Memories of 1992

[Sunny76]

Did we do this year already?

I don’t remember much about it, apart from a warm sunny May, with storms at the end, then a warmish June, and more storms during July and August.

The first half of summer seemed nice and warm, but it was poor during July and August. 
 

The autumn was cold. 

[cheeky_monkey]

1992 was a car crash of a year for me..weather was sheet also 

[Summer8906]

Definitely a front-loaded year, with the best weather occurring from January to June, though September and October both produced some unusually interesting synoptics for autumn.

January was notable as a very dry month, with varying temperatures - initially mild and then average-to-cold, with many frosty nights. There was something of a trend for frosty and anticyclonic winter months around this time, though not necessarily with snow, for example January and December 1991 were fairly similar. It started mild and dull but dry, then a NW-SE moving cold front brought in much colder air perhaps around the 10th with frosty and often sunny weather following behind. This type of weather dominated the rest of the month though there were also milder, cloudier days.

February was also mostly dry and anticyclonic, though largely mild. Also seemed to be sunny. There was however about 5 days of dull, wet Atlantic weather in the second week.

March was a bit non-descript, not unlike the previous March of 1991. Mild was the key theme, and there were spells of both wet Atlantic weather and drier, sunnier spring-like days. I do seem to remember it becoming colder (and dull) towards the end.

April was unusually zonal and westerly for the time of year, and often dull and rather wet. I remember attempting (successfully but not comfortably) the western section of the Coast to Coast walk across the Lake District over the weekend. It was decidedly wet, but Easter Sunday and Monday were drier and Easter Sunday afternoon/evening sunny, even. There was also a short fine, warm, sunny spell coinciding with the election (the first one I voted in) on April 9th.

May was of course a notably fine, warm month with some interesting thundery activity at times. The start of the month however was rather cool and changeable before an initial warm spell was brought in behind a warm front on around the 11th. Initially cloudy due to Tm air, the wind backed S and this produced a couple of days of warm sunny weather. It then turned cooler behind a cold front and lower-DP northeasterlies were brought in by the weekend of the 16th/17th with deep blue skies. It then warmed up again, bordering on hot, before on Sat 23rd some afternoon thundery showers, albeit not severe, developed in this area. The following day Sun 24th also had thundery activity, but much further inland this time, with sunny weather locally and large Cbs visible some way inland.

Memories of the following week are a little vague but IIRC the thundery activity died out for a while, before returning the following weekend. Sun 31st was similar to the 24th if I remember right, sunny locally but convection visible some way inland.

June was also a notably fine, warm sunny month but the first week was pretty desperate for the time of year. After fine weather in late May, I distinctly remember June 1 being dull and wet, and dull damp weather prevailed for the entire first week. There was even one evening (the 3rd or 4th, I think) which had a real feel that autumn might be just around the corner. Thankfully it improved in week 2 which was an interesting thundery week, with storms generally moving - somewhat unusually - east to west. I think there were two or three thundery days but my main memory is of Wed 10th which started fine and sunny and convection developed very late in the day, with an organised band of instability moving east to west shortly before dark producing thundery showers. It was warm by this stage.

After this the convection died out and it became dry and sunny. This then remained for almost the remainder of the month with just two exceptions: a small low over Biscay threatened to produce showers or rain around the 21st (but in the event kept away, just producing cloud) and then at the end of the month, on the 30th, there was a generalised breakdown with Atlantic air getting in, producing prolonged rain (though it wasn't thundery). At the halfway point of the year, this was effectively the moment when not only 1992's best weather, but also the prolonged spell of mostly dry weather which started in autumn 1988, came to an end. The period July 1992 to February 1995 would be decidedly wet.

So July was a dreary, dull, damp month in the main. July 1 was again wet, as were the next few days but a short dry (but rather cloudy and cool) spell intervened around the 5th-8th. It then deteriorated again with full-on Atlantic influence and not only wet, but also windy weather for a time. Dull wet conditions remained in place until Saturday 18th when sunny weather intervened, likely on a ridge in the westerlies. On Sun 19th dull, foggy Tm southwesterlies were in place but on Mon 20th the briefest of warm spells arrived on a humid day with much Ac cast and winds backed to the S.

However the most notable event in July was what then followed that evening. Prolonged heavy thunderstorms set in around dark and kept going for many hours, more than is typical for a thundery spell, well past midnight. This was the first of three notable midsummer thundery events that year, despite it being a dull and wet midsummer period in the main.

More dull, wet Atlantic weather followed the storms but finally on Mon 27th an anticyclone built from the Azores and by all accounts the final 5 days were fine, warm and sunny (though I missed the last 4 days due to being abroad). I remember seeing some forecasts while overseas and apparently 27C was reached on the 31st, the first time such a figure had been reached since June!

I also missed the first 5 days of August but by all accounts these remained warm, but were cloudier with westerlies, anticyclonic in the south. On the 7th it was warm, but not drastically so, and not especially humid either. However during the evening, IIRC, a thundery warm front (an unusual occurrence) arrived from the south producing first Ac cast, then a round of quite active thunderstorms around midnight. These then cleared to produce a warm, humid but rather cloudy day on Sat 8th, only to be followed with another bout of storms, this time on a cold front from the west, that night - these being particularly active.

The less said about the rest of summer the better. It was cloudy and cool with continuous Atlantic activity though to be fair I don't think the rain (despite being frequent) was that heavy. I recall a good number of cool, sub-20 days with dull, dishwater skies but not vast amounts of actual rain. Sat 15th was sunny, though - I recall that. There was also one occasion (Wed 19th I think) when a thundery warm front once again threatened to graze the SE and bring thundery rain in, followed by higher temps briefly - but I seem to remember this remained on the continent. Finally the Atlantic really ramped up over the Bank Holiday weekend which was not only wet but also very windy.

September was somewhat better. The disturbed weather of August kept going for the first few days but it became much drier on Mon 7th - a nice early-autumn day with cold start and much sunshine, and the following week was dry with varying cloud levels, still westerly but with higher pressure. Around the 13th-14th a couple of weak fronts produced transient damp conditions but most days in this period were quite pleasant.

It then turned warm and sunny with temps climbing to the low 20s for the first time since mid-August (?) around the 15th-17th before turning showery with a Biscay low (?) on the evening of the 18th. While this just produced showers where I was, apparently some other areas received some quite significant storms.

Then some non-descript cloudy, dry, and fairly cool days though I do recall talk of storms on about the 22nd from an unusual synoptic pattern of a thundery warm sector moving in from the east, with more warm-frontal thunderstorms forecast (the early 90s seemed to do well for these). Some places did get these but down in this part of the south it was just cool, cloudy and dry. The interesting synoptics were not done yet, though: at the end of the week an Atlantic low brought in rain, but then on Sat 26th the frontal system moved back westwards, producing rain followed by warm, sunny weather - more a spring than an autumn setup. Again, I believe 21C was reached. The rest of the month remained warm though cloud amounts increased again.

October, like September, was unusually synoptically interesting for an autumn month. The warm, dry cloudy weather was replaced on Sat 3rd by colder and brighter northeasterlies following a cold front producing a wet day. Sun 4th was bright with cooler temps and a really keen NE wind, and the next two weeks remained bright, dry but increasingly cold. The NE winds prevailed for a while before even colder temps followed a cold front (perhaps around the 14th or so) and direct northerlies sent maxima down to the 10-12C range. It was however sunny and frosty.

Eventually pressure dropped from the east and Sun 18th was showery at times. Pressure dropped still further and (IIRC) a polar low moved NW-SE to take position just off SW England on the night of the 19th/20th. A distinctly unseasonable outbreak of quite active thunderstorms occurred that night, not just showers but a more organised system - presumably as a result of the polar low and cold airmass encountering warm mid-autumn seas. Strangely something very similar happened almost exactly 11 years later in 2003.

That was the excitement over for a while, though, and late October, November and early December produced a tedious zonal period of active Atlantic systems, much rain, increasingly mild temps and only very occasional and transient ridges. Early Nov was a little drier.

Finally the Atlantic onslaught ended on December 20th, which produced a very similar setup to that of Jan 10th (or so) with a NW-SE moving cold front introducing fine, cold, frosty anticyclonic weather. There were many cold, frosty sunny days leading up to Christmas (including Christmas Day itself, IIRC) though towards the end of the month all-day fog increasingly became a problem.

 

[Don]

1992 didn't really float my boat weather wise.

[damianslaw]

Very detailed account of the year above, helped by a weather diary I wonder? Impressed with the memories.

1992 an indifferent year, the highlight the fine very warm spell of weather in May. October was unusual for early cold weather.

January was none-descript, a cold frosty spell but no snow. Feb was similiar to this year, very dry, very mild and mostly snowless. March and April little memory. The summer started well in June, but deteriorated by July producing a very poor summer school holiday period, after three very good ones. I also had a paper round from July coinciding with a return to the very wet spell mentioned, I remember many a wet day that summer. 

September - no highlights. November dull wet and mild. December was more interesting, second half was mostly cold, with a dry frosty cold christmas-new year period that I enjoyed alot.

Overall not a very interesting year weatherwise.

[SummerShower]

10th June 1992, the storm mentioned was quite severe here causing a power cut, and yes it moved ene to wsw.

It certainly wasn't a bad year for storms.  I remember a few at the end of May, the June one, and the plume events of July and August.  There was also a thundery shower on 23rd March on a northerly, and 30th August had thunder within the deep autumnal bank holiday low.

Also, the only other year apart from 2014 that I don't remember seeing any snow.  15th April was a bit sleety with bands of precipitation and strong northerly winds, but no actual snow.

[Sunny76]

It was quite a thundery summer.