Memories of 1983

[danm]

12th July 1983:

 

[Sunny76]

On 14/09/2022 at 13:24, Summer8906 said:

Overnight 24-25 July was a pretty epic one, a typical night-time first-half-of-the-80s storm following a warm thundery day previously.

Many instances of this kind of overnight storm earlier in the 80s, the others being the aforementioned 1/2 June 1981, 5/6 June 1982 (in Galloway, Scotland, so out of my normal area), 31 May/1 June 1983 and 31 July/1 Aug 1983. From the 90s, the storms of 1/2 June and 2/3 July 1999 were very reminiscent of the earlier 80s events - summer 1999 did have that thundery "back to the 80s" feel.

1992 and 94 had that feel also. 

[Summer8906]

18 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

1992 and 94 had that feel also. 

True. 1994 had mostly daytime storms but 1992 did have a few night-time storms in late July/early August.

Edited November 6, 2022 by Summer8906

[Sunny76]

12 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

True. 1994 had mostly daytime storms but 1992 did have a few night-time storms in late July/early August.

94 had a few night time storms. One notable storm was the late evening into the night time of June 24th 1994.

London had another overnight storm some time in July during that hot month. Think it was a Tuesday.

Then, we had another storm on a Saturday evening in early August I think.

 

[Summer8906]

6 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

94 had a few night time storms. One notable storm was the late evening into the night time of June 24th 1994.

Yes, there were a few evening storms, though where I was (Hampshire) they were mostly during the hours of daylight, which at that time of the year are extend well towards midnight, or very early in the hours of darkness. The June 24 storm, and the similar one on July 1, both peaked in the evening. I was thinking more of the big night-time storms which peak in the small hours and wake you up

6 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

London had another overnight storm some time in July during that hot month. Think it was a Tuesday.

Ah yes, I'd forgotten that one. Again in Hampshire, I was on the edge of it, so I remember hearing the thunder and seeing the lightning but there was little or no rain. This was the night of July 12-13, so it was a Tuesday night. There was then a brief interruption to the hot weather on the Wednesday (a typical gloomy after-storm day) before it then became fine again.

6 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

Then, we had another storm on a Saturday evening in early August I think.

 

There were the evening storms of Wed Aug 3, at about the same time as the June 24 storms, but as it was Aug the nights had drawn in a little and they peaked during the early hours of darkness, perhaps around 10pm. Notable for visible Cb clouds and frequent lightning, though I was in the Bath area on this day. Not sure if they affected London.

I can't remember any Sat storms in early August though, but conceivable they may have occurred on Sat July 30 which was an extremely humid day with storms forecast, though I didn't encounter any.

Edited November 6, 2022 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

Back to 1983, and I do have a memory of a mild and dry spell around Bonfire Night. In fact, oddly (given this time of year's propensity for extremely unsettled weather) most of the Bonfire Night events I remember from the 80s enjoyed benign weather, with about half mild and half cold.

The following weekend (I think) I remember a school trip to London Zoo on a Friday, so probably Friday 11th, though it could have been Friday 4th (the dates in 1983 were the same as this year). It was an unusually late occurrence of both mild and sunny weather, which is normally very rare once you get past the end of October. The only other years with such weather I can remember were 1989 (a very notable spell) and 2011, though maybe with a bit of luck we might get some next weekend.

Autumn 1983 as a whole was an odd one, with each month progressively more settled than the last, the reverse of the normal. Sep was mostly unsettled though from the 22nd it was warm and dry; October was mixed; and November was mostly settled with just short wet spells. Storminess peaked in January that winter!

Edited November 6, 2022 by Summer8906