2012: A weather review

[Cheshire Freeze]

I could summarise 2012 in just one word. It's not a word that would survive the swear filter though unfortunately.

I'll give you an ironic clue....it rhymes with grit.

Edited December 23, 2012 by CreweCold

[virtualsphere]

I could summarise 2012 in just one word. It's not a word that would survive the swear filter though unfortunately.

I'll give you an ironic clue....it rhymes with grit.

That would be a good summary for here as well.

When it hasn't been mediocre, it has just been nondescript and dull. Not a flake of snow all year, and despite the continuous rain we have had the least amount of thunder in at least 5 years. It wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say I could count the number of dry sunny days on my hands. The rain has also coincided with the dates I'd have wanted to be dry.

The only saving grace has been the dry, warm spell towards the end of May - superb and just a shame it didn't last longer. Great weather here for the Olympic torch relay and the one decent day trip outdoors this year.

We were spoiled here in 2010 for both sunshine and snow, and perhaps that has raised my expectations too much!

[Richard2901]

January – Ridiculously dry and sunny zonal tripe. No snow and little frost – a pathetic winter month – but never unpleasant until an easterly set in during the final days. Rating: 3/10

February – Started with a vile easterly then became exceptionally mild. Only snowfall from a brief northerly on the 18th so another boring inadequate winter month. Rating: 2/10

March – Very sunny and the warmest since 1938 with an exceptional spell of three 20C days in the final week. Little in the way of frost or convection. Rating: 8/10

April – Diabolical, cold, dull wet horror show. Dullest since 1941 with an astounding 26 rain days. Mostly frontal rain and drizzle too with little convection. Only highlights were the 6cm snowfall on the 3^rd and a sunny but cold weekend at the end of the month. Rating: 1/10

May – Pretty poor first half – cold, cloudy and showery but an excellent hot, sunny spell in the final third coincided perfectly with a holiday to Somerset. Rating: 6/10

June – Vile, execrable revolting cold, dull and wet piece of subarctic hell. One of the coldest, dullest and wettest on record. No redeeming features. Rating: 0/10

July – Unbelievably even worse than June. A sunless, depressing abomination of a summer month. The 6 weeks to 19^th July were sunless without parallel managing a joke 39% of average. December was the only month of 2012 to have less sunshine than July. Rating: 0/10

August – Dire throughout the first half – thankfully I had escaped to Spain for a fortnight. Some improvement around the 18^th but then more downpours brought flooding in the final week and made this the wettest summer month I have recorded in 8 years. Rating: 2/10

September – A considerable improvement on the revolting summer. A nice pleasant sunny month with the warmest temperatures of the year during the first third then much cooler with some ground frost. Sunnier than any summer month since July 2009. Rating: 8/10

October – A nice sunny pleasant start to the month but turned fairly dull and wet after the 10^th. A few frosts and a notably heavy snowfall on the 26^th. One of the coldest Octobers on record. Rating: 5/10

November – Boring uneventful, sunny dry month with average temperatures. No snow but the dry sunny weekends made it much better than summer for getting outdoors. Rating: 6/10

December – The 4^th catastrophic horror month of the year. A couple of brief snowfalls and frosts in the first half but the 2^nd half so far has been beyond disgusting. The 10 days since the 14^th has been the worst pre-Christmas weather I can remember –completely devoid of festive cheer with extensive flooding in the region. Overall likely to end up the wettest December since 1929 and the 3^rd wettest in 150 years. Rating: 1/10.

That works out at an average 3.5/10 and the only year to have scored worse since 2000 was 2011 with an average of 2.8. Both years have been absolutely shocking and disgusting for the simultaneous lack of warmth and sunshine during summer and lack of snow during winter. Never before has there been a pair of successive summers so bad and the only consecutive years that have been as snowless were 1989 and 1990. All things considered 2011 and 2012 easily deserve to go down as the worst pair of years for weather in recorded history.

Edited December 24, 2012 by Richard2901

[Summer Sun]

Up to the 23rd of December the average temperature here far for the year is 13.87°C the 1981-2010 average is 13.1°C

[Backtrack]

Ever heard the saying 'a picture paints a thousand words'?

[Aaron]

It's been sunnier than average this year IMBY, and rainfall to date is 802mm, so all in all, not a bad year, there have been wetter years, and much duller years. A nice cold spell in February with a 15cm snowfall, and a surprise snowfall in April delivering an inch or so. No floods either.

Edited December 24, 2012 by Aaron