Underrated summers

[Harry233]

What summers do you feel have been good but have been put down for being poor or average? For me I would say 

2005 - A summer that was good for me but never broke any records for outstanding heat or warmth. Summer 2005 had a good first half of June, an excellent first half of July and a largely fine August. In fact July 2005 is the driest July I have recorded and it is probably the driest July since the 1970’s for my area. It was let down by a very dull and cool second half of July, and a cool first half of June.

2009 - (very controversial) I had a cracking June. Especially the final week with maximum temperatures consistently reaching the mid 20’s on many days. July actually had quite a lot of warm, sunny weather but was let down massively due to the near enough daily afternoon thunderstorms or huge monsoon like downpours. Either side of it though the weather was actually very pleasant. Many warm sunny evenings and pleasantly mild sunny mornings. It was let down mainly due to a wet August.

2010 - Had a very warm, dry and sunny June, probably one of the nicest Junes I’ve experienced. Very little wet weather, and the August that year while cool was actually quite pleasant. I believe August 2010 was terrible in the south but certainly for central Scotland it was a pleasant month with many cool nights. Made it feel like a late April/early May most of the time. It was let down due to a rather wet July.

2014 - Had my sunniest July on record even beating 2006, 2013, 2018 and 2021. A very pleasant July with lots of warm sunshine but without the usual humidity of summer. It actually had quite a lot of cool nights. June had a good week long heatwave in the middle of the month while being rather warm throughout. The August that year was quite disappointing however.

2019 - Had a brilliant second half of June, a generally warm and sunny July and a pleasantly sunny August. Let down by brief but generally very heavy spells of rain and dull weather throughout. First half of June was shockingly bad.

2021 - An excellent summer. A warm and sunny June with no exceptional heat, just very pleasant 20-22.C weather. A really good July and August, with the final week in August having some of the best summer weather I can remember very pleasantly warm without the humidity. The mornings always started cold and misty and then the sun came with vengeance by mid morning.

 

share your thoughts

[John S2]

Rating of summers is controversial because the synoptics leading to a good summer month in areas such as North Lancashire, Cumbria and SW Scotland including Glasgow can be quite opposite to patterns more favourable to SE England & East Anglia.

Also opinions vary about what makes a good summer. Personally I want dry weather and a sky that is a proper blue, not the depressing haze that comes with plumes from the South. So, with my bias declared, I nominate the following summers [from my lifetime] as underrated and give their rank in the NW England summer rainfall series [POR=150 years] as evidence.

1984 [7th driest], 2021 [15th driest]. 1996[20], 1969[21]

[damianslaw]

1996 was preety decent, but forgotten about because of the fantastic summer of 95. An early heatwave in June, followed by a lot of fine albeit warm rather than very warm or hot weather. Decent conditions for getting out and about with some rain at times. This is from a Lakeland perspective.

[Sun Chaser]

In my lifetime: 2005 and 2014 for sure which were both great summers that almost never get a mention. (Aug 14 was poor but not in the same league as others like 2008/2010)

I'd also like to nominate 2019 as after the solstice it was largely warm and dry, though "wetter than average" a lot of this fell in downpours with not many rain days.

From the perspective of someone living in the SW at the time, 2021 was also underrated as I really liked that summer - the Jul 2021 heatwave was very significant by SW standards as well. However I appreciate it was a lot worse in the SE so I don't know if I'd go far enough to say it deserves the title of underrated everywhere.

Before my lifetime, I'd agree with the above that 1996 doesn't get enough credit, neither does 1999 which had a great July from what I have seen.

Meanwhile an overrated summer - 2020 which had a week of hot weather and about 12 weeks of cool cloudy dross. Where I was only 21 out of 92 days breached 21c - interestingly the exact same as last autumn.

[Harry233]

 Sun Chaser Summer 1999 was a good summer. June wasn’t great but July and August were both pleasantly warm and September that year was very warm.

2005 had it not had been for a very dull and cool second half of July I would say it could’ve been on par with some of the best summers. 

I agree with August 2014. Northern Scotland bore the worst of that weather, it was about average for me but was quite cool, but not as bad as some Augusts.  It had a excellent July and the June that year was good.

I really enjoyed summer 2019. The downpours were very interesting but like you say they all fell in heavy bursts rather than prolonged rain. It had an excellent second half of June, (first half was terrible for me). July was generally warm, dry and sunny bar a few very heavy showers, the spell between the 22nd-27th was particularly warm. And even August minus the deluge between the 9th-11th was good.

Summer 2021 is definitely controversial as it was a poor summer in the south east but across the north and west it was an excellent summer. I loved summer 2021 especially as it was consistently warm throughout rather than having excessive heat. For example I only recorded one day that whole season where the maximum failed to exceed 16.C but yet there was 49 days that exceeded 20.C but only 10 days exceeded 25.C. (Still a lot by local standards here). There was also only a few days with rain and that came in heavy bursts that lasted only a few hours. It was a pleasantly warm summer with little nighttime humidity or stifling hot days. 

2020 is definitely overrated for me and if anything I would say it was probably the worst summer since 2012. Aside from the first couple of days and last week in June and the first week in August there was very little heat. It was just cold, wet and miserable. The first half of July and second half of August were absolutely terrible, many days reached just the low or mid teens and the rain was very heavy. The thunderstorm overnight 11th-12th August was very interesting however and that was probably the loudest and longest thunderstorm I have ever experienced in this country.

Summer 2013 while a brilliant summer for most of the UK was probably a little bit disappointing on the east coast after that very cold spring with the sea temperatures being below average.

Definitely a good topic to compare as the UK is so different weather wise year by year.

[danm]

14 hours ago, Sun Chaser said:

Meanwhile an overrated summer - 2020 which had a week of hot weather and about 12 weeks of cool cloudy dross. Where I was only 21 out of 92 days breached 21c - interestingly the exact same as last autumn.

Funny how perceptions are different based on location. I look at 2020 as a really underrated Summer. For London, 69 out of 92 days exceeded 21c. 36 days exceeded 24c, 10 days exceeded 30, 3 days exceeded 35c. 

Coming off the back of an exceptional Spring, the SUmmer as a whole wasn't a scorcher - we had our share of cool and wet weather, particularly in early June and a short spell in late August. However, as i've said on a few other threads, that "peak" Summer period from mid July to mid August was pretty exceptional, culminating in one of the most intense UK heatwaves I've experienced with 6 consecutive days above 33c, 3 of which were above 35c, peaking at 36.4c. A few days before that spell it hit 37.8c:

There was also a brief heatwave in June with 3 consecutive days exceeded 31c, peaking at 33.4c. 

Where were you based in 2020? 

 

[Harry233]

 danm I’m based in Perth, even by Scotland standards summer 2020 was poor. The highest temperatures I recorded during the August heatwave was 26.7.C and that was the warmest day of 2020. In 25 years that is about average for the warmest day of the year. Even during the heat spike on the 31st. I only reached 26.C and that day was also cloudy and windy so I felt a good bit cooler.

[danm]

 Harry233 Yep I think the intense heat was really a SE,S and C England affair. I remember my parents were in Scotland that same week in August and they said it was much cooler and wetter. 

[cheeky_monkey]

1983 never gets the love it deserves ..stonking July.. August wasn't bad either ..2005 had a very tidy June ..1982 was a very thundery summer 

[Weather-history]

Summer 1994 and 1996, both, IMO, were better than summer 1990.

Didn't think that summer 2019 was that great and summer 2020 was bad especially the July, one of the wettest summers on record here. 

[Harry233]

 Weather-history Summer 2019 was definitely a summer that was different depending on where you were. 

[danm]

14 hours ago, Harry233 said:

Summer 2019 was definitely a summer that was different depending on where you were. 

2019 had a lot of warm to hot and sunny weather here, except the period between about the 4th and 21st of June which was cool and wet. 

For London, July had an average maximum of about 26c and August over 25c. 8 days during the Summer exceeded 30c. 

[Daniel*]

On 04/03/2024 at 10:01, danm said:

I look at 2020 as a really underrated Summe

Disagree it was the epitome of “meh” at best it’s ok. All summer months were duller than average in London many humid days. Very forgettable summer apart from that August heatwave and that was not enjoyable too hot, then month fell apart, the summer felt worse after that spring, yes it was not pouring all the time or cool but not much happened. 

Edited March 6 by Daniel*

[Daniel*]

2021 was probably the poorest summer I’ve experienced since 2012 in London. In July I had 157mm of rain it’s my wettest month on record here in central ish London, near constant downpours then August the highest max locally was 23.5C which is shocking and it was a very cloudy notably so.

[danm]

 Daniel* this reaction to me is what makes it “underrated”. I don’t class it overall as a great Summer, but it was often better than people remember. If you don’t like the type of heat we had in August then I guess it won’t be classed as underrated. 

[Summerlover2006]

note this is from reading as I was not born yet.
 

I would say 2002 is underrated people look at the stats wettest and dullest since 1988 and immediately judge but if you actually read deeper it wasn’t actually that bad for June was pretty much average but there was an early heatwave with 27 degrees being recorded on the 2nd. For July it had an awful first 2 weeks but actually improved quite a bit in the last 2 weeks with 32.6 degrees being recorded on the 29th July. August was warmer and drier then average with some places recording no rain in the last 19 days September was also warm and dry which must have been a nice extended summer.

overall this sounds like a good one it did have it awful moments but it also seemed to be in the first half of the summer and the second half being a lot better if it wasn’t for the first half this might have been called the best summer since 1997.

Edited March 6 by Summerlover2006

[Harry233]

 Daniel* My average August maximum is 19.5.C having a maximum of 23.5.C sounds amazing. I think I would be more than happy with a poor summer in the London area.

[Weather-history]

I think  some of the summers of the 1960s might be a little underrated or not as quite as bad as some make out. They seem to be tar brushed as being cool, unsettled. 

Manchester Summer indices

1960 217 1961 203 1962 197 1963 194 1964 197 1965 189 1966 192 1967 223 1968 215 1969 234

There are 5 there that of at least 200

Compare them with the summers of 2007-12

2007 174 2008 168 2009 194 2010 191 2011 179 2012 164

Summer 1969 has a pretty decent index.

 

Edited March 6 by Weather-history

[Harry's House]

 Weather-history I was living in Essex during the 1960s and I'm old enough to remember the summers during the second half of the decade. I noticed that 1967 and 1969 have the highest Manchester Summer Indices. I remember them as reasonable summers without them being great - probably the two best summers of the decade.

[Sun Chaser]

On 04/03/2024 at 10:01, danm said:

Where were you based in 2020? 

 

Plymouth, the far south west. We got a pretty horrible Atlantic summer with virtually every day cool and cloudy - all 3 months far below average for sunshine, June and Jul both recorded an average max below 20c and June and Aug both recorded over 100mm of rainfall. Not a pleasant summer. But I agree the period 18 July - 12 August was probably the best of it with a fair amount of dry days in the low 20s and the heatwave at the end.

[Harry233]

 Sun Chaser Intresting to know Plymouth had a poor summer that year as well.

[cheeky_monkey]

 John S2 i dont think 1984 is underrated though..very warm and relatively thundery summer esp down south..counting all the summers after 1976 and before 2003 you would be hard pushed not to find 1984 in the top 5 IMO

[LetItSnow!]

Peering through the archives, 1935 may apply. Just ignore a ropey first-half to June. I did a thread about it. Three good summers in a row. 

 

[cheeky_monkey]

 LetItSnow! my Dad was born in June 1933 ..i will ask him how those summers were 

[LetItSnow!]

 cheeky_monkey I hope he has excellent memory.