Chillly 7th August 1987

[Weather-history]

Remember this day well. It was a Friday, it was cloudy, it was drizzly and it was freezing. Another rank day from the summer of 1987

 

     

        

[LetItSnow!]

A kick in the teeth considering the previous August had been very wet and cold. August 1987 would go on to have some hotter weather at times though, and thundery too. It wasn’t a notably cool month overall. 

[Sunny76]

2 hours ago, Weather-history said:

Remember this day well. It was a Friday, it was cloudy, it was drizzly and it was freezing. Another rank day from the summer of 1987

 

     

        

I didn’t realise it was that bad.

I was 11 at the time, and all i remember from August that year were some daytime storms, a hot spell of weather followed by nighttime storms. 
 

I remember the start of the school holidays being wet and dull. 

[Sunny76]

I would have been on a plane to Greece despite the killer heatwave at the time.

I was stuck in this country having family holidays to the Isle of Wight during this poor summers. My family never took us abroad, so I do remember some really poor weather conditions, but also remember some nice warm sunny weeks.

[Frigid]

Looks like today could be a similar story.. Never seen the likes of these max temps in August. 

  

[Sunny76]

Mirroring summer of 1987, so maybe we get a short hot spell with storms during the second half of August.

A warm September followed and it was fairly mild into October that year. The winter was horrible and mild.

[Summer8906]

Was

26 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

Mirroring summer of 1987, so maybe we get a short hot spell with storms during the second half of August.

A warm September followed and it was fairly mild into October that year. The winter was horrible and mild.

Let's hope 16/10/23 isn't "notable" for anything!

August 1987 was quite respectable down in the south. Perhaps similar in quality to 2012. The warm sunny spell was quite lengthy where I was (around 10 days) and there was a second fairly substantial spell late in the month too.

On 03/08/2023 at 05:38, Weather-history said:

Remember this day well. It was a Friday, it was cloudy, it was drizzly and it was freezing. Another rank day from the summer of 1987

 

     

        

I oddly remember 7/8/87 and distinctly recall it being actually quite sunny (in Sussex), with small fair-weather Cu albeit not warm. Looks from the synoptics and forecast like the worst weather was in the N or NE, though.

As stated above, not a bad summer month overall though, particularly for the 1985-88 period.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Summer8906

[Sunny76]

4 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

Was

Let's hope 16/10/23 isn't "notable" for anything!

August 1987 was quite respectable down in the south. Perhaps similar in quality to 2012. The warm sunny spell was quite lengthy where I was (around 10 days) and there was a second fairly substantial spell late in the month too.

I oddly remember 7/8/87 and distinctly recall it being actually quite sunny (in Sussex), with small fair-weather Cu albeit not warm. Looks from the synoptics and forecast like the worst weather was in the N or NE, though.

As stated above, not a bad summer month overall though, particularly for the 1985-88 period.

Yeah hope we don’t get a Great Storm again, but a mild sunny Christmas Day can’t be ruled out.

1987 was the best out of all those poor summers between 85-88.

August did have some hot days in the second half. I remember it feeling hot at night as well.

[Weather-history]

16 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

Yeah hope we don’t get a Great Storm again, but a mild sunny Christmas Day can’t be ruled out.

1987 was the best out of all those poor summers between 85-88.

August did have some hot days in the second half. I remember it feeling hot at night as well.

Opposite here, it was the worst summer of the 1985-88 period. June was horrid, wettest month of the 1980s.

[Sunny76]

Just now, Weather-history said:

Opposite here, it was the worst summer of the 1985-88 period. June was horrid, wettest month of the 1980s.

Yes, June was horrible everywhere, but it improved once we moved into July, then another dull cool period, followed by hot sunny weather in the second half of August.

[Summer8906]

3 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

Yes, June was horrible everywhere, but it improved once we moved into July, then another dull cool period, followed by hot sunny weather in the second half of August.

June had the saving grace that it had a lengthy period, around mid-month, of slack pressure with sunny starts followed by build up of slow moving thundery downpours during the afternoon and early evening, then clear again after dark. More interesting and less claggy, at least, than typical bad summer weather.

3 hours ago, Weather-history said:

Opposite here, it was the worst summer of the 1985-88 period. June was horrid, wettest month of the 1980s.

If I had to rate those summers, I'd probably put 1985 in bottom place, due to a very poor June and August. Then 1988, with 1986 and 1987 joint least-worst.

1985 was the only one of the four which had two out of three spectacularly bad summer months.

1986 was the only one with a really good month (June) though it was balanced out by a really bad one (August).

Edited August 5, 2023 by Summer8906

[Sunny76]

1 minute ago, Summer8906 said:

June had the saving grace that it had a lengthy period, around mid-month, of slack pressure with sunny starts followed by build up of slow moving thundery downpours during the afternoon and early evening, then clear again after dark. More interesting and less claggy, at least, than typical bad summer weather.

It’s strange how at the time, most people probably thought it would lead to another cold winter, but it was a shift towards very mild winters for the next few years. 

[Summer8906]

7 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

It’s strange how at the time, most people probably thought it would lead to another cold winter, but it was a shift towards very mild winters for the next few years. 

I don't remember having any thoughts about the winter but the norm for the time was at least one snowy spell. Only 1980, 1981 and 1984 (Jan years) had failed in that respect at that point in the 80s (and in fact from 1977 onwards).

When 1988 was mild, I fully expected 1989 to have a good snowy spell. And then when it was mild, I fully expected 1990 to have a good snowy spell. Of course we had to wait until 1991 and after that, proper snow became about as rare as 35C temps in summer. I think it was probably about 1993 when it dawned on me that snowy spells in winter were no longer the norm.

 

Edited August 5, 2023 by Summer8906

[LetItSnow!]

3 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

I don't remember having any thoughts about the winter but the norm for the time was at least one snowy spell. Only 1980, 1981 and 1984 (Jan years) had failed in that respect at that point in the 80s (and in fact from 1977 onwards).

When 1988 was mild, I fully expected 1989 to have a good snowy spell. And then when it was mild, I fully expected 1990 to have a good snowy spell. Of course we had to wait until 1991 and after that, proper snow became about as rare as 35C temps in summer. I think it was probably about 1993 when it dawned on me that snowy spells in winter were no longer the norm.

 

I often do think about the general perception of the changes in winter, even to people who don’t pay much attention to the weather. There must have been a “what’s going on?” sort of realisation at the sheer lack of snow. I think what stood out to mild winter dominated decades before was that even in those there tended to be one or two cold events from time to time. 

[reef]

Perhaps one of the most notable things on those newspaper extracts are the worldwide city temperatures.

26C in Madrid, 29C in Majorca, 23C in Los Angeles etc

It really shows how different things are now. There's actually very few places that are 30C+ there.

[SollyOlly]

7 minutes ago, reef said:

Perhaps one of the most notable things on those newspaper extracts are the worldwide city temperatures.

26C in Madrid, 29C in Majorca, 23C in Los Angeles etc

It really shows how different things are now. There's actually very few places that are 30C+ there.

Yes, very good point. It's been gradual, but temperatures have definitely crept up, haven't they...and as has been pointed out elsewhere, that in turn very gradually affects what people consider to be 'normal'. It's one of the reasons that from a statistical point of view (and I know that statistics aren't everybody's cup of tea!) I'm quite interested that the WMO use 1961-1990 as the baseline for comparisons. When we see the CET compared to that (and again, I know that the CET isn't everywhere etc!), it can be quite telling how much both summers and winters have changed. 

[Sunny76]

1 hour ago, reef said:

Perhaps one of the most notable things on those newspaper extracts are the worldwide city temperatures.

26C in Madrid, 29C in Majorca, 23C in Los Angeles etc

It really shows how different things are now. There's actually very few places that are 30C+ there.

It probably wasn’t too long after that, when temps started to rise.

If we looked at the worldwide temps in August 88 or 1989, the change was different happening. 

[Don]

8 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

It probably wasn’t too long after that, when temps started to rise.

If we looked at the worldwide temps in August 88 or 1989, the change was different happening. 

I wonder what worldwide temps will be at this time in another 36 years?!  

[LetItSnow!]

12 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

It probably wasn’t too long after that, when temps started to rise.

If we looked at the worldwide temps in August 88 or 1989, the change was different happening. 

Temperatures were already rising, markedly since 1980. 

 

13 hours ago, reef said:

Perhaps one of the most notable things on those newspaper extracts are the worldwide city temperatures.

26C in Madrid, 29C in Majorca, 23C in Los Angeles etc

It really shows how different things are now. There's actually very few places that are 30C+ there.

Greece had just gone through a deadly heatwave and the N. American / Canadian border area was midway through one of the most anomalously warm years on record. Overall it was cooler, yes, but the warming was already getting going. I feel like the UK was actually behind the warming curve for a time in the mid-80s. 

[Metwatch]

On 05/08/2023 at 00:30, Frigid said:

Looks like today could be a similar story.. Never seen the likes of these max temps in August. 

  

Managed an atrocious max of 12.9C (0900-2100), with continous rain that day, however with a low (Storm Antoni), sliding through southern england, which is a different setup to what happened in August 1987 where that involved a northerly instead.

Coldest August max since 1931 potentially it was, though from the times of 0900 - 0900 next day instead, the record is still 12.8C during August 1931. Still shows that these very poor days in peak summer are still possible in modern times! 5/08/2023 was about 10C below 1991-2020 average for Coventry which is 22.9C!

[Summer8906]

On 09/08/2023 at 04:08, LetItSnow! said:

Temperatures were already rising, markedly since 1980. 

 

Greece had just gone through a deadly heatwave and the N. American / Canadian border area was midway through one of the most anomalously warm years on record. Overall it was cooler, yes, but the warming was already getting going. I feel like the UK was actually behind the warming curve for a time in the mid-80s. 

 

Perhaps Madrid and Majorca were experiencing the same anomalously cool airmass as the UK.

LA can be relatively cool in summer, when the wind blows off the ocean. I've been in LA in early August before (2004) and conditions were very moderate, probably around 25.

Edited December 16, 2023 by Summer8906