Summer 2001

[Don]

4 minutes ago, MP-R said:

I think just about every summer would seem good compared to the 60s...

Well yeah, but you know what I mean! 

[cheeky_monkey]

2 hours ago, Don said:

Nah, but it would have been in the 1960's for example when our climate was better cooler!

a lot of it is relative to your own experience and when you grew up..if you grew up in 60s 70s and through to the late 80s ..2001 was a relatively good summer ..if you grew up after that time then it would be viewed as pretty meh 

[Don]

2 hours ago, cheeky_monkey said:

a lot of it is relative to your own experience and when you grew up..if you grew up in 60s 70s and through to the late 80s ..2001 was a relatively good summer ..if you grew up after that time then it would be viewed as pretty meh 

Indeed it is.  I grew up during the 80's so experienced some less than exceptional summers!  2001 was definitely reasonable compared to those, but would be pretty average nowadays.

[Sunny76]

2 hours ago, cheeky_monkey said:

a lot of it is relative to your own experience and when you grew up..if you grew up in 60s 70s and through to the late 80s ..2001 was a relatively good summer ..if you grew up after that time then it would be viewed as pretty meh 

I grew up in the 80s, and 90s. 2001 falls into the average to unremarkable category.

1989, 1990, 1994, 1995, and even 1999 had better spells of summer weather.

01 just seems rather poor in comparison and forgettable. 

[iand61]

As a keen walker, the only thing I remember about summer 2001 was Foot and Mouth and not been able to cross farm or moorland

[Summer8906]

I would class summer 2001 as slightly above average (for background, my earliest clear weather memories were around 1978, so I clearly remember the 80s and 90s summers). From 2007 onwards, only 2013, 2014 and 2018 were better (with the other 12 summers all worse than 2001) - though from 1989 to 2006, several were better - 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2005 (slightly), and 2006. But from 1978 to 1988, only 1983 and 1984 were better than 2001.

Around this time there seemed to be an alternating pattern of odd summers better, even summers less good - prevailing from 1997 to 2005.

It was a bit inconsistent though - a mix of fine warm spells and short cool, wet spells. June 2001 was IIRC mostly dry and fine, but with unsettled spells. I seem to remember the first 13 days or so being predominantly dry, though sometimes cool. Then a large but slow moving low produced a few days of wet or showery weather mid month. This was followed by a heatwave lasting perhaps a week before changeable zonal conditions for about 4 days at the end of the month.

July started fine warm and sunny for about 4 days followed by a thundery spell lasting a further three days, with a slow moving Biscay low. It was mostly dull during this thundery spell IIRC with a lot of Ac cast cover. This was then followed by around 10-12 days of unseasonably cool and changeable weather though with winds generally W-ly or NW-ly the sunshine totals weren't too bad. There were a couple of very cool, wet days with frontal systems though.

From Fri 20 July the weather settled down again and the rest of the month was distinctly hot. Some days had areas of cloud floating around though.

August had the same mix of warm, and cooler and more changeable conditions. The fine weather rapidly broke down early in August with a similar thundery low to that of early July following, then around a week of cool, showery weather once again. Then a brief warm spell around the 13th-14th, more cool changeable weather, followed by increasing warmth from the 20th lasting until the 25th. This spell featured some notable thundery outbreaks with a huge Cb, apparently over Norfolk, being visible from the South Downs on the evening of Saturday 25th.

Sunday 26th was wet and cool, then a further spell of fine weather for around three days before cooler showery weather at the very end.

So a changeable summer but with frequent warm, sunny spells many lasting at least a week - and each month featuring some proper summery weather. This together with reasonable sunshine totals even in the wetter spells means that the impression was of a slightly-above-average summer.

 

 

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On 28/05/2022 at 08:34, iand61 said:

As a keen walker, the only thing I remember about summer 2001 was Foot and Mouth and not been able to cross farm or moorland

I remember this in the spring but down here in the south, that had thankfully all been lifted by summer and from early June there were no access problems.

That did not stop some landowners in the south illegally taping off footpaths, using foot and mouth as an excuse, as late as September though. There was one example next to a large house through woodland, with no farm animals in sight, that received that treatment - doubtless because the house owners did not like living next to a footpath. Perhaps they should have thought of that when they bought the house...

Edited June 3, 2022 by Summer8906

[hillbilly]

7 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

I would class summer 2001 as slightly above average (for background, my earliest clear weather memories were around 1978, so I clearly remember the 80s and 90s summers). From 2007 onwards, only 2013, 2014 and 2018 were better (with the other 12 summers all worse than 2001) - though from 1989 to 2006, several were better - 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2005 (slightly), and 2006. But from 1978 to 1988, only 1983 and 1984 were better than 2001.

Around this time there seemed to be an alternating pattern of odd summers better, even summers less good - prevailing from 1997 to 2005.

It was a bit inconsistent though - a mix of fine warm spells and short cool, wet spells. June 2001 was IIRC mostly dry and fine, but with unsettled spells. I seem to remember the first 13 days or so being predominantly dry, though sometimes cool. Then a large but slow moving low produced a few days of wet or showery weather mid month. This was followed by a heatwave lasting perhaps a week before changeable zonal conditions for about 4 days at the end of the month.

July started fine warm and sunny for about 4 days followed by a thundery spell lasting a further three days, with a slow moving Biscay low. It was mostly dull during this thundery spell IIRC with a lot of Ac cast cover. This was then followed by around 10-12 days of unseasonably cool and changeable weather though with winds generally W-ly or NW-ly the sunshine totals weren't too bad. There were a couple of very cool, wet days with frontal systems though.

From Fri 20 July the weather settled down again and the rest of the month was distinctly hot. Some days had areas of cloud floating around though.

August had the same mix of warm, and cooler and more changeable conditions. The fine weather rapidly broke down early in August with a similar thundery low to that of early July following, then around a week of cool, showery weather once again. Then a brief warm spell around the 13th-14th, more cool changeable weather, followed by increasing warmth from the 20th lasting until the 25th. This spell featured some notable thundery outbreaks with a huge Cb, apparently over Norfolk, being visible from the South Downs on the evening of Saturday 25th.

Sunday 26th was wet and cool, then a further spell of fine weather for around three days before cooler showery weather at the very end.

So a changeable summer but with frequent warm, sunny spells many lasting at least a week - and each month featuring some proper summery weather. This together with reasonable sunshine totals even in the wetter spells means that the impression was of a slightly-above-average summer.

 

 

 

Not sure about that.Maybe 1981 and 1982 will have something to say,both were quite reasonable in these parts and along with 2001 i would rank alongside as slightly better than average.

[Summer18]

I was only 7/8 in 2001 so my memories of it are quite skewed. I always thought of this as a decent summer, we moved house at the end of July and I remember it being really hot. I can also recall early July being hot around the time of my brothers birthday. I think the weekend of the FA Cup final was hot too but that was in May. 

My memories see it as a good summer but had I been older at the time I would probably see it as above average at best. 

 

 

 

[Summer8906]

12 hours ago, hillbilly said:

Not sure about that.Maybe 1981 and 1982 will have something to say,both were quite reasonable in these parts and along with 2001 i would rank alongside as slightly better than average.

Summer 1981 is an interesting one because the fine weather exactly coincided with the school summer holidays, so for many years I thought it was a good summer.

But in fact June and July were both dull and cool, so even though August 1981 was significantly better than any of the individual months of 2001, the summer overall would come in probably slightly below that of 2001.

1982 is a slightly strange one as I was in Scotland for half of June, though by all accounts June was exceedingly dull and wet in the south (worse than Scotland), down there with 2007 and 2016 though perhaps not as bad as 2012. July was mostly fine. Strangely I have almost no memories of August though by all accounts it was a cloudy westerly month, though not overly wet.

I use a qualitative scoring method for summer months (very subjective), where summer months score +2, +1, +0.5, 0, -0.5, -1 or -2. For 1981 I would give

June -0.5*, July -1, August +2 (*=estimate, was in France for half the month)

and weight June half of July and August so 1981 would score : -0.25 -1 +2 = +0.75

For 1982 it's partly based on estimates (due to the factors mentioned above), but

June -2*, July +1, August -0.5* = -1+1-0.5 = -0.5 (* = estimates by looking at Monthly Weather Report, etc)

For 2001 I would give scores

June +1, July +0.5, August 0, which would receive 0.5 + 0.5 + 0 = +1

So 2001 comes out best, followed by 1981, followed by 1982.

 

Edited June 4, 2022 by Summer8906

[SummerShower]

Not technically summer but some of the best storms ive ever seen overnight 9th 10th may.. unusually occurring from a warm front coming in off the North sea.

The summer was very thundery.  I counted 5 days in May, 2 in June, 2 in July and I lost count in August (was at least 4) and we're not the most thundery area by any means.

[Greyhound81]

I cannot remember that much about the weather from this summer, but can remember the Australians destroying us in the ashes.  The only test we won (4th test?) was when a whole day was washed out, and we had to score over 300 runs to win.  That was one of the best run chases I have ever seen.

[SummerShower]

5 minutes ago, Greyhound81 said:

I cannot remember that much about the weather from this summer, but can remember the Australians destroying us in the ashes.  The only test we won (4th test?) was when a whole day was washed out, and we had to score over 300 runs to win.  That was one of the best run chases I have ever seen.

Yes, that was the 4th test.  Mark Butcher scored 173 not out I recall.  We were indeed chasing at least 300.  On a par with todays action at least