The most topsy-turvy years

[LetItSnow!]

Last year I started a thread discussing months with massive variability, now I want to ponder on years.

Years that feature notable extremes. Extreme mildness, cold, heat, wet weather/floods and dry weather/drought.

The most obvious pick I can think of is 1947. What an insane year for weather. Exceptional cold, exceptional heat, exceptional rainfall, exceptional lack of rainfall, exceptional snowfall, exceptional sunshine and exceptional dullness were all features of our weather at some point during 1947. Has there ever been a more varied year? Ponder about it in the comments.

A more recent year that springs to mind is 2013. Nowhere near as extreme but it did feature long spells of exceptionally cold weather, some very hot weather, some very dry weather and very wet weather + some exceptionally mild winter weather at times. It makes sense that 1947 and 2013 have very close to average temperatures anually.

There are probably more instances of this the further back in history you go but the records get less and less. 1817 is another pick. That year had wild temperature extremes from month to month. I believe November 1817 may have been warmer than October 1817.

[Sunny76]

1979.

Very cold first half of the year. 
 

Very mild autumn, and the mildest first half of December on record(at the time). Such a contrast to how cold temps were earlier in the year.

Think the December record remained in place until 1986 or 1987, before the mildest first week was beaten.

1987 was another topsy turvy year.

Very cold January, cold March, then a very warm April, cool summer, mild autumn and very mild winter. 

[cheeky_monkey]

1995 - Mild wet start...Hot dry middle..cold snowy end

[Summer of 95]

1983 with what seems like a really cold Feb-May period in between a very mild January, hot summer (record warm July until 2006), mixed autumn and mild December. It's almost before my time (can just remember a few snippets of the July, and I think the snow in Feb) but it seems a strange year.

Was there an SSW or something early that year? The drop in temperature between Jan and Feb was huge, and it basically didn't warm up at all until June... then came that July. I think 82-83 was a strong El Nino as well?? 

[Weather-history]

1993 was a ying-yang year 

Pretty much above average domination until the 9th of July 1993 then that cold front brought that temperature drop and after that below average dominated until the December in the south and to the end of the year in the north 

[Weather-history]

4 hours ago, LetItSnow! said:

 

There are probably more instances of this the further back in history you go but the records get less and less. 1817 is another pick. That year had wild temperature extremes from month to month. I believe November 1817 may have been warmer than October 1817.

1817 was one of the strangest years, meteorologically speaking

 

[SqueakheartLW]

Maybe 2022 (last year) could qualify.

Dry or very dry for large parts of it particularly January, March, April, May, July and August 2022

A couple of wetter months in February and September 2022.

Some exceptional mild or hot spells particularly July and August as well as October and November 2022

Extreme heat spike in July 2022 with that 40.3C record.

Finally that freezing cold spell in December 2022 as well.

Edited May 2, 2023 by SqueakheartLW

[LetItSnow!]

14 hours ago, SqueakheartLW said:

Maybe 2022 (last year) could qualify.

Dry or very dry for large parts of it particularly January, March, April, May, July and August 2022

A couple of wetter months in February and September 2022.

Some exceptional mild or hot spells particularly July and August as well as October and November 2022

Extreme heat spike in July 2022 with that 40.3C record.

Finally that freezing cold spell in December 2022 as well.

Hmm, I don’t really agree. 2022 had an overarching theme to it - dry and warm. February, parts of September and December bucked this trend but the rest of the month were either dry, above normal temperatures or both. The year started as it meant to go on with record mild temperatures on NYD. March saw plenty of dry and warm weather, as did April. May was persistently warm. June had its moments. July-Sep all had spells of well above normal temperatures (the first half of September ran ridiculously high) and then October and November saw further spells of abnormally warm/mild weather. 

[Summer8906]

On 03/05/2023 at 10:06, LetItSnow! said:

Hmm, I don’t really agree. 2022 had an overarching theme to it - dry and warm. February, parts of September and December bucked this trend but the rest of the month were either dry, above normal temperatures or both. The year started as it meant to go on with record mild temperatures on NYD. March saw plenty of dry and warm weather, as did April. May was persistently warm. June had its moments. July-Sep all had spells of well above normal temperatures (the first half of September ran ridiculously high) and then October and November saw further spells of abnormally warm/mild weather. 

I was out of the country for the first week but by the 8th it had become cool (I recall 18C in the forecast, a degree or two below the norm for early Sep) and changeable and the rest of the month was average at best and at times cool. The first week must have been seriously warm to influence things.

I'd agree about warm for 2022, but not sure about dry. In this area, the autumn and December in particular were decidedly wet; Feb was stormy, and March, May and June mixed.

Edited May 6, 2023 by Summer8906

[Thundery wintry showers]

1919 is another candidate: cold winter and early spring, warm May and June, cold July, warm spell late August/early September, cold snap late September with snow for some, very cold October and November with record breaking low temperatures in the second week of November, and then a mild and wet December.

[Sun Chaser]

On 06/05/2023 at 10:53, Summer8906 said:

I was out of the country for the first week but by the 8th it had become cool (I recall 18C in the forecast, a degree or two below the norm for early Sep) and changeable and the rest of the month was average at best and at times cool. The first week must have been seriously warm to influence things.

I'd agree about warm for 2022, but not sure about dry. In this area, the autumn and December in particular were decidedly wet; Feb was stormy, and March, May and June mixed.

2022 has a very dry Jan-Aug, driest since 1976. Weather turned on 3rd September and the following four months were very wet.

September itself did run ridiculously high however it was a very strange month: the first half had "decent" daytime temps but the nights were ridiculously mild so I remember the overall mean being around 2.5-3C above average. It was a wet spell with a lot of cloud but a lot of warm air and heat lag. The 12th having a higher daily mean than any day we got in the hot spells of Sep 2019/2020/2021. Around the 15th the weather switched and we had quite a "cool" high pressure regime, maxima stayed relatively similar but nights dropped by about 10 degrees so suddenly we were were getting very cool means despite more sunshine and less rain. Then it was unsettled to end so overall the CET was unimpressive

[B87]

What about 2011? Off the back of the extremely cold December 2010, January 2011 started cold but then became milder into February. Spring 2011 was extremely warm and dry. Summer 2011 was very cool and wet, and then the autumn became very warm and dry again. Winter 11/12 was mild and wet.

[Methuselah]

1970 was somewhat variable: Blizzards in January, February and March, but a stonking May and June followed by a diabolical July and August... And a white Christmas!