Memories of 1982

[Sunny76]

January was very cold and snowy, but the winter turned milder In February.

March was mild

April was warmer than average.

May was changeable.

June started off quite hot, with severe thunderstorms.

The summer was poor, but better than the previous run between 1977-81.

Lots of storms during the summer period.

Autumn was mild, with a warm September and the winter of 1982/83 was much milder.

[LetItSnow]

A persistently mild year apart from the exceptionally cold first-half to January - ironic really. If not for that, 1982 probably would have been close to being a 10+ C.E.T. year, rare for the time, though 1983 managed it anyway. This is the year where the shift into the current warmer weather began in some ways as the persistent above average months (though not extreme) carried into 1983 with the very hot summer and indeed into 1984 as well - three consecutive warmer than average years. This broke from 1985 through 1987, but then returned full time more or less in 1988. I've read quite a few times across the pond that December 1982 brought exceptional warmth to the East Coast. In general, the atmosphere was definitely changing.

I think aside from the historic cold in January, the month interesting month from my perspective was June 1982 - just how thundery the month was. Usually our wettest summer months come from non-thundery weather fronts giving copious amount of cold, heavy rain - but June 1982 was extremely thundery and the wettest of the century to that point and the wettest June overall since 1879 (June 1997 would go on to beat June 1982 but we wouldn't have a wetter June than 1879 until June 2007 which was then trounced by June 2012). I also think I remember someone on here pointing out it has one of the hottest first-halves to June on record, but it did cool down considerably later on. July 1982 actually was very dry (there were a run of mostly very dry Julys from 1976 to 1984) and I recall looking at the synoptics and them being quite good. I think I recall reading of significant flooding in the SE with 2 days of constant rain in October in what was a very wet and rather cool October.

Here's the pressure patterns for each month of 1982 from NOAA.

  January 1982 Classic cold pattern with low pressure undercutting the intense northern blocking. Must have been wet across Spain & Portugal.

February 1982 You can see the blocking remained into February but had fell too far southeast to bring any meaningful cold. Mild on the continent I imagine.

March 1982 Looks like your bog standard March - quite mild, stormier the further north but with occaisonal ridges bringing mild, sunny weather.

April 1982 Must have been very dry and fine across Ireland. Further east, more risks of cold northerly incursions and night frosts. Very dry looking.

May 1982 Looks like it must have been very hot across much of Europe - here, more of a battleground between northern blocking and a major Euro anticyclone. Dry for the south I imagine.

  June 1982 You can see how this month featured very wet, humid southerly incursions but also ended with cold northerlies. The southerlies won out overall.

  July 1982 Not considered a classic month, but looks very dry, warm and fine, especially further north. The south would have been more inclined for thunder. Somewhat like summer 2021?

 August 1982 Looks very cool, wet and blustery, doesn't it?

September 1982 Quite hot on the continent I imagine, but for us just very wet and probably dull - especially further north where it looks very grim!

October 1982 You can see why it was so wet, the large blocking to our NE would have held back fronts from passing over - sort of like a less intense October 2000.

November 1982 Stormy and mild. Looks very unsettled to our N/NE!

December 1982 I imagine the cold weather was kept to our NE overall with quite cold zonality here at times. Milder the further southwest you go I reckon.

1982 Anually Looks like a dry and warm year across central Europe, but for the U.K. we were on the borderline between wet and dry. Very wet across Scotland & NI?

Edited May 8, 2022 by LetItSnow!

[Sunny76]

2 hours ago, LetItSnow! said:

A persistently mild year apart from the exceptionally cold first-half to January - ironic really. If not for that, 1982 probably would have been close to being a 10+ C.E.T. year, rare for the time, though 1983 managed it anyway. This is the year where the shift into the current warmer weather began in some ways as the persistent above average months (though not extreme) carried into 1983 with the very hot summer and indeed into 1984 as well - three consecutive warmer than average years. This broke from 1985 through 1987, but then returned full time more or less in 1988. I've read quite a few times across the pond that December 1982 brought exceptional warmth to the East Coast. In general, the atmosphere was definitely changing.

I think aside from the historic cold in January, the month interesting month from my perspective was June 1982 - just how thundery the month was. Usually our wettest summer months come from non-thundery weather fronts giving copious amount of cold, heavy rain - but June 1982 was extremely thundery and the wettest of the century to that point and the wettest June overall since 1879 (June 1997 would go on to beat June 1982 but we wouldn't have a wetter June than 1879 until June 2007 which was then trounced by June 2012). I also think I remember someone on here pointing out it has one of the hottest first-halves to June on record, but it did cool down considerably later on. July 1982 actually was very dry (there were a run of mostly very dry Julys from 1976 to 1984) and I recall looking at the synoptics and them being quite good. I think I recall reading of significant flooding in the SE with 2 days of constant rain in October in what was a very wet and rather cool October.

Here's the pressure patterns for each month of 1982 from NOAA.

  January 1982 Classic cold pattern with low pressure undercutting the intense northern blocking. Must have been wet across Spain & Portugal.

February 1982 You can see the blocking remained into February but had fell too far southeast to bring any meaningful cold. Mild on the continent I imagine.

March 1982 Looks like your bog standard March - quite mild, stormier the further north but with occaisonal ridges bringing mild, sunny weather.

April 1982 Must have been very dry and fine across Ireland. Further east, more risks of cold northerly incursions and night frosts. Very dry looking.

May 1982 Looks like it must have been very hot across much of Europe - here, more of a battleground between northern blocking and a major Euro anticyclone. Dry for the south I imagine.

  June 1982 You can see how this month featured very wet, humid southerly incursions but also ended with cold northerlies. The southerlies won out overall.

  July 1982 Not considered a classic month, but looks very dry, warm and fine, especially further north. The south would have been more inclined for thunder. Somewhat like summer 2021?

 August 1982 Looks very cool, wet and blustery, doesn't it?

September 1982 Quite hot on the continent I imagine, but for us just very wet and probably dull - especially further north where it looks very grim!

October 1982 You can see why it was so wet, the large blocking to our NE would have held back fronts from passing over - sort of like a less intense October 2000.

November 1982 Stormy and mild. Looks very unsettled to our N/NE!

December 1982 I imagine the cold weather was kept to our NE overall with quite cold zonality here at times. Milder the further southwest you go I reckon.

1982 Anually Looks like a dry and warm year across central Europe, but for the U.K. we were on the borderline between wet and dry. Very wet across Scotland & NI?

You are right actually about the warming trend which kind of started in the spring of 82.

It was very cold virtually everywhere across the northern hemisphere during January 1982, following the very cold end to 1981.

Latvia recorded their last very cold December in 1981, so maybe there is something here about the gradual shift to slightly milder temps during 1982, which only became more prominent in late 1987.

December 1982 ushered in the strong El Niño of 82/83 winter, which set weather records. Many places recorded a very mild or warm and sunny Christmas Day in Northern USA and Canada. Chicago had a Christmas Day max of 19c with sunshine. 
 

Maybe this warming had a knock on effect, which created a large number of storms during the U.K. summer that year.

There was also a volcano in Peru, which some say lead to the changes in the atmosphere during 1982.

 

Now just stick in Poison Arrow by ABC, and place yourself back in 1982.

 

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Sunny76

[Don]

Apart from the cold and snow in January, I have no other weather memories of 1982.  I was young though!

[cheeky_monkey]

1982 had a very thundery summer esp June and July ..August turned cooler and more unsettled ..Mid-late Sept was hot remember walking home from school and it being 28c and going to the beach pretty late in the year..Xmas was very mild but dry

[North-Easterly Blast]

1982 looks a bit of a non-descript year after the cold of December 1981 and the first half of January 1982 had passed - with no month much below average for the CET, and most months above the average though never by more than around 0.5*C, apart from November being just a little more than 1*C above.  1982 in my opinion is a year that does not really stand out as being much out of the ordinary weather-wise, apart from the cold spell at the start of the year following on from late 1981, though it did have a very thundery and quite warm June.  The following year 1983 does stand out as being a warm year overall (by pre 1988 standards) and having what is now the second hottest July and also the second hottest of any calendar month on record, though it still contained a cold February, April and May.  

Edited May 9, 2022 by North-Easterly Blast

[Sunny76]

1 hour ago, North-Easterly Blast said:

1982 looks a bit of a non-descript year after the cold of December 1981 and the first half of January 1982 had passed - with no month much below average for the CET, and most months above the average though never by more than around 0.5*C, apart from November being just a little more than 1*C above.  1982 in my opinion is a year that does not really stand out as being much out of the ordinary weather-wise, apart from the cold spell at the start of the year following on from late 1981, though it did have a very thundery and quite warm June.  The following year 1983 does stand out as being a warm year overall (by pre 1988 standards) and having what is now the second hottest July and also the second hottest of any calendar month on record, though it still contained a cold February, April and May.  

It could be argued that 1982-84 saw a period where warmer temps in the summer started to appear. 30c and above became commonplace, where as 1980 and 81 failed to touch 30c. 

[A Face like Thunder]

I remember camping in Kent the week of the Spring Bank Holiday, and it was hot and sunny but quite humid. I don't recall any rain or thunder during the week and that must have come later during June.

[Summer8906]

My memories of 1982 are of a dry year, sunny weather in April, May, July and September, but cloudy for much of the rest of the year.

Obviously I remember the snowy spell in January, specifically being in Guildford om Saturday January 9th in heavy snow. What I do remember is how the snow laid for a very long period and only very gradually thawed - the MWR suggests a sudden thaw around the 15th but that's not what I recall at all, I remember a gradual thaw. I was in the far S, though, so perhaps the westerlies which caused the thaw took a while to get all the way down here.

I have few memories of February, though apparently it was mild, cloudy and dry (which might explain it). I recall two memories from the half-term, which could either have been the week of the 11th or week of the 18th, not sure which. The half-term Monday was warm, sunny and spring like, and then the half term Friday was persistently foggy with rain arriving in the afternoon.

I have patchy memories from March, mostly of mild, cloudy and dry days though apparently the first 20 days or so were fairly wet with westerlies. In many ways spring 1982, though, was like a contemporary spring. I distinctly remember protracted fine, warm sunny weather at the end of March and through most of April, including the school holidays. I always think of spring 1982 as a classic childhood spring, in fact.

I then remember cooler cloudier weather at the end of April and the May Day holiday was cool, windy and showery (particularly the Sunday) though May Day itself was brighter and drier though still cool.

Memories of May are of warm, sunny weather including sitting outside in a pub garden one Sunday, probably the 16th. Then at the end of May, start of June I distinctly remember a long warm, sunny but humid spell, starting around the holiday weekend. I remember a risk of storms being mentioned in the forecast each day, and most days had large Cu building up, but I only encountered an actual storm on Friday 4th, in Knutsford, Cheshire on the way to a holiday in Scotland. These were local 'heat of the day' type storms.

For two weeks from Sat 5th I was in Galloway, Scotland. This day was also warm, sunny and humid with large Cu buildup, though more organised cloud appeared to the W in the evening and after dark there was a dramatic and very loud storm with very frequent, almost constant lightning. The following day, Sun 6th was humid, dull and still - probably cyclonic rPm weather, and further thunder was heard during the afternoon.

In Scotland for the next two weeks or so, until Sat 19th I think, the weather was relatively OK if I remember right, rather cloudy, cool, but not especially wet. Looks like Scotland was perhaps the best place to be! We returned to the same location in late July, early August 1985 and that occasion was definitely wetter than in 1982.

The rest of the summer I returned to the south and recall changeability in late June/early July but then July being a predominantly sunny month - but not especially hot, cooler than August 1981, for instance. I recall one thundery episode just before mid month and then a prolonged period of sunny weather with low humidity and average temps during the early part of the school holidays. In response to the comment above, July 1982 was very much better than 2021 in the south.

Oddly for an August when I was at school, I have extraordinarily few memories of the month. I do recall windy, damp, autumnal weather over the August bank holiday but that is about it. Apparently it was rather non-descript: westerly, cloudy, but with only weak frontal systems for most of the month so actually drier than normal, but even still I am surprised how few memories of the month I have.

I remember September being a notably fine, warm, sunny month though it turned much wetter at the end, something I have later verified. As discussed above October was wet, though strangely my memory of it is a dry, cloudy month yet again. Perhaps much of the rain fell during the night. November and December were both fairly non-descript though I do recall about two weeks of fine frosty weather late Nov, early Dec - and then the Christmas period being mild and dry.

 

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by Summer8906

[LetItSnow]

Heathrow stats for 1982 against 1961-1990 averages.

JANUARY 1982: Dry and sunny, but rather cold.

Max: 6.9C (-0.2) Min: 0.4C (-1.0) Rainfall: 38.0mm (73%) Sunshine: 57.7hrs (111%) Highest Max: 12.6C (2nd & 4th) Lowest Min: -10.1C (15th)

FEBRUARY 1982: Mild and dry, but very dull.

Max: 8.4C (+0.8) Min: 2.4C (+0.9) Rainfall: 31.6mm (92%) Sunshine: 51.3hrs (76%) Highest Max: 12.9C (28th) Lowest Min: -4.6C (25th)

MARCH 1982: Wet, but extremely sunny with average temperatures.

Max: 11.1C (+0.8) Min: 2.5C (-0.2) Rainfall: 51.5mm (109%) Sunshine: 171.3hrs (156%) Highest Max: 17.4C (27th) Lowest Min: -3.3C (9th)

APRIL 1982: Warm, very dry and very sunny.

Max: 14.3C (+1.2) Min: 5.0C (+0.3) Rainfall: 22.8mm (51%) Sunshine: 180.9hrs (123%) Highest Max: 20.6C (5th) Lowest Min: -0.2C (14th)

MAY 1982: Very wet, but sunny with average temperatures.

Max: 18.0C (+1.0) Min: 7.6C (-0.4) Rainfall: 71.9mm (142%) Sunshine: 204.8hrs (106%) Highest Max: 26.6C (31st) Lowest Min: 0.2C (6th)

JUNE 1982: Very warm, but very wet and also dull.

Max: 21.5C (+1.1) Min: 12.8C (+1.8) Rainfall: 84.6mm (166%) Sunshine: 182.1hrs (92%) Highest Max: 29.3C (5th) Lowest Min: 8.5C (21st)

JULY 1982: Very dry but very dull with average temperatures.

Max: 22.7C (+0.2) Min: 13.4C (+0.3) Rainfall: 24.5mm (54%) Sunshine: 164.0hrs (84%) Highest Max: 28.4C (8th) Lowest Min: 8.7C (17th)

AUGUST 1982: Dry, but dull with average temperatures.

Max: 22.2C (+0.1) Min: 12.9C (+0.1) Rainfall: 39.7mm (77%) Sunshine: 168.9hrs (91%) Highest Max: 27.6C (2nd) Lowest Min: 8.6C (15th, 20th & 21st)

SEPTEMBER 1982: Warm, dry and sunny.

Max: 20.8C (+1.5) Min: 11.1C (+0.3) Rainfall: 39.6mm (78%) Sunshine: 156.0hrs (108%) Highest Max: 28.3C (17th) Lowest Min: 5.3C (23rd)

OCTOBER 1982: Cool, exceptionally wet and exceptionally dull.

Max: 14.1C (-1.3) Min: 7.8C (-0.2) Rainfall: 109.1mm (189%) Sunshine: 69.6hrs (65%) Highest Max: 18.1C (1st) Lowest Min: 1.7C (25th)

NOVEMBER 1982: Very mild, very wet and very dull.

Max: 11.4C (+1.0) Min: 6.2C (+2.1) Rainfall: 72.9mm (134%) Sunshine: 55.5hrs (82%) Highest Max: 18.0C (1st) Lowest Min: -2.2C (29th)

DECEMBER 1982: Wet, but sunny with average temperatures.

Max: 8.2C (+0.2) Min: 1.9C (-0.4) Rainfall: 63.6mm (112%) Sunshine: 50.0hrs (108%) Highest Max: 13.3C (15th) Lowest Min: -5.2C (24th)

 

1982: Max: 15.0C (+0.5) Min: 7.0C (+0.3) Rainfall: 649.8mm (109%) Sunshine: 1,512.1hrs (100%) Highest Max: 29.3C (5 June 1982) Lowest Min: -10.1C (15 January 1982)

Notes:

The winter ended very prematurely, but not before a rare -10C reading in January, but then the rest of the winter was unexceptionally mild...

March 1982 was very sunny in an overall very sunny and pleasant looking spring. Summer 1982 on the contrary was very dull, but then the summer returned with September 1982 looking like a very pleasant month until an unsettled last week. The reading of 28.3C on the late date of the 17th of September is notable. Then another contrast was the absolutely dreary October that followed, very wet and very dull. An unremarkable finish to the year.

[Chesil View]

Two highlights of this particular year for me were the deep cold and snow of January following on from a very wintery December 1981.

Later in the year a 12 hour thunderstorm on 12th July was very memorable for the very high frequency of lightning.

[Don]

 Chesil View A week of deep snow cover in January is (unsurprisingly) all I remember weatherwise about 1982!

[Summer8906]

 LetItSnow Oddly I don't remember the wetness or sunshine of March 1982 at all - my memories are of a rather cloudy but dry and mild month - which was very much the theme of the early months after the end of the cold and snow. This was NW Sussex. However the archives do suggest an extremely cyclonic and stormy first three weeks before a fairly benign final third - not unlike 2019, perhaps. Odd I can't remember that lengthy stormy spell.

The school Easter holidays (centred round the 11th which was Easter that year) I do remember being very nice though, dry and sunny. There was one wet and cold Monday though, possibly the first day of the holiday - could therefore have been either March 29th or April 5th. The synoptics fit March 29th better as April 5th looks mild as well as potentially wet. Also suggests we got a generous three weeks: I remember the exact dates of Easter holidays later in the 80s but not at this early point.

I also recall an early taste of spring at the start of the Feb half-term (possibly the 15th, maybe the 22nd) which was warm and sunny. The Friday of the half-term (either the 19th or the 26th) I remember a foggy start and rain arrived in the afternoon, its arrival unseen due to the fog which didn't clear until it set in.

I can't figure out from the archives which week was half term though, as Monday 15th would fit the sunny conditions (but not the 22nd) while Friday 26th would fit the rain moving in later (but not the 19th) !

The overall figures for Sep disguise an extremely wet end. Funny how often September does this (see also 1991, 2019, 2021, and this year also though early Sep wasn't great either).

August must have been very, very nondescript as despite being a school holiday I don't recall much about it at all, in sharp contrast to the surrounding years of 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1985. I remember wet and windy over the Bank Holiday. Apparently very Atlantic-dominated but not notably wet, which would explain my lack of memories as it would have been very "boring". May 1986 is another month which I surprisingly lack many memories of, and it looks like the synoptics of the two months were very similar.

July was notable for being dry and sunny but not especially hot, with a lot of anticyclonic NE-lies producing persistent low-20s temps. We were on the edge of the thundery activity earlier in the month without a direct hit. It wasn't dull at my location, if I remember right - I am almost certain that August was much duller than July as I'd have presumably remembered any significant sunshine in August.

June has been discussed in other threads for its wetness but was also surprisingly sunny in Southampton, sunnier than June 1992.

May was a classic May with much warm sunny weather though some changeable interludes and a cold NW-ly start. In fact Spring 1982 was a classic spring providing some happy memories of my earlier years. I remember nature being especially beautiful that spring: the cold midwinter weather had prevented over-early flowering but the dry and sunny spring with seasonable temps prevented overly-late flowering, so the spring was "just right".

 

Edited October 11, 2024 by Summer8906

[Thundery wintry showers]

Regarding the earlier posts about the warming trend, averaged globally, after a warming from around 1900 to 1940 and a slight drop in temperature from then until the mid-1970s, the warming period that extends to the present started in late 1979. Both 1980 and 1981 were record warm years globally and there were further record or near record warm years in 1983, 1987 and 1988. For most of the 1980s, this increased global warmth was modest enough to be largely drowned out by the natural variability of the British climate, hence the tentative hints of warming in 1982-84 but cold years in 1985-87, when we had a lot of winter easterlies and summer cyclonic/westerly types. But from the back end of 1987 onwards, the underlying warming trend began to have noticeable effects on Britain's weather patterns.

Regarding 1982, spring 1982 was one of the sunniest springs on record, although of course nothing like as sunny as the spring of 2020. I'm surprised that some recall mild dry cloudy weather in March 1982, because statistically the first two-thirds of the month were changeable and wet but fairly sunny, and then a dry sunny last week raised sunshine totals well above average. April and May were mostly warm and sunny but Philip Eden noted in his 1995 book Weatherwise that there were two northerly outbreaks that coincided exactly with the Easter and May Day bank holidays. Some eastern counties had wintry showers over Easter and wintry showers fell in some areas in early May. Thus, it wasn't a complete flip to a warm spring after the cold first half of January, but for the most part it was a warm sunny one.

June 1982 has been discussed elsewhere: very wet, very thundery over much of England and Wales, very dull in north-east England due to persistent easterlies late in the month, but relatively sunny near the south coast of England, and, in contrast, very dry in northern Scotland. July 1982 was a warm dry month but I think it tends to get overlooked because it was only sunny in north-western Britain, e.g. Glasgow was considerably sunnier than London that month. The second half had frequent north-easterly winds which probably brought more cloud into southern and eastern Britain.

It was a generally mild and wet end to the year, but with some short-lived cold snaps with snow for some, mainly in the north. 14 November brought snow for some central parts via a southerly tracking low, and Glasgow had a surprise snowfall on the 23rd. In December there was an episode of cold zonality on the 16th/17th and a north-westerly blast on the 21st/22nd, with snow for some, again mainly the north and west.

[Don]

1 hour ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

But from the back end of 1987 onwards, the underlying warming trend began to have noticeable effects on Britain's weather patterns.

Yes and it was around this time that GW was really brought to the publics attention.