Months which were different to what you remember

[Don]

10 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

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.

I will always remember Easter 1984 as being particularly warm and almost summer like, even though I was only 7 years old!

[cheeky_monkey]

May 1998  has a CET of 13.0c but i dont remember anything remarkable about this month esp coming after a relatively cold April apart from a huge localized T-storm in the third week 

[Summer8906]

 cheeky_monkey I remember it being very warm, even hot, for around 8 days from the 8th-15th, there was some thundery activity too but I didn't get any where I was.

Then it was rather warm and very sunny for a few days until the 20th, then duller and more unsettled (as it was in the first week).

So the mid-month period for around 2 weeks was very sunny though the start and end less impressive. But it's that mid-month period that made the biggest impression, I always remember May 1998 for being warm and sunny. I think the contrast between the month and the very dull March, April, June and July makes it stand out even more.

1998 was generally a very unsettled year but we got decent months at exact three-month intervals (Feb, May, Aug and Nov). Indeed the August was better than most since!

Edited September 16, 2024 by Summer8906

[East Lancs Rain]

February 2023 - It was a mild, dry and sunny month but I don’t remember much about it. I just remember it being an average February, don’t remember anything special about it.

 

August 2022 - A hot, dry and sunny month but I don’t remember it being particularly hot here. It probably wasn’t that hot here though, more just warm than hot.

 

February 2022 - Was supposedly very mild but didn’t feel it.

 

September 2016 - I remember this being very warm and sunny in the first half, and sunny with average temperatures in the second half. I was surprised to find out that sunshine was only close to average though. It seemed like a very sunny month.

 

June 2016 - I remember it being a warm, dull and wet month, but it was actually a bit drier than average (locally anyway).

 

September 2014 - Like September 2016 I remember it being a warm, dry and sunny month but sunshine was only around average (locally anyway).

August 2014 - Remember it being a dull but dry month. In reality it was wetter but also sunnier than average.

 

July 2014 - Remember every day being very warm or hot and sunny. Whilst it was very sunny, the average high while above average wasn’t exceptional at 21.5°C here.

October 2011 - Remember it being a mild and sunny month but it was exceptionally dull locally (just 50 hours!)

Summer 2011 - Remember it being quite a dry summer but all three summer months were actually wetter than average locally.

 

August 2011 - Remember it being a cool and cloudy but dry month when in reality it was also wetter than average locally.

 

 

[Summer8906]

 East Lancs Rain Of those:

Feb 2023 - I don't think it was that sunny, despite being dry. Certainly I remember a quite lengthy dull spell in the middle part of the month and it was even drizzly at times. I think there was a sunny week early on and a further few sunny days at the end as colder air arrived but much of the month was cloudy.

Feb 2022 - the constant wind I guess. Did feel exceptionally mild here.

Sep 2016 - this one was, if I remember right anyway, a rare combination of warm and distinctly dull - and often wet - down here. I did miss the middle part of the month including the heatwave, but IIRC the month mostly featured tropical maritime air, hence warm, dull and damp.

June 2016 - you were lucky! Seemed to be a constant dull, damp SW-ly feed. Terrible here, at least it was the last terrible month for more than a year.

September 2014 - I don't think it was especially sunny generally. Very dry and persistently warm but often cloudy - sunshine was close to, or maybe even a little below, average IIRC.

August 2014 - a rare genuinely cool month (day and night) - clearly remember the wet but relatively not-so-dull nature of it, due to a lengthy NW-ly becoming N-ly spell mid-month.

July 2014 - missed two weeks of it but I think it was more notable for settled weather than excessive heat, as you suggest.

October 2011 - remember this one as warm and sunny here.

Summer 2011 / August 2011 - an interesting one in some ways, persistently wet but rarely ridiculously so.

Edited January 22 by Summer8906

[Thundery wintry showers]

Strangely I don't remember April 2003 being particularly sunny, and April 2002 seemed sunnier, even though statistically they were about the same in the north of England (where I was). Maybe April 2003 suffered to some extent by comparison with February and March 2003, both of which were exceptionally sunny, as well as occurring within an exceptionally sunny year generally, while late March and April 2002 was a sunny period in a relatively cloudy year.

As I noted in the "best years" thread, it seems that my perceptions of how good the calendar year 2006 was from my point of view was heavily skewed by that amazing July and possibly also the snowfalls in March. July was largely counterbalanced by a very cloudy August but that August doesn't stick out in my memory. When I rated the months of various years, 2006's overall total came out only about average.

My memory also tends to merge July and August 2008, as I seem to remember both months being dull and wet, but where I was, while August was exceptionally dull, July had near average sunshine.

I also don't remember much of January 2022 despite it statistically being an exceptionally sunny month (I was in Lincoln and nearby Waddington had 102.9 hours of sunshine). I remember it being sunny overall, but my memories of it tend to understate the sunshine.

[Summer8906]

 Thundery wintry showers 2006 did become much cloudier after the end of July, with September the only significantly sunnier-than-average month of the last five, if I remember right.

April 2003 was a month of two parts, I think: the first 20 days being very sunny with some interesting temperature contrasts, but the final 10 days cloudy and often wet. I guess the conditions at the end of the month might colour your overall impression, it often works out that way (I don't rate Dec 2022 that highly due to the final two weeks being so awful!)

May 2003 was the month that seemed really notably dull that year. I remember it being unusually westerly for May and frequently featuring dull tropical maritime air which felt chilly (due to spring's low SSTs) and humid at the same time. It only improved in the final week when ironically it provided perhaps the hottest spell of weather in May I can recall. Compared to the remainder of the Jan-Oct period of 2003, May seemed even more dull than it would do in another year.

Second half of July 2003 was also continuously unsettled.

[LetItSnow]

 Summer8906 2003 and 1947 are alike in the sense that a large portion of the summer was unusually unsettled despite being very hot and both saved the driest weather for August - both had a very anticyclonic and dry September and October as well.

[Summer8906]

 LetItSnowYou can see that in the Southampton stats when July failed to achieve 200 hours despite a 23.1 mean max. It was, however, dry with just 22.9mm, slightly drier than August.

August 1947 seems to have been anticyclonic-on-steroids, the Azores high just kept building and building. Indeed it seems even more anticyclonic than Aug 1995, though less extremely dry, presumably due to thunderstorms. The 26.8C mean max is seriously impressive for the era, too, what would that now be, accounting for GW: about 28.3? That would be even hotter (marginally) than Heathrow's July 2006 max. Heathrow maxima for 1947 are not available but normally it's at least a degree warmer than Southampton so I wonder if Heathrow pushed 28C in August 1947?

In the same era, I have to correct an early statement I made about consecutive 200 hrs+ months. At Southampton I missed out 1949, which also had five in a row from April to August.

Edited January 24 by Summer8906

[LetItSnow]

 Summer8906 I was shocked when browsing on Starlings Roost that the sunshine figures were appreciably below average for June and July 1947… by the 1961-1990 averages! Something like 87-90% (for the UK as a whole)

 

[Summer8906]

 LetItSnow June 1947 looks somewhat above normal at Southampton with above 220 hours.

To summarise the synoptics of summer 1947: June looked unsettled until the 8th, then a brief fine spell before a breakdown from Biscay on the 14th. There were warm southerlies by the 17th but then mostly SWlies until the 22nd. Then a further anticyclone followed by a major heat plume by the end of the month.

July was weakly anticyclonic at first but became westerly by the 4th/5th. It became very cyclonic by the 8th-10th but then mostly fine by the 12th, continuing until the 18th and then weakly cyclonic SW-ly until the 22nd. The remainder of the month seemed to be hot with a uniform pressure pattern.

This continued into August followed by a short westerly phase around the 4th/5th. Then high pressure built and a repeating anticyclonic pattern with ridging from the Azores to Scandinavia got locked into place for the rest of the month. Pressure was often lower on the continent.

June and July were thus somewhat changeable, on the whole, if warm.

Edited January 24 by Summer8906

[LetItSnow]

 Summer8906 Yes, Southampton sounds about right. The MO report said the south-east was sunny but Scotland was very dull. It appears as though this overrides the sunny SE. I had been planning a historic thread on the summer of 1947 but the dullness in June and July made me wonder if it was as interesting to people. Still, it was the warmest extended summer on record (May-September) until 2006!

Edited January 24 by LetItSnow