July 1971: a respectable summer month

[Weather-history]

After a very poor June, July 1971 was a pretty respectable summer month.

For England and Wales, it was the driest July since 1955 with 44.4mm and the warmest for the CET since 1959 with 16.9°C

For Scotland and Northern Ireland, it was the sunniest July since 1955 for these countries.

 

 

 

Some data from this month

Coventry: 226hrs of sunshine, 6 days with rainfall

Edgbaston:  225.7hrs of sunshine, mean max temp: 17.6°C, highest temp: 27.7°C (11th), 35.6mm of rainfall

Huddersfield: 205.2hrs of sunshine, mean temp of 16.8°C, rain on 9 days

Watnall: 214.8 hrs of sunshine, mean temp of 17.1°C, rainfall: 64.1mm (35.5mm falling on one day)

Bristol: 268.2hrs of sunshine, rainfall: 37.4mm of rainfall

Keele Uni: mean temp of 16.2°C, 25.6mm of rainfall 

Liverpool:  sunshine: 235.8hrs, rain on 9 days with 21.5mm of rainfall

 

Birmingham                   Standard     Notts  

[LetItSnow!]

Three sobering thoughts from that read is that: A scorching weekend in the papers of a (now) modest 84F when now 90F is seen as modest. Then, the fact it notes people were hospitalised. Finally, the fact at 16.9C overall it was the warmest for 12 years when that's the 1991-2020 average. Only July 2015 and July 2020 have been below that.

[damianslaw]

5 hours ago, LetItSnow! said:

Three sobering thoughts from that read is that: A scorching weekend in the papers of a (now) modest 84F when now 90F is seen as modest. Then, the fact it notes people were hospitalised. Finally, the fact at 16.9C overall it was the warmest for 12 years when that's the 1991-2020 average. Only July 2015 and July 2020 have been below that.

June this year looks like just beating it. Would be seen as quite unremarkable dare I say average today. 

[Summer8906]

4 hours ago, damianslaw said:

June this year looks like just beating it. Would be seen as quite unremarkable dare I say average today. 

Perhaps for mean CET though looking at the archive charts it looked anticyclonic for the entire first half of the month. The second half was more mixed but with some anticyclonic interludes.

So for general weather and "summeriness", probably better than any July since 2007, except for 2013/14/18/22. And it looks certain to be better than July 2023, too, unless the second half shows radical improvement.

The sunshine totals above would I suspect be well-above the average for the past 15 years; ISTR many if not most months of July have failed to reach 200 hours at say Heathrow in the past 15 years.

 

 

 

Edited June 30, 2023 by Summer8906

[hillbilly]

10 hours ago, LetItSnow! said:

Three sobering thoughts from that read is that: A scorching weekend in the papers of a (now) modest 84F when now 90F is seen as modest. Then, the fact it notes people were hospitalised. Finally, the fact at 16.9C overall it was the warmest for 12 years when that's the 1991-2020 average. Only July 2015 and July 2020 have been below that.

It is worth noting that there were no hot summers in the 1960s with only June 1960 and July 1969 being anything like hot so i guess the second hot July in 12 years was most welcome.As for better Julys today the jury is out as apart from 2022,2021 and 2018 they have all been rubbish or indifferent since 2006,with the exception of a few freak short lived temperature spikes and many more mild nights.

[B87]

1 hour ago, Summer8906 said:

The sunshine totals above would I suspect be well-above the average for the past 15 years; ISTR many if not most months of July have failed to reach 200 hours at say Heathrow in the past 15 years.

The 91-20 July sunshine average at Heathrow is 218 hours, and higher for the past 15 years. I can only think of 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2021 that failed to reach 200 hours in the past 15 years.

July 1971 didn't look that spectacular at Heathrow. If it happened today is would be seen as an average July, if on the drier side. 24.1c/13.8c with 224 sun hours and 19mm rain. 

Edited June 30, 2023 by B87

[Summer8906]

14 hours ago, B87 said:

The 91-20 July sunshine average at Heathrow is 218 hours, and higher for the past 15 years. I can only think of 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2021 that failed to reach 200 hours in the past 15 years.

July 1971 didn't look that spectacular at Heathrow. If it happened today is would be seen as an average July, if on the drier side. 24.1c/13.8c with 224 sun hours and 19mm rain. 

Is that definitely right? I'm sure July 2019 for example failed to reach 200 at most stations except along the south coast, and that was one of the less-cloudy ones once you've considered 13/14/18/22.

2009 would surely be far below 200 as it had pretty terrible synoptics aside from the first 3 days or so. I missed about two weeks of that month but certainly the period from the 5th-10th was pretty cloudy, and the final few days had regular frontal rainfall.

Also the synoptics for July 1971 suggest a much more anticyclonic month than most in the past 15 years. I find it hard to believe that July sunshine has gone up since 2007; from my memory, the 1989-2006 period (so roughly equivalent to the first 15 years of 91-20) was very, very much sunnier.

Edited July 1, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

14 hours ago, hillbilly said:

It is worth noting that there were no hot summers in the 1960s with only June 1960 and July 1969 being anything like hot so i guess the second hot July in 12 years was most welcome.As for better Julys today the jury is out as apart from 2022,2021 and 2018 they have all been rubbish or indifferent since 2006,with the exception of a few freak short lived temperature spikes and many more mild nights.

2013 and 2014 were very much better than 2021 here; in fact the good weather of 2013 and 2014 was general across England and Wales, certainly, if I remember right. Agree with your general comment on recent Julys though, cloudy humid weather with short extreme heat spikes has very much been the form horse.

Edited July 1, 2023 by Summer8906

[hillbilly]

11 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

2013 and 2014 were very much better than 2021 here; in fact the good weather of 2013 and 2014 was general across England and Wales, certainly, if I remember right. Agree with your general comment on recent Julys though, cloudy humid weather with short extreme heat spikes has very much been the form horse.

Ah yes you are right am getting mixed up with August,yes 2013 was shaping up to be a great summer and it would have been on a par with 2022 had it not been for the usual cloudy August,i think in Hampshire you had a better August than here.2014 similar.

 

[Summer8906]

7 minutes ago, hillbilly said:

Ah yes you are right am getting mixed up with August,yes 2013 was shaping up to be a great summer and it would have been on a par with 2022 had it not been for the usual cloudy August,i think in Hampshire you had a better August than here.2014 similar.

 

Yes, August 2013 was a pleasant summer month, if not exceptional. Dry, slightly warmer than average, and sunshine average, which is good for the last 15 years.  Along with 2016, probably the only August I would consider slightly on the good side from 2007-21.

August 2014 was poorer: changeable throughout, though rarely really dire. The first 10 days were changeable but slightly warm, then it was cool but not that dull or wet for about two weeks. The worst weather started during the Bank Holiday weekend and continued until almost the end of the month.

Edited July 1, 2023 by Summer8906

[B87]

4 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

Is that definitely right? I'm sure July 2019 for example failed to reach 200 at most stations except along the south coast, and that was one of the less-cloudy ones once you've considered 13/14/18/22.

2009 would surely be far below 200 as it had pretty terrible synoptics aside from the first 3 days or so. I missed about two weeks of that month but certainly the period from the 5th-10th was pretty cloudy, and the final few days had regular frontal rainfall.

Also the synoptics for July 1971 suggest a much more anticyclonic month than most in the past 15 years. I find it hard to believe that July sunshine has gone up since 2007; from my memory, the 1989-2006 period (so roughly equivalent to the first 15 years of 91-20) was very, very much sunnier.

You were correct on 2009. June was sunny but July only saw 178 hours. July 2019 recorded 219.3 hours. August 2019 was as sunny as August 2016, both on 222 hours.

The only Julys after 2012 that failed to see 200+ hours of sun were 2020 and 2021, both recording 195 hours.

Edited July 1, 2023 by B87

[Sun Chaser]

2 hours ago, B87 said:

The only Julys after 2012 that failed to see 200+ hours of sun were 2020 and 2021, both recording 195 hours.

Surprised 2021 was as dull as 2020! I know it was worse in the SE and I remember the 1st-12th being very dull but I thought there were widespread clear blue skies for most of the rest of the month. 2020 here was absolutely dire though.

Also surprised July 2015 and 2016 reached 200+ hours at Heathrow considering they both barely scraped 120 here!

[B87]

48 minutes ago, plymsunshine said:

Surprised 2021 was as dull as 2020! I know it was worse in the SE and I remember the 1st-12th being very dull but I thought there were widespread clear blue skies for most of the rest of the month. 2020 here was absolutely dire though.

Also surprised July 2015 and 2016 reached 200+ hours at Heathrow considering they both barely scraped 120 here!

July 2015 recorded 214 hours. 2016 recorded 207 hours.

2021 was easily the worst summer since 2012 here.

[Summer8906]

4 hours ago, B87 said:

You were correct on 2009. June was sunny but July only saw 178 hours. July 2019 recorded 219.3 hours. August 2019 was as sunny as August 2016, both on 222 hours.

The only Julys after 2012 that failed to see 200+ hours of sun were 2020 and 2021, both recording 195 hours.

OK fair enough, it's possible I wasn't looking at Heathrow but other inland southern stations (perhaps Odiham?), apologies for getting it wrong if so.

Here August 2016 seemed a lot sunnier than August 2019, though I don't have any measurements to back it up.

Edited July 1, 2023 by Summer8906