September 1986

[StretfordEnd1996]

So one thing I came across recently is September 1986 with a CET of 11.3'C is the 15th coldest September on record. 

Since it's relatively recent and perhaps some members on here may remember it what were your memories. (I'm too young..)

Was it really as chilly as the stats suggest.

These uppers (of below 0'C) were brought in from HP sitting to the W/NW of us and these seem to have persisted from almost the first day of the month almost until the 20th - so almost 2/3rds of the month was under this general flow. 

-5'C isotherm flirts with Northern Scotland a few times too. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by StretfordEnd1996
Clean up

[damianslaw]

I was 8 but have no memories of it. It came on the back of an unusually cold August I think which probably meant SSST's were much colder than usual and there was little hang over warmth to tap into.

Unusual for high pressure to stay in situ to the NW in September for such a long time.

It came amidst a relatively cold period that commenced Jan 85 and lasted roughly until Autumn 87.. the storm of October 87 marked a change.

Many months were substantially colder than normal.. Jan, Feb, Mar, June, July, Aug, Nov 85!  Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, July, Aug, Sept 86! Jan, Feb, Mar, Jun, Jul, Aug 87.. some not as cold as others.. correct of wrong about summer months quoted.

A flip came in Autumn 87, summer 88 was cold and the odd month like Nov 88 but until winter 90-91 it was a much warmer period..

Weather in cycles...

[StretfordEnd1996]

7 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

I was 8 but have no memories of it. It came on the back of an unusually cold August I think which probably meant SSST's were much colder than usual and there was little hang over warmth to tap into.

Unusual for high pressure to stay in situ to the NW in September for such a long time.

It came amidst a relatively cold period that commenced Jan 85 and lasted roughly until Autumn 87.. the storm of October 87 marked a change.

Many months were substantially colder than normal.. Jan, Feb, Mar, June, July, Aug, Nov 85!  Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, July, Aug, Sept 86! Jan, Feb, Mar, Jun, Jul, Aug 87.. some not as cold as others.. correct of wrong about summer months quoted.

A flip came in Autumn 87, summer 88 was cold and the odd month like Nov 88 but until winter 90-91 it was a much warmer period..

Weather in cycles...

Yes absolutely I forget that this period in general was generally of a cooler one - be interesting to know if any of those other months you mentioned are in the top 15 coldest CET too for their respective months - I know February 1986 is one. 

Edit, just checked - Feb 1986 is the 6th coldest Feb on record (-1.1),  April is the 20th coldest on record (5.8), August ranked 17th (13.7) and then September as I've mentioned. 

Had no idea about this - I just drilled down into September without checking or thinking about the rest of the year! 

[hillbilly]

yes,i remember it well.Working on the farm high in the Pennines it was very pleasant as it was a mostly sunny,calm month which made it feel not as cold as it actually was but much of the month was very frosty in the mornings until the sun got to burn it off.

1986 certainly was a year for cold lovers with February,April,August and September all the coldest respective months since added to that November 1985 which is the coldest November in a Century.

[Optimus Prime]

Very chilly NW Europe 

Very low sea surface temperatures observed as rightly said with regards to the cold August.

The cold weather that had dominated the first 4 months culminated in very low SST's by the middle part of April (atleast relative to average)  but then recovered between June and mid-July before dropping off between late July and early October. Thereafter recovering towards more normal levels but still chilly to the end of the year.

[damianslaw]

1986 probably coldest year of the last 40 or so.. 1996, 2010 were cold years as well. Due a cold year.. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by damianslaw

[Don]

3 hours ago, damianslaw said:

1986 probably coldest year of the last 40 or so.. 1996, 2010 were cold years as well. Due a cold year.. 

Are we though, with climate change really having an influence now?

As for September 1986, I have no memories weather wise at all, unlike 4 months later.....

Edited August 9, 2022 by Don

[damianslaw]

28 minutes ago, Don said:

Are we though, with climate change really having an influence now?

As for September 1986, I have no memories weather wise at all, unlike 4 months later.....

2010 was preety cold, yes 12 years ago now.. we had a go at a cold year in 2021, at least first half of the year.. might see one but it bookends two years..

[philglossop]

September 1986 I don’t remember but August 86 was a dreadful month. It just wasn’t even warm down here and capped by Hurricane Charley on the bank holiday. 

[Sunny76]

4 minutes ago, philglossop said:

September 1986 I don’t remember but August 86 was a dreadful month. It just wasn’t even warm down here and capped by Hurricane Charley on the bank holiday. 

Yeah, I hated 1986.

Possibly the most bleak summer I’ve experienced, and not one I would want to witness ever again. 

[damianslaw]

24 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

Yeah, I hated 1986.

Possibly the most bleak summer I’ve experienced, and not one I would want to witness ever again. 

Think 1986 coldest year overall since???? 

[StretfordEnd1996]

43 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

Think 1986 coldest year overall since???? 

1986 CET's () = vs 1981-2010
Jan 3.5 (-1.1) 
Feb -1.1 (-5.7)
March 4.9 (-1.6)
Apr 5.8 (-2.6)
May 11.1 (-0.3)
Jun 14.8 (+0.7)
Jul 15.9 (-0.5)
Aug 13.7 (-2.5)
Sept 11.3 (-2.7)
Oct 11.0 (+0.4)
Nov 7.8 (+0.5)
Dec 6.2 (+1.5)
Year 8.81 (-1.09)

No year since colder than that. 2010 comes close (8.86)

Edit - perhaps appropriately enough in the legacy CET series, 1986 is the 86th coldest year on record.. (as usual out of 364 of course). 

Edited August 10, 2022 by StretfordEnd1996

[Don]

1 hour ago, StretfordEnd1996 said:

1986 CET's () = vs 1981-2010
Jan 3.5 (-1.1) 
Feb -1.1 (-5.7)
March 4.9 (-1.6)
Apr 5.8 (-2.6)
May 11.1 (-0.3)
Jun 14.8 (+0.7)
Jul 15.9 (-0.5)
Aug 13.7 (-2.5)
Sept 11.3 (-2.7)
Oct 11.0 (+0.4)
Nov 7.8 (+0.5)
Dec 6.2 (+1.5)
Year 8.81 (-1.09)

No year since colder than that. 2010 comes close (8.86)

Edit - perhaps appropriately enough in the legacy CET series, 1986 is the 86th coldest year on record.. (as usual out of 364 of course). 

Interesting, the only notably warmer than average month in 1986 was December.

[hillbilly]

The last week of the month was positively mild with 25 deg recorded in places,had it not been for that it would have been a shocker.

[StretfordEnd1996]

2 hours ago, Don said:

Interesting, the only notably warmer than average month in 1986 was December.

Suppose there had to be a much warmer than average month at some point otherwise if December were anything like February, April August and September it could well of been one of the coldest years on record..!

[Sunny76]

1 hour ago, StretfordEnd1996 said:

Suppose there had to be a much warmer than average month at some point otherwise if December were anything like February, April August and September it could well of been one of the coldest years on record..!

January 87 made up for it.

[Weather-history]

6 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

Yeah, I hated 1986.

Possibly the most bleak summer I’ve experienced, and not one I would want to witness ever again. 

Second half of June 86  was probably one of the best summer spells from the summers of 1985 to 1988 inclusive. 

June and July 1986 were drier than average and a portion of August's rainfall total was thanks to Charley.  It wasn't a washout summer.

[hillbilly]

8 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

January 87 made up for it.

If you were to add November 1985 and Jan 1987 that is 6 respective months [Jan,Feb,April,August,September and November] that are colder than any since and some of these are the coldest in a Century all within 14 months of eachother.

[StretfordEnd1996]

3 minutes ago, hillbilly said:

If you were to add November 1985 and Jan 1987 that is 6 respective months [Jan,Feb,April,August,September and November] that are colder than any since and some of these are the coldest in a Century all within 14 months of eachother.

Yes crazy period without question. Had no idea until now this period was like this.. 
 

[Don]

1 hour ago, StretfordEnd1996 said:

Suppose there had to be a much warmer than average month at some point otherwise if December were anything like February, April August and September it could well of been one of the coldest years on record..!

Yes, it's similar with warm years that have a colder than average month at some point.  If we take 2014 for example, the warmest year on record, August was cool with a CET of 15.1C.  2006 was the second warmest year on record but March was cold with a CET of 5.0C.

[HafrenLMP1]

Yes, I can remember this. In fact, I've mentioned it before. I had morning paper round and I recall quite a few cool mornings; in fact I even remember frost towards the end of the month, which was a shock, cold hands aren't great when delivering papers. However, later in the afternoon for the evening paper round, the sun was out and it was warm...t-shirt weather.

[damianslaw]

10 hours ago, HafrenLMP1 said:

Yes, I can remember this. In fact, I've mentioned it before. I had morning paper round and I recall quite a few cool mornings; in fact I even remember frost towards the end of the month, which was a shock, cold hands aren't great when delivering papers. However, later in the afternoon for the evening paper round, the sun was out and it was warm...t-shirt weather.

I had a paper round July 92 to Oct 93.. coincided with a generally wet period.. with a notably cold Sept and October and cold late Spring, summer and early autumn. Thankfully the Nov to March period was mostly mild. 

[HafrenLMP1]

Ah, so you did the Christmas period; and were the tips any good? I usually did pretty well.....

[damianslaw]

7 hours ago, HafrenLMP1 said:

Ah, so you did the Christmas period; and were the tips any good? I usually did pretty well.....

Don't recall much. Remember the odd present, chocolate namely.

[StretfordEnd1996]

On 12/08/2022 at 12:41, HafrenLMP1 said:

Yes, I can remember this. In fact, I've mentioned it before. I had morning paper round and I recall quite a few cool mornings; in fact I even remember frost towards the end of the month, which was a shock, cold hands aren't great when delivering papers. However, later in the afternoon for the evening paper round, the sun was out and it was warm...t-shirt weather.

Oooh my paper round was from around March 2009 to January 2011 - frozen cold hands I know the feeling all too well!