Opening days of June 1997

[Summer8906]

Anyone remember this? It featured one of the most unusual thundery breakdowns I'd experienced to this date.

The cool, dull, exceedingly cyclonic and wet June 1997 is well known but what is interesting is how it developed, following fine weather late in May.

So May 1997 featured a final week of dry, sunny weather with low humidity and deep blue skies. Probably quite low night-time minima as well I suspect, but cannot remember. ISTR temps reaching about 25C in the south but warmer in the north. The high was centred NW of the UK so there were NE-ly winds, hence the lack of excessive heat or humidity.

So not obvious conditions for a thundery breakdown. Sunday June 1 started in much the same way but with more of a breeze and actually a little cooler. The middle of the day was sunny and warm, perhaps around 23C, with fair-weather Cu.

The odd turn of events then occurred though that evening. Thundery skies and Ac cast advanced from the SE (an unusual direction) associated with lower pressure over the continent. It remained non-humid. But after dark, brief thunderstorms passed over - they didn't last too long, but even still, it was very strange to have them after the preceding conditions.

The rest of the first week was more changeable with slack low pressure, and it actually became more humid behind this thundery outbreak. The forecast was for a repeat performance on the evening of Mon 2nd but it never happened. Eventually around Fri 6th a brief burst of heat from the S arrived, in front of a large deep low from the Atlantic, and then the rest is (somewhat unfortunate) history. (Thankfully July and August were of course much better, not to mention September).

[MP-R]

The first 10-11 days were really quite interesting. Quite sunny here until the 6th, and as you say increasingly humid, then thunderstorms on that first weekend, particularly the 8th. After that a few more warm sunny days before it then fell apart and we had 3-4 weeks of meh. Never horrendously wet here but very dull!

Did you have any thunderstorms in early July? It became warm and humid again and we had some on the 9th.

[Summer8906]

2 hours ago, MP-R said:

The first 10-11 days were really quite interesting. Quite sunny here until the 6th, and as you say increasingly humid, then thunderstorms on that first weekend, particularly the 8th. After that a few more warm sunny days before it then fell apart and we had 3-4 weeks of meh. Never horrendously wet here but very dull!

Now you mention it I think I remember an interlude of better weather around the 11th-12th. Here it was otherwise mostly cyclonic SW-ly for about two weeks from the 6th. A slack but deep low then crossed over during the weekend of the 21st-22nd which produced some really heavy thundery downpours and it was very cool. It appeared the upper trough transitioned from W to E of the UK at this point, as this was then followed by static low pressure over the North Sea which produced cool and wet cyclonic northerlies for about a week, this was the wettest and dullest period of the month. It finally pulled away on the 30th, IIRC, which was drier if still cool and cloudy.

2 hours ago, MP-R said:

Did you have any thunderstorms in early July? It became warm and humid again and we had some on the 9th.

I remember high pressure developing around the 4th and that week (of the 7th) was warm and sunny under a high. However I do remember seeing some quite extensive large Cu development considering the high pressure and do remember hearing reports of storms in some places, which surprised me considering the high pressure. Maybe an upper cold pool?

[MP-R]

45 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

 

I remember high pressure developing around the 4th and that week (of the 7th) was warm and sunny under a high. However I do remember seeing some quite extensive large Cu development considering the high pressure and do remember hearing reports of storms in some places, which surprised me considering the high pressure. Maybe an upper cold pool?

Yes it became very slack and instability grew as time wore on. It was quite a similar setup to the second week of May 2006... highish pressure but enough instability for convection to grow. The 9th brought thunderstorms in the evening here that had trundled along the M4 corridor westwards.

1997 was a good year for thunder here, especially May, but as mentioned at times in June, July & August too.

[SummerShower]

I remember this spell quite well.  The 29th to 31st May were sunny and very warm with gin blue skies.  This continued on the 1st June but it was unusually windy.. I think coastal areas had 50mph easterly gusts.  Then there were a few days of changeable weather but the 5th was very warm and humid and we had a storm on the evening of the 6th. There were further storms scattered throughout the country from the 7th to 11th.  We had a small one on the 11th, when my dad's friend was struck by lightning on the golf course, but then the weather was awful for the next 3 weeks and we had continuous moderate rain from the 25th to 27th and it was barely in double figures with  gusty ne winds.

An interesting summer overall.  I missed most of the August plumey weather though as I was in florida (but we had some crackers over there).