Cold Continental Flow in August

[Lettucing Gutted]

Continental winds in summer usually mean heatwaves but here is an example of a freak event... Here is a cold continental flow on 3rd August 1912.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/slp/1...slp19120803.gif

This brought one of the coldest CET daily means on record for August. The 3rd August 1912 recorded a daily CET mean of only 10.5C.

http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcet/cetdl1772on.dat

This was due to a very cool daily CET maximum of 15.7C on the 3rd August 1912

http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcet/cetmaxd...8on_urbadj4.dat

offset by a very cool daily CET minimum of 5.2C on the 3rd August 1912

http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcet/cetmind...8on_urbadj4.dat

It was very apt indeed that August 1912 was the coldest on record in the CET zone with a CET of only 12.9C.

Edited June 22, 2008 by Craig Evans

[damianslaw]

Interesting statistics there, especially as the 3rd Aug falls slap bang in the middle of what is usually the warmest period of the summer. Must have been a cold arctic or something to bring those very chilly conditions, it must have been a cloudy high as well, any sunshine would be warm enough surely to bring a higher CET.

A more recent cold high pressure occured in Aug 1986 I think, that was a cold month in general..

[Thundery wintry showers]

Yes, a surprising cold day. My guess is that cold Arctic air must have stabililsed over Europe, meaning that a south-easterly would have to be very deep in order for it not to suck up cold air. August 1986 was similar- frequent northerly winds bringing cold air into the near Continent.

Most of the rest of August 1912, though, wasn't dominated by a continental flow, but rather frequent westerly and northerly winds with deep lows regularly tracking over central areas bringing very dull cold wet weather.

1912 in Durham was ridiculous for its lack of sunshine. The year didn't even make 1000 hours of sunshine (the long-term average is 1300-1400 hours), the summer had half the average sunshine, and August, with 57 hours, barely one-third of the average. Putting it into perspective, the entire of 2003 failed to produce a month with a lower sunshine total!

[Weather-history]

A couple of reports

Lampeter on the 2nd of August: Severe frost blackened all dahlias and delicate flowers

Instow: An exposed thermometer registered 4 degrees of frost

Shrewsbury on the 3rd: Frost on grass