Philipsfd

Perhaps there were regional differences between the Augusts of 07, 09 and 12? I know in the South East they had a warm and fairly dry August in 1998, 2009 and 2012, whereas further north and west the months were more unsettled. I don't think the South East had the better of the weather in August 2007 though.

I remember the spell in early June, it was very sunny and became very warm around the 8th-10th. I know it became a lot drier from the end of July but I don't remember it being that great? The first weekend of August was mildly hot then remained fair until around the 11th; 12th-22nd was then quite overcast, cool and wet at times; then mainly sunny and at times very warm over the BH weekend before sliding into a dull and cool final few days. I don't think August 2007 was a brilliant month, perhaps it has a better reputation than it normally would because of the wet weather that preceded it, or because Aug 06 and 08 were both poor? But I wouldn't say it was any better than August 2009 or 2012.

Surprised 2007 hasn't been mentioned more; the Summer needs no explanation and even Spring wasn't a brilliant one - I'd say the Springs of 2011 and 2017 were both better than 2007. March '07: Seem to recall this being fairly settled and mild (after the wild first weekend) but also quite overcast a lot of the time, with a small handful of 'lovely Spring days' around the 3rd week. April: Outstanding first half with the Easter weekend being particularly good, but whilst the second half of the month remained mostly settled, I can remember a lot more overcast weather after the 16th or so. Became warm and sunny again at the end. May: Started off very warm and sunny but after the 5th it took a nosedive and the rest of the month was pretty awful; often cool, dull and wet. The Spring was mediocre overall and was followed by one of the worst summer periods we've ever had.

May and to a lesser extent June have been exceptions in terms of good weather with Boris and unsetled weather since. May and June have been the two best months of this year, whereas May 2021 was very poor, June 2020 not much better and May & June 2022 were both average.

How would you describe the summer of 1997 both as a whole and the 3 months in detail, and how does it compare with similarly-rated summers of that era like 94, 96, 98 and 99? I can remember a lot of rain in June after a warm and sunny start; not many memories of July apart from a couple of pleasant days later in the month; August often gets the biggest write-up because of the heat, however, I don't remember it being an outstanding month - I can remember quite a few overcast days, rather than it being a 'sunfest' month like August 95, July 06, 13 & 18. Even July 99 seemed to be sunnier than August 97, and the maximum temperature for the month wasn't particularly high. Also, what was the summer like for thunder? I've heard August described as a tropical month, but did it produce thundery activity on the scale of the Augusts of 94, 99, 04 and June of this year?

Manchester, but have had a few trips to London too.

How would you compare this summer with the summers of 2001 and 2011? Better or worse? The cloudy August we've had so far feels similar to 2011, whilst the July heatwave felt similar to a period of heat in early July 2001, especially because of the thundery breakdown.

August to December 2007 was a dry spell but it just seemed incredibly boring and still does thinking about it now. Nothing stands out about that period; everything seemed neither here nor there. To give examples; September and October both dry and mild but not exceptionally so (although I think October may have been close to 'exceptionally dry') and both months felt 50-50 between sunny and cloudy weather. November I can remember a lot of gloomy, overcast and mild days, broken by the occasional unbroken-sunshine type of day. December had a lovely sunny and crisp second week with heavy frost on at least two mornings, but other than that I seem to recall it being exceptionally dull and very mild. On the other hand...2004. It might not be considered a classic and the summer tends to get poor reviews, but I found August rather extraordinary. Warm and humid, but the real story was the near daily occurrence of evening thunderstorms, at least in the first two thirds of the month. The evening of 24th October also saw some big Autumn thunderstorms. Late January also saw a heavy snowfall for Manchester one day during a very cold week - wouldn't surprise me if this was the second heaviest snowfall of the decade in Manchester, after late December 2000.

I can remember flash flooding in the Stafford area in the evening of 24th October 1995. Flooding in the Manchester area in the afternoon of 14th June 2002.

Do you think the summers of 1998, '99 and '01 get perhaps an unfair amount of bad press? All three seemed to be at worst 'average', with plenty of good spells intermixed with the lousy stuff. 1998: Seem to remember the second half of June being pleasant, July was poor but August was reasonable nationwide and very good in the south; even though it wasn't hot, it was sunnier than August 1997 which gets rave reviews. 1999: Seem to remember June was mediocre and August started hot but became thundery and very wet around mid-month and finished off similar in dullness to 2008 and 2010. But that July was a belter and arguably the best summer month between August 1995 and July 2006. 2001: There were about five hot spells I think and I know one of them was very thundery. All spaced out nicely with a couple of weeks of cooler and wetter weather in between. I think they all lasted between 2-5 days so nothing major, but not many UK summers have had this many hot spells. Are these three underrated then? Also 2000 seems to get a fairly bad press but I don't remember that being particularly bad.

July 1963 was quite hot and tropical in the North West, going off an account.

1977 wasn't great either was it?

Thanks. Struggling to remember much sun and heat during the 2002 World Cup. Can remember the 15th being a bit on the hot side following a washout day on the 14th. But other than that I can remember mainly a lot of cloudy weather, particularly on the days of England's first two group games, and the day of the final.

For widespread thundery activity, how does 95 compare with Summers 96-99? I assumed 97 was a thundery summer because of the hot and humid August.

My memory is hazy being fairly young at the time, but am I right in thinking one potential negative about the summer of 95 was a lack of thunder? Was it similar to 2007, '17 and '18 for lack of thunderstorms? It's just that 94, 96, 97 and 99 stick out more in the memory for thunder than 95 does.