Extreme months without extremes

[LetItSnow!]

A curious thought that came to me - What are some notably warm/mild/cool/cold months that featured a lack of any notable extremes of temperature. Preferably not down to things like warm minima etc but say a very hot month but with very modest temperatures rarely above 30C or some persistently bitter months without any notable cold. I thought of July 1983, the hottest month on record at the time and still ranked about 2nd or 3rd yet the temperature that month didn't get above 32 or 33C all month. 

[A Face like Thunder]

Not sure of the data or whether these qualify but,

January 1996 - cold but dry without any extremes (that came in February)

May 1996 - cool and cloudy but no extremes of temperature

March/April 2020 - the start of lockdown, perfect weather but with no extremes.

Over to you!  

[cheese]

July 2013 - maximum temperature was 33.5C at Heathrow.  

July 2018 - maximum temperature was 35.3C at Faversham in Kent. I don’t know if that counts as temperatures above 35C are still very hot in the UK, but there have been much cooler months that have recorded higher temperatures (August 2020, July 2020, July 2019, July 2015 etc). 

Edited June 16, 2023 by cheese

[hillbilly]

February 1986 had very little of severe cold temperatures but still remains the coldest month since 1963.

[alexisj9]

For me just the longtivity if the east wind this year has been extreme, so basically, most of, cause all the months had a small break, mostly from the nw instead, recently, SE for a bit. January, February, march, April, June, heve all been easterly dominant, although obviously it wasn't a cold easterly in the winter months, that started in April, and really packed a punch right through till things finally warmed up now.

[LetItSnow!]

6 hours ago, A Face like Thunder said:

Not sure of the data or whether these qualify but,

January 1996 - cold but dry without any extremes (that came in February)

May 1996 - cool and cloudy but no extremes of temperature

March/April 2020 - the start of lockdown, perfect weather but with no extremes.

Over to you!  

If I were to be nitpicky, January 1996 was not overall a cold month, coming in just under a degree above the longterm average. Before the final week it was running exceptionally mild due to very mild nights due to so much cloud. Ruined what would have been a very cold winter overall. If things had just aligned a little differently... January 1996 was exceptionally cold to our east into Russia but then came flooding back into February. 

[Summer8906]

On 16/06/2023 at 13:25, alexisj9 said:

For me just the longtivity if the east wind this year has been extreme, so basically, most of, cause all the months had a small break, mostly from the nw instead, recently, SE for a bit. January, February, march, April, June, heve all been easterly dominant, although obviously it wasn't a cold easterly in the winter months, that started in April, and really packed a punch right through till things finally warmed up now.

Were all these months easterly dominant?

The first half of Jan was extremely westerly, it then became anticyclonic but IIRC the wind was usually from the N or NW.

Feb was very westerly IIRC, albeit with high pressure.

March was easterly at first but more or less constantly SWly after the first week.

April was very variable.

Only May had quite an easterly dominance, at least in the second half.

[Summer8906]

On 16/06/2023 at 18:17, LetItSnow! said:

If I were to be nitpicky, January 1996 was not overall a cold month, coming in just under a degree above the longterm average. Before the final week it was running exceptionally mild due to very mild nights due to so much cloud. Ruined what would have been a very cold winter overall. If things had just aligned a little differently... January 1996 was exceptionally cold to our east into Russia but then came flooding back into February. 

I seem to remember Jan 1996 being more or less spot-on average for day maxima, though perhaps cloud (of which there was indeed much) meant higher night-time minima.

The changeover day seemed to be Sat 20th, after 2 or 3 weeks of mild weather I remember it felt quite bitter that day. Temps were not that low, around 5 or 6C, but it was the first time in a while temps had been below average so it felt distinctly cold.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer of 95]

The extended winter of 2012/13 had a remarkable lack of notably low minima, given the amount of low maxima, low monthly means and snowfall it had. Lowest I had all extended winter was -7C, and that didn't come in any of the snowy spells but in the foggy one in December.

Even the practically snowless winters of 1999/2000 and 1991/92 beat it on that count, the much milder 2006/07 and 2018/19 more or less equalled it, while 2001/02 hammered it (-12C during the New Year cold spell). I remember noticing it repeatedly at the time and remarking on it, how it actually didn't seem particularly cold at night even during the January spell when there was snow on the ground for 10 days straight.

[Don]

17 minutes ago, Summer of 95 said:

I remember noticing it repeatedly at the time and remarking on it, how it actually didn't seem particularly cold at night even during the January spell when there was snow on the ground for 10 days straight.

Shrewsbury had snow on the ground for 10 days straight?! 

[LetItSnow!]

I wonder if June 2023 qualifies for this list. It did break the June 13th anomaly but the highest temperature all month was just 32C. 

[Summer of 95]

2 minutes ago, Don said:

Shrewsbury had snow on the ground for 10 days straight?! 

Just occasionally it can happen, if that mysterious effect that causes rain/sleet/non-sticking snow or being bone dry round here, while it snows and sticks at the same or lower height outside a 15-30 mile radius (often the borders of Shropshire more or less) can be blasted away to affect somewhere else. That's the main issue...

Regarding  June 2023, the highest temp here was 28C with many days around 24-26 so I would agree with that, I'm not sure if it was the hottest June locally. It was consistently warm for me, a nice month except the final 5 days. 30C+ temps round here seem to happen almost exclusively in July and the first half of August for some reason, they are very rare in June and have never happened in May or September in the last 50 years.

[B87]

July 2014: average max 25.8c, absolute max 30.3c.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

June 2016 was apparently a warm month, despite being unsettled for much of the time. But I don't recall it having any extreme warm temps.

[BruenSryan]

May 2022 was the epitome of that! 

Phoenix Park, Dublin had its warmest May on record with a maximum temp of only 20.9C. Records here began in 1855...

Funny thing is, May 2023 would end up equalling it too and it was also very unremarkable. Max was even lower with only 20.5C.

[reef]

14 hours ago, BruenSryan said:

May 2022 was the epitome of that! 

Phoenix Park, Dublin had its warmest May on record with a maximum temp of only 20.9C. Records here began in 1855...

Funny thing is, May 2023 would end up equalling it too and it was also very unremarkable. Max was even lower with only 20.5C.

May 2022 was exactly the same here. It had a mean of 13.0C, so just 0.2C below the warmest, yet the absolute high maximum was just 22.3C.

April 2014 was another one. Here it was the 3rd warmest in 43 years behind only 2007 and 2011, yet it didn't go above 18.0C all month.