The worst combined spring/summer seasons on record

[Summer8906]

On 27/04/2023 at 21:11, B87 said:

That was the average high. The coldest July on record at Heathrow was in 1954 with an average high of just 19.2c. I can't imagine how awful that would have been.

Ah ok thanks. 22.3 mean max combined with very dry weather doesn't sound too bad for July. In fact, for one of the 30-year periods including 1972 (either 1951-80 or 1961-90, can't remember) the mean max in July for London was 22.5, so pretty much average for the era.

Put it this way, I'd have preferred July 1972 to most recent Augusts! In south Hampshire I suspect that a majority of Augusts in the past 15 years have failed to reach 22.3 as a mean max, and probably none of them were as dry as July 1972. Meanwhile, the sunshine figures for July 1972 aren't great, but pretty comparable in this area for most Julys and Augusts since 2007, I suspect. 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Summer8906

[mushymanrob]

according to my index... 1930, 1937, 1964, 1998, 2008, all had poor springs and poor summers... thats taking into account the relative values of temps/rain/sun. met office central england sites used.

[B87]

Looking at Heathrow, the worst are as follows...

1954: absolutely nothing positive about this year at all!

1958: cold spring, cool summer with an awful August.

1965: cold and cloudy throughout.

1968: after a sunny March it was just awful.

1972: cold, cloudy but dry.

1978: exceptionally cold April, cold summer

1980: spring not as cold as 1978, but the summer was much worse.

1986: the entire year, apart from June, Oct-Dec, was atrocious. Possibly the worst year on this list.

2021: spring was awful, summer was easily the warmest on this list but still very wet and exceptionally cloudy. August was the dullest on record.

[Sun Chaser]

6 hours ago, B87 said:

Looking at Heathrow, the worst are as follows...

1954: absolutely nothing positive about this year at all!

1958: cold spring, cool summer with an awful August.

1965: cold and cloudy throughout.

1968: after a sunny March it was just awful.

1972: cold, cloudy but dry.

1978: exceptionally cold April, cold summer

1980: spring not as cold as 1978, but the summer was much worse.

1986: the entire year, apart from June, Oct-Dec, was atrocious. Possibly the worst year on this list.

2021: spring was awful, summer was easily the warmest on this list but still very wet and exceptionally cloudy. August was the dullest on record.

2021 worse than 2012 and 1993? Surely not

[B87]

7 hours ago, plymsunshine said:

2021 worse than 2012 and 1993? Surely not

2012 had a warm and sunny March, a good spell in the last 10 days of May, and an average August.

1993 was cool but June and August were sunny.

2021 had an extremely cold, sunny April, and then well below average sun for the rest of the spring and summer. August was the dullest on record.

2023 definitely belongs in the list for the spring. A good chance it might be here in September as well.

Edited May 12, 2023 by B87

[A Face like Thunder]

15 hours ago, B87 said:

Looking at Heathrow, the worst are as follows...

1954: absolutely nothing positive about this year at all!

1958: cold spring, cool summer with an awful August.

1965: cold and cloudy throughout.

1968: after a sunny March it was just awful.

1972: cold, cloudy but dry.

1978: exceptionally cold April, cold summer

1980: spring not as cold as 1978, but the summer was much worse.

1986: the entire year, apart from June, Oct-Dec, was atrocious. Possibly the worst year on this list.

2021: spring was awful, summer was easily the warmest on this list but still very wet and exceptionally cloudy. August was the dullest on record.

Thank you. I was in London 1960s through to 1989 and I agree entirely with your data. It was said that there were 'no good summers between 1959 (when we were abroad) and 1975' and that winters in the 1960s were 'the beginning of a mini ice-age', again something which I agree with.  

[B87]

5 minutes ago, A Face like Thunder said:

Thank you. I was in London 1960s through to 1989 and I agree entirely with your data. It was said that there were 'no good summers between 1959 (when we were abroad) and 1975' and that winters in the 1960s were 'the beginning of a mini ice-age', again something which I agree with.  

The best summers of the 60s were probably 1964 and 1969. 1964 was sunnier than any summer between 2007-2012 but cool. 1969 had a warmish and sunny July, but the rest of it was poor. 1973 had a front-loaded summer and a warm September, and that was about it.

[Weather-history]

1907 and 1920 were pretty poor

[Summer8906]

On 11/05/2023 at 18:23, B87 said:

Looking at Heathrow, the worst are as follows...

1954: absolutely nothing positive about this year at all!

Wasn't January OK, with snow and also fairly sunny? ISTR this was one of the better Januaries of the 50s and 60s when I did a review of the post-war winters (from MWR) earlier this year.

On 11/05/2023 at 18:23, B87 said:

1978: exceptionally cold April, cold summer

It's true that none of the March-Aug months were great, though April and May in the north, and August in the south, were fairly decent.

On 11/05/2023 at 18:23, B87 said:

1980: spring not as cold as 1978, but the summer was much worse.

1978 and 1980 I always tend to bracket together, though my memories of 1980 are clearer than 1978. It does appear that 1980 was worse though - though even in 1980, August ended up slightly drier and warmer than normal down here in the south, due to a fine second half of the month. Additionally, April and May in 1980 were distinctly good, so a fair count of reasonable months in the spring/summer as a whole.

On 11/05/2023 at 18:23, B87 said:

1986: the entire year, apart from June, Oct-Dec, was atrocious. Possibly the worst year on this list.

I'd actually say the entire year apart from Feb, June, first half July, Sep, and the first half of Oct. Sep 1986 for me was very nice. Nov and Dec 1986 definitely weren't.

On 11/05/2023 at 18:23, B87 said:

2021: spring was awful, summer was easily the warmest on this list but still very wet and exceptionally cloudy. August was the dullest on record.

Perhaps April was the only decent month of the spring-summer season.

[B87]

1 minute ago, Summer8906 said:

Wasn't January OK, with snow and also fairly sunny? ISTR this was one of the better Januaries of the 50s and 60s when I did a review of the post-war winters (from MWR) earlier this year.

It's true that none of the March-Aug months were great, though April and May in the north, and August in the south, were fairly decent.

1978 and 1980 I always tend to bracket together, though my memories of 1980 are clearer than 1978. It does appear that 1980 was worse though - though even in 1980, August ended up slightly drier and warmer than normal down here in the south, due to a fine second half of the month. Additionally, April and May in 1980 were distinctly good, so a fair count of reasonable months in the spring/summer as a whole.

I'd actually say the entire year apart from Feb, June, first half July, Sep, and the first half of Oct. Sep 1986 for me was very nice. Nov and Dec 1986 definitely weren't.

Perhaps April was the only decent month of the spring-summer season.

You are talking to the wrong person when saying a cold January was a good month; my ideal winter months include December 2015 and February 1998/2008/2019.

April 2021 was actually the only month in the whole of 2021 that was sunnier than average. November was bang on average, the rest of the year was below.

[Summer8906]

On 12/05/2023 at 10:13, B87 said:

The best summers of the 60s were probably 1964 and 1969. 1964 was sunnier than any summer between 2007-2012 but cool. 1969 had a warmish and sunny July, but the rest of it was poor. 1973 had a front-loaded summer and a warm September, and that was about it.

Indeed, summer 1964 according to the MWR looked generally good in the south in particular, with both July and August distinctly dry, and sunnier than average. June was bad, but it was very much the minority in that respect.

Also summer 1967 looked reasonably acceptable in the south, particularly July. 1967 and 1969 had similarities by the looks of things: both had a goodish June, good July and poorer August, and both seemed to combine high sunshine and high rainfall due to warm settled spells mixed with shorter very wet spells. 1969 was the better of the two. Perhaps some similarities between these years and summer 2001.

1970 had a semi-decent August in addition to the good June, with a good initial and final third with a wet middle period. Perhaps rather like August 2007.

August 1973 also looked pretty good, along with June. With a wet July, this summer was an unusual example of a "rain sandwich". Perhaps very similar to 2009.

So in this period, I'd rate 1964 and 1969 as "better than average" according to my interpretation of the MWR, with 1967, 1970 and 1973 about "average". The others would be varying degrees of "below average". Comparing with the 2007-21 period, and based on MWR descriptions, I would say something like (best to worst):

2018

2013

2014

1964/69

1967, 1970, 1973, 2009, 2016

The others

Edited May 13, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

33 minutes ago, B87 said:

You are talking to the wrong person when saying a cold January was a good month; my ideal winter months include December 2015 and February 1998/2008/2019.

April 2021 was actually the only month in the whole of 2021 that was sunnier than average. November was bang on average, the rest of the year was below.

 

OK fair enough!

(For me December 2015 was an absolutely appalling month!)

[SummerShower]

Apart from May, 1998 easily makes the list.  Same for 2008.

[Summer8906]

36 minutes ago, B87 said:

You are talking to the wrong person when saying a cold January was a good month; my ideal winter months include December 2015 and February 1998/2008/2019.

April 2021 was actually the only month in the whole of 2021 that was sunnier than average. November was bang on average, the rest of the year was below.

Sep 2021 was also below? I thought it was slightly above, but not to the extent one would expect from the warmth (I missed about three weeks of it, being out of the country) and remember reports of it being warm, so presumably there was a lot of muggy Tm air restricting the sunshine.

I returned about the 25th or so and the final week was the typical dull, wet weather of late September which seems to occur just about every year - late Sep being actually worse than early Oct most years, it seems!

1 minute ago, SummerShower said:

Apart from May, 1998 easily makes the list.  Same for 2008.

August 1998 and June 2008? Both were decent months here.

Edited May 13, 2023 by Summer8906

[B87]

7 minutes ago, SummerShower said:

Apart from May, 1998 easily makes the list.  Same for 2008.

1998 had a sunny August though June and July were dreadful.

May and June 2008 were warm and sunny. The less said about August 2008, the better.

8 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

Sep 2021 was also below? I thought it was slightly above, but not to the extent one would expect from the warmth (I missed about three weeks of it, being out of the country) and remember reports of it being warm, so presumably there was a lot of muggy Tm air restricting the sunshine.

Yes, it was warm and wet (22.3c and 52mm) here, but only recorded about 135 hours of sun.

[Harry's House]

7 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

Indeed, summer 1964 according to the MWR looked generally good in the south in particular, with both July and August distinctly dry, and sunnier than average. June was bad, but it was very much the minority in that respect.

Also summer 1967 looked reasonably acceptable in the south, particularly July. 1967 and 1969 had similarities by the looks of things: both had a goodish June, good July and poorer August, and both seemed to combine high sunshine and high rainfall due to warm settled spells mixed with shorter very wet spells. 1969 was the better of the two. Perhaps some similarities between these years and summer 2001.

1970 had a semi-decent August in addition to the good June, with a good initial and final third with a wet middle period. Perhaps rather like August 2007.

August 1973 also looked pretty good, along with June. With a wet July, this summer was an unusual example of a "rain sandwich". Perhaps very similar to 2009.

So in this period, I'd rate 1964 and 1969 as "better than average" according to my interpretation of the MWR, with 1967, 1970 and 1973 about "average". The others would be varying degrees of "below average". Comparing with the 2007-21 period, and based on MWR descriptions, I would say something like (best to worst):

2018

2013

2014

1964/69

1967, 1970, 1973, 2009, 2016

The others

I was living in Essex in the sixties. Another similarity between 1967 and 1969 was that they both had wet and thundery Mays. I remember the summers as reasonable but not great.

[Summer8906]

22 hours ago, B87 said:

Yes, it was warm and wet (22.3c and 52mm) here, but only recorded about 135 hours of sun.

In that case, I think I made a good decision to get out of the country in Sep 2021! Not really my kind of September; in fact the most extreme combination of warm, wet and dull (2016) I didn't rate at all. I'd probably name years such as 1997, 2002, 2003 and 2009 as closest to ideal for September weather. In fact it's now been a while since we've had a really good September (as in, much drier and sunnier than normal); perhaps this year?

Edited May 14, 2023 by Summer8906

[Sun Chaser]

On 14/05/2023 at 11:22, Summer8906 said:

In that case, I think I made a good decision to get out of the country in Sep 2021! Not really my kind of September; in fact the most extreme combination of warm, wet and dull (2016) I didn't rate at all. I'd probably name years such as 1997, 2002, 2003 and 2009 as closest to ideal for September weather. In fact it's now been a while since we've had a really good September (as in, much drier and sunnier than normal); perhaps this year?

I quite rated Sep 2021: first week was stunning, culminating in a significant heatwave on 6th-7th, some insane thunderstorms on the 8th here. Second week was meh, then a run of warm dry, mostly sunny days until the 24th, at which point the weather flipped and the rest of the month was wet and cool. Not bad for so late in the season.

I also rated Sep 2020, and 2019 was just a slightly worse version of it, with both being lovely for the first 3 weeks then a poor last third. 2018 was decent, very nice in the east apparently!

I agree that we are overdue a really good September. But we're also overdue a really bad one sadly.

[Sunny76]

On 12/05/2023 at 00:28, plymsunshine said:

2021 worse than 2012 and 1993? Surely not

Yeah it was definitely worse than 93 in London. At least 93 was sunnier and warmer in August. 

[MP-R]

23 minutes ago, plymsunshine said:

I quite rated Sep 2021: first week was stunning, culminating in a significant heatwave on 6th-7th, some insane thunderstorms on the 8th here. Second week was meh, then a run of warm dry, mostly sunny days until the 24th, at which point the weather flipped and the rest of the month was wet and cool. Not bad for so late in the season.

I also rated Sep 2020, and 2019 was just a slightly worse version of it, with both being lovely for the first 3 weeks then a poor last third. 2018 was decent, very nice in the east apparently!

I agree that we are overdue a really good September. But we're also overdue a really bad one sadly.

Yes I think 2017 was probably the last ‘bad’ one. If not for the middle third, then 2019 would’ve probably been the last. First 11 days were meh and the last 9 were awful.
 

Likewise, haven’t had a stinker August for a while, here anyway. 2014 probably the last one.

[Weather-history]

I am seriously questioning just how bad the summers of the 1960s  actually  were.

Manchester Summer Indices

1960 217 1961 203 1962 197 1963 194 1964 197 1965 189 1966 192 1967 223 1968 215 1969 234

5 of them have an index of at least 200.  Compare those values with two horror summers from the 1950s

1954: 143 and 1956: 155

Interesting to note that 5 of the summers of the 1960s were sub 200mm rainfall for England and Wales. In the SE,  summer 1961 was just slightly wetter than summer 2003 and the following summer, 1962 was fairly dry. 

I don't think the summers of the 1960s overall are as bad as some make out not compared to absolute stinkers such as 1954 and 1956

[A Face like Thunder]

On 11/05/2023 at 18:23, B87 said:

Looking at Heathrow, the worst are as follows...

1954: absolutely nothing positive about this year at all!

1958: cold spring, cool summer with an awful August.

1965: cold and cloudy throughout.

1968: after a sunny March it was just awful.

1972: cold, cloudy but dry.

1978: exceptionally cold April, cold summer

1980: spring not as cold as 1978, but the summer was much worse.

1986: the entire year, apart from June, Oct-Dec, was atrocious. Possibly the worst year on this list.

2021: spring was awful, summer was easily the warmest on this list but still very wet and exceptionally cloudy. August was the dullest on record.

Strangely I was on holiday the last two weeks of May 1978 and it was sunny and hot throughout. Probably the only good weeks of that summer.

1966 - was of course World Cup year in England and the weather throughout the tournament (11th to 30th July) was grim with the exception of the infamous England v Argentina on the 23rd when it was hot and steamy on and off the pitch at Wembley. With the World Cup on, we transferred our family holiday to mid- August that year and it was sunny and hot throughout. 

Two mediocre years weather-wise but years in which I struck it lucky. 

[Summer8906]

On 22/05/2023 at 20:52, Sunny76 said:

Yeah it was definitely worse than 93 in London. At least 93 was sunnier and warmer in August. 

Sorry for the late reply, haven't been on here for a while but I agree.

June 1993 was warm and sunny except for one week in the middle of the month when the Atlantic temporarily went into full steam. Indeed the sunshine at the end of the month, particularly the final Sunday, was amongst the most intense I've experienced in the UK - I got the worst sunburn of my life in this month though this was partly due to youthful naivety and not wearing enough sun cream

July was persistently poor except for the first week.

August was somewhat mixed but was on the dry side. The first half of the month was Atlantic-dominated but with pressure not too low, so it was slightly cloudier and cooler than normal but not too wet. The third week was warm and sunny then there was an overnight wet spell and it became briefly notably cool for August, but remained dry until the end of the month.

In 2021, by contrast, none of the three months was "good" overall, a dull and damp summer broken by temporary warm spells.

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On 22/05/2023 at 21:19, Weather-history said:

I am seriously questioning just how bad the summers of the 1960s  actually  were.

Manchester Summer Indices

1960 217 1961 203 1962 197 1963 194 1964 197 1965 189 1966 192 1967 223 1968 215 1969 234

5 of them have an index of at least 200.  Compare those values with two horror summers from the 1950s

1954: 143 and 1956: 155

Interesting to note that 5 of the summers of the 1960s were sub 200mm rainfall for England and Wales. In the SE,  summer 1961 was just slightly wetter than summer 2003 and the following summer, 1962 was fairly dry. 

I don't think the summers of the 1960s overall are as bad as some make out not compared to absolute stinkers such as 1954 and 1956

If you analyse the descriptions on the Monthly Weather Report I think you could be right.

1964, 1967 and 1969 were probably on the good side overall. 1968 was good towards the northwest, including Manchester. 1962, as you say, was on the dry side if cool.

I haven't looked at 1960 yet but surprised that comes out so well. ISTR June was very good but July and August terrible - but haven't yet looked at the MWR for that year.

I can't remember anything about 1961; I think 1963 was another summer with an emphasis on cool and cloudy but wasn't so wet. 1965 was probably the poorest, as the Manchester indices suggest. 1966 was mostly fairly unsettled but had a decent second half of August.

Edited June 9, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On 22/05/2023 at 20:58, MP-R said:

Yes I think 2017 was probably the last ‘bad’ one. If not for the middle third, then 2019 would’ve probably been the last. First 11 days were meh and the last 9 were awful.
 

Likewise, haven’t had a stinker August for a while, here anyway. 2014 probably the last one.

Here I'd probably rate 2015, 2017, 2020 and 2021 as bad as 2014. In the case of 2020, that week of oppressive humidity was easily outweighed by some horrendously dull and wet weather for around two weeks immediately following it. The Wednesday just after mid-month, in particular, was one of the worst August days I can recall with all-day rain and intense autumnal gloom more akin to November.

2014 was poor but not spectacularly so. The first 10 days were changeable but somewhat warm with some sunny days. Then it was notably cool, but not that wet for around 10 days (showers at first, becoming dry, IIRC) before a very poor spell of about a week starting at the Bank Holiday weekend. I'd actually rate 2020 as worse than 2014, in fact.

2019 was largely fine until the 20th here but the final 10 days were so horrendously bad that they completely cancelled out the first 20. One of the worst spells of weather in September I can recall; a September equivalent of July 2017.

Edited June 9, 2023 by Summer8906