Underrated summers

[Weather Enthusiast91]

This will likely be unpopular but I am going to say summer 2012. 

As horrific as that summer was, only the first half was exceptionally so, with a huge improvement from around the time the schools broke up. I remember a very welcome hot and sunny spell in late July, then an unsettled blip and finally a pleasant enough August. And whilst not technically summer I will mention it anyway seeing as some people consider it to be an extension of summer, early September that year was nice also. I can also recall a thunderstorm event at the end of June which did add some interest.

Still a poor summer, but 2007 was worse.

[Billy Hicks]

Yep, I count 2012 in the underrated club as well. Lots of warm days in that second half in London and the South East but many had given up on it after that terrible June, it was the summer I graduated and it was nice that the hot weather arrived just in time for me to enjoy it.

I’d add 2010 as a reverse of this in that the first half of it was really quite nice, though admittedly it did fall apart a bit by August. Probably my favourite of the 2007-11 run.

[cheeky_monkey]

 Weather Enthusiast91 how can as you say a horrific summer be underrated??

[Weather Enthusiast91]

 cheeky_monkey I was meant to say that only the first half of that summer was horrific. Perhaps it wasn't worded well, but too late to edit now.

[Summerlover2006]

1921 so rarely gets mentioned which is a shame because it truly was a classic to start with July was a very hot month even by today’s standards with a cet of 18.5. June was also very warm with 32 degrees on the 25th august was a little blip being quite unsettled but don’t all summers have a little period of bad weather. And if you count it 1921 also had a brilliant extended summer with may being warm and the early autumn being very warm with 30 being reached on the 9th September and an amazing 28.9 on the 5th and 6th October which was the October record for more then 60 years! 
 

in my opinion from reading this summer should make it into the top 15 summers the uk has ever experienced but is so rarely mentioned.
 

Edited March 12 by Summerlover2006

[Harry233]

 Weather Enthusiast91 Further south did seem to have a reasonable second half of July and August in 2012 to make the summer less poor. We missed out on the heatwave in July and while August was a vast improvement it was still quite wet and not overly warm or sunny.

[Harry233]

 Billy Hicks I rate 2010 as a pretty decent summer as well. The June was was brilliant, July while wet wasn’t dull nor was it cold it was just unsettled. Scotland actually had a pretty decent August in 2010 too. It was sunny and mostly dry but cool, very cool nights at times. August 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2020 was by far a lot worse.

[cheeky_monkey]

 Summerlover2006 because no one is a live to have experienced and comment on this summer to give it some context.

[danm]

 cheeky_monkey To be fair, the only part of Summer 2012 I'd class as "horrific" was June, possibly early July too. Late July, August and early September were all fairly decent. 

[Summerlover2006]

 cheeky_monkey 1911 get loads of hype and no one is alive who experienced it and we’re getting to a time now where not many people remember 1947.

Edited March 12 by Summerlover2006

[Weather-history]

Summer 1940 is seldom mentioned probably because the previous winter overshadowed it but June 1940 was an outstanding month, exceptionally sunny. July 1940 was poor but August was exceptionally dry. 

 

         

[Daniel Lawson]

In my opinion I think Summer 2016 is quite underrated, my experience of it was that there were quite a lot of warm to hot days, particularly in July and August. The September also had 34C recorded. However it may not have been like that for the rest of the country.

[A Face like Thunder]

 Weather-history 'that man' stopped your best holiday for years (summer 1940). Classic, wartime propaganda and perfectly true, given that much of the English coast was out of bounds to members of the public.

[Harry233]

 Daniel Lawson summer 2016 I would probably describe as the most average summer I have ever seen. I think it did fare a little bit better in the south east mind you. It was at least for me just a typical summer, never remained the same for longer than a few days.

[Daniel Lawson]

 Harry233 Fair enough. I remember June that year was quite dull (Nothing like 2012 though thank god) My memories of that summer was in July when I had my primary school leavers bbq the weather was very warm and sunny and I went on holiday to Devon in August that year and most days we were able to go in the pool or on the beach because of the warm weather. I also remember the day before we left to go to Devon, my mum asked me to give the plants a lot of water because of how hot and dry the weather was.

[Harry233]

 Daniel Lawson I spent a few days in London at the end of July 2016 and I do the remember the weather being fantastic then, wasn’t the typical humid London heat either. Just very warm with a nice breeze to take the edge off. The second half August 2016 was pretty good up here as well, the first half was a little bit disappointing however.

[LetItSnow]

 Daniel Lawson June really brought all the rain it could then I remember July and August being bone dry apart from a few showers. That very dry spell lasted most of 2016 and didn't let up until the summer really. I remember BBC SE news having a section on the very dry weather in late 2016/early 2017, winter time.

[Summerlover2006]

I feel like the 1940s was a great decade for summers but rarely talked about there’s obviously the summers of 1947 and 1949 two of the best summers ever in this country the only two summers you could arguably call bad in the decade are 1946 and 1948 and 1946 actually recorded 30 degrees 3 times in July. Apart from that every summer of the decade had some warmth to it with June 1940 July 1941 June and August 1942 to a degree July 1943 August 1944 and the summer of 1945 was very changeable but not bad overall. Possibly the second best decade for summers behind the 1990s?

Edited October 9 by Summerlover2006

[Summer8906]

 Summerlover2006 In fact July 1946 looks like a good summer month in some areas, e.g. Southampton 22.1C max, 24.6mm rain and 213.9 hours sunshine. The June and August both looked distinctly bad though.

1948 similar with another dry and relatively warm July (but cloudier) with a poor June and August.

Obviously the war years but 1942 and 1944 also looked like summers with one decent month (June and August respectively) and two poor ones (August 1942 looked distinctly poor in Southampton with 89.2mm and a very dull 165.1 hrs sunshine). No June data for 1941 though July seemed good and August cool and wet but relatively sunny. From 1942 to 1951 the pattern (for Southampton) seemed to be that the odd years had better summers and the even years, poorer ones. Summer 1943 seems to be somewhat under-rated though obviously no-one could appreciate it!

 

Edited October 10 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

What about summer 1923? Southampton stats:

Year,Month,MeanMax,MeanMin,Rain,Sun

1923 6 18.2 9.9  9.6 157.3

1923 7 23.2 14.0 23.3 222.4

1923 8 21.3 11.9 58.2 257.1

Not an exceptional summer but impressive figures are highlighted. An extremely dry June (albeit cool and cloudy), a warm July for the time (as well as dry and sunny) and a very sunny August albeit with more average max temps and rainfall.

Edited October 10 by Summer8906

[Weather Enthusiast91]

1947 was a good summer with the good weather starting towards the end of May.

June was particularly hot at the start of the month and there were thunderstorms in places. There were also thunderstorms towards the end of the month so intense in London that it was almost completely dark during early afternoon.

July was again very warm but with some heavy rainfall during midmonth.

August was the warmest month of that year and was also very dry with no measurable rain at all in some places. There were 14 consecutive days of 30°C or above and for some areas it was the hottest of any month up until July 2006.

 

1947 sounds like it was a good year for interesting weather.

Edited October 10 by Weather Enthusiast91

[LetItSnow]

 Summer8906 Interestingly, 1923 IIRC had an extremely hot summer over Europe, or at least one mega heatwave ala 2020s style that burned Europe to a crisp. The fine weather that summer was when we just were on the periphery of it. 1923 was interesting as we were on the periphery of both an extremely hot summer and an extremely cold spell in December on the continent. Years that feature extremes of both heat and cold always fascinate me, though we just about missed out. 

Summer 1923 I do know had some of the most severe thunderstorms ever recorded in the UK I believe in July. Must have been an extremely hot airmass in an overall cooler environment with more energy to go bang. A distinct reason I feel why thunder may be rarer now, but I digress…

Back to the current topic, I can imagine many people in the future will say 2024 will go down as an underrated summer in the south due to a sunny and dry June albeit cool and generally a lot of fine and dry weather in the second half of July and much of August. Summer 2024 was remarkably benign apart from an extremely cold, wet and  dull first half to July. 

[Summer8906]

 LetItSnow Summer 2024 did likely suffer from cloudiness away from the SE though.

You're right though that it was likely a very usable summer in most areas - with June and August providing the only relief from the very persistent wet weather this year.

At Southampton the notorious 1872 managed three dryish months (Apr, Aug and Sep) - so will we manage a third dry month before the year is out? Given the options are Nov and Dec I'm not that hopeful...

Edited October 11 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

For consistent sunshine and warmth, what about 1899? It's known as a good one but it looks like it wasn't just good, it was utterly exceptional. Southampton stats:

Year,Month,Tmax,Tmin,Rain,Sun

1899 6 23.1 11.1 34.9 293.2

1899 7 25.0 14.0 33.8 291.0

1899 8 25.7 14.0  14.6 293.9

Almost 300 hrs for three consecutive months and two months with Tmax >=25C. Better than 1976 for sunshine. 21st century summers just don't come even close to that in southern Hampshire, on either measure.

As for other years I could mention August 1981 again. The third-driest on record in Southampton, and the driest on record full stop if we discount the troubled 1936-45 period (when people couldn't really enjoy it).

Edited October 11 by Summer8906

[LetItSnow]

 Summer8906 1899 really does get left out of the discussion far too much. Likely due to age but August 1899 is still the third hottest August on record for the UK overall for maximum temperature and 8th for mean temperature. That’s very impressive to still hold that record 125 years later!