August 2007 - relatively cool, mostly dry and slightly sunnier than average.

[Addicks Fan 1981]

Know summer 2007 was remembered for being an infamous no show summer with phenomenal rainfall, however august 2007 was a pretty pleasant month overall.  

August 2007 was basically relatively cool, the coolest since 1993 actually, relatively dry and pretty sunny if anything a tad sunnier than average only by the skin of its teeth though.   

Think the top temperature of the month was 30.1 which really is was the first time since 1993 that 90 F hadn't been recorded, but my main concern with august 2007 wasn't necessarily to be hot, but to be pleasant.  

Most of the month of August 2007 was very nice apart from an unsettled bit in the middle.   It was lovely to see a month where we as a nation could finally feel good about ourselves after the let down of a summer we had really.   

August 2007 was I think parallel with august 1993 in many ways and lovely to see an august that was in actual fact sunnier than august of the previous year.  Think we had a number of days of August 2007 where we had NW winds but with high pressure close by for most of the month.   

[Harry233]

 Addicks Fan 1981 I remember it being a pleasant month but without the heat it kind of reminded me of late spring. I think it was only northern Scotland where it was a really poor month. It turned into one of the best autumns I’ve ever had as well, both September and October 2007 were both very dry and sunny with pleasantly mild days. 2007 actually wasn’t a too bad year weather wise. I think the highest I reached that month was 24.7.C on the 24th which was the highest temperature of the year. 2007 actually does hold the lowest maximum temperature I’ve recorded although 2008 was close as well. 

[Addicks Fan 1981]

Think august to october 2007 was pretty tranquil with weather actually compared to may to July where umbrella by Rihanna featuring Jay z ruled the roost in the charts, people forget about it though. 

 Summer 2007 was definitely a challenging season though in the fact it was so so wet and people's houses 🏘 flooded out made for a miserable time for them.   

On you could say a plus point for summer 2007 is you could learn to canoe in your streets, Australia do seem to appreciate it more when they get a wet summer, yet for us we get disgruntled.   

In actual fact sunshine for summer 2007 was actually smack on average, dull june, average sunshine for July and above average sunshine for August.   

[Sunshineandshowers84]

August 2007 was the best month of the summer here. It was a dreadful summer with below average temps and lots of rain but August was drier and warmer with one warm and sunny day reaching 25c. Autumn arrived early this year for the trees however I do remember a calm autumn as for colours this was one of the best autumnal displays I had seen here and many trees weren’t bare until December so a good autumn to be fair lacking the deep Atlantic Lows we usually get late in the year.

[Don]

I found August 2007 to be a reasonable month and although it had a cooler CET, it was a million times better than the following year!

[Addicks Fan 1981]

 Don records like dream catch me by Newton faulkner came out that year.  It didn’t matter if august was cool as long as it gave a feel good factor which it did and many people had good night sleeps too which made august 2007 ideal really.    

[Addicks Fan 1981]

Wonder if anyone else loved this month that finished off our summer that in fairness was the infamous dregs of a summer? 

It was driven on by an east QBO, negative zonal winds blowing across the troposphere aligning with the weak sea ice and we had a negative AAM/la niña development coupling, all of those things were the reason why we had the summer of 2007 that we had.   

It's a pity because in May 2007 we actually had a positive AO following on what was the warmest April ever at the time .   Fortunately in August though we had something a bit more pleasant although not brilliantly hot.   Weather we couldn't really complain about really.    

[CryoraptorA303]

I don't really remember specific months in 2007 as I was too young, but the infamous summers do have a habit of seeing notable improvement in August. I really can't think of any where August was the worst month. August was the worst in 2014 and 2017 but those aren't really infamously bad, just a mixed bag and overall unnotable in the grand scheme of things.

2010 might be the only summer that could be considered infamous where August was undoubtedly the worst, however is 2010 really on the same level as 2007 et al? I don't think so.

[B87]

 CryoraptorA303 Since 2000, August was clearly the worst month of summer in the following years: 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2021

August 2008, 2010 and 2021 are all in the top 5 dullest Augusts on record at Heathrow.

Edited Monday at 22:00 by B87

[CryoraptorA303]

 B87 I know, I was referring to the infamous summers in our history. Obviously the ones you listed don't count as infamous - Ok 2021 is borderline but I don't feel like June was truly bad enough to warrant it and the middle two weeks of July were very reasonable. Much different to a notorious one like 2012 or 2007.

[B87]

 CryoraptorA303 2008 definitely counts as infamous. June was pretty close to normal but July and August were both cool and very dull. It also failed to reach 30c here.

2021 was dull or very dull in all 3 months, with August the 2nd dullest on record.

I would say that August 2008, 2010 and 2021 were worse than any other Augusts since 1986.

[CryoraptorA303]

1 minute ago, B87 said:

2021 was dull or very dull in all 3 months, with August the 2nd dullest on record.

Both June and July were very reasonable being average or sunnier than average:

I know 2021 is one of those weird summers where it was worst for the SE and best for the west, and that's unusual and upsets those in the SE who feel they should have the best weather, but even on the east coast both June and July were average or only just below for sunshine.

Overall it's a summer that will be remembered in history, and compared to the other summers within the decade of 2021 it is probably the most infamous alongside 2023, but in the grand scheme of things it's not on the level of notoriety for poorness. You wouldn't say 2006 was poor because August turned out much cooler and (at least on the east side) wetter than June and July had been.

11 minutes ago, B87 said:

2008 definitely counts as infamous. June was pretty close to normal but July and August were both cool and very dull. It also failed to reach 30c here.

Ok, 2008 is infamous; I don't really think of it as such because it's right next to 2007 which obviously overshadows it in notoriety and timing. If it wasn't for 2007 then 2008 would receive all the beatings for being the first bad summer since 2003 and hold a comparable level of notoriety. Kind of like how August 2022 is fairly overshadowed by July even though August was overall the hotter month for most.

[Don]

19 minutes ago, B87 said:

I would say that August 2008, 2010 and 2021 were worse than any other Augusts since 1986.

August 2008 was the worst I can remember and was particularly bad in the west country.  Had a two week holiday in Cornwall and it was a complete washout with only one genuine decent day!

[B87]

 CryoraptorA303 2023 was a sunnier summer than 2021 for here. 2021 also followed an absolutely catastrophic May. June 2021 was warm, very wet and dull. July 2021 had average temps, was wet and dull. August was cool, dry and exceptionally, with only 50% of the average sunshine.

2021 overall was one of, if not the dullest year on record at Heathrow:

Edited Monday at 22:36 by B87

[Addicks Fan 1981]

 CryoraptorA303 august 2007 was the coolest at the time since 1993 so both months were very similar, you couldn't make it up.   On the other hand the autumn colours came a lot quicker because summer of 2007 was so poor overall.    

[Harry233]

 CryoraptorA303 I was one of those people that really enjoyed summer 2021 and was lucky with the weather. It wasn’t a summer that broke any records and overall it actually wasn’t that much sunnier nor drier than average but it was generally consistently warm with no real heat. I’m in central Scotland and I do feel Scotland had the best weather that summer out of anywhere in the UK. Especially in the west where I believe it was probably one of the best summers on record. June was generally dry and sunny with reasonable temperatures but never exceeded 25.C yet the maxima was 1.C above average. July had a little bit of a unsettled spell at the start and the last week was a bit cool and wet but it had a cracking two week spell of warm sunshine and virtually no rain during the middle of the month. August was quite unsettled in the first half but there was still a good amount of dry weather in between and the second half was superb with some glorious late summer sunshine once early morning mist burned off. Definitely was a big north/south divide that summer, a bit similar to 2020 where the south had some very hot, sunny weather, whereas the north bore the brunt of the worst weather. August 2020 was one of my worst summer months recorded.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 00:32 by Harry233

[Harry233]

 B87 You definitely had a shocker of a summer for 2021. 

[Addicks Fan 1981]

 Harry233 think august of 2007 was very similar to 1993 in terms of temperature, sunshine and rainfall.   So confusing why summer of 1993 has barely been mentioned, it wasn't brilliantly hot but not exactly a total disaster either.    

[Metwatch]

 Addicks Fan 1981

Some stuff on 1993 here

[hillbilly]

 Addicks Fan 1981 Not sure where you get that from? 1993 and 2007 maybe similar in terms of summer temps but that is where the similarities end certainly in these Pennine hils.2007 had way more than double the rainfall of 1993s summer.1993 was rather a decent summer albeit rather cool whereas 2007 was completely rubbish and extremely wet in June and July but had a decent August that was cool.The only poor summer of the 90s was 1998 with 1993 on my list as 'Average' whereas 2007 is well inside the 'Poor' bracket.

Edited Thursday at 14:36 by hillbilly

[Harry233]

 Addicks Fan 1981 August 1993 was probably slightly colder still but I would say that August 2007 was perhaps maybe slightly wetter and duller overall. I think northern Scotland had a very wet August 2007. Summer 1993 was probably a much better summer than 2007 purely because the June and July that happened in 2007 was one of the worst.