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Sunny Septembers in the last century

Written by Dave Wiseman Thursday, 26 August 2010 15:55

After our story about wet August's last month we warned you not too expect too much from the month, and we were -sadly- quite right to do so! It was a pretty dreadful month all in all. So we thought this month we would be more positive and look at some September;s in the last century that delivered more than they might have been expected to do, as the first month of Autumn. Recently, we have seen a run of very good September's in the last decade in fact.

Almost a century ago now, 1914 is remembered as the second month of the first world war but was also dry and sunny across the UK. However -generally- most Septembers were not that good in the period and we have to wait till 1921 to see another decent month when it was dry and sunny. 30C was reported at Southend on the 9th with a long period of drought. There was a late heatwave in 1926 with Camden Square (London) reporting 32.2C on the 19th.1929 was very warm too; in fact the third warmest of the century (only 1949 and 1999 were warmer). In some places it was the warmest month of the year with 32C (90F) being reported at Farnborough (Hants) on the 4th and 5th.

Poor Augusts in the last century

Written by Dave Wiseman Monday, 26 July 2010 10:05

Whilst it is always pleasant to have a fine dry August there is a good chance that it will not live up to our- possibly- rather heady expectations. This was certainly the case almost 100 years ago in 1912. This month stands out as an exceptionally poor month even by other poor August standards. It was the wettest (231%), dullest, and the coldest (12.9C CET) of the century. As this is the only month that holds all three worst records, as Dr Trevor Harley points on his excellent 'British Weather' site (http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~taharley/britweather.html) it is undoubtedly the worst summer month in the last century. For example there was just a single day all month in London when the mercury rose above 70F (21C) and plenty of days when it didn't make 60F (15.5C) even.

It is notable for the 'Great Norfolk flood' event on the 26th when 206 mm fell at Brundall in 24 hours and the pressure as low as 978mb at Great Yarmouth with gale force winds. Here is the weather chart for that day http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/slp/1912/Rslp19120826.gif as the low was filling up. Norwich was cut off for two days, with over 40 bridges destroyed and the flooding 15 feet deep in places and in fact parts of the Fens stayed under water throughout the following winter.

Early July 2006- a thundery period

Written by Dave Wiseman Monday, 28 June 2010 17:26

The month of July 2006 started very warm indeed as southerly winds brought a continental flow up across the UK. Even on the 1st it reached 30.5C at Pershore (Worcs) and by the 2nd London's Heathrow airport saw temperatures climb to 32.3C. The 3rd and 4th were again hot with 31.4C and 31.3C reported respectively at Heathrow; even further north 30C was reached locally in Manchester on the 5th. By the 6th the heat had moved further north as Aboyne in Aberdeenshire saw 27.5C reached.

June 1976-a prolonged heatwave

Written by Dave Wiseman Friday, 28 May 2010 08:20

The summer of 1976 was the hottest ever recorded in the UK with a CET (mean temperature across representative stations across central England) of 17.8C but the reason it occurred started long before June 1976, which was the first of the three very warm settled summer months. A period of dry spring weather enabled the dry ground to absorb solar radiation very efficiently and heat up rapidly by day as a result. In fact, a warm June is quite an unusual event; we see the hottest day of the year in June only a quarter of the time and there has been little sign of any long term warming trend recently in June; if anything it has become duller and wetter. The hottest June on record in 1976 wasn't that much warmer than the average July or August but nevertheless it is certainly remembered as being hot. This is perhaps partly as a result of the fact that the hottest weather occured in the last ten days of the month but it was quite dry and warm beforehand.

May 2007 -a late Spring storm

Written by Dave Wiseman Friday, 30 April 2010 21:45

By the late May Bank Holiday weekend we expect or at least hope for some decent weather. That of May 2007 however was sadly noteworthy for how unsettled it became. The origin of the deep depression that caused this was on Friday 25th May right over the Davis Strait across the Atlantic. caused by a combination of a weak surface low and a strengthening jet moving SE out of Northern Canada. The low looked set to combine with increased baroclinicity and deepen and then develop as a deepening low across the southern UK- over the Bank Holiday weekend.