August 1980 v August 1987

[Sunny76]

If you had to choose, which one would it be and why?

Both were poor, but I remember the second half of August 1987 being warm to hot for a time, with some decent storms.

Was a bit too young to remember anything about August 80, but from what I’ve heard, it was a cloudy month, cool by day, but warm by night due to cloud cover. Sounds like a horrible month.

[B87]

August 1980: 21.9c/13.3c, 52.3mm on 8 days, 173.4 hours sun.

August 1987: 21.8c/12.5c, 57.2mm on 9 days, 172.3 hours sun.

2 cool, wet and cloudy months, but I'll go with 1980 for being slightly less cool, wet and cloudy.

[Don]

Don't recall August 1980 but I do remember 1987 having some warm and sunny weather, so I will go with that month.

[Summer8906]

My memory of 1980 is significantly more vague than 1987, due to being of primary-school age in the former and teenage in the latter, but:

Probably 1987.

I seem to remember August 1987 was "pleasant enough" most of the time, starting coolish but fairly bright with a few showers, then around 10 days of warmth midmonth, then a short cold wet spell, then further warmth at the end.

1980 I seem to remember being dull and unsettled in the first half, but then turning much sunnier and warmer towards the end. Even still, there seemed to be more poor weather than 1987.

Both months, according to the stats on the MWR ,were not actually as "bad" as all that. For the SE:

August 1980 : SE : max +0.2; rain 91%, sun 96%.

August 1987: SE: max +0.5, rain 68%, sun 99%.

So both months had marginally warmer than average maxima, were drier than normal (1987 significantly so), and sun about average or a little below.

I lived in far western Sussex in both years, so perhaps the SW stats should also be considered to some degree, as the SW starts not so far away from there in Dorset. In the SW, August 1987 was arguably downright good: mean max +0.3, rain 36% (!) and sun 106%. Clearly an unfairly-maligned month, I would prefer August 1987 over most of the Augusts we've had since 2007. August 1980 was somewhat dull in the SW at 84% sunshine, but also had just 84% rainfall and temps just -0.2 below average. Someone holidaying in Devon or Cornwall in August 1987 would have picked a good time to go!

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Summer8906

[Sunny76]

I remember august 1987 having some warm or hot days in the middle. The nights were also quite hot.