Meteorological highlights of 2022?

[Weather-history]

Not sure I have seen a thread on the weather of 2022.

Highlight of the year for me was that hot spell of mid July 2022. Really odd the combination of that warmth and the strength of the wind. 

Although the summer had a summer index value, I wasn't that keen on it. Summer 2018 felt a better summer, I wonder of it is because of the sunshine levels?

The other highlight was that warm sunny day on 13th November 2022, that was an idyllic day. 

The cold spell was interesting (it made a change put it that way), the deep blue sunny skies were lovely and the frosts were intense.

Other than that I would largely bin the rest of the year as not especially memorable. Storm Franklin being the worst of the gales around here.

[SummerShower]

I think the most obvious one has to be the first 40C ever recorded in the UK. The summer as a whole was great, but centered around this heatwave and another week long one in August(also a highlight), with the rest being consistent warmth rather than anything else exceptional. It wasn't as sunny as say 76,95,2018.

For the south, storm Eunice was the best gale (alongside 30.10.00 and 18.1.07) since 1990 and this was a highlight.

Also, locally we had a very thundery first week to September as I believe other places did as well. A good storm as late as 23rd October was also a highlight.

Finally the sudden switch from a very mild autumn, to a very cold 1st half to December.  There was no snow here but it must be the quickest/most marked general switch I remember.

 

[Met.]

July 19th basically.

[reef]

The year as a whole is the sunniest and warmest on record for us, but apart from the exceptionally dry first 9 months and that July heatwave there wasn't actually too much of note. The heatwave itself saw 36.8C here, beating the previous July record by 5.1C and the all time record in August 1990 by a whole 2.8C. Ill never forget how it felt walking in that with the strong wind. It was like standing in front of an open oven.

It was a year with no measurable lying snow, no overhead thunderstorms (very few at all in fact). January and February had only 6 air frosts between them - the same as March and April. Spring was 1C above average, but it still took until 14th May to hit 20C. Autumn was the same in reverse, over 1C above average but no 20C after 12th September.

Summer admittedly was very good, with an index of 292, which is higher than 1995 and only lower than 2018 which scored 295. It was the second warmest summer on record, the driest since 1995 and sunniest since 1989. Between 8th June and 12th September, only 21 days failed to reach 20C. Only 22 days had >1mm of rain and 1 day above 10mm all summer.

The wind was notable on 18th February, giving a mean 10 minute wind speed of 54mph - the highest on record here. February was quite a windy month actually, with 12 days seeing gales.

As it will be for the CET series, it was the first 11+C year ever here. What was unusual though is that almost all of the anomaly was from the mean maximum temperature. It was 1.2C above the 1991-2020 average, whereas the mean minimum was just 0.4C above.

[al78]

The ridiculous harmful summer and losing most of the crops on my allotment for the fifth consecutive year because of more God damned locked in weather patterns bringing prolonged periods of someone elses climate.

[SqueakheartLW]

6 hours ago, reef said:

The year as a whole is the sunniest and warmest on record for us, but apart from the exceptionally dry first 9 months and that July heatwave there wasn't actually too much of note. The heatwave itself saw 36.8C here, beating the previous July record by 5.1C and the all time record in August 1990 by a whole 2.8C. Ill never forget how it felt walking in that with the strong wind. It was like standing in front of an open oven.

It was a year with no measurable lying snow, no overhead thunderstorms (very few at all in fact). January and February had only 6 air frosts between them - the same as March and April. Spring was 1C above average, but it still took until 14th May to hit 20C. Autumn was the same in reverse, over 1C above average but no 20C after 12th September.

Summer admittedly was very good, with an index of 292, which is higher than 1995 and only lower than 2018 which scored 295. It was the second warmest summer on record, the driest since 1995 and sunniest since 1989. Between 8th June and 12th September, only 21 days failed to reach 20C. Only 22 days had >1mm of rain and 1 day above 10mm all summer.

The wind was notable on 18th February, giving a mean 10 minute wind speed of 54mph - the highest on record here. February was quite a windy month actually, with 12 days seeing gales.

As it will be for the CET series, it was the first 11+C year ever here. What was unusual though is that almost all of the anomaly was from the mean maximum temperature. It was 1.2C above the 1991-2020 average, whereas the mean minimum was just 0.4C above.

This is probably to be expected due to the dry nature of a large part of the year. Drier conditions usually allow daytime temps to rise further whilst less humid or drier nights are more likely to be cooler.

What I do remember about the summer is how often we had very warm days outside of the hot spells but I don't particularly remember any of those uncomfortable sticky humid nights we can get in the summer.

2014 was one of those summers with much higher mins compared to average with the maxes probably the reason we didn't exceed 11C CET along with that meh August that year.

2022 on the other hand just scraped over 11C CET thanks largely to the maxes as well as December 2022's cold spell ending as early as it did. We were on track at one point mid month to avoid a new annual CET mean record but the mild weather since 19th December has ensured the record will fall.

 

Main memories of 2022 are the boring meh weather of January and how little snow we have seen. Only a passing non settling shower in February with a slight dusting of snow at the back end of March 2022. The only other dusting of snow came during the recent cold spell this December from a passing shower.

The heat is what I remember most however, particularly the 2 day heat spike on 18th and 19th July 2022. It was the county I live in, Lincolnshire which unusually set the max day temp record of 40.3C with widespread 40+ C temps over a large area too including Scunthorpe which had smashed Scunthorpe's record by around 5 or 6C.

Would never have expected the summer we had based on how it started when we saw all that cool, wet miserable weather around the jubilee weekend and I thought, here's to another cool washout summer, how wrong I was.

[Roger J Smith]

Warmest January daily mean in CET on 1st could be added. 

Today might have also been record warm had it not been for the same warm spell a year ago.

The year likely the warmest on record now that December failed to drop below an outcome of 2 C. 

Notable warmth mid-October to mid-November. (this is not an addition, just an observation)

 

 

[john w]

Three stick out for me, round here anyway.

1. Others have pointed out, the record breaking heat. Incredible to say the least.

2. There was a very thundery period for me which culminated on the 23rd of October with the trees out my window bending almost sideways. I genuinely thought they would snap and the rain and thunder I have not seen or heard for an incredibly long time. It came out of nowhere around 4:30 and it was intense.

3. Storm Eunice. But I think the wind squalls in point 2 easily topped the "oh my" moment when compared to the more constant winds of Eunice.

 

 

[Mizzle]

Yes the intense heat of our first 40°C day period is memorable - awfully memorable. As too is what seems to have been incessant rain for longer periods after the drought conditions.

A few good thunderstorms and of course, the wonderful cold snap if early December ( yes, I am a coldie). 

For me, what I actually remember as a whole is the exceptionally long period of Atlantic inactivity: so much so, that now (Jan 2023) it is active again it seems unusual.

[cheeky_monkey]

here the most memorable event of 2022 was the abrupt shift in weather patterns after the first week of July ..prior to that it had been a cool wet spring followed by a very wet cool June and first week of July..it did not reach 25c until the 8th July one of the latest on record. Thereafter the weather flipped to very dry and hot..there was no appreciable rain until the last week of October..the rest of July and August had an average daily max of 26c ..July - Oct were all 3-4c above normal.

[Sunny76]

On 31/12/2022 at 12:23, Weather-history said:

Not sure I have seen a thread on the weather of 2022.

Highlight of the year for me was that hot spell of mid July 2022. Really odd the combination of that warmth and the strength of the wind. 

Although the summer had a summer index value, I wasn't that keen on it. Summer 2018 felt a better summer, I wonder of it is because of the sunshine levels?

The other highlight was that warm sunny day on 13th November 2022, that was an idyllic day. 

The cold spell was interesting (it made a change put it that way), the deep blue sunny skies were lovely and the frosts were intense.

Other than that I would largely bin the rest of the year as not especially memorable. Storm Franklin being the worst of the gales around here.

Some of those overnight storms towards the end of august and into September were quite notable, on the back of the hot August and long dry sunny period, which came to an end around August 24th.

The severe thunderstorm on a Sunday afternoon in late October. Must have been around 4pm or slightly later, but it was almost dark during this period, and the storms moved over London for about half an hour. 

[Jo Farrow]

Nick Finnis has written a summary of 2022 highlights, which might act as a reminder. 

2022 a year of new UK weather records: warmest year, highest ever temperature and other records broken

WWW.NETWEATHER.TV

---

A look back at the UK's notable weather events in 2022, the year of numerous records broken, most notably the warmest year on record and the first time 40C has been reached.

 

[dryfie]

20 minutes ago, Jo Farrow said:

Nick Finnis has written a summary of 2022 highlights, which might act as a reminder. 

2022 a year of new UK weather records: warmest year, highest ever temperature and other records broken

WWW.NETWEATHER.TV

---

A look back at the UK's notable weather events in 2022, the year of numerous records broken, most notably the warmest year on record and the first time 40C has been reached.

 

 Afraid that this summary is inaccurate.  The Met Office version is:

"The confirmation comes as quality control testing, including physical inspections, cross-checking of stations and sites and further testing of equipment was carried out on a number of sites where records were provisionally broken. These quality control measures are in accordance with the internationally-agreed World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) standards, which are required to be accepted as official records.  

Records broken

Record-high temperature records have also been verified for Wales, with 37.1°C at Hawarden Airport, Flintshire, on 18 July now verified. All appropriate standards have also been met to confirm a new record high temperature for Scotland of 34.8°C at Charterhall on 19 July. 

A previous provisional reading of 35.1°C was reported at Floors Castle, Borders, but, following inspection, the site set-up was not fully compliant with observing standards so the value did not meet the criteria needed to be declared as an official national record. "

The Floors Castle reading was disallowed following site inspection a day or two later, apparently due to an area of horticultural fleece which had been erected nearby. 

[Jo Farrow]

4 hours ago, dryfie said:

 Afraid that this summary is inaccurate.  The Met Office version is:

"The confirmation comes as quality control testing, including physical inspections, cross-checking of stations and sites and further testing of equipment was carried out on a number of sites where records were provisionally broken. These quality control measures are in accordance with the internationally-agreed World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) standards, which are required to be accepted as official records.  

Records broken

Record-high temperature records have also been verified for Wales, with 37.1°C at Hawarden Airport, Flintshire, on 18 July now verified. All appropriate standards have also been met to confirm a new record high temperature for Scotland of 34.8°C at Charterhall on 19 July. 

A previous provisional reading of 35.1°C was reported at Floors Castle, Borders, but, following inspection, the site set-up was not fully compliant with observing standards so the value did not meet the criteria needed to be declared as an official national record. "

The Floors Castle reading was disallowed following site inspection a day or two later, apparently due to an area of horticultural fleece which had been erected nearby. 

Ta, we'll get that rectified

[Weather Enthusiast91]

For me, the main highlight of 2022 was long dry and settled periods interspersed by abrupt but shortlived very unsettled ones. This seemed to be a common trend up until September.

What I enjoyed about 2022 was the stormy February, all the excitement on here over our very first 40 Celsius day and the fact that we had a good August for once. Those temps during the July heatwave isn't something I'd want to experience on a regular basis though as it did get a but much. 

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Metwatch]

As most have said, breaking the 40⁰C barrier was an incredible feat, the heat was close to unbearable but thankfully cleared quickly.

Storm Eunice though I had missed the worst of it, gave quite the battering for the south.

It was nice to also have a lovely warm bright August.

The thunderstorms in September were quite the spectacle, capturing lots of lightning. interesting for here to have all storms outside of meteorological summer, taking place mainly in September, one in May and a storm in October.

 

Edited January 13, 2023 by Metwatch

[AlexG595]

Storm Eunice was the only enjoyable thing of winter 2022-23. Me and my friends all stood outside during the peak of the gusts and we could barely keep our eyes open!

March's sunny spell whiles initially unmemorable, I look back and realise just how impressively sunny that month was for the time of year

I found this year's summer ondto almost be like a switch. The first half felt warm but relatively average during the June heatwave but the 2nd half after the 40c heatwave just felt like you just set the UK on fire. It quickly changed from a "normal" summer to a very "droughty" summer like that of 2018. It felt exceptionally hot by mid August with the daily 34c's across the UK and the whole attitude changed as a hosepipe ban was introduced. My local pond was exceptionally low by the beginning of September and made 2018's drought look like a picnic

Does anyone have any comparisons with the second half of this summer's CET maxima compared to other notable summers?

[Weather Enthusiast91]

In regards to the July heatwave, I can remember it feeling like a giant hairdryer was being blown on me. But it was somewhat more bearable being outdoors than being indoors which felt like a furnace. I am glad that heatwave was very shortlived.

[matt111]

3 hours ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

In regards to the July heatwave, I can remember it feeling like a giant hairdryer was being blown on me. But it was somewhat more bearable being outdoors than being indoors which felt like a furnace. I am glad that heatwave was very shortlived.

At home the cooler sea breeze prevented it here but it was when I went inland one day I felt it. That was quite an experience considering I'd never felt anything like that before, at least not outside  

Edited January 14, 2023 by matt111

[matt111]

Storm Eunice was the first time I'd ever seen structural damage to the house I live in caused by the wind. Luckily it was only minor but still shows just how strong it was that day. 

[Sunny76]

Storm Eunice wasn’t very memorable from my experience, and certainly nothing matching the devastation of October 1987.

 

[Willsy]

my best highlights of 2022 was the barton on sea tornado which caused t5 damage in places which is phenomenal for this country.  saw it first hand to which was experience in its self let alone seeing my first waterspout then tornado and not just a normal one as was a multiple vortex. as it came in off the sea i could see the mesocyclone spinning rapidly which must have been 500m across with several funnels touching the water and a horizontal funnel being sucked in from right hand hand side. torro estimated the tornado to be 300m wide at its widest point and this occurred a couple miles in land and also where i saw the worst damage. i will remember this for a lifetime! 

[al78]

19 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

Storm Eunice wasn’t very memorable from my experience, and certainly nothing matching the devastation of October 1987.

 

Well October 1987 was something like a 1 in 200 year event at least so it is very unlikely any of us will see a storm coming close to that any time soon.

Eunice was not bad in my past of West Sussex. A very windy day with some trees and large branches down, the most memorable thing was trying to walk from Haywards Heath to Horsham along the High Weald Landscape Trail and I couldn't because the paths were blocked by fallen trees and it was really squidgy underfoot in places, so ended up walking on tarmac for much of the distance.

There was an oddity in the wind observations from Eunice near me. Charlwood recorded a 78mph peak gust and Gatwick recorded a peak gust 20mph lower despite there only being a couple of miles difference between the stations and no topography which could have enhanced gusts locally (that I am aware of).