Months which were different to what you remember

[Summer8906]

 Harry233 I guess December 16 was similar synoptics to 2015, but with the jetstream perhaps 400 miles further north. Down here it was dry, mild and dull: very reminiscent of December 1988 which funnily enough was the previous occasion we had a leap year starting with a Friday.

In 2015 you were presumably in the polar air much more. Perhaps Dec 2015 with you was rather like Jan 2016 in the south, when the jetstream moved further south and changed the emphasis down in the south from silly mild to very wet?

Edited August 11, 2024 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

 Weather-history I just remember (from the south) Dec 1993 as wet, wet, wet and rather mild (but not ridiculously so).

One or two very short one-day wonder cold spells in the first 20 days, one of which was on a Saturday, then a longer three-day one coinciding with Christmas.

An unusual winter overall. It was very wet and rather mild but it featured two separate heavy snowfalls in the south, Jan 6th and mid-Feb: something most years nowadays fail to do overall.

Surprising how infrequently we get a 93/94 style winter, in fact, one where the jetstream is some way south meaning it's mild but occasionally very cold and the cyclonic nature brings lowland snow. Seemed to be more common in the 60s?

 chilly milly Possible it did, I remember a brief cold spell around Saturday 10th.

Edited August 11, 2024 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

 Harry233 Hurricane Bawbag? An informal name, I guess?

13 hours ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

Having another think about the question, there is a difference between how I remember January 2013 and how it turned out statistically, because I don't remember the very mild start and end very well (in fact I have retained no specific memories of the weather up until around the 10th), but I remember the cold, snowy easterly spell on the 13th to 25th very well. As a result, although the month wasn't much colder than average, I end up subconsciously scoring it as a very cold month and often find myself bracketing it together with the very cold March of 2013.

Indeed, it was cold from around the 10th-25th, rather mild at the start and very mild at the end.

Yet for January snow, the only other year from 1988 onwards that matched or exceeded it was January 2010.

[Thundery wintry showers]

 Weather-history Yes, I was in Tyneside in December 1993, it was the first year of my weather records and I tend to remember it seeming colder than it actually was. I often find this with polar maritime/north-westerly months, probably because they can deliver a high frequency of sleet/snow falling despite temperatures not being far from the long-term average. Other examples of this for me included December 1999 and January 2015.

[baddie]

 Summer8906 December 1993 must have been a winter version of some summer months these days. Mostly cool, wet and dull, with brief heat spikes, but the opposite in winter

[Harry233]

 Summer8906 most likely I think. December 2016 was a lot milder in Scotland than I think down south and much drier but again it was very dull. Thing was after December 2015 the rest of the winter wasn’t actually mild at all up here. January had average temperatures and February was quite a bit colder than average. One winter I hope we never see again it was beyond a joke how wet it was 

[Harry233]

 Summer8906 I imagine so yeah

[Harry233]

 Summer8906 for me June 2019 was very much a month of two halves type month. The first half was shocking for me absolutely dire I would rate it on par with 2012 it was very cool, wet, dull and often windy. The final 10 days were absolutely glorious here, very sunny, often warm and dry we had a cracking thunderstorm here on the 29th going into the 30th. The month ended up sunny and slightly warmer than average but with close to average rainfall. Couldn’t of gotten two greater extremes 

[MP-R]

 chilly milly Probably the 14th-18th period. We had wet snow off a strong westerly here on the 14th, and the lightest of sprinklings early on the 16th. I think your part of the world had something in that weekend too.

[MP-R]

 chilly milly Further to the last post: cold zonality on the 14th, classic Channel runner on the 16th (if only it had been a month later), and a chilly northwesterly by the 18th.

  

[chilly milly]

 MP-R Thanks MP-R. At least I know I wasn't going mad.  

[StretfordEnd1996]

 MP-R It's the NW'ly on the 18th that brought overnight snow showers for me, with depths of around 5-7cm overnight on the Saturday - this wasn't forecast though and was more widely expected to be sleet/rain - indeed I don't think the temperatures dropped much below +2'C on that night, but the snowfall was happy to stick - I don't have any photos though. 

It stuck around for the day again with temps barely rising above 2'C but as it was a toppler kind of event it had disappeared in rain and much milder temps the next day.



 

[B87]

June and July 2011 were duller than average but not exceptionally so, with each month recording 197 hours of sun. It was only August that had atrocious sun hours that year, with 162 hours.

Infact, July 2011 was a sunnier month than July 2010 (a much warmer and drier month).

[Summer8906]

On 15/08/2024 at 16:17, B87 said:

June and July 2011 were duller than average but not exceptionally so, with each month recording 197 hours of sun. It was only August that had atrocious sun hours that year, with 162 hours.

Interesting - in my location my perception was that August seemed to be the sunnier of the summer months in the sense that there were a lot of low-latitude depressions affecting the south, but in between some pretty decent ridges. I do remember it being very persistently cool though with even 22C difficult to attain after the first 10 days or so.

Edited September 4, 2024 by Summer8906

[damianslaw]

January 2011 was cold overall, but after the exceptional cold of Dec 10 it felt mild. I remember the opening week or so being chilly with some snow at times. The rest of the month was quite average with light frosts, but as said felt very mild. 

Edited September 4, 2024 by damianslaw

[Fred L]

I was thinking of December 2010 a few days ago so decided to have a look at some archive charts and I must say I don't remember the week long milder period that ran from around the 9th to 16th of the month.  Quite a bit different to the unbroken month-long freeze I remembered it as.

[damianslaw]

 Fred L Yes there was a thaw around the 9th-11th from a brief SW flow. It lasted not long and already by the 14th the colder easterly flow was back.

January 79 was also not consistently cold throughout, there were one or two brief atlantic mild incursions.

Consistent very cold months are rare, Jan 63, Feb 86 rare examples.

Edited September 4, 2024 by damianslaw

[Summer8906]

8 hours ago, damianslaw said:

January 79 was also not consistently cold throughout, there were one or two brief atlantic mild incursions.

I remember one of those, Saturday 6th I distinctly remember there being a thaw from the initial snowfall on New Years Day (I was living in the Manchester area at the time).

I do then remember repeated further snowfalls later in the winter but cannot remember the dates. I also remember one of the Sundays, possibly the 7th, being very foggy.

8 hours ago, damianslaw said:

Yes there was a thaw around the 9th-11th from a brief SW flow. It lasted not long and already by the 14th the colder easterly flow was back.

I don't think it was fully mild even then, though: temps just returned to average. The 11th was a Saturday and I remember that day having typical anticyclonic gloom Sc sheets with temps in the higher single figures. If I remember right Dec 2010 had no truly mild weather at all, just one or two "normal" incursions.

[Summer8906]

9 hours ago, damianslaw said:

January 2011 was cold overall, but after the exceptional cold of Dec 10 it felt mild. I remember the opening week or so being chilly with some snow at times. The rest of the month was quite average with light frosts, but as said felt very mild. 

The first half of the month was much milder in the south than the north IIRC: in fact from around the 4th to mid-month I seem to remember it was consistently slightly above average, and also very wet at times.

The second half was then dry - perhaps completely rainless even - and somewhat below average, and did actually feel cold in the south due to the milder interlude previously. I think the month came out slightly below average as the second half was colder than the first half was mild.

Edited September 5, 2024 by Summer8906

[Summer of 95]

April 1987. It doesn't seem to have been anywhere near as good as I remember it. I've always remembered it as a long spell of 20C+ weather with blue skies that was making the news for how summery it was. 

In fact the first half was pretty rubbish, and it was almost entirely the final week that had the warm weather (coinciding with the Easter holiday, it was late that year- I think that's why I associated the month with this). It was certainly no 2007 or 2020, and way behind 2021 or 2015 for sunshine as well. Even the south coast didn't hit 200 hours in 1987. And not as hot at any time as mid-April 2003. It doesn't even seem to have been the best April of the 80s; 1984 which I can't recall at all trounced it.

[Summer8906]

 Summer of 95 One factor perhaps was the coincidence of the fine spell with the school Easter holiday (we tended to have three weeks).

The first week (6th) wasn't great if I remember correctly (in fact, checking the archives it looks like washout conditions, which I can't remember at all) -  but the second and third weeks were of course much better. I seem to remember that the fine spell developed from an initially dull warm sector: I recall one day which was cloudy in the morning and then sunny in the afternoon. Must have been the Tues or Wed before Easter which would make it the 14th or 15th. The charts seem to confirm this, though pressure rose from the 12th.

Easter Day itself (19th) looks distinctly unsettled from the archives and in fact I do remember it being cloudy after a fine Sat/Sun - but dry. I think there was thunder in the forecast but nothing happened. Easter Monday also looks rather cool and blowy from the archives with a WNW-ly but could have been bright: can anyone recall either of those two days? I can't remember Easter Monday at all.

I suspect the second half was very sunny but the lack of sun in the first half made the overall sunshine figures unremarkable.

1984 was somewhat similar in the sense that the second half was a lot better than the first and the fine weather peaked around a late Easter (22nd that year, spectacularly late) - but evidently the first half was quite a bit sunnier than 1987. Looking at the charts even the first half was often anticyclonic albeit with interruptions at times, and not particularly warm.

 

Edited September 7, 2024 by Summer8906

[Plume Meets BFTE]

November 2013.  I remember this as being full of anticyclonic gloom and exceptionally boring.  However it is never mentioned in the historic threads as a boring month and I have heard some say it was a very sunny one.

April 2016 is another.  This was very dry from memory with a very warm weekend near the beginning, though I do remember the cold snap at the end, even with a few wintry flurries.  The stats don't support this dryness and warmth at all that I seem to remember.

Just goes to show how our memories can fade I guess.

 

[Summer8906]

 SummerShower Mostly remember November 2013 for being a relatively rare cold and anticyclonic November, though the first 9 days or so were by contrast very wet with a notable wind event on the 2nd, and some heavy organised shower bands on the 9th which marked the transition to settled conditions, for the 10th was very sunny with frost.

If I remember right the anticyclonic spell was sunny at first and then became more cloudy.

April 2016 was very northerly if I remember with frequent showers but also a couple of dry, sunny periods.

Edited September 7, 2024 by Summer8906

[baddie]

I remember May 2013 as being a warm and sunny month, but in reality it was quite a poor month aside from the first week. Same for June 2013 too

I dont recall a single sunny day from February 2013, but stats show a very sunny first and third week with the other two being very dull. I remember most of Feb 2013 often feeling like the first half of the previous February but without much snow

[AderynCoch]

August 1997. One of the hottest ever and I don't remember much about it at all.