July 1999

[Summer of 95]

When people discuss good summers and good summer months, there is one recent month that I find always gets missed out: July 1999. This was to me one of the few memorable months of the late 90s, and I recall it for days of hot, sunny, dry weather culminating in a thundery spell right at the end. in many ways it seemed similar to August 1995 with its abundant sunshine and lack of rain.

Comparing it in this area with some other frequently mentioned summer months of recent times, it certainly holds its own:

Month Temp Rain Sun

Aug 1995 18.7 7.8 273.5

July 1995 18.35 33.8 231.3

Aug 1990 18.05 34.9 183.1

July 1999 17.1 14.0 242.9

July 1994 17.1 46.3 232.5

Aug 2003 17.05 27.4 164.9

Notice that it was actually a touch warmer than August 2003 as well as being drier and much sunnier- further evidence of how overrated that latter month was round here. For dryness it is surpassed only by the unforgettable August 1995. (The figres are for Shawbury, taken from the Met Office data page. I have averaged the mean max/min to get the temperatures http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/sta...awburydata.txt)

Why is July 1999 so rarely mentioned? A few theories I have are:

1) June that year was fairly poor and August terrible. People remember that summer for the eclipse and those who like me went to see decks of cloud in the southwest carry that as their memory of this summer.

2) It came in the middle of 5 years of shoddy weather- mild wet winters and mediocre summers, with lots of excessive rain- people carry memories of floods and forget the one good month, as people forget the odd mild 60s or 80s winter month.

3) It was less exceptional compared to normal in the southeast than elsewhere, so the media didn't sensationalise it like they did August 2003. This despite the fact that in many places it was reportedly the best July overall since 1911.

4) It didn't record any truly extraordinary temperatures, but was consistently well above average instead. Whilst 2003 with its couple of record-breaking days followed by lots of cloudy boring ones made the front pages. Similar things have been said about Feb 86 being less well remembered than Jan 87 because it lacked record low temperatures.

Anyone else have fond memories of this month?

Edited August 26, 2005 by Summer of 95

[Weather-history]

I remember July 1999 and it was a pretty good summer month. Its the same with June 1986, although not an exceptional month it was a fairly good month but is eclipsed by the poor August 1986 and is forgotten.

June 1986 was probably the best month out the all the summer months between 1985 and 1988.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I remember July 1999 up here in the North East; it was a pretty memorable month, not just for being somewhat warmer and sunnier than average, but also for some convective storms, particularly around the 6th. The month featured one of just two occasions when a mini tornado occurred in this area- amusingly, the other occasion happened in June 1999!

As a further illustration of local differences across the country, I remember Summer 1999 as being a good one here in the North East, but then again I did go to France from 14-21 August and experience a week of sunshine and thunderstorms, while allegedly it was the worst week of the summer in Tyneside. The main feature of the summer was the lack of persistent sea fogs in the area- very much a local climate characteristic.

One telling statistic: in the Tyne and Wear region, it would appear that in the 00s, only May 2001 has produced more sunshine than July 1999 did, yet there were quite a number of sunnier months between 1989 and 1996 inclusive.

[Portland Paul]

Yes, I remember July 1999 as being a superb month - dry, hot and sunny almost continuously from the 8th.

I also remember its tornado event in Selly Oak, Birmingham on the 5th - although I was holidaying in Teignmouth, Devon from 3rd to 10th, where it only rained for an hour on the morning of 5th. The rest of the week was glorious.

[summer blizzard]

I think the reason why July 1999 is not mentioned much is because the difference from average in terms of the CET is only 0.6C, so that when people look at CET records for hot moths, July 1999 goes unnoticed.

[Summer of 95]

CET of 17.7C is 1.2C above 71-00, 1.7 above 61-90- although CET-wise August 2003 was a little hotter, round here it seems to have been the warmest month between 1995-2005.

[summer blizzard]

One telling statistic: in the Tyne and Wear region, it would appear that in the 00s, only May 2001 has produced more sunshine than July 1999 did, yet there were quite a number of sunnier months between 1989 and 1996 inclusive.

Was June 2006 sunnier than July 1999 in the Tyne and Wear region?????

Edited July 4, 2006 by summer blizzard

[Thundery wintry showers]

I don't know for definite, but I actually doubt it.

Edit: According to UK Met Office maps, the Tyne & Wear region had only 10% above average sunshine during June 2006, making it slightly less sunny than June 2005 (!) and a good 10-20% less sunny than June 2003. Can't see it having been sunnier than July 1999; if any month has been sunnier than July'99 it would have to be June'03.

However, in Leeds sunshine appears to have held up at 20-30% above normal.

[J10]

I remember July 1999 being very sunny, as the eclipse was in the start of August 1999, and it seemed to be the first cloudy day in a while.

[MP-R]

July 1999 started off as crap as anything in Bristol. I can remember the first week was the end of my school term and the Prize Giving ceremony took place on the school lawn. It was cloudy, windy and horrid with a top temperature of 15.9C! I was getting worried that there wouldn't be a summer then three days later the temperature soared to 27.2C. Amazing. It was a glorious month throughout with the top temperature being 30.9C 17th and a pretty high one of 29.4C on the 29th.

However, I also remember some spectacular thundestorms on the evening of the 29th with torrential rain. 75% of the month's rain fell on that evening from what I remember as a fantastic cell.

[Summer of 95]

I don't know for definite, but I actually doubt it.

Edit: According to UK Met Office maps, the Tyne & Wear region had only 10% above average sunshine during June 2006, making it slightly less sunny than June 2005 (!) and a good 10-20% less sunny than June 2003. Can't see it having been sunnier than July 1999; if any month has been sunnier than July'99 it would have to be June'03.

However, in Leeds sunshine appears to have held up at 20-30% above normal.

I'd be very surprised if June 2006 was sunnier than July 1999 here, the second half of the month actually seemed rather dull although the first half was superb.

In the time I spent in the Tyne & Wear area (Sep 2000 to July 2004, excluding vacations so no Augusts or most of Aprils), the one month I can recall being outstandingly sunny was March 2003; May 2001 and May 2004 weren't bad either.

[Sunshine]

August 1997 is another hot summer month that isn't mentioned as much as well.

[MP-R]

August 1997 is another hot summer month that isn't mentioned as much as well.

That's right, although I can remember being in North Wales for a week and the highest temperature was 23C and most of the time it was cloudy and dull. Lovely and sunny in Bristol though.

I know this is off subject but can anyone confirm thunderstorms widespread on the 9th July 1997?

[Weather-history]

I know this is off subject but can anyone confirm thunderstorms widespread on the 9th July 1997?

Looks mostly dry for that date

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119970709.gif

[Thundery wintry showers]

There were thunderstorms in the Berkshire area on the 8th in spite of high pressure, so it's quite possible.

[Bham Chris]

July 1999 was definately sunnier than June 2006.As Summer of 95 has said,the second half of the month was actually quite dull while that July was sunny all month,rather like this July,but of course this July is much hotter.

[Weather-history]

July 1999 was definately sunnier than June 2006

England and Wales sunshine series

June 2006: 240.4hrs

July 1999: 234.3hrs

I think for the Midlands it was the other way around

Edited July 23, 2006 by Mr_Data

[summer blizzard]

July 1999 is proof that a La Nina summer does not always mean a poor one, 1999 is the only summer that average La Nina since at leeast 1990.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I posted on 6 July 2006 that up until June 2006, only May 2001 had been sunnier than July 1999 in this region.

Needless to say, the July 1999 sunshine total was somewhat eclipsed by that of July 2006.

[WhiteFox]

Interestingly, it seems that Reading received 46mm of rain on the 3rd July 1999 from a thunderstorm. Pretty impressive!