Months which were different to what you remember

[Summer8906]

Have been looking at some Monthly Weather Reports from the 80s recently and one thing that strikes me is how certain months were actually less bad, or in some cases, worse, than you remember.

Three months stand out, although in one case the "bad" association has generally been made by others, not myself.

These months are August 1987 and June and August 1988. These two summers have a bit of a "reputation" yet all three months were drier than average in central southern and SE England.

In the first case I actually remember August 1987 being an OK month, a bit mixed but rarely that bad, and with a significant warm spell mid-month broken by the thunderstorms of the 21st.

MWR_1987_08 | Met Office UA

DIGITAL.NMLA.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

Central S and SE: Mean max +0.5 above normal, rain 68%, sun 99%. So average sunshine, dry and very slightly warmer than average by day maxima. The SW had it better still with just 36% rain (!), 106% sunshine, and mean max +0.3 above normal. Clearly a month in which holidaying in Devon and Cornwall would have been a good plan.

June 1988 I remember as the "only decent month of that summer", and recall it being dry, sunny and slightly warmer than average without any real heat. It was indeed dry, but was actually dull and slightly cool- so this is the first false memory.

 

MWR_1988_06 | Met Office UA

DIGITAL.NMLA.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

Mean max -0.6 below normal, rain 46% and sunshine a pitiful 75%. Clearly a lot cloudier than I remember, unless I was in a localised sunnier area.

August 1988 I remember as being rather unsettled and dull. However in the southeast and central south it was both drier and sunnier than average - something which many Augusts since 2007 have failed to achieve. My memory of it being a "bad" month can I think be explained by spending the first 13 days or so in West Wales; in western and northern parts it was indeed a bad month. In the S and SE there were two warm spells in the first 18 days, broken by a short slightly changeable spell, with bad weather restricted to the last 10 days.

So it looks like, in the S and SE, August 1988 was actually a sunnier month, relative to normal, than June.

MWR_1988_08 | Met Office UA

DIGITAL.NMLA.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

Mean max -0.3 below normal, so slightly cool, rainfall just 77%, sunshine 106%.

Finally, a winter month which I misremembered as exceedingly mild and rather wet: December 1987. The second half was indeed that, but also there was a cold and dry first half which I have completely and utterly forgotten.

MWR_1987_12 | Met Office UA

DIGITAL.NMLA.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

Mean max just +0.4 above normal, so the first half must have been seriously cold given how mild the second half was. Very dry also at 42%, counter to my perception of a damp month with drizzle alternating with moderate rain. Dull though at 81% sunshine, which does indeed accord with my memories.

July 1985 is another one, which was sunnier and drier than I remember, though this has come up in a recent thread. Indeed if you drill down into these notorious mid-late 80s summers, the only "bad" months were June and August 1985, August 1986, June 1987 and July 1988.

So any others from anyone? Looking for months where the stats contradict personal memories.

Edited April 9, 2023 by Summer8906

[Sun Chaser]

12 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

Have been looking at some Monthly Weather Reports from the 80s recently and one thing that strikes me is how certain months were actually less bad, or in some cases, worse, than you remember.

Three months stand out, although in one case the "bad" association has generally been made by others, not myself.

These months are August 1987 and June and August 1988. These two summers have a bit of a "reputation" yet all three months were drier than average in central southern and SE England.

In the first case I actually remember August 1987 being an OK month, a bit mixed but rarely that bad, and with a significant warm spell mid-month broken by the thunderstorms of the 21st.

MWR_1987_08 | Met Office UA

DIGITAL.NMLA.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

Central S and SE: Mean max +0.5 above normal, rain 68%, sun 99%. So average sunshine, dry and very slightly warmer than average by day maxima. The SW had it better still with just 36% rain (!), 106% sunshine, and mean max +0.3 above normal. Clearly a month in which holidaying in Devon and Cornwall would have been a good plan.

June 1988 I remember as the "only decent month of that summer", and recall it being dry, sunny and slightly warmer than average without any real heat. It was indeed dry, but was actually dull and slightly cool- so this is the first false memory.

 

MWR_1988_06 | Met Office UA

DIGITAL.NMLA.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

Mean max -0.6 below normal, rain 46% and sunshine a pitiful 75%. Clearly a lot cloudier than I remember, unless I was in a localised sunnier area.

August 1988 I remember as being rather unsettled and dull. However in the southeast and central south it was both drier and sunnier than average - something which many Augusts since 2007 have failed to achieve. My memory of it being a "bad" month can I think be explained by spending the first 13 days or so in West Wales; in western and northern parts it was indeed a bad month. In the S and SE there were two warm spells in the first 18 days, broken by a short slightly changeable spell, with bad weather restricted to the last 10 days.

So it looks like, in the S and SE, August 1988 was actually a sunnier month, relative to normal, than June.

MWR_1988_08 | Met Office UA

DIGITAL.NMLA.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

Mean max -0.3 below normal, so slightly cool, rainfall just 77%, sunshine 106%.

Finally, a winter month which I misremembered as exceedingly mild and rather wet: December 1987. The second half was indeed that, but also there was a cold and dry first half which I have completely and utterly forgotten.

MWR_1987_12 | Met Office UA

DIGITAL.NMLA.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

Mean max just +0.4 above normal, so the first half must have been seriously cold given how mild the second half was. Very dry also at 42%, counter to my perception of a damp month with drizzle alternating with moderate rain. Dull though at 81% sunshine, which does indeed accord with my memories.

July 1985 is another one, which was sunnier and drier than I remember, though this has come up in a recent thread. Indeed if you drill down into these notorious mid-late 80s summers, the only "bad" months were June and August 1985, August 1986, June 1987 and July 1988.

So any others from anyone? Looking for months where the stats contradict personal memories.

Mine will be a lot more recent due to my age lol.

I got more interested in the weather around 3 years ago, so I remember weather before 2020 differently to how the stats say they actually were.

I always considered summer 2012 to be decent due to spending a few days in Cardiff in July with somewhat hot and sunny weather, and a few Olympic themed garden parties in August with decent enough weather. What I didn't remember was the complete washout that took hold of the rest of the summer, and indeed all of April-December that year.

June 2013, I have no recollection of being cool and dull, rather I remember it as a precursor to that stunning July with many days doing PE and playing in the park. I always considered summer 2013 on a par with 2018 until seeing the actual statistics.

August/September 2014: I always remembered August 2014 as being a pleasant month - I remember four very wet days (11th and 25th-27th) and the rest, in my memory, was dry and fairly warm. Couldn't be further from the actual truth tbh, though I did spend 1st-7th and 14th-22nd August outside the country so I missed some of the bad weather. I clearly remember a very sunny, hot-feeling day on the 31st as well which in fact only hit 21C here. September I have little memory of weather-wise apart from being dull.

In 2015, I was well aware of the poor summer that year but didn't even notice the plume event that summer, which to be fair was a disappointing affair in Plymouth. I remember September and October that year as being very warm and sunny in the main, having spent a lot of time in those months playing with my neighbours out on the street having recently moved house. I now know that September was actually almost 2C below average here, while October was unremarkable. Both were relatively sunny though. Also had no idea how good April was that year, my only memory of that month is from the 24th onwards being very dull and wet.

September 2016 is one that I remember being very cool and wet, I started year 7 that September and I remember a lot of breaktimes being washed out and having to spend indoors. Zero memory of the plume on the 13th of that month. In reality it was quite warm!

April 2018 I associate with the summer that came after it, possibly the best year of my life so far and so I remember the entire April-July period with wall-to-wall sunshine. My only weather memory that month is of course of the warmth we had just after mid month, what I didn't remember about this month was the much cooler weather that we actually got for the remainder of the month - it was very dull as well.

June 2019 is another, similar to 2013, that I remember as much better than it actually was due to the following July. I remember a school sports day (my last) on the 24th feeling very warm, plus sunny days with my cousins on the 1st and 8th-9th, and also a sunny day on the 15th, but strangely little memory of more unsettled days, so going off of that June 2019 sticks out as a good month in my memory. In reality it was rather cool and very Atlantic-driven.

[Summer of 95]

June 1996 at Shawbury: 19.2/7.7C, 29.5mm, 252hrs

July 1996 21.3/10.2C, 23.6mm, 227hrs

Aug 1996 21.1/11.3C, 47.2mm, 174hrs

That summer was a lot better than I always remember it as, it is overshadowed by the previous year and the average temps weren't spectacular; but it had far more dry, sunny weather than I credit it with. 

On the other hand:

June 2020 19.9/11.1C, 108.4mm, 137hrs

July 2020 19.5/11.5C, 36mm, 118hrs

Aug 2020 21.5/13.0C, 137.6mm, 113hrs

That one was almost as dull and wet as 2012, yet it's not one that immediately springs to mind when I think of poor summers. I think it is the sunny spring that preceded it, the ending of the first lockdown and the fact that August was quite thundery (unusual for post-2007 summer months here) that combine to send it under the radar.

[Cheshire Freeze]

27 minutes ago, Summer of 95 said:

June 1996 at Shawbury: 19.2/7.7C, 29.5mm, 252hrs

July 1996 21.3/10.2C, 23.6mm, 227hrs

Aug 1996 21.1/11.3C, 47.2mm, 174hrs

That summer was a lot better than I always remember it as, it is overshadowed by the previous year and the average temps weren't spectacular; but it had far more dry, sunny weather than I credit it with. 

On the other hand:

June 2020 19.9/11.1C, 108.4mm, 137hrs

July 2020 19.5/11.5C, 36mm, 118hrs

Aug 2020 21.5/13.0C, 137.6mm, 113hrs

That one was almost as dull and wet as 2012, yet it's not one that immediately springs to mind when I think of poor summers. I think it is the sunny spring that preceded it, the ending of the first lockdown and the fact that August was quite thundery (unusual for post-2007 summer months here) that combine to send it under the radar.

I can remember summer '96 having very warm and sunny periods. It's a year that sticks in my mind because although I was only 8, my grandparents moved house and I spent a lot of time with them during the summer holidays.

[Summer8906]

9 hours ago, plymsunshine said:

September 2016 is one that I remember being very cool and wet, I started year 7 that September and I remember a lot of breaktimes being washed out and having to spend indoors. Zero memory of the plume on the 13th of that month. In reality it was quite warm!

The stats do indeed show it as very warm, but rainfall and sunshine stats are less favourable. Not a fan, though I did miss that 3 day extreme warm spell. Main memory I have is of a continuous promise of warm and sunny weather, when all we got was dull and damp, albeit with exceedingly warm nights for early autumn. A strange month, a combination of warm, dull and wet is unusual for September, or any other summer-half-year month.

9 hours ago, plymsunshine said:

April 2018 I associate with the summer that came after it, possibly the best year of my life so far and so I remember the entire April-July period with wall-to-wall sunshine. My only weather memory that month is of course of the warmth we had just after mid month, what I didn't remember about this month was the much cooler weather that we actually got for the remainder of the month - it was very dull as well.

June 2019 is another, similar to 2013, that I remember as much better than it actually was due to the following July. I remember a school sports day (my last) on the 24th feeling very warm, plus sunny days with my cousins on the 1st and 8th-9th, and also a sunny day on the 15th, but strangely little memory of more unsettled days, so going off of that June 2019 sticks out as a good month in my memory. In reality it was rather cool and very Atlantic-driven.

June 2019 is a strange one for me because I spent just two days of it in this country, so my perception of it is based purely on weather charts and second-hand reports. The 1st was decent, the 2nd was dull but dry, but almost all the rest of the month looked very bad indeed - cool, dull and wet with cyclonic NE-lies alternating with cyclonic SW-lies. It seemed to only improve on the final three days or so - and, as is typical of a modern summer - still managed to exceed 32C.

[Summer8906]

6 hours ago, Summer of 95 said:

June 1996 at Shawbury: 19.2/7.7C, 29.5mm, 252hrs

July 1996 21.3/10.2C, 23.6mm, 227hrs

Aug 1996 21.1/11.3C, 47.2mm, 174hrs

That summer was a lot better than I always remember it as, it is overshadowed by the previous year and the average temps weren't spectacular; but it had far more dry, sunny weather than I credit it with. 

I think the comparison with 1995, and indeed June/July 1994, made it seem less good than it was at the time. In fact, compared to the past 15 years in particular, 1996 was indeed a good summer.

Of the summers I remember (1978+ and more particularly 1980+) I would place 1996 as 10th equal, beaten only by 1983, 1984, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1995, 2003, 2006, and 2018 - and about equal with 2013 and 2014.  I haven't included 2022 as I was mostly out of the country.

6 hours ago, Summer of 95 said:

On the other hand:

June 2020 19.9/11.1C, 108.4mm, 137hrs

July 2020 19.5/11.5C, 36mm, 118hrs

Aug 2020 21.5/13.0C, 137.6mm, 113hrs

That one was almost as dull and wet as 2012, yet it's not one that immediately springs to mind when I think of poor summers. I think it is the sunny spring that preceded it, the ending of the first lockdown and the fact that August was quite thundery (unusual for post-2007 summer months here) that combine to send it under the radar.

Whereas for me, my perception of 2020 was of a poor season and the stats do support that to some extent: in this area, June was duller and slightly wetter than normal, July dry but dull and slightly cool, and August duller and wetter than normal. True it was warmer than normal but this was due to warm nights and short-lived intense heat spikes.

Edited April 10, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

In the meantime one from way back in the day: July 1979. I wasn't too old then so my memories are much hazier than the aforementioned 80s summers, but (living in the NW at the time) my perception was of a cool and rather changeable month.

It was somewhat dull in the NW, but temperatures were average and the dryness of just 41% average rainfall really stands out in the stats. I don't remember noticing it at the time. But the discussion below would probably explain that.

MWR_1979_07 | Met Office UA

DIGITAL.NMLA.METOFFICE.GOV.UK

This month looks like it was somewhat similar to July 2016 (dry and cloudy, anticyclonic westerly type) minus the short-lived heat spike.

(Moved general discussion on dryness of late 20th-century Julys to a separate thread)

Edited April 10, 2023 by Summer8906

[Sun Chaser]

7 hours ago, Summer of 95 said:

On the other hand:

June 2020 19.9/11.1C, 108.4mm, 137hrs

July 2020 19.5/11.5C, 36mm, 118hrs

Aug 2020 21.5/13.0C, 137.6mm, 113hrs

That one was almost as dull and wet as 2012, yet it's not one that immediately springs to mind when I think of poor summers. I think it is the sunny spring that preceded it, the ending of the first lockdown and the fact that August was quite thundery (unusual for post-2007 summer months here) that combine to send it under the radar.

Summer 2020 will forever stick in my mind for how dreary it seemed after such a glorious spring. It doesn't get remembered here just how poor that summer was; possibly its image is saved by it being slightly better in the east and that hot week in August. The rest was an endless stream of days in the high teens with full cloud cover: I vividly remember checking the average maximum halfway through July and it was around 17.5   

2021 is remembered as worse when in fact for 90% of the country it was far better than 2020. Not counting the spring of course

[Summer8906]

22 minutes ago, plymsunshine said:

Summer 2020 will forever stick in my mind for how dreary it seemed after such a glorious spring. It doesn't get remembered here just how poor that summer was; possibly its image is saved by it being slightly better in the east and that hot week in August. The rest was an endless stream of days in the high teens with full cloud cover: I vividly remember checking the average maximum halfway through July and it was around 17.5   

2021 is remembered as worse when in fact for 90% of the country it was far better than 2020. Not counting the spring of course

For this part of the UK, 2020 and 2021 were equally drab! Too far west to get most of the better weather in 2020, and too far southeast to get the better weather in 2021.

Definitely unfortunate that the weather deteriorated markedly almost as soon as the lockdown ended.

Edited April 10, 2023 by Summer8906

[Sun Chaser]

28 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

For this part of the UK, 2020 and 2021 were equally drab! Too far west to get most of the better weather in 2020, and too far southeast to get the better weather in 2021.

Definitely unfortunate that the weather deteriorated markedly almost as soon as the lockdown ended.

Our summer 2021 was good by Plymouth standards, however I think we got basically the same weather as the south east - it just appears better compared to average here than up in London for example

To be fair the sunshine in lockdown made a horrible period of life seem a lot less bad, and now when I remember lockdown I remember it with a backdrop of warm sunshine. It also encouraged me to get out of the house a lot more, and I haven't really stopped since. I still find it funny how an extraordinary period of life coincided with such an extraordinary period of weather.

Edited April 10, 2023 by plymsunshine

[Freeze]

Late may/early June 2012 is when I finished my exams and left school and was down the beach having bbqs most days and all I remember is how hot and sunny it was. But isn't this suppose to be a period of awful weather with record flooding? Did it perhaps miss the south coast? 

[Summer8906]

52 minutes ago, Freeze said:

Late may/early June 2012 is when I finished my exams and left school and was down the beach having bbqs most days and all I remember is how hot and sunny it was. But isn't this suppose to be a period of awful weather with record flooding? Did it perhaps miss the south coast? 

There was a transient period of about 8 days of warm, sunny weather from about May 21st to May 28th, covering "what would have been the late spring bank holiday". This was literally the only fine spell of any note during the whole period from April 3rd to July 18th.

The holiday was of course delayed by a week, due to the Golden Jubilee, and the transition to bad weather occurred on May 31, IIRC. Of the bank holiday weekend, two days were OK (the Sat, though it was a bit dull and hazy, and the Mon, I think) and two days were extremely bad with prolonged frontal rain and very low light levels for June (the Sun and Tues) - and then of course the weather never improved until around July 19th. The rest of the summer was an average mix of warm/hot and changeable spells, and was mostly fairly warm and bright even in the changeable spells, so not so bad.

I was close to the south coast and trust me, June 2012 was awful. Thankfully I missed two weeks of this appalling first half of summer by going abroad for the first half of July*, and then as I got back, it was only a few days from improving.

(*though my destination in the Austrian Alps was also unusually changeable, being on the southeastern edge of the UK low, and consequently was dominated by a cloudy, humid and thundery rPm airmass much of the time, meaning that I could not do all the high-level walks I had planned to. At least the almost-daily thundery activity was entertaining...)

Edited April 11, 2023 by Summer8906

[Thundery wintry showers]

My memories of some mild and dry winter months are skewed towards the cloudy days.  For example, in February 1998, January 2000 and March 2000, I mainly remember spells of dull dry weather in the Tyne and Wear area, but statistically they were all sunnier than average (and substantially so in the case of January 2000). 

The opposite sometimes happens with cold cloudy winter months, e.g. November 1993 and December 1995 were statistically very dull near the north-east coast of England, but I mainly remember the cold bright spells from those months.

I often used to think of October 1994 as a very sunny month, mainly because of that very fine spell from the 10th to 14th.  It was indeed a very sunny month in parts of the south, but in Tyneside, where I was, sunshine was only a little above average overall.  I also used to be guilty of mixing up the Octobers of 1994 and 1995 (e.g. I recalled a TV forecast saying that October 1994 was one of the driest and warmest Octobers on record in the north-east region, but it was actually October 1995).

I tend not to get skewed memories of more recent months so much, but July 2015 is one that sticks out, I remember the warm and thundery spells in the first third of the month and have largely forgot about how cool the rest of the month was, so it always seems warmer to me than the statistics show.

 

Edited April 11, 2023 by Thundery wintry showers

[cheeky_monkey]

On 09/04/2023 at 21:06, CreweCold said:

I can remember summer '96 having very warm and sunny periods. It's a year that sticks in my mind because although I was only 8, my grandparents moved house and I spent a lot of time with them during the summer holidays.

i got married in September 1996..and spent 3 weeks in Singapore and the Maldives..also Euro 96 happened this year..and as someone said it followed the hot summer of 1995..so although it appears to be a warm summer ..for the reasons i gave i remember it as being unremarkable but dry 

[Summer8906]

5 hours ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

I often used to think of October 1994 as a very sunny month, mainly because of that very fine spell from the 10th to 14th.  It was indeed a very sunny month in parts of the south, but in Tyneside, where I was, sunshine was only a little above average overall.  I also used to be guilty of mixing up the Octobers of 1994 and 1995 (e.g. I recalled a TV forecast saying that October 1994 was one of the driest and warmest Octobers on record in the north-east region, but it was actually October 1995).

I was based in southern England in October 1994 and remember the first half was very sunny, the second much less so. Don't have the stats for 1994 (MWR ended in 1993) though. Down here, the first week was sunny as well as the second, in fact the first week slightly sunnier as morning fog was slightly more of a problem in the second week IIRC.