Memories of 2017

[Sunny76]

One of the middle years of the last decade.

Not a classic, but some interesting weather. The April to June period had a decent period of settled weather, only let down by a cool dull spell in early June, just before the Grenfell Tower incident. Then it turned very hot for a few days with towards the end of June with hot sunny days and it became very humid.

The first half of July was very warm or hot for a few days, and thunderstorms moved in on the evening Tuesday 16th?, with distant flashing of highly elevated lighting. This was just after dark between 9 and 11pm, but overnight storms moved in properly later into the night.

The summer came to an end after this event, with mostly cool and dull periods until late august bank holiday.

Autumn was forgettable, but December was chilly with some settling snow a couple of weeks before Christmas, and this set the stage for the winter of 2017/18.

[SqueakheartLW]

17 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

One of the middle years of the last decade.

Not a classic, but some interesting weather. The April to June period had a decent period of settled weather, only let down by a cool dull spell in early June, just before the Grenfell Tower incident. Then it turned very hot for a few days with towards the end of June with hot sunny days and it became very humid.

The first half of July was very warm or hot for a few days, and thunderstorms moved in on the evening Tuesday 16th?, with distant flashing of highly elevated lighting. This was just after dark between 9 and 11pm, but overnight storms moved in properly later into the night.

The summer came to an end after this event, with mostly cool and dull periods until late august bank holiday.

Autumn was forgettable, but December was chilly with some settling snow a couple of weeks before Christmas, and this set the stage for the winter of 2017/18.

Not the most memorable year for weather events at least.

The winter of 2016/17 was a borefest and I remember little about it.

March 2017 was a very mild March from what I remember

A few hot days in the earlier part of the summer before the usual descent to a meh August, in line with the August trend we have seen since 2004.

Autumn was mainly forgettable apart from 16th October when we got storm Ophelia and that strange red sun and yellow/brown sky event, the only stand out event of the autumn

I do remember November 2017 had several winter teaser northerlies or NW'lys which were a hint to come that winter 2017/18 was going to be more interesting from a colder perspective at least and early December snowfall was a sign that the winter was a little bit different and although we saw further cold snaps and snow during that winter it took until February 2018's beast from the east before it finally hit us big time.

[damianslaw]

Not a memorable year weatherwise. Jan- March forgettable very mild mostly snowless. April was a highlight very warm sunny and dry. May to August disappointing. No real warmth often wet. Autumn struggling to remember a bit more seasonal I think. November was quite cold with northerly blasts. December more wintry than many a recent one. 

[MP-R]

January - dry, often frosty and occasionally very cold with a dusting of snow on the second Friday

February - largely boring, early easterly was quite disappointing, then there was storm Doris late in the month

March - stormy start and a warm sunny finish but can't remember much of the rest

April - very dry but unexceptional temperatures and sunshine

May - dry but often cool first third, very wet middle third, then very warm/hot final third with some of the best thunderstorms I've seen on the 27th

June - unsettled first and final week, but often warm and sunny for the remainder; the hottest temperatures of the summer came in the third week with 34C

July - warm overall; dry and often sunny first half, then big thunderstorms on the 17th/18th, followed by a gradual deterioration as the month wore on

August - quite bland, often changeable, never terrible but rarely great either and a warm sunny Bank Holiday weekend; like a typical September

September - awful, cold and very wet

October - not very memorable at all

November - changeable but quite dry and plenty of northerly or northwesterly airstreams

December - some good wintry episodes in the first half and after Christmas; wetter and milder in between. The 10th is a memorable date as rain and gales turned to much calmer conditions and heavy snow very quickly

[Weather Enthusiast91]

I don't remember what spring was like that year, with the exception of a very warm spell in late May. But I do remember that the first half of summer was decent, with some hot and fairly humid days around the solstice as well as durng the first half of July. After that, summer went downhill resulting in a meh second half.

September was around average and I cannot recall any particular warm spells that month, which I imagine would have been a little disappointing for those who were hoping for a last blast of summer. I don't recall how the rest of the autumn panned out.

I remember a few (heavy at times) snowfalls in December. And this was the start of a memorable winter.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Summer18]

Quite boring overall but had some decent moments.

The winter period was very dull, can barely remember it but we had a snowy day in March. Spring had some decent warm weather, the end of May in particular was very hot. We had a great thunderstorm on the last Saturday of the month which gave us an absolute deluge.

June was very hot and humid but the rest of summer wasn’t particularly memorable apart from the August bank holiday.

Storm Ophelia ushered in some very warm weather in October but that orange sun is the most memorable aspect of it.

November & December had some snowy spells even if they were short lived, we missed a white Christmas here by 2 days.

I saw a meteorite pass over Leeds on New Years Eve which was unforgettable too.

[LetItSnow!]

My month by month memories of this year:

January: Often cold, frosty and sunny, but I seem to remember more unsetted weather in the third week. Heavy snowfall on the 13th was one of the most noteworthy snowfalls of the decade until February and March 2018 outdid it.

February: The first half did have some colder weather from the east but I struggle to remember much of it at all other than cloudy and seasonably cool. The second-half was very mild but ended cooler. I was ill during this time, not fond memories.

March: I remember the mildness and how advanced the trees were by the end of the month. The 30th had a particularly warm evening and I remember it feeling like a summers night, otherwise the rest is a blur.

April: Sunny and dry with practically no weather, but I do remember the very warm day on the 9th with some sunbathing in the garden so early in the year.

May: The first half I don't remember being overly warm but it quickly got quite hot at the end of the month. I don't seem to remember any storms over us at the end of May so I'm assuming where I was in NW Kent missed them.

June: The first month of the year I have more vivid detail on and that carries through the rest of the month. Early June was warm and humid but then it turned very unsettled for a time. We had a severe, rather destructive gale on the 6th. I remember the heatwave around Father's Day and it feeling quite unusual as at the time I don't think we'd had an early heatwave like that for quite some time. Turned cooler and a lot wetter into the final days.

July: The summer had one final burst of quite hot weather on the 6th then it was over until May the next year. An exceptionally wet and thundery month here, particularly from the 19th onwards - in that period I recorded a heavy rainstorm/thunderstorm almost every day of the month, particularly on the 23rd. The previous year had been quite dry but by the end of the month everything was green.

August: A very wet, nearly consistently cool and cloudy month with only a brief warm Bank Holiday. This month wasn't as thundery as July but it was consistently wet with a lot of frontal rain. I was living in my childhood home at this point and we had lavender and loads of other flowers and plants in the garden since we planted them all in 2013 and they never were as lush and vibrant as they were in the summer of 2017. I remember vividly late-August watching the devastation of Hurricane Harvey while it was a beautiful sunny, warm day - it felt very strange the polarisation.

September: A very cool and quite cloudy month. The 1st of September brought an unexpected thunderstorm during the early hours - under a slack NE wind, thunderstorms began to develop on an organised line across the SE. At one point, in the night sky I could detect what looked like funnel clouds trying to develop but they never came to anything, otherwise it brought what seemed like hours of torrential, thundery rain and localised flooding - the rest of the day proved to be fine and dry. Briefly warm on the 4th before turning stormy and cool again, big windstorm on the 13th. Then came a spell of very cool but calm northerly winds which felt very seasonable crisp. It turned warmer at the end of the month with some pleasant warmth but cool nights. Very fond of this month.

October: Very memorable for the Mars attack on the 16th due to the Saharan winds which completely blanketed the skies in dark reddish-brown skies which were bone dry but menacingly dark - the day before had been gloriously warm, wall to wall sunshine and low-20s. After the wet July-September period the dry weather returned. Cold end to the month.

November: Very changeable month seemingly, the last year where I saw snow fall in November (the 30th). The 30th brought cold northerly winds and snow showers and some very cold maxima. Otherwise it was a month of alternating cold and mild spells.

December: One of my favourite Decembers from memory - generally cold in the first half with frost at first, then a big snowstorm on the 10th into the 11th which brought the heaviest December snowfall for 7 years. As it usually does, it turned milder for Christmas, but IIRC it did sneak colder weather in over the rest of the month. Christmas Day itself was grey and wet.

On a personal level it was one of the better years of the decade, in the second-half mostly, so perhaps my memories of the weather are enhanced by that. I liked the generally cooler spell from July to December, bar the warm October, it often brought quite a lot of seasonable weather. Despite the summer being very wet, I don't remember this year ever seeming overly dull. Indeed, 2015, 2016 and 2018 all brought long sunless periods at one point but I don't remember that being the case in 2017, could be wrong though.

[Harry233]

Probably the second most boring year of the 2010’s after 2011.

Winter 2016/17 - was a constant stream of mild, dry, windy weather. Only very brief cold snaps and the only snow I can remember at all was around the 14th January. Wet come February and storm Doris (I think it was named at the time) just brought a brief sleet shower in the morning followed by heavy rain and strong winds.

Spring: Now if it hadn’t been for the spring it truly would’ve been a depressing and boring year weather wise. March started off poor but it improved as the month went on. It turned very mild and sunny near the end with some very high temperatures by day but also some crisp frosty nights. April had a very good start with lots of mild and sunny weather and it was exceptionally dry I only recorded 4mm of rain all month. It turned cool after midmonth and I can remember some very cold days around the 24th-27th. Although the mild weather returned for the months close. May was a brilliant month. The first 12 days was virtually unbroken sunshine, no rain and high teens/low 20’s temperatures. It turned quite unsettled for a few days for a week after but then it settled down by the 21st and got very warm, I reached just shy of 28.C on the 26th which turned out to be the warmest day of the year. There was also a cracking thunderstorm on the 27th before the closing days cooled off but remained settled.

 

Summer: Definitely one of the worst ones of the decade, not as bad as 2012 but probably second worst. June was very wet and dull however it was a muggy month from memory I can remember a lot of stuffy nights despite the daytime temperatures being bang on average all the time. There was a very brief spell of settled weather midmonth but after that it just remained dull and wet. It turned very cool in the closing days as well. July had an unsettled start and remained cool. It improved somewhat from about the 11th and there was some nice, warm days during that spell but still a lot of unsettled and cool weather. August was a dire month, very cool, wet and dull. The hottest it reached all month was just 22.C very disappointing.

 

Autumn: September was just a complete borefest, there was nothing of any excitement at all, didn’t exceed 20.c at all, no prolonged rain, no strong winds, no heatwaves, just constant unsettled, showery, cool weather but somehow the month ended up exactly average. October was exceptionally mild, dry but quite dull and on the 16th there was the orange sky and around that time I recall it being exceptionally mild for the time of year about 19/20.C. There was a short cold snap at the end from memory too. November was quite a cold and sunny month from memory, very cold at the end but very mild and unsettled at the start. And December seemed to follow a similar pattern, I remember it being exceptionally mild just before Christmas but then a cold snap straight after.

 

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by Harry233

[LetItSnow!]

Pressure anomaly charts for each month of 2017:

 January 2017

February 2017

 March 2017

April 2017

May 2017

June 2017

July 2017

August 2017

September 2017

October 2017

November 2017

December 2017

2017 Anually

[North-Easterly Blast]

On 25/04/2022 at 22:48, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

I don't remember what spring was like that year, with the exception of a very warm spell in late May. But I do remember that the first half of summer was decent, with some hot and fairly humid days around the solstice as well as durng the first half of July. After that, summer went downhill resulting in a meh second half.

September was around average and I cannot recall any particular warm spells that month, which I imagine would have been a little disappointing for those who were hoping for a last blast of summer. I don't recall how the rest of the autumn panned out.

I remember a few (heavy at times) snowfalls in December. And this was the start of a memorable winter.

I would not by any means call winter 2017-18 particularly cold or special.  I would say that yes it was good from a cold perspective compared to most winters in the UK since 2012-13, but in the grand scheme of things 2017-18 was a fairly average winter by UK standards, and not memorable in the way that 2009-10, Dec 2010 or 2012-13 were.  It is just very concerning to think that winter 2017-18 and winter 2020-21 may be the modern versions of 2009-10, Dec 2010 and 2012-13, and that the winter spells in these years may well be consigned to the history books.

[damianslaw]

Not very memorable. Struggling to remember much about it weatherwise. Autumn was quite seasonal not a complete mild washout. Mid Nov to mid Dec was cold with lots of frost and some snow indicating perhaps a more interesting winter ahead than the past few.