Months that deserved records but didn't achieve them

[AlexG595]

March 1947.. Just the entire first half of it is still incredible to me, the mean CET for the first half of the month was -0.3°C

Something that also bothers me is that a min CET of -9.4°C was recorded on the 7th. If it was only that touch colder then it couldve been the only -10°C CET minima outside of Dec-Jan-Feb. 

Sadly the very mild second half ruined any chances of March 1947 becoming a record cold March, however I love to speculate some kind of March 1947 followed by a late March 2013 combination that would absolutely decimate previous March cold spells

[AlexG595]

Another submission is June 3rd 1947, it bothers me so much that 34.5°C, June's 8th hottest day on record was so close to May

Imagine if it had just happened 3 days prior! Not only would May 1947 have likely become the hottest on record, but it would've absolutely deserved it with the current May record of only 32.8°C being decimated

[AlexG595]

Absolutely in love with this thread. Though this is more "a month that got a record that *didn't* deserve it" I was absolutely distraught over June 2023 beating the old joint records of 1940 and 1976, especially 1976. To be fair. A lot of this just stems from my general dislike for modern climate change records but I used to love June 1976 for the exceptional maxima in the latter half of the month

In contrast, I was very happy about September 2023 tying with September 2006 overall. I found September 2006 to be incredibly boring meteologically with only 1-2 days actually exceeding 30°C, despite this. Mainly due to warm minima, 2006 beat many famous Septembers like 1911 and 1906 in overall mean temperature. September 2023 was an incredible month due to it's beginning heatwave. 7 days over 30°C was absolutely uprecedented compared to previous Septembers. Nevermind all in a row! Though I remember at some point, a weather model even forecasted maxima as high as 36°C in parts of the south for 2 consecutive days. Even though I hate heatwaves, I still wish this had verified.

[AlexG595]

On 21/11/2023 at 19:59, CryoraptorA303 said:

IMO they are still important milestones; they still hold the third and second hottest days ever recorded after all, for now anyway (I'm sure a few summers between now and the 2030s will have something to say about them). August 2003 will still be remembered for some time for the massive heatwave. 2019 I feel will fall into relative obscurity (like the August 1932 heatwave) rather quickly due to the lack of an accompanying prolonged heatwave. 2022's record is huge although I doubt it will remain for all that long. I see next year going above 40 again if Nino sticks to the dry spring script and then we get a hot summer after that. If not that then another heatwave will come up at some point and we'll pass it by the mid-2030s. Aside from that we will have more than a couple summers reaching into the high 30s between now and then and we'll almost certainly see more 38s and 39s in the meantime.

I'd never actually paid much attention to August 1997 before - Looks very much like the August version of June 2023. Several tropical nights or near misses at Heathrow anyhow. Overall 1997 has the far more extreme daily minima, but 1995 has the more extreme daily maxima and of course the dry period was much more intense too. I think 1995 also had a farther reach as it's still the hottest summer on record across the Welsh and NWrn coast, which shows you how gigantic an area it accounted for, and so it will stick out more in the minds of those who live in western areas that normally dodge the heatwaves than more recent hot summers that didn't go as far on the west coast.

I wasn't alive for May 1992, but I will agree that it looks more extreme than 2008, by a considerable margin. The season was trundling along, quite backended as Nino seasons tend to be, and then suddenly eight consecutive days of >25.9C at Heathrow. Daily minima really high by the end as well. If there's any month that deserved to rubbish May 1944 then that's as good as any.

The truth is, in my lifetime, aside from 2012 in Scotland and 27th May 2005, we haven't really had any extraordinary Mays at all (aside from May 2021 but that's in the other direction). This makes me think we're well overdue for one and the result will be horrifying when it finally does materialise.

I remember things from December 2015 as being from October because of how warm it was Very high daily maxima and extremely high daily minima. It was also extraordinarily wet on the west coast and is several locations' wettest month on record, even beating January 2014. However on the east coast where I am it wasn't wet at all and actually veered on the drier side, so December 2015 was narrowly stopped from having that record too.

Of course the February 1998 record was on Friday 13th

Probably corrections of slightly inaccurate measurements.

Referencing your comparison between July 2019 and August 1932! We've already seen this happen already with both July 2006's hottest day record and the even more notable July 2015's record falling into obscurity from the moment they were beat. Honestly I'm glad as both of these records came from otherwise uneventful summers. 2019's late June and late August heatwave was pretty impressive but far from deserving of the national record over them