Summer 1989: the most underrated summer of the 20th century?

[Summerlover2006]

When you hear about the best summers of the 20th century 1989 is so rarely mentioned and it deserves to be.

July 1989 was the best month of the summer and it was the perfect combination of hot dry and sunny weather. With a CET of 18.2 it was the hottest month since the 1983 and about the same as July 1976 the peak of 34.2 at Heathrow on the 22nd was the hottest day since 1976 the first time 90 degrees had been achieved since 1983 and also the hottest temperature of the decade. The mean maximum of 21.7 at Edinburgh airport was the highest since records began at Heathrow the mean maximum was 25.8

the thing that made this summer so great was that every month of the extended summer had a lot of warm to hot sunny and dry weather unlike a lot of more remembered summers there was not really a bad month of the entire extended summer 

in my option I think the only summers that sound better then 1989 in the 20th century were 11 33 47 59 76 83 and 95 with 89 being better then 90 in my opinion despite the record high temperatures 

some questions for you 

your memories from this summer?

stats you have from this summer?

was it better then the summer of 1990?

 

Edited February 15 by Summerlover2006

[damianslaw]

 Summerlover2006 It was an excellent summer here, as you say, not often mentioned and overshadowed by 76, 95 and 18.. but for consistency and length probably beats all. May featured a very warm spell. September was dry and warm as well. Indeed 1989 with exception of April and to an extent Nov and Dec was exceptionally mild, sunny and overall one of the driest on record.

Summer 1990 was good, but a summer of 2 halves, best conditions came second half July, first half August. I was away first half Aug but remember the first 2 weeks or so of school holidays brought day after day of hot sunny dry weather. 

[SollyOlly]

Good topic, thank you! Yes, it was an epic summer, I was still young and could enjoy the heat, unlike now with my health conditions. I do recall long, hot, sunny periods...and a series of cricket Test matches, Eng/ Aus, at the end of an era for England and the start of an era for Aus (!). Weather wise, I loved it. Purely personally, mostly because it was the summer that I met my then red-hot girlfriend who somehow agreed to become my wife (?!), the summer of 1995 surpassed it. But back in the day when I could enjoy heat, I loved it 1989...1990...1995. Now...sadly, I can't take heat....which is of course more intense now anyway.

[damianslaw]

 SollyOlly Seem to recall most of the heat in the summers mentioned 89, 90 and 95 came from continental high pressure systems overhead, 2018 was the same, whereas alot of heat in last 20 years summers, 2003, 2006, 2019, 2022 have come from southerly plumes with associated humidity.

[Chasbrown]

 Summerlover2006 I can remember landing back at Heathrow during that period. Couldn't believe how hot it was late afternoon. Really stuffy and uncomfortable in the old terminal 2.

[hillbilly]

1989 really was a great summer but personally i would put 1984 ahead of it despite the statistics being slightly the opposite just how it felt at the time.Along with 1983 a trio of great summers.I would put both 1984 and 1989 better than 1990 with 1990 ranking alongside 1983.None of the trio of great 80s summers were  bettered until 2018 except for 1995.The most distinct thing i remember was after almost 5 years of of wet or relatively poor weather from summer 1984 it suddenly switched in April 1989 to dry and the land that summer is something we hadnt seen since 1984.

[Summerlover2006]

 hillbilly I think that’s what made summer 1989 so amazing it came after 4 wet and cool summer it must have been such a good feeling 

[damianslaw]

 hillbilly Yes Winter 88-89 marked a change to a lengthy very dry period all way to Summer 92 by and large with only a few wetter episodes such as Autumn 91. 

Then followed a very wet period until Spring 95... with a record dry Apr-Aug period and the infamous hot late June to late August period.. indeed the April 95 to April 97 is I believe the driest 24 month period on record. Mother nature has a habit of balancing itself out, drought and flood wise!

Edited February 15 by damianslaw

[Harry's House]

1989 certainly had concerns about water shortages owing to drought with the very good summer following a very good May. At Herstmonceux where I worked at the time, there were 130 consecutive days of sunshine from 2nd May to 8th September inclusive.

I took these photographs of the pond at Hailsham on 8th September. 

[cheeky_monkey]

1983 is the most underrated summer of the 20th C end of discussion. 

[Badgers01]

Seem to recall the Azores high was pushed north and often to the west of the uk we had a lot of light nw winds - which brings very settled warm / hot conditions to southern half of England !?

[Weather-history]

 Summerlover2006

Disagree, summer 1989 is frequently quoted often when pairs of great summers are mentioned as examples

1975-76, 1983-84, 1989-90

I remember it well because my  period at high school was sandwiched between two great summers, unfortunately the summers in between were mediocre.

The great summers of the 20th century really depends on locations, some places did better than others.  Summer 1990 is overrated IMO

For my location, they are

1911, 1933, 1947, 1949, 1955, 1959, 1975, 1976, 1983, 1984, 1989, 1995  

1901 was a good summer but who talks about that?  1921 was another but ruined by the August. 

Summer 1925 rarely gets a mentioned 

1933 is mentioned a lot in historical terms as a great summer but who talks about the summers of 1934 and 1935? They were pretty good summers

I think summer 1994 is underrated as with 1996 being overshadowed by 1995.

 

Edited February 17 by Weather-history

[damianslaw]

 Weather-history Summer 94 and 96 were decent but wet at times, notably 1994 with a lot of thunder. We were on the brink of a very hot summer in 1994, Europe experienced one of its hottest. 1996 featured alot of warm dry and sunny weather but coming on the back of 1995 felt underwhelming.

To an extent 1990 was overshadowed by 1989 but it contained record heat, without it, it would probably not be rated that high as with 1996.

 

Edited February 17 by damianslaw

[Summerlover2006]

 damianslaw agreed without the extreme heat 1990 would be forgotten and maybe even known more for its bad weather with that terrible June.

Edited February 17 by Summerlover2006

[Weather-history]

 damianslaw

Regionally, summer 1989 was actually wetter than the summers of  1990, 1991, 1994 and 1996. It was only 6mm drier than summer 1986.

It shows how  many dry/dryish summers there were regionally from 1989 to 1996. Even summer 1993, was not that particularly wet (it was only 5mm wetter than summer 2013). 

[SummerShower]

Yes a great summer, I was only 9 at the time and my interest in weather kicked off around then.

When I think of summer 1989, May definitely forms a part of that.  In fact the only better mays in my lifetime were 1992 and maybe 2020.

There was a lot of thunder as well.  I remember storms that were widespread on 1st, 4th, 22nd, 23rd and 24th May as well as 6/7 July and 14 August.  

There was a week long heatwave around the 3rd week of July which would rival any we get nowadays, save the absolute max was 34.2C.