1987

[Sunny76]

Do you remember it? And if you do, what were your favourite memories, and what weather events come to mind?

For me, the January cold spell with loads of snow. One of the best and coldest periods, and it was also the last major snowfall in southern areas for a few years.

The warm sunny April. Probably the best weather of the spring, and the Easter was warm that year.

Warm sunny hot spells in late May, during June and July and mid August. The summer was poor, but I do remember warm sunny days in late June and parts of July, just before breaking up for the holidays. We then had thunderstorms during the day in the second half of July.

August was a mix, but remember the hot weather mid month, followed by storms overnight. 
 

The October hurricane. Such a memorable event. The windiest storm ever. Nothing has come close ever since.

The mild and sunny springlike Christmas Day. For the first time, the weather on Christmas Day seemed a lot milder than normal, but maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. I just remember blue skies during the big day. 
 

All in all, an interesting year for weather, with lots of variety. A poor summer though.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Sunny76

[A Face like Thunder]

I remember them all. The cold and snowy January in the south east, the great storm of 16th October, and the mild and sunny Christmas Day when my South African niece and nephew were looking forward to a 'White Christmas' and we ended up playing cricket on the lawn at my parents house. I would add the gale of Friday 27th March which resulted in fatalities in the south east. But of course nothing like the gale of October 1987.

[Sunny76]

21 minutes ago, A Face like Thunder said:

I remember them all. The cold and snowy January in the south east, the great storm of 16th October, and the mild and sunny Christmas Day when my South African niece and nephew were looking forward to a 'White Christmas' and we ended up playing cricket on the lawn at my parents house. I would add the gale of Friday 27th March which resulted in fatalities in the south east. But of course nothing like the gale of October 1987.

Cricket on the lawn? 
 

I think it was one of the mildest Christmas Days. It didn’t just feel like a mild 10c type day, but much closer to a 15-16c type set up.

I think this was probably an early taste of the shifting climate, but at the time, nobody paid much attention. 

[Weather-history]

January: bitter easterly. Snow flurries from a clear sky on Sunday. Snow flurries on Monday, drier Tuesday but steady snow on Wednesday morning.

February:?

March: two frontal snowfalls in the first week of March. Second one was the Saturday, the Zeebrugge disaster happened the evening before. Remember it snowing that afternoon and building a snowman. It was still snowing when I went to bed that night. Also the wintry spell around the 19th. Wind direction was unfavourable for showers and it wasn't until the Friday we really got the hail and snow showers. I remember a PE lesson outside and you could see the showers streaming through the Cheshire Gap.

April: Brilliant Good Friday but clouded up for the rest of that Easter. I'm sure there was a great thunderstorm right at the end of the month. I remember coming home from school thinking there is going to be a storm and the snooker as on. Must have been the World Championships. Sure enough a storm did strike. Remember the whale mouth coming  over, I think it was 7pm

May: snowing that first Saturday morning of May. Don't remember May being brilliant.

June: rank until the last few days. It was chilly, a lot of rain or showers with some thunder. Right at the end it became summery.

July: weather changed just before summer holidays. Remember a very showery day and huge cumulonimbi clouds right at the end of the month.

August: That really chilly first Friday of the month, it only got up to 12C. Remember it being much warmer the second half of August. Recall huge altocumulus castellanus coming over that Friday evening  of 21st August and there was storm the following afternoon. The Sunday that followed was a washout.

September: there was a really thundery first Saturday of the month. Seemed  every shower was electrified.

October: I think it was the first Monday of the month, it was a warm day and there was a thunderstorm that developed just to my north. I remember the lightning and I thing a big thunderstorm and went up the Pennine chain a bit later. Remember the news coverage of the October storm

November: don't recall much about this month.

December: I recall the first part of the month was chilly. I think there was a Saturday night, there was wintry showers around. The next morning there was a frost and you could see graupel had fallen overnight. The second half was milder. 

I think it was 1987, there was an amazing display of UFO clouds. Can't remember exactly when but I feel it was during the spring or summer.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Weather-history

[B87]

Looking at the stats for London.

Jan: extremely cold, coldest since 1963.

Feb: on the cool side, cloudy and dry

Mar: extremely cold

Apr: warm, not particularly sunny or dry though.

May: cool and wet with average sun

Jun: very cool, very cloudy, wet

Jul: very cool, cloudy, very wet

Aug: very cool, cloudy, wet

Sep: near normal

Oct: cool, extremely wet. The wettest month on record

Nov: cold, cloudy, dry

Dec: mild, cloudy, very dry

Looks like a pretty horrible year weather-wise to be honest. Only April being notably warmer than average, and very cloudy for almost the entire year (apart from May, September and October).

Edited May 30, 2020 by B87

[cheeky_monkey]

On 30/05/2020 at 08:25, B87 said:

Looking at the stats for London.

Jan: extremely cold, coldest since 1963.

Feb: on the cool side, cloudy and dry

Mar: extremely cold

Apr: warm, not particularly sunny or dry though.

May: cool and wet with average sun

Jun: very cool, very cloudy, wet

Jul: very cool, cloudy, very wet

Aug: very cool, cloudy, wet

Sep: near normal

Oct: cool, extremely wet. The wettest month on record

Nov: cold, cloudy, dry

Dec: mild, cloudy, very dry

Looks like a pretty horrible year weather-wise to be honest. Only April being notably warmer than average, and very cloudy for almost the entire year (apart from May, September and October).

the records i and summaries found for 1987 don't seem to jive with the above

January -Very cold and dry with near average sunshine.

February - Rather dull with below average rainfall and near normal temperatures.

March - Rather Cold with below normal sunshine and average rainfall.

April - Mild with slightly above normal sunshine and average rainfall.

May - Rather cool with above average rainfall and near normal sunshine.

June - Very dull, rather cool and wet.

July - Wet with below average sunshine and temperatures.

August - Temperatures, rain and sunshine close to average.

September - Rather dry with temperatures slightly above average and near normal sunshine.

October - Very wet with above normal sunshine and average temperatures.

November - Rather dry and dull with temperatures close to normal.

December - Very dry, mild and rather dull.

[B87]

11 minutes ago, cheeky_monkey said:

the records i and summaries found for 1987 don't seem to jive with the above

Mine are from Heathrow. August 1987 for example had an average max of 21.8c and 170 hours of sun, the same as July. Neither of which are near normal for those months.

Edited June 1, 2020 by B87

[cheeky_monkey]

2 hours ago, B87 said:

Mine are from Heathrow. August 1987 for example had an average max of 21.8c and 170 hours of sun, the same as July. Neither of which are near normal for those months.

met office report for London in August 1987 states ave high +0.5c and ave Min 0.0c deviation from normal.. rainfall was 68% of normal ...sunshine 99% of normal..seems pretty normal for the period.

[damianslaw]

Stands out were the freeze of mid January, the rather cold snowy March, a very sunny dry and mild April, the October storm. The summer was poor in a run of poor ones. Autumn very average apart from the storm. December started cold and frosty, second half very mild.

[B87]

14 minutes ago, cheeky_monkey said:

met office report for London in August 1987 states ave high +0.5c and ave Min 0.0c deviation from normal.. rainfall was 68% of normal ...sunshine 99% of normal..seems pretty normal for the period.

It had an average high of 21.8c, so that means their reference period had an August average of 21.3c? That sounds incredibly unlikely. It recorded 57mm rain, 68% of normal puts the August average at almost 84mm! Thats nearly double the rainfall average of August! It's wetter than a typical October or November as well.

Compared to the average of all years 1948-2019, it was cool, wet and cloudy.

Edited June 1, 2020 by B87

[cheeky_monkey]

15 hours ago, B87 said:

It had an average high of 21.8c, so that means their reference period had an August average of 21.3c? That sounds incredibly unlikely. It recorded 57mm rain, 68% of normal puts the August average at almost 84mm! Thats nearly double the rainfall average of August! It's wetter than a typical October or November as well.

Compared to the average of all years 1948-2019, it was cool, wet and cloudy.

my figures above are from the MWR for August 1987 compiled by the Met Office at the time...plus you are using Heathrow which is only one of ten weather stations in London reporting data in 1987 ..even looking at Heathrow on its own it states temp where 0.0c deviation from normal ...rainfall was 99% of normal ...sunshine 98% of normal...a more average month you could not find

[Weather-history]

Original poster did ask for personal memories rather than a bunch of stats. 

[Sunny76]

On 02/06/2020 at 16:42, Weather-history said:

Original poster did ask for personal memories rather than a bunch of stats. 

Thank you lol.