Memories of 2011

[Sunny76]

Mostly forgettable, apart from the warm sunny April, with a hot Easter weekend, around 28-29c. Don' t think we've had a warmer one since. I was in Brussels on the Good Friday, when some afternoon storms broke out, and I think these may have been the same ones that hit London on the Saturday. 

No storms during the summer, and a very poor one.

A mild autumn and very mild Christmas. This was the poorest winter 2011-12, during the colder years of 2008-13.

[LetItSnow!]

Being 10 at the time it's these years I start to have memories of the weather properly.

Vague memories of the winter fizzling out after the extreme December - I remember my 10th birthday, February 22nd, 2011 being a cold and grey day as I spent it at Leeds Castle in Kent. No snow, just cold with grey leaden skies. I think it was an attempt at easterlies that failed.

The spring is what I remember most about this year, I remember March fairly well for it's pleasant sunny days but quite cool nights. April 2011 is etched in my brain as even as a 10 year old, not going on weather forums or knowing about the C.E.T. or anything, I knew just how exceptional it was. Very, very warm. Very late Easter that year I seem to remember - we went on a family meal around East Sussex on around the 23rd to 25th and remember it feeling incredibly muggy and warm, but even moreso I remember thunderstorms in the area as my father was standing outside smoking and I could hear thunder quite loudly in the distance. Driving home in the evening I remember a mass of black cloud to our west as we came back to Kent. We actually put the roof back up for fear it was going to poor with rain - it never did though and it stayed dry the rest of the night. Does anyone else remember any isolated thunderstorms around this time?

The summer I don't remember much about, though I know it was very cool. The thing I remember the most is a forecast for torrential storms on the night of the 27th - again, being afraid of thunderstorms this terrified me! I remember anxiously cloud watching that evening, was a warm evening, but any ominious clouds went away and it ended up being a clear night in NW Kent - however, it all went off with a bang the next day almighty! June 28th, 2011 was a very stormy day. I remember it being a very cloudy day and not particularly warm, but we had three rounds of thunderstorms during the afternoon which dropped an almighty amount of rain and thunder. It was enough to make the news as I remember a news report about a lightning strike hitting a home nearby. I remember once the storms had passed it turned unusually cool and cloudy.

I remember the autumn fairly well, mostly because of the spell of heat at the end of September and early October. IIRC, I spent October 1, 2011 by the beach. I remember it being a cloudless day, hot and sunny and loads of people lapping the sun up. As a 10 year old, even I thought it was bizzare. I remember a thundery spell on what I believe was October 25, 2011. November and December of 2011 I have pretty much zero memory of, though I do remember a very mild Christmas and the news reports of it that followed. I also remember a little bit about the very stormy spell across Scotland on December 8.

[Harry233]

Yeah a year to forget imo as well. In my mind what sticks out.

January: Continued exceptionally cold from that extraordinary December. A few days of snow but nothing too major. A milder interlude followed midmonth with a slight thaw but temperature still struggled. Turned colder and snowy again towards the end.

February: A horrible depressing month, mild, wet and very dull. Nearly on par with 2002. Can’t recall any good from the month. 7/8.c maxima a 2/3.C minima pretty much the whole month. Only a couple of frosts.

March: Quite mild and sunny but unsettled. There was a quite a notable snowy spell I think maybe the weekend of the 12/13th but not too sure. Other than that just a slightly better than average March.

April: A phenomenal month. Very warm, dry and sunny for the vast majority. The average maxima for me was 16.6.C compared to 2007’s 16.1.C so even warmer. Most days with beautiful warm sunshine but still with cool enough nights. Only brief cooler/wetter spells that last only one or two days at a time. 

May: Unsettled month, record breaking wet for western Scotland. However I only recorded slightly above average rain, quite sunny as well but unsettled. A few days of warm sunshine would always finish with a wet and cool spell. Notable gale on the 23rd. Brought down some trees in Perth.

June: Unsettled and rather cool, the month started very warm and settled with temperatures in the mid 20’s. Rest of the month was pretty cool and wet with the occasional warmer and drier day thrown in. Some very cool nights around the middle of the month. Did improve in the last week with some warm, sunny weather.
 

July: Another unsettled month but like June had a very good start and finish with unsettled weather in between. Wet for the most part but quite sunny, notable very wet days on the 6th and 15th which brought some really bad flooding to Perth. Cool nights were very notable during this month too.

August: Dismal, cold, wet and dull rounded off a poor summer. Very little in the way of sunshine or warmth at all. 

September: A good month at last, quite warm and settled but still with some heavy rain from time to time. Notable warm spell in the closing days which brought the warmest day of 2011 to me on the 30th.

October: Very Mild and quite dull but not especially wet. Only very wet at the start.

November: Exceptionally mild otherwise unremarkable.

December: Very stormy, mild and wet. Most notable for hurricane bawbag on the 8th. Caused a fair bit of destruction. 
 

Not a year to remember unfortunately 

[A Face like Thunder]

Friday 29th April was a bank holiday for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton and was, I recall, a scorcher for the time of year!  

[SummerShower]

January.. was quite cold actually, especially both at the start and end of the month.

February.. boring!  Nothing of note during the month.  The highlight was some moderate rain on 26th

March.. can't remember the beginning but there was some nice weather in the 2nd half.

April.. amazing.  Sunny all month practically with many warm days in the 2nd week.  The real warm spell iirc kicked off on 19th with maxima of 24C+ widely, daily until 25th.  It peaked at 27.8c which at the time was the highest since 1949.  The only rain I remember was on 1 day, around the 5th I think.

May.. can't remember too much, but a warm humid day on 6th followed by a deluge on the 7th, thunder in places too.

June.. good start, shocking 2nd half, but a hot day on 27th followed by a weak thunderstorm on 28th

July.. in my opinion not as bad a month as people make out.  Many days were usable and actually quite warm by day (maybe cool at night).  Don't remember much rain, but certainty no heat.  Boring perhaps, but definitely usable.

August.. hot first 3 days.. a short heatwave touching 30c in places.  Very wet on the 18th, a washout.  Generally quite poor

September.. not a bad month which culminated in that phenomenal heatwave that lasted into October.  I can't decide which was more exceptional, this heatwave or the easter one?  

October.  Phenomenal start, then was generally dry and there continued to be some nice days thrown in especially mid month

November.. standout was the spanish plume on the 3rd/4th (the latest such occurrence I remember).  Notable as we hadn't had that many plumes since 2006.  We had 2 inches of rain overnight, with constantly rumbling thunder

December.. unremarkable, but I think areas further north had a storm on the 8th and snow around 16th.  Very mild Christmas

Not the most interesting year but certainly not without its moments.

[LetItSnow!]

On 13/04/2022 at 13:54, LetItSnow! said:

Being 10 at the time it's these years I start to have memories of the weather properly.

Vague memories of the winter fizzling out after the extreme December - I remember my 10th birthday, February 22nd, 2011 being a cold and grey day as I spent it at Leeds Castle in Kent. No snow, just cold with grey leaden skies. I think it was an attempt at easterlies that failed.

The spring is what I remember most about this year, I remember March fairly well for it's pleasant sunny days but quite cool nights. April 2011 is etched in my brain as even as a 10 year old, not going on weather forums or knowing about the C.E.T. or anything, I knew just how exceptional it was. Very, very warm. Very late Easter that year I seem to remember - we went on a family meal around East Sussex on around the 23rd to 25th and remember it feeling incredibly muggy and warm, but even moreso I remember thunderstorms in the area as my father was standing outside smoking and I could hear thunder quite loudly in the distance. Driving home in the evening I remember a mass of black cloud to our west as we came back to Kent. We actually put the roof back up for fear it was going to poor with rain - it never did though and it stayed dry the rest of the night. Does anyone else remember any isolated thunderstorms around this time?

The summer I don't remember much about, though I know it was very cool. The thing I remember the most is a forecast for torrential storms on the night of the 27th - again, being afraid of thunderstorms this terrified me! I remember anxiously cloud watching that evening, was a warm evening, but any ominious clouds went away and it ended up being a clear night in NW Kent - however, it all went off with a bang the next day almighty! June 28th, 2011 was a very stormy day. I remember it being a very cloudy day and not particularly warm, but we had three rounds of thunderstorms during the afternoon which dropped an almighty amount of rain and thunder. It was enough to make the news as I remember a news report about a lightning strike hitting a home nearby. I remember once the storms had passed it turned unusually cool and cloudy.

I remember the autumn fairly well, mostly because of the spell of heat at the end of September and early October. IIRC, I spent October 1, 2011 by the beach. I remember it being a cloudless day, hot and sunny and loads of people lapping the sun up. As a 10 year old, even I thought it was bizzare. I remember a thundery spell on what I believe was October 25, 2011. November and December of 2011 I have pretty much zero memory of, though I do remember a very mild Christmas and the news reports of it that followed. I also remember a little bit about the very stormy spell across Scotland on December 8.

Another spell that I forgot to mention, but can't make out whether it was 2010 or 2011. I remember into the night of the 5th/6th of June some big thunderstorms here in NW Kent. I don't remember anticipating anything - IIRC it had been a quiet evening, but towards 8-10 ish that night an almighty deluge of rain came out of nowhere, like turning a tap on, followed by very loud thunder and quite intense lightning. These storms lasted all through the night. Then the next day, the 6th, was a firecracker of a day. I was out that day with my mother and remember being in the back of the car driving through torrential thunderstorms across the Kent/Surrey border. It seemed like one of those days where a thunderstorm was never all that far away, constantly stormy. I know for a fact it was the 5th and 6th of June I remember but not sure if it was 2010 or 2011. Anyone remember any big storms around the Kent/Surrey area on either of those days/nights?

[Summer18]

Winter 2010-11 after December was quite dull, the January I remember being cold and a localised snow event on around the 19th February is all that sticks out. I only remember that one because I was due to have my first driving lesson that day but it was cancelled.

April was amazing, one of the best weather months I can remember. The only rain I can recall were thunderstorms on Easter Saturday. The heat also felt like July on some days. 

The summer itself was crap but the end of September and early October made up for it a bit. October 1st was unbelievable, it felt so warm despite the sun feeling quite weak. The best weather came either side of summer. 

November and December were really mild especially Christmas Day, the complete opposite the year before. 

Edited April 14, 2022 by Summer18

[damianslaw]

A very forgettable year this one, not quite on a par with 2002 but close. Only standouts were April, very dry very sunny and very warm, similiar to 2007 and 2020. 

30 Sept unusual warmth and vety humid felt like high summer.

That's it.. otherwise often just very drab Atlantic muck. Jan and Feb brought little cold or snowy weather though first week of Jan was snowy with height. Summer was poor limited heat or dry weather. Autumn very mild. December some snow mostly higher ground but generally very wet and mild. 

[SqueakheartLW]

One of those drab forgettable years, a bit like 2002 was.

Probably largely forgotten as it was bookended by the colder block of years between 2008 and 2010 and the wet 2012 and the cold 2012/13 winter

Only real standout as mentioned already is the warm April and the heat at the back end of September/early October, otherwise mainly meh and forgettable

I think 2011 ranks above 2002 however as unlike 2002 where nothing really stood out at least 2011 had that April and the autumn heatwave.

[damianslaw]

1 hour ago, SqueakheartLW said:

One of those drab forgettable years, a bit like 2002 was.

Probably largely forgotten as it was bookended by the colder block of years between 2008 and 2010 and the wet 2012 and the cold 2012/13 winter

Only real standout as mentioned already is the warm April and the heat at the back end of September/early October, otherwise mainly meh and forgettable

I think 2011 ranks above 2002 however as unlike 2002 where nothing really stood out at least 2011 had that April and the autumn heatwave.

Yes agreed. Sandwiched between two more notable years, 2010 for sustained cold, 2012 excessive rain following the exceptionally warm March. 

[Weather Enthusiast91]

A warm and dry April as well as a period of unseasonably very warm to hot weather at the end of September and into October.

Apart from that, nothing much else happened that year.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Weather Enthusiast91