for a new Goretex jacket.

[Summer8906]

Sorry for the slightly late reply, haven't had a chance until now. Also a very long reply (sorry, I have many memories of this year!)

An interesting year with two historic events, one perhaps more welcome than the other. However a cool and at times wet summer.

January of course was notable for the extremely cold and snowy weather. I seem to remember New Year's Day being mild and wet, however, a hang-over from the prolonged zonal spell which had started in mid-October. Then I recall the initial Saturday (3rd) being cold and sunny, and Monday 5th being cold, sunny and a bit hazy as the colder weather started filtering in. However temps were not far below normal at this stage.

I have vivid memories on Saturday 10th just after sunset, perhaps 4.30 - 5pm at that time of year, of seeing a clear sky with ragged clouds spreading from the east and some deep purple colours in the sky - it had already turned very cold by then and one could almost sense the incoming historic spell. I also remember the moon rising, something I have verified (see fourmilab.ch/yoursky).

I can't remember the exact date of the big snowfall, amazingly, but I do remember the whole of the week of the 12th having thick snow cover and extremely cold days, so much so that condensation inside the house started freezing. It was mostly dull with occasional spells of snow several times during the week. I don't think school closed but they weren't too worried if you didn't come in; one day I did and remember the normal electric train having to be hauled by a diesel locomotive due to electrical supply problems.

I clearly remember the weekend of the 17th/18th being very snowy as I was able to fully enjoy it.

After that the weather must have moderated but the thaw, I think, was very slow and remained for much of the following week. Temp remained slightly below average until the end of the month, I think, rising just to 5-6C or so by the end of the month.

After all that February was a rather benign month, IIRC, daytime temps not far from normal with nights below average. Half-term (week of the 23rd, a late one that year presumably due to a late Easter) was calm and sunny, coldish at first then turning very mild by the end of the month.

March was a rather wintry one, something that would become increasingly rare in the following years. Along with 1986, 1995 and 2018, this is the only year when I experienced heavy lying snow in March - and that was only because I visited Stafford early in the month (weekend of 7th/8th). I remember rain on the Friday evening travelling north, but this turned to heavy snow and the Saturday was very snowy with falling snow most of the day. Sunday 8th was sunny and very cold, but the strength of the sun thawed much of the snow.

The rest of the month IIRC was a cold cyclonic NW-ly type with frequent hail or sleet showers. Sometime round the equinox I remember seeing lying snow on the South Downs in the distance, but none where I was (NW Sussex). Late in the month (the final weekend 28th/29th, especially) it became very windy and slightly milder, with WNW winds and rain or hail showers. This would probably have been a named storm these days.  ISTR March 1985 was very similar to March 1987.

April started wet but improved through the first 10 days or so, becoming notably sunny just before mid-month, such conditions persisting throughout a famously warm and sunny Easter weekend. We also got an unusually early thundery breakdown type setup late in the month; I can't remember the exact dates but do remember the final Sunday (26th) featuring some very large Cu and a day the following week having Ac Cast. I didn't observe any thunder but it was definitely in the forecast.

I think the start of May then became warm and sunny again; I definitely remember a marked, but dry, cold front overnight Sat-Sun during the first weekend (this would have been 2nd-3rd). Then, rather like March it was a showery NW-ly month; being May the showers were thundery at times. However there were dry days and it didn't 'feel' that bad. Late in the month a change of type to something much warmer occurred, arriving by the weekend of the 23rd/24th; IIRC this arrived in quite a subtle way with a low to the east (producing the showery NW-lies) sunk south or even southwest, and drew in much warmer ESE-lies.

Finally, in a setup repeated 11 years later in 1998, an Atlantic type arrived at the very end of the month following a very warm final Saturday (30th).

June of course was famously wet and cool. The first week was particularly grim with a sequence of Atlantic lows, frontal rainfall and dull conditions. However, from around the 8th to the 16th it was unusually 'interesting' for such weather. The last low in the sequence became slack and literally got stuck over the UK for more than a week. Result was a remarkable sequence of still days which would start sunny (and sometimes hazy too, almost giving the impression of a hot spell) before large, slow moving showers and thunderstorms developed daily. Some of these were quite vicious, due to the long days they also peaked late in the day, perhaps 4pm onwards. I recall on one day, perhaps Mon 15th, the storms still being around at sunset and seeing vivid pink lightning. Day temps were on the cool side but due to the still weather it felt almost warm. So definitely a notch above your normal summer unsettled spell, and a very memorable period.

Around the 17th, a more dreary variety of unsettled weather kicked in again, with a further sequence of Atlantic lows. This persisted for perhaps just over a week (though Sat 20th was sunny and rather warm with evening slow moving showers) before giving way to intensely humid and warm Tm air around the 26th or so. Temps were perhaps 25C despite complete cloud cover, so quite a change! That weekend the cloud burnt off and we had a brief spell of intense heat with 30C temps or perhaps higher to end the month.

July was a month I spent some considerable time outside the UK so some of this is second-hand. On the 1st a cold front had moved through overnight, so the day was much cooler but still dry and bright. We then got into a 'repeatedly building Azores high' setup in early July, with the Azores high building over the UK resulting in sunny and increasingly warm weather, followed by a cooldown on a weak cold front - and rinse and repeat. The weekend of the 4th/5th was a hot sunny phase, while on the 8th a cold front had moved through. These conditions apparently persisted until the 10th though I left for Germany on the 8th. It did look at one stage though like we were entering a long hot summer.

What then apparently happened was a slow and erratic breakdown from the southwest, but with gradually reducing temps and increasing cloud amounts rather than a big thundery breakdown. By the 18th a huge low had covered western Europe which apparently produced cold weather and rain in the UK. It certainly produced cold weather and rain in southwest Germany where I was - clearly a huge system! In fact about half the holiday (8th - 24th or so) in Germany was atypically cool and unsettled, it looked like there was a large low unusually far south most of the time, pushing cool Atlantic air far into the continent. There were several 'typical cyclonic showery Pm' days in Germany.

On returning to the UK a cool changeable regime persisted, with showery NW-lies - this did seem to be the 'default' type for much of 1987. This persisted into August but at some point, probably around the 12th, it became much warmer and remained so for around a week to 10 days. Like the June warm spell, it began with cloudy humid Tm before becoming much sunnier. This time however there was a marked breakdown, with evening (just after dark) thunderstorms on the 21st, quite a famous 80s storm event.

After this the low which had produced the storms got stuck in the UK area, so for perhaps 5 days it was cool and cloudy, and on some days, rather wet. This cleared, IIRC, on the evening of either Wed 26th or Thurs 27th as high pressure moved in from the Atlantic and by Friday 28th it was warm and sunny once again. I then spent a week in southwest Scotland, where it was somewhat changeable, Atlantic weather, but apparently the warm sunny weather persisted until the end of the month in the south.

So a rather changeable summer overall, but with two decent warm sunny spells in early July and mid-August. Not the worst summer of my lifetime.

I think 1987 featured the usual 'return to school' fine spell in September but can't be sure of the exact dates. I do remember that the weekend of the 5th/6th, and that of the 12th/13th, were both rather changeable and damp though, so one might assume that the fine spell was unusually short that year, lasting perhaps just 5 days or so. I do seem to remember Mon 7th and Tues 8th being fine. I also seem to remember Saturday 12th featuring steady rain, but with a forecast of likely embedded thunderstorms later. I can't recall the exact synoptic setup which would have caused this, and in any event, the storms never happened.

Mid-month was fairly non-descript I think but I do remember a notable sunny spell late month, starting the weekend of the 26th/27th, with good visibility and rather cool temperatures. This persisted until the end of the month and into October, and then I have a very distinct memory of the cool sunny weather being replaced by warm, wet and rather thundery weather due - I think - to a low moving in from Biscay. This change from cool/sunny to warm/wet struck me as unusual for this season at the time: I also recall forecasts of 21C and thunderstorms in amongst the general rain so presumably a very tropical airmass. I don't remember any storms, but I do recall the cool/sunny to warm/wet/thundery transition occuring on three further occasions in the late 80s/early 90s period, two at the same time of year: mid-April 1988, late September 1990 and early October 1991.

Somehow (I can't remember how) this warm. wet thundery weather transitioned to extremely unsettled Atlantic weather. Before the famous event I recall one day (perhaps Tues 13th) featuring active thunderstorms, visible at night from far inland, over the English Channel.

Then of course "the" infamous event of the year. Little much to say beyond what has been said already - except I remember the Thursday afternoon being very wet but still, before the storm arrived overnight. The following day was rather sunny before a further sequence of much weaker Atlantic lows then followed over the next few days; I do seem to however recall seeing possible lightning a couple of days later (it was very dark due to widespread power cuts, including our house) though this could possibly have been electric trains a few miles away.

Late October was pretty quiet by contrast, often cloudy or dull but Saturday 24th was sunny.

Early November featured some stormy weather at times, and I do remember people getting worried about a further system on Wed 11th but in the event this was nothing more than a normal windy late autumn day: I suspect the Met Office were being over-cautious after the infamous Michael Fish event.

Later in November it became frosty and settled, and I do remember the final Sunday in November (29th) starting frosty before rain moved in later. Can't remember whether this was the day the extremely mild winter of 1987/88 kicked in, but after a year of interest, sadly December 1987 was throughly drab: mild, dull, damp and drizzly if I remember right, sometimes silly mild. (Was this the mildest December until 2015?). This was perhaps the moment at which the transition to the still-ongoing run of mild and relatively snowless winters (excepting 2009-2013) began.

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Summer8906

[A Face like Thunder]

Thanks for this detailed and informative post Summer 8906. Talking of electrical problems on the railways, this is the snow plough at work in mid-Jan 1987, not at Aviemore in the Highlands but at Woodmansterne in S London, note the diesel loco hauling the train.

Friday 27th March 1987 was a particularly windy day and three men were killed in a van at Lower Kingswood near where I worked. I remember the eaves of some retirement flats, which were being built opposite my office, coming crashing to the ground during the morning. Fortunately nobody was underneath! That day got lost when the Great Storm struck later in the year, but yes, you are right in suggesting that it would have had a yellow if not amber or red warning now. 

Christmas Day 1987 was one of the mildest and sunniest on record. My sister was over from South Africa and her children were dying to see a real 'White Christmas'. The reality was that we ended up playing cricket in the garden!

 

[Sunny76]

On 21/02/2022 at 15:15, Summer8906 said:

Sorry for the slightly late reply, haven't had a chance until now. Also a very long reply (sorry, I have many memories of this year!)

An interesting year with two historic events, one perhaps more welcome than the other. However a cool and at times wet summer.

January of course was notable for the extremely cold and snowy weather. I seem to remember New Year's Day being mild and wet, however, a hang-over from the prolonged zonal spell which had started in mid-October. Then I recall the initial Saturday (3rd) being cold and sunny, and Monday 5th being cold, sunny and a bit hazy as the colder weather started filtering in. However temps were not far below normal at this stage.

I have vivid memories on Saturday 10th just after sunset, perhaps 4.30 - 5pm at that time of year, of seeing a clear sky with ragged clouds spreading from the east and some deep purple colours in the sky - it had already turned very cold by then and one could almost sense the incoming historic spell. I also remember the moon rising, something I have verified (see fourmilab.ch/yoursky).

I can't remember the exact date of the big snowfall, amazingly, but I do remember the whole of the week of the 12th having thick snow cover and extremely cold days, so much so that condensation inside the house started freezing. It was mostly dull with occasional spells of snow several times during the week. I don't think school closed but they weren't too worried if you didn't come in; one day I did and remember the normal electric train having to be hauled by a diesel locomotive due to electrical supply problems.

I clearly remember the weekend of the 17th/18th being very snowy as I was able to fully enjoy it.

After that the weather must have moderated but the thaw, I think, was very slow and remained for much of the following week. Temp remained slightly below average until the end of the month, I think, rising just to 5-6C or so by the end of the month.

After all that February was a rather benign month, IIRC, daytime temps not far from normal with nights below average. Half-term (week of the 23rd, a late one that year presumably due to a late Easter) was calm and sunny, coldish at first then turning very mild by the end of the month.

March was a rather wintry one, something that would become increasingly rare in the following years. Along with 1986, 1995 and 2018, this is the only year when I experienced heavy lying snow in March - and that was only because I visited Stafford early in the month (weekend of 7th/8th). I remember rain on the Friday evening travelling north, but this turned to heavy snow and the Saturday was very snowy with falling snow most of the day. Sunday 8th was sunny and very cold, but the strength of the sun thawed much of the snow.

The rest of the month IIRC was a cold cyclonic NW-ly type with frequent hail or sleet showers. Sometime round the equinox I remember seeing lying snow on the South Downs in the distance, but none where I was (NW Sussex). Late in the month (the final weekend 28th/29th, especially) it became very windy and slightly milder, with WNW winds and rain or hail showers. This would probably have been a named storm these days.  ISTR March 1985 was very similar to March 1987.

April started wet but improved through the first 10 days or so, becoming notably sunny just before mid-month, such conditions persisting throughout a famously warm and sunny Easter weekend. We also got an unusually early thundery breakdown type setup late in the month; I can't remember the exact dates but do remember the final Sunday (26th) featuring some very large Cu and a day the following week having Ac Cast. I didn't observe any thunder but it was definitely in the forecast.

I think the start of May then became warm and sunny again; I definitely remember a marked, but dry, cold front overnight Sat-Sun during the first weekend (this would have been 2nd-3rd). Then, rather like March it was a showery NW-ly month; being May the showers were thundery at times. However there were dry days and it didn't 'feel' that bad. Late in the month a change of type to something much warmer occurred, arriving by the weekend of the 23rd/24th; IIRC this arrived in quite a subtle way with a low to the east (producing the showery NW-lies) sunk south or even southwest, and drew in much warmer ESE-lies.

Finally, in a setup repeated 11 years later in 1998, an Atlantic type arrived at the very end of the month following a very warm final Saturday (30th).

June of course was famously wet and cool. The first week was particularly grim with a sequence of Atlantic lows, frontal rainfall and dull conditions. However, from around the 8th to the 16th it was unusually 'interesting' for such weather. The last low in the sequence became slack and literally got stuck over the UK for more than a week. Result was a remarkable sequence of still days which would start sunny (and sometimes hazy too, almost giving the impression of a hot spell) before large, slow moving showers and thunderstorms developed daily. Some of these were quite vicious, due to the long days they also peaked late in the day, perhaps 4pm onwards. I recall on one day, perhaps Mon 15th, the storms still being around at sunset and seeing vivid pink lightning. Day temps were on the cool side but due to the still weather it felt almost warm. So definitely a notch above your normal summer unsettled spell, and a very memorable period.

Around the 17th, a more dreary variety of unsettled weather kicked in again, with a further sequence of Atlantic lows. This persisted for perhaps just over a week (though Sat 20th was sunny and rather warm with evening slow moving showers) before giving way to intensely humid and warm Tm air around the 26th or so. Temps were perhaps 25C despite complete cloud cover, so quite a change! That weekend the cloud burnt off and we had a brief spell of intense heat with 30C temps or perhaps higher to end the month.

July was a month I spent some considerable time outside the UK so some of this is second-hand. On the 1st a cold front had moved through overnight, so the day was much cooler but still dry and bright. We then got into a 'repeatedly building Azores high' setup in early July, with the Azores high building over the UK resulting in sunny and increasingly warm weather, followed by a cooldown on a weak cold front - and rinse and repeat. The weekend of the 4th/5th was a hot sunny phase, while on the 8th a cold front had moved through. These conditions apparently persisted until the 10th though I left for Germany on the 8th. It did look at one stage though like we were entering a long hot summer.

What then apparently happened was a slow and erratic breakdown from the southwest, but with gradually reducing temps and increasing cloud amounts rather than a big thundery breakdown. By the 18th a huge low had covered western Europe which apparently produced cold weather and rain in the UK. It certainly produced cold weather and rain in southwest Germany where I was - clearly a huge system! In fact about half the holiday (8th - 24th or so) in Germany was atypically cool and unsettled, it looked like there was a large low unusually far south most of the time, pushing cool Atlantic air far into the continent. There were several 'typical cyclonic showery Pm' days in Germany.

On returning to the UK a cool changeable regime persisted, with showery NW-lies - this did seem to be the 'default' type for much of 1987. This persisted into August but at some point, probably around the 12th, it became much warmer and remained so for around a week to 10 days. Like the June warm spell, it began with cloudy humid Tm before becoming much sunnier. This time however there was a marked breakdown, with evening (just after dark) thunderstorms on the 21st, quite a famous 80s storm event.

After this the low which had produced the storms got stuck in the UK area, so for perhaps 5 days it was cool and cloudy, and on some days, rather wet. This cleared, IIRC, on the evening of either Wed 26th or Thurs 27th as high pressure moved in from the Atlantic and by Friday 28th it was warm and sunny once again. I then spent a week in southwest Scotland, where it was somewhat changeable, Atlantic weather, but apparently the warm sunny weather persisted until the end of the month in the south.

So a rather changeable summer overall, but with two decent warm sunny spells in early July and mid-August. Not the worst summer of my lifetime.

I think 1987 featured the usual 'return to school' fine spell in September but can't be sure of the exact dates. I do remember that the weekend of the 5th/6th, and that of the 12th/13th, were both rather changeable and damp though, so one might assume that the fine spell was unusually short that year, lasting perhaps just 5 days or so. I do seem to remember Mon 7th and Tues 8th being fine. I also seem to remember Saturday 12th featuring steady rain, but with a forecast of likely embedded thunderstorms later. I can't recall the exact synoptic setup which would have caused this, and in any event, the storms never happened.

Mid-month was fairly non-descript I think but I do remember a notable sunny spell late month, starting the weekend of the 26th/27th, with good visibility and rather cool temperatures. This persisted until the end of the month and into October, and then I have a very distinct memory of the cool sunny weather being replaced by warm, wet and rather thundery weather due - I think - to a low moving in from Biscay. This change from cool/sunny to warm/wet struck me as unusual for this season at the time: I also recall forecasts of 21C and thunderstorms in amongst the general rain so presumably a very tropical airmass. I don't remember any storms, but I do recall the cool/sunny to warm/wet/thundery transition occuring on three further occasions in the late 80s/early 90s period, two at the same time of year: mid-April 1988, late September 1990 and early October 1991.

Somehow (I can't remember how) this warm. wet thundery weather transitioned to extremely unsettled Atlantic weather. Before the famous event I recall one day (perhaps Tues 13th) featuring active thunderstorms, visible at night from far inland, over the English Channel.

Then of course "the" infamous event of the year. Little much to say beyond what has been said already - except I remember the Thursday afternoon being very wet but still, before the storm arrived overnight. The following day was rather sunny before a further sequence of much weaker Atlantic lows then followed over the next few days; I do seem to however recall seeing possible lightning a couple of days later (it was very dark due to widespread power cuts, including our house) though this could possibly have been electric trains a few miles away.

Late October was pretty quiet by contrast, often cloudy or dull but Saturday 24th was sunny.

Early November featured some stormy weather at times, and I do remember people getting worried about a further system on Wed 11th but in the event this was nothing more than a normal windy late autumn day: I suspect the Met Office were being over-cautious after the infamous Michael Fish event.

Later in November it became frosty and settled, and I do remember the final Sunday in November (29th) starting frosty before rain moved in later. Can't remember whether this was the day the extremely mild winter of 1987/88 kicked in, but after a year of interest, sadly December 1987 was throughly drab: mild, dull, damp and drizzly if I remember right, sometimes silly mild. (Was this the mildest December until 2015?). This was perhaps the moment at which the transition to the still-ongoing run of mild and relatively snowless winters (excepting 2009-2013) began.

 

You make a good case for the transition to milder winter conditions from December 1987 onwards.

I remember the very mild Christmas, but from reading your stats from June and August, you mention some very warm and humid air masses with cloudy weather. 
 

Before summer 1987, did we get warm and very humid cloudy conditions? Because I feel this might be a feature of the milder U.K. climate since the year in question. Humid cloudy conditions seem to be more frequent, but that’s not to say they never happened before 1987. 
 

The warming might have taken place sometime in the summer of 87. Something happened in the Atlantic that year, where the westerlies became much warmer and more persistent. Just a wild guess on my part.

[Sunny76]

On 21/02/2022 at 15:39, A Face like Thunder said:

Thanks for this detailed and informative post Summer 8906. Talking of electrical problems on the railways, this is the snow plough at work in mid-Jan 1987, not at Aviemore in the Highlands but at Woodmansterne in S London, note the diesel loco hauling the train.

Friday 27th March 1987 was a particularly windy day and three men were killed in a van at Lower Kingswood near where I worked. I remember the eaves of some retirement flats, which were being built opposite my office, coming crashing to the ground during the morning. Fortunately nobody was underneath! That day got lost when the Great Storm struck later in the year, but yes, you are right in suggesting that it would have had a yellow if not amber or red warning now. 

Christmas Day 1987 was one of the mildest and sunniest on record. My sister was over from South Africa and her children were dying to see a real 'White Christmas'. The reality was that we ended up playing cricket in the garden!

 

I know I keep banging on about that Christmas, but as an 11 year old, there was something of a novelty to witnessing a very mild sunny Christmas Day. 
 

 

[Summer8906]

11 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

You make a good case for the transition to milder winter conditions from December 1987 onwards.

I remember the very mild Christmas, but from reading your stats from June and August, you mention some very warm and humid air masses with cloudy weather. 
 

Before summer 1987, did we get warm and very humid cloudy conditions? Because I feel this might be a feature of the milder U.K. climate since the year in question. Humid cloudy conditions seem to be more frequent, but that’s not to say they never happened before 1987. 
 

I think we must have done because AFAIK they've always been a feature of our climate in the summer months. We did have some at the back end of August 1984, IIRC.  The spells in 1987 didn't last long, the cloudy Tm was quickly replaced by sunnier conditions as the wind backed from SW to SE and drew in drier air.

 

 

[cheeky_monkey]

On 23/02/2022 at 00:54, Sunny76 said:

I know I keep banging on about that Christmas, but as an 11 year old, there was something of a novelty to witnessing a very mild sunny Christmas Day. 
 

 

really? from memory Xmas Day 82, 83, 84 and 86 were all very mild?

[Sunny76]

7 hours ago, cheeky_monkey said:

really? from memory Xmas Day 82, 83, 84 and 86 were all very mild?

I don’t remember Christmas Day 82, although I heard it was average to mild, 83 was mild. I thought 84 was cold no? 
 

I was talking about the clear sunny weather on Christmas Day 1987 with the mild temps. 
 

[A Face like Thunder]

1 hour ago, Sunny76 said:

I don’t remember Christmas Day 82, although I heard it was average to mild, 83 was mild. I thought 84 was cold no? 
 

I was talking about the clear sunny weather on Christmas Day 1987 with the mild temps. 
 

Agreed, Christmas Day 1987 was in a league of its own in my experience, being both sunny and very mild all day.

[Sunny76]

1 hour ago, A Face like Thunder said:

Agreed, Christmas Day 1987 was in a league of its own in my experience, being both sunny and very mild all day.

Cheeky Monkey just loves to be argumentative doesn't he.

Christmas 1986 was nowhere near as mild. It was average and cloudy I think, but Chrimbo 87 was like a spring day.

And to add, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom premiered on BBC1 that day. Happy days!

Edited February 25, 2022 by Sunny76
Just to add something

[Thundery wintry showers]

I decided to check against the stats for Waddington near Lincoln, and Christmas Days 1982 and 1983 (maxes of 10.2C and 10.9C respectively) were both a little warmer than Christmas Day 1987 (9.5C max) but would have felt colder because they were windier and recorded no sunshine.  I can see why Christmas Day 1987 stuck out in the memory of some because for much of England it was a very sunny day in the middle of a generally dull spell, and it was indeed mild, though not exceptionally so.  Waddington recorded 5.9 hours on the 25th and only 0.1 hours on the rest of the days from 23-30 December inclusive.

Edited February 26, 2022 by Thundery wintry showers

[damianslaw]

On 25/02/2022 at 09:58, Sunny76 said:

Cheeky Monkey just loves to be argumentative doesn't he.

Christmas 1986 was nowhere near as mild. It was average and cloudy I think, but Chrimbo 87 was like a spring day.

And to add, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom premiered on BBC1 that day. Happy days!

Seem to remember Indiana Jones being a staple of Christmas shown films for many years mid to late 80s and early 90s. I was 9 in 1987 and have vaguest memories of watching that premiere.

[Sunny76]

1 hour ago, damianslaw said:

Seem to remember Indiana Jones being a staple of Christmas shown films for many years mid to late 80s and early 90s. I was 9 in 1987 and have vaguest memories of watching that premiere.

Yes. Between 1984 and 1995ish, the Indiana films were regular Christmas time staples. My younger brother, born in 1989, even remember watching them during the early 90s as a 4-5 year old. His favourite is Temple.

Plus, they didn’t cut the kebab scene in the opener, like they do now if the film is shown before 7pm.

 

[Weather-history]

 

I recall the Luton v Liverpool FA cup round on the Sunday as the easterly really kicked in. The ground get a snow covering. Here we had snow flurries from a clear sky. Monday was freezing with snow showers. Wedesday morning it was snowy. 

Don't recall February but do March. The first Wednesday of March we had snow and a cover and there was another snowfall on the Saturday afternoon. Remember building a snowman.  Missed out largely on the snowfalls just after mid month because there was too much of a northerly component to the wind. I recall being on the school sports field and seeing the showers streaming down the Cheshire Gap. It was only on the Friday, when the wind had a more westerly part to it, we got the snow and hail showers.

Definitely remember the Good Friday, it was glorious. Pleasantly warm, sunny and very slight breeze. It clouded up the rest of Easter though. Right at the end of that month, a thunderstorm came up from the south. A whale mouth came over and it was quite a storm. 

We had falling wet snow on the first Saturday morning in May. 

June was awful. Often cloudy, really cool but there was some thunder. At the end of the month, it really picked up. Sunny and very warm.

By the time I broke up for the summer holidays, the weather was very poor. There was a Friday at the start of August, where it was just 11C. Got warmer during the second half of August, 22nd August 1987 thunderstorms and the following day was a washout.

There was a thundery day on the first Saturday in September. It felt like every shower was electrified. 

There was a warm day on the first Monday in October and remember seeing lightning to see my north in the evening. 

Remember waking up on the morning after the Great Storm struck and seeing John Kettley and Nicholas Witchell in the CBBC broom cupboard. I thought, wow, what has happened, it sounded like it was a terrible disaster. 

Don't recall much from November but do recall a Saturday night with wintry showers in December and the Christmas being mild. 

Felt there was tragedy after tragedy in 1987: Zeebrugge, Hungerford, Great Storm, Enniskillen, King's Cross, a terrible crash on the M61.

[Thundery wintry showers]

At Durham, June 1987 had just 89.4 hours of sunshine, a total which was exceeded in November 1986 (89.6 hours), March 1987 (99.6 hours) and February 1988 (112.8 hours).  The mean maximum temperature was just 15.1C.

At Waddington it wasn't quite as exceptionally dull, but its 133.5 hours of sunshine was still the lowest for any summer month since July 1973.

Also, checking the Waddington stats for January 1987, it reached just -5C on the 12th and there was a snow depth of 30cm on the 14th.  As we'd normally expect in an easterly spell, the east was generally more heavily hit by snow in January 1987 than the west, but it was also very snowy in the usually snowless south-western coastal fringes, with over 30cm at Penzance for example.

Edited February 27, 2022 by Thundery wintry showers

[danm]

On 26/02/2022 at 20:18, Weather-history said:

 

I recall the Luton v Liverpool FA cup round on the Sunday as the easterly really kicked in. The ground get a snow covering.

Yep you can see the snow kicking in here. Heavy at the start of the game, but eased off later. Looked frigid: 

 

[Weather-history]

27 minutes ago, danm said:

Yep you can see the snow kicking in here. Heavy at the start of the game, but eased off later. Looked frigid: 

 

Remember the Boat race from that year and that lightning bolt that hit very close. Watch from about 27.53

Mentioned a number of times, the 1987 Cheltenham Gold Cup was delayed because of snow

 

The first day of the Wimbledon championship was washed out that year but it did end with glorious weather.

Test cricket was badly hit, the final day of the Open golf was played under misty murky conditions.

 

[iand61]

24 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

Remember the Boat race from that year and that lightning bolt that hit very close. Watch from about 27.53

Mentioned a number of times, the 1987 Cheltenham Gold Cup was delayed because of snow

 

The first day of the Wimbledon championship was washed out that year but it did end with glorious weather.

Test cricket was badly hit, the final day of the Open golf was played under misty murky conditions.

 

Looks bitter but the highlight was the announcer saying 2 substitutes in FA cup games that season.

I’d forgot the days when it was 2 subs and before that only 1.

[cheeky_monkey]

5 hours ago, iand61 said:

Looks bitter but the highlight was the announcer saying 2 substitutes in FA cup games that season.

I’d forgot the days when it was 2 subs and before that only 1.

what's more amazing is the short sleeves and not a glove to be seen 

[damianslaw]

6 hours ago, danm said:

Yep you can see the snow kicking in here. Heavy at the start of the game, but eased off later. Looked frigid: 

 

What date was this. I've commented on snow falling mid week in March very vivid memories but not sure of the date. Think it was a Wednesday..

[Summer8906]

On 25/02/2022 at 06:53, Sunny76 said:

I don’t remember Christmas Day 82, although I heard it was average to mild, 83 was mild. I thought 84 was cold no? 
 

I was talking about the clear sunny weather on Christmas Day 1987 with the mild temps. 
 

 

I don't remember Christmas Day 1987 very clearly but I was in northwest England so conceivable it wasn't especially sunny there. I do seem to remember the morning was relatively bright, though.

I do remember 80s Christmases seemed to follow an alternating pattern, as I've mentioned before. The even years (from 1984 to 1990, so a bit of the nineties as well) were all dull and wet, while the odd years (from 1983-91) being dry. I particularly remember Christmas Day 1983 being unusually mild, but I think most of them were to some degree.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Summer8906