Chilly May 1996

[Weather-history]

May 1996 had a CET of just 9.1C. It was the coldest May since 1902 and one of the coldest Mays on record. Winds were frequently from the north and east and this often pulled down cold pools of air from Scandinavia. Consequently maxima were often well below average, sometimes below 10C even in the south and there were ground and air frosts at night. It wasn't until the end of the month did maxima finally break 20C. Snow did fall at times but this was generally over the hills and was not disruptive. 

BBC forecasts from May 1996

mean maxima for the May 1996

Stornoway: 10.8C

Aberdeen: 11.7C

Glasgow: 13.2C

Manchester: 13.5C

Birmingham: 13.6C

Heathrow: 15.1C

Cardiff: 13.5C

Belfast: 12.9C

CET trackometer

1.  8.6
2.  7.9
3.  7.5
4.  6.9
5.  6.8
6.  6.9
7.  7.1
8.  7.0
9.  7.0
10. 7.0
11. 7.0
12. 7.1
13. 7.2
14. 7.4
15. 7.6
16. 7.4
17. 7.3
18. 7.2
19. 7.3
20. 7.4
21. 7.5
22. 7.6
23. 7.8
24. 8.0
25. 8.1
26. 8.2
27. 8.4
28. 8.5
29. 8.7
30. 9.0
31. 9.1

Temperatures recorded during May 1996 in Manchester. Maximum first value, minimum second value.  

1. 12, 7   
2. 8, 6    
3. 10, 2   
4. 10, -2  
5. 13, 0   
6. 15, 2   
7. 13, 5   
8. 13, 2   
9. 11, 4   
10. 12, 4  
11. 10, 4  
12. 13, 5  
13. 16, 2  
14. 18, 3  
15. 11, 6  
16. 10, 1  
17. 10, 3  
18. 12, 3  
19. 11, 6  
20. 15, 5  
21. 14, 5  
22. 14, 7  
23. 14, 9  
24. 16, 9 
25, 15, 6  
26. 14, 8  
27. 15, 10 
28. 14, 6  
29. 18, 13 
30. 23, 12 
31. 17, 10 

Edited April 29, 2016 by Weather-history
.

[BornFromTheVoid]

Of note, May 16th 1996, with a mean temperature of 5.2C, was the last Spring day to set a record low for the daily mean CET.

[damianslaw]

Remember it well, spring was very late, our garden looked like early April rather than mid May.. very chilly nights and persistant low maxima thanks to a nagging easterly feed and cloud. The combination of being more sheltered allowed clearer breaks during the night helping to produce the low temps, whilst during the day the cloud had no trouble invading across the Pennines.

Things did improve markedly at the tail end of the month heralding a very good June and half decent summer overall. 1996 overall was a cool year much like 2010 with the atlantic in somewhat of a slumber, it followed on the back of the interesting and very dry year of 1995. It was refreshing to see the atlantic come unstuck against large continental blocking features.

[Lettucing Gutted]

ah happy memories  May 2016 is a far cry from 1996...

Edited May 15, 2016 by Lettucing Gutted

[Thundery wintry showers]

May 1996 was phenomenally cold in the first two-thirds with persistent north-easterlies but the last third of the month was much closer to average, with mainly westerly winds.  The implication is that if the north-easterlies had persisted for a week longer, it may well have been a contender for the coldest May in the entire CET series (1698 was the coldest with 8.5C).

Despite the unusually frequent north-easterlies, the Tyne and Wear/Durham area had a slightly sunnier-than-average May (normally north-easterlies translate to dull weather in the North East at that time of year).  The frequent cold pooling over Scandinavia meant that the north-easterlies were often relatively unstable, producing fairly bright and showery conditions.  If I remember rightly it was quite a dull month in the south-east though.  Surprisingly, snow fell rather more widely to low ground in the Mays of 1993, 1995 and 1997 than in 1996.

Edited May 14, 2016 by Thundery wintry showers

[Eugene]

On ‎05‎/‎05‎/‎2016 at 21:59, damianslaw said:

Remember it well, spring was very late, our garden looked like early April rather than mid May.. very chilly nights and persistant low maxima thanks to a nagging easterly feed and cloud. The combination of being more sheltered allowed clearer breaks during the night helping to produce the low temps, whilst during the day the cloud had no trouble invading across the Pennines.

Things did improve markedly at the tail end of the month heralding a very good June and half decent summer overall. 1996 overall was a cool year much like 2010 with the atlantic in somewhat of a slumber, it followed on the back of the interesting and very dry year of 1995. It was refreshing to see the atlantic come unstuck against large continental blocking features.

Could we see something similar this May?....Looking at GFS 06Z with continental block and cool air aloft with stalling low pressure we could see a chilly first half to May.

[Mokidugway]

Remember it well was working on a major redevelopment of my old  house ,remember the persistent cold and dullness here then it went  on to be a good summer if I recall correctly.