When May was almost warmer than July.. The strange summer of 1919.

[LetItSnow!]

The spring and summer weather of 1919 was most unusual for its sharp and extreme contrasts.

 

May 1919 was an exceptionally warm and dry month, bone dry in the southeast. Alongside 1868 it was the hottest since the exceptional May in 1833. It has a C.E.T. of 13.5°C and a EWP of 25.4mm.

 

An early cold snap was quickly replaced with warmer winds from the east. A persistent feature of May 1919 is high pressure over Scandinavia, often bringing the winds in from some form of easterly direction.

As stated, much of southeastern England was rainless. Cambridge saw 6mm of rain all month. 

The 23rd was the hottest day of the month with temperatures into the upper 20s.

High pressure held on until the end of the month, though slightly weakening in the southwest and perhaps introducing some isolated thunderstorms.

 

June 1919 is a month of two distinct halves. It's described as being fine, warm and mostly very dry until the 18th until an abrupt shift into cool, cloudy and gloomy that lasted the entire rest of the month. It has a C.E.T. of 14.3°C and a EWP of 36.5mm, so still a dry month.

It began as May ended, high pressure dominated. There were some cool nights for a time as the winds shifted to a more northerly quadrant, but days remained warm and soon it turned hotter.

Apart from a brief disturbance on the 12th that brought some severe thunderstorms, the middle section of June 1919 was warm to hot and dry. Many probably thought a classic summer was underway.

A gradual retrogression of pressure led to low pressure gaining ascendancy and the rest of June 1919 was much different with various low pressure systems plunging the country under northerly winds. This period is described as much wetter but probably of the showery kind as the month came out dry overall.

July 1919 is an extremely cold month, coming out only 0.4°C warmer than May with a C.E.T. of 13.9°C. Unusually for such a cold summer month it's generally dry away from the south and east of England. It's an extremely dry and sunny month in Scotland and was the sunniest July on record in Glasgow at the time. However, all of England away from the northwest was duller than normal. The month was noted for a remarkable lack of thunder in Scotland, but further south it was a different story. It has an EWP of 57.9mm.

The first week was described as unusually cold. Despite the dryness there were some severe thunderstorms. Flash flooding in Yorkshire from severe thunderstorms on the 1st. There was an absolute maximum of 11°C at Durham on the 6th.

Grim weather continues. The 19th is a notably wet day with falls of over 30mm in places. Balmoral records a minimum of -1.7°C on the 14th.

The final week sees high pressure establish but with winds still from the north.

Topsy turvy weather continued into August 1919 which is another month of two halves. Until the 18th it's described as a fine, dry and hot month and the best August since 1911 but then the final week turns remarkably cold which drags the month down a considerable amount. It has a C.E.T. of 15.7°C and an EWP of 79.0mm. The month is described as having a remarkable lack of thunder.

Aside from some unsettled days in the mix the first 10 days are warm, dry and sunny with high pressure ruling.

The heat is on mid-month! Remarkably, Ipswich breaks a record for its then-warmest night ever recorded, beating 1911's record. The C.E.T for August 1919 up to the 19th is 17.3°C, 3.5°C warmer than July.

What a difference a week makes. In contrast, the final week of August is amongst the coldest. Instead of heat records, many places record their lowest ever August maxima. Liverpool has a high of just 10°C on the 28th. It's also extremely wet.

 

The insanity was NOT over, with the biggest contrast yet to come in September, which you can read about on this forum! 

 

One thing is for sure, and that is the weather was on steroids during the summer of 1919!

There would only be one more July with a C.E.T. in the 13s after July 1919 and it occurred three years later. 

 

[hillbilly]

A very unusual year which gave a very late snowfall in the last days of April affecting the South and London.Following on September recorded one of its highest temperatures of 90F on the 11th yet just a week laterafter a  dramatic switcharound snow affected the North and the southwest ,the earliest dates for snow to fall in England.After that followed the coldest Autumn of the Century with November recording a crazy -23 deg midmonth.

[cheese]

I’m very happy a July that cold is essentially impossible now. 

[LetItSnow!]

15 hours ago, cheese said:

I’m very happy a July that cold is essentially impossible now. 

Maybe if that ole AMOC collapse happens in our lifetimes