hugogo

well, thats still not a lot at all...

Yeah, and even though I havn't got any figures in front of me right now, I'd guess that 2007 was a little warmer than this year to by the end of june, with an exceptionally warm january and february combo and the second warmest april on record, followed by pretty average conditions [but still often on the warm side] throughout may and june. However things cooled down definitively during the last 10 days of june, and warmth never really came back until january 2008.

Yes, but concerning this june, as it has already been said, all these facts prove how warm and dry Junes have been in the past 20 years rather than how cold and wet this one was. It definitely felt cool compared to previous years, but in the end stats show that this month was just a little below the long term average.

Norrance: I think I do remember reading somewhere that in 1977, some places in northern Scotlant recorded their highest temperatures ever [at the time of course]. Crai evans: the maps you show are from 7th of august a 0h. Look at the maps at 12h, and you'll see a low developing quickly just off the mediterranean coast, and at 0h on the 8th, extremely bad weather over South East of France. Even with temperatures in altitude which weren't that cold, the rain and instability must have been so strong that snow probably did make to around 1500m in the alps. You can find details about the weather in france here: http://www.meteo-paris.com/chronique/?d=1978 Scroll down to august, there's a picture

Sorry, got it wrong for 1972. 1971 had an extremely cold june. and if 1977 was actually dry in Britain, it was one of the most rainy summers in France. In fact, this is due to an unusual pattern on the atlantic, with low pressure often very south and high pressure constantly blocking the way to scandinavia over the north atlantic. Heres an example, beginning of july 1977: http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/archives/archives.php?day=8&month=7&year=1977&hour=0&map=0&mode=0 In the end there was no classic spell of westerly winds during this summer: Either cold northerly blasts, or fresh north easterly winds.

The summers in the 1970s were actually generally very bad. 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 all awful and after 2 very good summers in 1975 and 1976, things got atrociously bad again. in 1977, event Paris in France failed to reach 30 degrees! the serie of summers 1977-1978-1979-1980-1981 was probably one of the worst in the past century over north western Europe. In France: 1977: 13th june: max of 11 degrees in Brittany. 16th-21st of june: No more than 15 degrees over the north west of france. max of just 12 degrees on the 21st in Rouen. 4th july: 2 tornadoes do a lot of damage in eastern france [alps]. 7th-8th july: severe flooding in the south west of France. 5000 people affected, and 25 people reported dead. It was the worst flooding since 1875 in this area. 25th-29th of july: horrendous weather. No more than 14 degrees near paris as well as in Rouen, Beauvais and Abbeville in north of France, 15 in Paris Chartres and Alencob. Even Perpignan, France's most southern city, doesn't get above 18 degrees that day! The summer was 1.3 degrees cooler than average in France. 1978: 16th-17th june: temps between 10 and 15 degrees at best in north of france. 23rd-30th of junet and 3rd-9th of july: 2 very cold summer weeks, temps constantly below average. On the 5th of july, max temps of just 12 to 13 degrees over Brittany! 9th of july, some places barely get over 10 degrees in Champagne. 7th of august: heavy snow in the alps above 1300m, Pretty much the same thing in 1979 and 1980. 1981 started in the same manner but got warmer towards the end [warmer than average in august].

Since april was also much sunnier and drier than both may and june, april has definitely felt like the best month in terms of hot and summery weather. Endless bright days, max temps from 18 to 25 all over the country on many occasions, very little wind, no fronts, extremely little rain. Exactly what you'd expect from a month of June... Only the weather has never been so bad in June since at least a decade. Funny how things can change so quickly.

Anyone know about a map with the strongest gusts reached in the UK during that storm??? Here are some of the strongest gusts observed over western France in the night of the 15th to the 16th of october 1987: FINISTERE [western brittany]: 216km/h pointe du Raz [average windvspeed: 172.8 but anemometer broke because of the strong winds right after midnight] 198km/h pointe de Penmarch [average wind speed 176.4km/h] 187km/h Quimper [144kmh average wind speed]. 187km/h a Camaret sur mer 176km/h a Ouessant [115km/h] 173km/h a l'Ile de Batz [162km/h!]. 169km/h a Brignogan [122km/h]. 162km/h a Lanveoc [104km/h. 162km/h a Rostrenen 148km/h a Brest [89km/h]. 140km/h a Landivisiau [68km/h]. MORBIHAN: 166km/h a Lorient 162km/h a Belle Ile. 148km/h a Ploermel. 122km/h a Pontivy 122km/h a Vannes COTES D'ARMOR: 176km/h a Saint Brieux 172km/h a Brehat. ILLE ET VILAINE: 173km/h a la pointe du grouin. 151km/h a Dinard. 137km/h a Dinard. 130km/h a Louvigne du desert. 122km/h a Bonnemain. MANCHE: 216km/h a Granville. 194km/h a Barfleur, average of 129.5km/h. 198km/h a Carteret. 162km/h a Gatteville. 148km/h a Cherbourg , vent moyen 85km/h. 143km/h au Cap de la Hague, but anemometer was broken at the beginning of the storm, under a what was probably a huge gust... CALVADOS: 162km/h a Port en Bessin 140km/h a Deauville. 140km/h a Caen. SEINE MARITIME: 180km/h au Cap de la Heve. 130km/h a Rouen. GRAND OUEST: 166km/h a Boulogne. 144km/h a l'ile d'Oleron. 144km/h a Saint Sauveur [ile d'Yeu] 130km/h au Touquet. 122km/h a Biarritz. 122km/h a Evreux. 119km/h a Saint Nazaire. 115km/h a Nantes. 115km/h a Alencon 115km/h a Abbeville. 112km/h a Melun. 112km/h a La Roche sur Yon. 108km/h a Villacoublay 104km/h a Tours 101km/h a Bretigny 101km/h au Mans. 101km/h a Niort. 101km/h a Angers. 101km/h a Trappes 97km/h a Chartres. Important facts about these values and the storm over the channel: -unfortunately, anemometers broke in some of the places where the winds were the strongest [Cap de la Hague and Pointe du Raz]. -The storm reached its strongest in the south west of france in the evening, and right at the same time, conditions were extremely calm over Brittany, with a very light breeze and a clear sky after a very rainy day. No one had any idea of what was going to happen only a few hours after. -The winds weren't that strong before the low's arrival just west of Brittany. But after the low moved on towards the channel, winds picked up extremely quickly, sometimes rising from 4bft to 10 bft in just a few minutes, and from 4bft to well over 12bft in just 1 or 2 hours. -The low developped very quickly over the Gascogne gulf. This explains why the winds were so strong, and as the diameter of the low pressure area was very small, most of coastal areas were affected by winds coming from the sea at one point or another, and inland areas saw much stronger gusts than they usually do in storms. Indeed, the strongest winds in Ouessant [island just west of northern Brittany] were from the north [just like in Cornwall], and at the same moment, the wind was also at its strongest at the Pointe du Raz [south west of Brittany], and it was from the west. Finally, the eastern places of Brittany's southern coast were being hit by winds coming from SSW. -The strongest winds here were observed between 11pm on the 15th and 5am on the 16th [french time, so take away 1h for british time]. -The lowest sea level pressure was recorded at Ouessant around midnight, with just 949hpa... -The storm was moving towards the north east at an incredible speed: as much as 110km/h! -Even more surprising than the gusts were the average wind speeds. Indeed, the difference between the highest gusts and the average wind over 10 minutes is very small: less than 20km/h a Penmarch [the highest gust was reached a little while after the worst of the storm in the area], and just 11km/h a the island of Batz just off the north coast of Brittany. This probably means that some places never went under 150km/h over a period of 10 minutes [at least], possibly even not below 160km/h since the strongest winds weren't recorded at pointe du Raz. Oh yeah, and an average wind of 175km/h over 10 minutes is what you'd expect during a category 3 hurricane... -The strong winds persisted for at least 3 hours and usually for around 5 hours, so the storm lifted a huge storm surge and a huge swell. The storm surge reached as much as 3 meters on Britanny's southern coast, ad the swell reached 16 meters near Belle Ile and near Ouessant. No need to say the damage on France's coast was huge, but it has to be said that the coastal areas were lucky: the tides this day were very low, and only a week after the 16th, were the high autumn tides...

Something pretty odd about the highest temperatures recorded so far in the UK: quite a few places seem to have recorded their warmest afternoon in april, even though we are now mid june! For example, Pershore saw a max of 24.9 in april, against 23.9 in may and just 24.5 in June. London saw a max of 27.4 in April, just above June's 27.0 max temp so far. Has anyone observed the same thing in his own area?

Optimus Prime are you sure about that? The min temps in the CET zone looked extremely low for yesterday morning [2-4 degrees], and highest temperatures were probably around 13-15 degrees. This would give us a average temp of 7.5 to 9.5 degrees, so I just can't imagine it getting over 10 degrees. Temperatures yesterday morning around 5: http://www.meteociel.fr/observations-meteo/temperatures.php?archive=1&jour=12&mois=6&annee=2011&heure=5&mode=⊂=OK The min HAS GOT TO BE below 5 degrees celsius, probably even below 4. Yesterday around the middle of the afternoon: http://www.meteociel.fr/observations-meteo/temperatures.php?archive=1&jour=12&mois=6&annee=2011&heure=14&mode=⊂=OK Yesterday towards the end of the afternoon: http://www.meteociel.fr/observations-meteo/temperatures.php?archive=1&jour=12&mois=6&annee=2011&heure=18&mode=⊂=OK Depending on if the max temps are recorded from 6am to 6am the next day, then the night was warmer than the day, but this still gives very cold minima, as the temps never got higher than 15 degrees, even as south as Cornwall or London, so no chances whatsoever of seeing max temps above 15 in the CET zone. Finally yesterday saw extreme temps of 7.0/14.2 in London-Heathrow, which gives an average of 10.6 degrees. I'd be extremely surprised if CET didn't come in MUCH lower than heathrow airport, especially knowing that the CET zone usually sees much lower mins during clear summer nights. Can someone explain how on earth che CET average could have made it as high as 10.1?

I also think today is likely to be a sub 10 degrees CET day. This has become very rare since the 1990s, since it has only happened once between 1992 and 2010: 6th of june 2009 with an average of 9.8 degrees. I think today could therefore be the coldest june day since 1991, with very low minima in the CET zone [below 2 degrees in Perchore and Shawbury], and probably suppressed maxima today [depending on how much the temperatures will warm up tonight, or if the rain clears out at some point during the day].

Things aren't going well in France neither. Places from the south west [bordeaux] till the most northern parts of the country [Lille] including Paris, Beauvais, Le Mans, Orleans, Poitiers and La Rochelle have remained incredibly dry for the past weeks [none of these places exceeding 5mm on the 25 first days of may]. The drought generally started in January, and some places even in wet parts of the country still havn't reached 10mm since the beginning of the year! [beauvais north of Paris, Strasbourg in the east for example]. Conditions are now becoming catastrophic in the north and west of the country. Indeed, France's climate is much more continental than England's, which means that even if the rain comes back this summer, it will mostly be under violent storms, and it will dry up in the following days under the effect of summer heat [average max are around 27-32 in the southern half of the country in July/August, 22-27 in the northern half]. French agriculture will of course suffer greatly from this lack of rain, especially corn that grows in the west and needs a lot of water, and wheat that grows in most of the northern regions of France. The unsettled weather predicted for the beginning of next week is almost the last chance for many places for the crops to grow. If the rain does not fall in sufficient quantity, since the heat is predicted to come back straight away after under a huge high pressure system, the dices will have been cast, and they'll pprobably be nothing to expect from this year's harvest...

It will also be remembered in France and Europe for its notable cold: http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/archives/archives.php?day=3&month=5&year=1991&hour=0&map=0&mode=0 http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/archives/archives.php?day=4&month=5&year=1991&hour=0&map=0&mode=0 http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/archives/archives.php?day=17&month=5&year=1991&hour=0&map=0&mode=0 http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/archives/archives.php?day=24&month=5&year=1991&hour=0&map=0&mode=0 The following month had one of the most severe late spring/beginning of summer cold spells ever recorded: http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/archives/archives.php?day=3&month=6&year=1991&hour=0&map=0&mode=0 Even The western and norther suburbs of Paris managed to reach sub 0C temperatures that month!!!

OK, managed to read this files from the knmi website: very interesting data. Has anyone got an idea of what units the values in the 2nd table on the german study are in? I'm having trouble with this, and have been stuck on it for the past year, without finding any logical explanation to why the values shown in this table aren't the same as those shown in the tables at the end of the study. Also it should be noted that at the end of the study there are several tables showing daily minima for some European weather observatories at the time: Upminster, Berlin, Halle, Kiel, Danzig, Copenhagen and Montpellier. This shows how much the cold of 1709 was widespread over Europe, and how unusually intense it was in some regions: Germany, France and the UK especially. Thank you

Thank you very much sebastian, undoubtably some very important information in these files. However, I am able to download the files but not to open them on my computer "there is no default application specified to open the document"]. Does anyone know how I could overcome this problem? Thank you.

Also, I was wondering if anyone had ever seen this German study on the severe winter 1709: http://www.met.fu-berlin.de/~manfred/Winter1709.pdf Any one fluent in German? I still haven't managed to understand what the second table shows: absolute minimum temperature, average? And what unit are these figures in? Thank you.

Thank you very much for those links, some interesting details! Among all the episodes I have studied, here are some of them: Summer 1783, extremely war especially in Scandinavia: Second half of june averaged 19.0 degrees in Stockholm [+3.6/average], July Averaged 21.2 degrees [+3.8] with the 11 last days being at 22.9 [+5.0], September averaged 14.6 [+2.8] and October 10.0 [+3.6]! October 1784, cold everywhere in Europe: a lot of frost and even snow [uK, Switzerland, France and Belgium], max temp of 2.7 in Paris at month's end. Monthly average of 5.8 in Berlin, 6.4 in Vienna, 7.4 in Paris. Summer 1786: one of the coldest ever over Europe, especially over central Europe. May: In Prague, absolute max temperature of only 20.2 degrees, and average max is 3.7 degrees below normal. June: extremely cold beginning in Scandinavia, Average of just 6.4 on the 10th in Stockholm, 7.8 on the 16th. July: In Prague, average max of only 19.8, only 2 max over 25 degrees and 15 over 20 degrees... absolute max of just 26.8 Between the 11th and the 20th, Prague saw an average max 7.1 degrees below normal [average min was 4.8 degrees below average] and an absolute max of just 20.3 degrees... The deficit of the maximum temps even reaches 6.9 degrees between the 6th and the 22nd in Prague! August: even worse over central Europe: In Prague: absolute max of just 22.2 degrees, only 9 days saw a max over 20 degrees. average max of 18.9 degrees [5.6 below average] Between the 30th of july and 1st of sept, deficit as high as 5.6 degrees on maximum temps in Prague. September: absolute high of 22.3 in Prague, 5 max temps over 20 degrees, average max of 16.4 degrees with the last ten days seeing an average max of just 12.4 degrees! October: deficit of 5.5 degrees on max temps in Prague. Between the 29th of april and 26th of November, average max temp in Prague is 4.5 degrees below normal!! Average temp in Berlin: 16.5 in July, 16.9 in august, 12.2 in Spetember. In Vienna, average temp 13.3 in june, 17.8 in july, 17.1 in august, 14.2 in sept. In Paris, average 16.5 in Paris, 17.2 in august, 13.8 in Sept!

when the terms incredible appear, it means that there either was: -record breaking temperatures in at least one place in Europe. -Extreme temperatures over widespread areas on the continent. -Extreme temperatures over much of Europe. For example, the summer of 1826 and even more 1846 were incredibly hot over much of Europe, winter 1834 ranks amongst the top 5 warmest in western europe in the past 350 years, etc...

Yesterday's 15.5 is makes it the warmes 6th of april since 1772 and daily records began at the CET. It also makes it the 2dn warmest day since at least 1772 for the 10 first days of april, just behind 1946's 15.6 on the 4th of that year! Warmest days and daily records since 1772 for CET: 4/4/1946: 15.5 degrees. 11/4/1869: 16.0 14/4/1869: 16.1 15/4/1945: 16.3 16/4/1945: 17.0 20/4/1893: 16.6 21/4/1893: 16.1 23/4/1873: 15.9. 25/4/1821: 15.9. 26/4/1928L 16.1. 27/4/1866: 16.6. 28/4/1775: 16.9. 29/4/1775: 19.7. 30/4/1775: 17.4. It should be noted that even some days at the end of the month have never seen such warm weather [22nd, 24th for example], with the warmest 22nd of april being at 14.3 in 1786 and the warmest 24th staying at 15.3 in 2007. Closer to this period of year [beginning of april], warmest days on record are usually in the 13 degrees, with 8th being only at 12.5 degrees in 1798! This does seem extremely likely to fall today. Impressive.

Hello, I'm currently working on a summary of European climate from the end of the 18th century to the end of the 19th century. I am therefore looking for any information concerning weather extremes all over Europe from 1770 to 1890. My work concerns especially warm and cold events [mild/cold winters, springs, summers and falls]. In order to be able to describe these events with as much precision as possible, its of course preferable to have contemporary temperature data from these events, rather than the subjective points of view of observers. I already have a lot of daily data from quite a few weather stations starting at the end of the 18th century or in the first half of the 19th centuru [Oxford since the 1850s, CET since 1772, Stockholm since 1756, Milan since 1768, Bologna since 1813, Prague since 1775, Iena since the 1820s, Vienna since the 1850s, Madrid since the 1860s, Armagh since the 1860s, Brussels since the 1760s], and I would be very grateful if you could provide any other temperature readings from this period, more precisely concerning any of these events: February/March 1772. November/December 1774. January-March 1775, very mild. Summer 1775 [July-September], very hot. January 1776: freezing. March 1777, very warm. October 1778, very cold. February-April 1779, very warm. Summer 1779 [July-November], very warm. year 1781 [very warm], very hot. April/May 1782 cold. Summer/Autumn 1783 [hot]. winter 1784: freezing. September 1784 [hot]. October 1784 [extrmeely cold]. March 1785: incredibly freezing. September 1785 [warm]. March 1786: freezing. Summer 1786 [unseasonably cold]. November 1786: freezing. summer 1788 [hot]. Winter 1789: one of the coldest ever. summer 1789 [hot]. Winter 1790 [October-March] unseasonably warm. February-May 1794 [warm]. winter 1795: freezing. April-May 1795 [warm] June/July 1795 [cold]. September/october 1795 [hot]. Winter 1796: unseasonably warm. January/February 1797 [warm]. may-September 1798 [hot]. winter 1799: freezing. March-MAY 1799 [ very cold]. winter 1800: freezing. April/May 1800 [extremely hot]. July/august 1800 [hot]. august 1801 [cold]. july 1802 [cold]. August 1802: hot. October 1802: hot. winter 1803: freezing. November 1803: cold. march-april 1803: very warm. september 1804: warm April May 1805: cold. October 1805: cold. April 1807: cold. august 1807: hot. September 1807: cold. July 1808: hot. march/april 1809: cold. May-july 1811: HOT. april-sept 1812: cold. jan-feb 1814: cold. april 1814: cold. year 1816: very cold. winter 1820: freezing. October-May 1821/1822 [hot]. october/november 1822: hot. winter 1823: freezing. summer 1823: cold. sept/october 1824: cold. April/may 1825: hot. summer 1825: hot. sept/october 1825: hot. summer 1826: very hot. Sept/october 1826: hot. april 1827: very warm. winter 1828: warm. july 1828: hot. november/december 1828: warm. winter 1829: freezing. Sept-nov 1829: cold. winter 1830: coldest in the past 300 years. march/april 1830: warm. summer 1830: cool. july 1832: cold. May 1833: very hot. july-august 1833: very cold. winter 1834: incredibly warm. July-September 1834: hot. May 1835: cold. August 1835: cold. October-November 1836: cold. Spring 1837: incredibly cold. winter 1838: freezing. summer/automn 1840: cold. December 1842: warm. october 1843: cold. march 1845: freezing. january/february 1846: incredibly warm. Summer 1846: burning. Sept 1847: cold. Sept 1850: cold. April 1852: cold. Spring 1853: cold. summer 1856: cool. November 1856: freezing. August/september 1858: hot. November 1858: freezing. March 1859: warm. Summer 1860: very cold. Sept/October 1860: cold. Summer 1862: cold. May 1864: cold. August 1864: cold. March 1865: freezing. April/May 1865: hot. Summer 1865: cold. September 1865: hot. winter 1866: very mild. May 1866: cold. october 1866: cold. december 1866: mild. May 1867: cold. April-September 1868: incredibly warm. January-February 1869: hot. summer 1869: cold. sept/oct 1869: alternations between very warm and very cold weather. Winter 1871: freezing. April-June 1871: cold. September 1871: cold. September 1872: hot. August 1876: hot. May 1877: cold. September 1877: cold. October/november 1880: cold. June 1881: cold. November 1881: hot. March 1883: cold. march 1888: cold. I have already read all the related topics on this forum. Of course, if you don't have any data but you have any quotes from contemporary writers or if you know about any weather-related facts from the time, please do not hesitate to post them here! Thank you very much. Hugo. PS: please note that these events concerned at least one part of Europe, but not necessarily western Europe: indeed some of these episodes saw normal weather over the UK, and incredible cold over central Europe or Scandinavia.

I know for a fact that in France in such cold spells as february 1956 and 1963, nature suffered quitea lot of damage: In 1956, most olive trees and palm trees in south of france froze and died. Vines were also affected, and many birds were found dead in the woods as temperatures reached -20s several nights in the NE. Wolves were even seen in Central Europe, as very cold weather in Estern Europe forced them to move westwards from Russia (moscow recorded something like -36 that year). In 1963, the frozen coastline caused damage to fish. Indeed, in northern France, congers froze to death, and some species were amsomst eradicated (octupuss for example, not found anymore in Britanny). Other great winters like1789 or 1709 saw temperature so low that tree trunks exploded under the effest of the cold, and wolves attacked villages in the country side. 1709 was also the year where no vines survived in north east france, and even the south ouest of France saw massive lost in itsusually protected vineyards. Temps that year reached -23 in Paris, -20 in Bordeaux and -17 in Montpellier. Berlin reported beginning of january a min of -29 and a max of -19 the same day!

2 records were broken: coldest 19th of December on record with a mean of -6.6 on the 19th beating -5.7 in 1859, and a mean of -6.9 on the 20th beating -4.2 in 1938.

Hi, Do you know where I can find a list of british weather stations and extreme temperatures in these weather stations? Thank you.

Hi, With all this cold not seen for such a long time now, I wonder how nature is coping with the severe conditions all around the country. I have taken a close look at the temperatures and it seems like the mins were actually colder during this coldspell than during the January one. Many places reached -15 degrees [scotland with -16.8 in Aberdeen, Northern England, Wales] and almost all places saw temperatures below -10 [even a min of -9 a London Gatwick the other day, which is quite unbelievable, Gatwick been halfway between London and the channel...]. Also, day maximal temperatures are extremely low: many places have had highs under -5 degrees, and most places have seen highs under 0, even London [3 negative highs while there were none last year winter] and usually mild place suche as Cornwall [Highs close to -3 in some places]. Have some species been affected by this cold weather [it might be to early to know]? I know that in France, when unusually extreme cold splls hit the country [1956, 1963] and lows start falling in the -20s over large parts of the country, many plants, vines and trees die from the cold. During the little ice age, winters of 1709 and 1789 caused massive damage to forests and huge loss amongst animals. Also, have some parts of the coast or some major rivers started to freeze yet? The cold has been extreme but it might be a bit to early in the season, as the north sea and the channel are still quite mild at this time of year compared to January or February...

And in Berlin, it is amongst the 15 coldest months since 1900. France saw generally a below average month although it doesn't stand out from the average as much as it does in neighbouring countries. In fact in De Bilt it even ranks 25th coolest since 1706. The coolest months: 1714 [10.2] 1717 [10.2] 1721 [10.2] 1740 [7.5] 1741 [9.8] 1742 [9.5] 1756 [10.4] 1763 [10.3] 1767 [9.9] 1772 [10.2] 1793 [10.4] 1795 [10.0] 1799 [10.3] 1803 [9.6] 1805 [9.4] 1810 [9.4] 1814 [10.0] 1837 [10.2] 1845 [9.6] 1955 [10.0] [we had to wait 110 years!] 1957 [10.3] 1962 [10.0] 1987 [10.2] 1991 [10.0] Not bad at all if i may say!