Warm and sunny Christmas Day 1987

[Sunny76]

Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, but I have a vague memories of my family complaining about how warm and sunny it was on that particular day. Does anyone else remember Christmas Day 1987?

I just recall a sunny day with clear blue skies in London, but can’t remember if it was that mild.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Yes, it was.  The last third of December 1987 was generally dull, drizzly and mild with a persistent tropical maritime SW'ly, but on Christmas Day we had an incursion of returning polar maritime air which was still fairly mild and brought plenty of sunshine:

https://www.wetterzentrale.de/maps/archive/1987/era/ERA_1_1987122512_1.png

It wasn't as mild as some of the tropical maritime air that we had either side of Christmas Day but it would probably have felt warmer in the sunshine.

I don't remember the day specifically, just remember browsing some climate stats some years ago and seeing a long run of sunless days in late December 1987 interspersed with ~6 hours of bright sunshine on Christmas Day.

Edited September 14, 2019 by Thundery wintry showers

[Sunny76]

3 hours ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

Yes, it was.  The last third of December 1987 was generally dull, drizzly and mild with a persistent tropical maritime SW'ly, but on Christmas Day we had an incursion of returning polar maritime air which was still fairly mild and brought plenty of sunshine:

https://www.wetterzentrale.de/maps/archive/1987/era/ERA_1_1987122512_1.png

It wasn't as mild as some of the tropical maritime air that we had either side of Christmas Day but it would probably have felt warmer in the sunshine.

I don't remember the day specifically, just remember browsing some climate stats some years ago and seeing a long run of sunless days in late December 1987 interspersed with ~6 hours of bright sunshine on Christmas Day.

I think my folks were exaggerating slightly when they told me it was sunny and in the 60s Fahrenheit, but maybe it felt like it, due to the direction of the wind. 

I don’t remember any other Christmas Day like that even during other mild periods around Christmas time. 

[Weather-history]

BBC Weather forecast from that day, got to say the news footage of the Christmas Day Serpentine swim, it looks dull.

Remember it being mild but the following Christmas of 1988 was milder.

[Walsall Wood Snow]

Although I don't actually remember that Christmas (only been 2 at the time) I've seen a few family photographs from that Christmas, and even though they were taken indoors there is a window in the background in a couple of them and it looks as though the light coming through it is pretty dull, so it looks as though it would have been overcast. Bearing in mind these were taken in Belfast, Northern Ireland as we were over there that Christmas visiting my Dad's side of the family. Maybe it was sunny here in England that day but not so much there, I don't know. Also obviously been photos they're just a momentary snapshot of time so may not be reflective of how sunny or not the day was on the whole.

[sundog]

Ah the winter of 87/88, winters have been mostly poor ever since. 

Edited September 14, 2019 by sundog

[damianslaw]

Don't have any strong recollections of past weather on christmas day when a child through the 80s - largely because apart from 1981 all were devoid of anything especially wintry and were either mild and sunny, or just dull average or mild with some rain. 

1985 brought a cold Boxing Day I seem to remember with some snow - going off topic now.

[philglossop]

Remember that Christmas 1987 really well, spent most of the day visiting my poor Nan dying in hospital. It was definitely mild and dry that day, Boxing Day was wetter here with drizzle. 

Mind you Christmas 1988 wasnt much better! 

Edited September 15, 2019 by philglossop

[feb1991blizzard]

Had a right dumping second week of Jan just afterwards, not as good as the ridiculous blizzard giving over a foot a year earlier, must have been a good 8 inches though.

In fact it was 7th Jan overnight.

Edited September 15, 2019 by feb1991blizzard

[Weather-history]

12 hours ago, Weather-history said:

 

Remember it being mild but the following Christmas of 1988 was milder.

Looking at the figures, it was actually milder between Christmas and New Year (1987). About 9C here on Christmas Day but 27th-29th December, it was between 13C-14C.

 

Edited September 15, 2019 by Weather-history

[Walsall Wood Snow]

3 hours ago, feb1991blizzard said:

Had a right dumping second week of Jan just afterwards, not as good as the ridiculous blizzard giving over a foot a year earlier, must have been a good 8 inches though.

In fact it was 7th Jan overnight.

Did this happen while you were still living in Brum? I recall in another thread last year during the beast from the east episode, you mentioning you used to live round there. 

Interesting if so as I can imagine we perhaps had similar conditions round here also (although not sure if we would have come back home from our family visit to NI by this point) I have long been under the impression there were no decent dumpings of snow round these parts between Jan 87 and Dec 90. Then again this was just the gap between major cold spells and I shouldn't be surprised to learn there was maybe the odd short lived cold snap between these events that produced a short lived snowy spell or two. Thanks for sharing .

Edited September 15, 2019 by Walsall Wood Snow

[feb1991blizzard]

19 minutes ago, Walsall Wood Snow said:

Did this happen while you were still living in Brum? I recall in another thread last year during the beast from the east episode, you mentioning you used to live round there. 

Interesting if so as I can imagine we perhaps had similar conditions round here also (although not sure if we would have come back home from our family visit to NI by this point) I have long been under the impression there were no decent dumpings of snow round these parts between Jan 87 and Dec 90. Then again this was just the gap between major cold spells and I shouldn't be surprised to learn there was maybe the odd short lived cold snap between these events that produced a short lived snowy spell or two. Thanks for sharing .

Yes albeit SW Birmingham on high ground so may have been lucky, it was blown away quickly with sleet, rain, slush, standing water by the Saturday though, that was it apart from some early morning very wet sleety snow courtesy of evaporative cooling i would think just before school in late January, then remember some powdery snow episodes, just giving dustings in february that year, nothing great after that dumping though.

Edited September 15, 2019 by feb1991blizzard

[Sunny76]

15 hours ago, sundog said:

Ah the winter of 87/88, winters have been mostly poor ever since. 

Yes, we did move into a much milder period then until about 1990, but pre 87/88 still had mild Christmas periods.

1980, 82 and 83 were all fairly mild around the festive period. Not to mention that before 1978/79, the 70s were fairly mild.

[MP-R]

The only mild and sunny Christmas Day I can remember in my lifetime is 2002. That was a weird one. Had been cold up until the 20th and turned cold after NY but the festive period was very mild and often wet!

[Sunny76]

12 minutes ago, MP-R said:

The only mild and sunny Christmas Day I can remember in my lifetime is 2002. That was a weird one. Had been cold up until the 20th and turned cold after NY but the festive period was very mild and often wet!

Yes 2002 started off cold and ended cold, but the middle of December like you say, was very mild.

Still, I just remember 1987 Christmas being very clear and sunny but accompanied by mild weather.

 

[Sunny76]

On 14/09/2019 at 19:30, Weather-history said:

BBC Weather forecast from that day, got to say the news footage of the Christmas Day Serpentine swim, it looks dull.

Remember it being mild but the following Christmas of 1988 was milder.

Falmouth at 14c and sunny across the whole country. It must have been close to 13c in London at least during that day. That truly is a warm Christmas Day. 

[Don]

Believe Christmas Day 1988 was even warmer than 1987!

[Sunny76]

1987 was very sunny and springlike for the whole day. It’s rare to get a very sunny day and very mild temps around Christmas time.