Which of 2007 and 2012 was actually the worst summer?

[Addicks Fan 1981]

 B87 both july and August of 2007 were the coolest two month spell since 1993, mind you 2011 had the same CETS in those months.   

Summer 2007 overall was the wettest summer since 1912 and the coolest since 1998 UK wide.  

Summer 2012 was the wettest since 1912 and the dullest since 1954 UK wide.    

[LetItSnow!]

I don't recall much about summer 2007 but summer 2012 I do have bits and pieces of.

I do actually remember the unseasonably cold, dull and wet start. I remember the 28th which I actually remember as a sunny and warm day in the south-east.

Most of July is a blur but I remember the 21st really well as there was a local festival we went to and it was a beautiful day but not overly warm. The 29th I remember vividly as it was a very unstable day with thunderstorms moving west to east. There was a major storm that affected parts of NW Kent. I remember driving up the A228 northwards with a very black cloud on the horizon which by the time we got onto the A2 westbound was one of the most menacing cloudscapes I'd ever seen. About two minutes later the heavens opened and the rain was so heavy that the 4 lane motorway grinded to about 5mph. I seem to remember lightning striking somewhere in the distance but my 11 year old memory may be playing tricks on me there.

August definitely seemed the best month of summery weather. There was a beautiful spell of weather in the first half. The 9th and the 11th I remember being beautiful sunny days. We got hit with a severe thunderstorm back home on the 13th with torrential rain. I remember the closing days were bright.

Early September we took a break to Stratford-upon-Avon which was mostly fair with some bright days interspersed with lots of cloud. On one of the days we visited Warwick which was a short distance away and the town seemed to descend into this thick, gloomy cloud. I also almost got hit by a car! The place left a rather strange impression on us. But I remember a lot of fine, warm weather in the first half before turning very stormy later. The 23rd was absolutely horrendous, torrential rain and localised flooding. We went to Homebase and the sound of the rain on the roof was deafening.

[Addicks Fan 1981]

 LetItSnow! you can read about summer 2007 through met office links and Trevor harleys website.  

[LetItSnow!]

 Addicks Fan 1981 I know about the summer of 2007 very well, stats and all, I meant I don't remember it. I was 6 lol.

[Addicks Fan 1981]

 LetItSnow! summer 2007 generated average sunshine, well above average rainfall and near average temperatures although very disappointing and the coolest summer at the time since 1998.    

[hillbilly]

2007 or 2012.....erm,2008!

 

[LetItSnow!]

 hillbilly The ultimate poor (modern) summer would be a mix of the three. Imagine a June like 2012, July like 2007 and August like 2008.

[hillbilly]

 LetItSnow! Being from a farming background we managed to make less than a quarter of out hay in June but when high Summer haymaking should have arrived we had 11 weeks of rubbish.when we got well into September with no improvement we almost had to abandon the grass and let the cows in.Then out of nowhere Summer finally arrived in the 3rd week of September.My memories of working on the farm right back to the early 70s we almost never had to make hay in September and on the odd occasion we did it was just for the last field,to get to September and still have most of the hay to get is unprecidented in my lifetime let alone the 3rd week.

[Addicks Fan 1981]

 hillbilly think with the phenomenal flooding in summer 2007 and 2012; both those two summers had weather in them that didnt do the crops any good.   The patterns we had in both those two summers were in situ pretty much.   

[hillbilly]

 Addicks Fan 1981 Both 2007 and 2012 were much wetter but  had much better Augusts,with 2007 being almost a good one while 2008 was poor the whole of July,all August and 3 weeks of September

[Summer of 95]

I've decided to work out out once and for all which is the worst summer on record for this area. Using the Met office data for Shawbury (1946-present, see note below on temperatures), I've gone through them all!

 

Dullest 10 summers:

2012  352.9

2020  367.7

2002  371.9

1980  375.6

2004  391.6

2008  399.9

1954  400.0

1978  401.4

1987  414.7

1966  419.2

(2007 is 11th with 421.2)

Note: The sunshine figure for June 1958 is missing from the Met office data page, the only month where it is. Comparing 140.5 at Ross on Wye and 139.3 at Ringway I've estimated 140 for Shawbury which gives 436.6 for 1958, and puts it 14th. 12th was 1948 with 423.4, and 13th, 2019 with 433.5- admittedly that might swap places with 1958. 2023 is 15th on 442.2 and notably is the dullest summer to contain a month with 200+ hours (June).

Wettest 10:

1958  332.0

2007  310.4

2012  297.0

2020  282.0

1957  255.6

1966  249.4

2019  248.6

1968  247.7

1992  241.6

1960  237.4

(1980 is not far behind on 231.4, 2008 had 223.0 and 1954 216.4)

Coldest 10 (mean max), the data for temperatures starts in 1957 but there were two outstandingly cold ones just before. To keep the same time period, I've estimated them from Ross on Wye and Ringway again (in brackets), as I'm fairly sure they were the top 2 coldest.

1954 estimated 17.5 (17.93, 17.17)

1956 estimated 17.8 (18.87, 17.23- much bigger difference than 1954. Shawbury is normally more like Manchester than Ross when this is the case. It's possible it was warmer than 1972, 1978 or 1962 but unlikely to have been over 18.3 IMHO)

1972  18.1

1978  18.17

1962  18.2

1985  18.37

1987  18.47

1965  18.57

1980  18.6

1988  18.63

(1966 18.77, 1986 18.83, 2012 19.0, 1958 and 1993 19.03, 2007 19.17)

 

For me, based on the stats it's between 2012, 2007, 1980, 1958 and 1954 for the worst. 

2007 for me was not as bad as 2012 because of its dry August (the driest month in any of the top 10 wettest summers)- also I remember the half of June being quite dry and 2012 I'm sure had more wet days. I actually thought 2008 was just as bad as well.

1958 was awful yet I never hear it mentioned unlike 1954 or 1956. Was it this bad everywhere? (Trevor Harley's site and other places I've looked suggest it was, except for northern Scotland). 

1966 was just very consistently poor without getting near any individual records. All three months were remarkably similar; 19.0, 18.6 and 18.7 for the maxima, 10.3, 10.1 and 9.6 minima. Rainfall was 95.2, 70.6 and 83.6 and sunshine 135.5, 136.6, and 147.1. Move over 2011, this was the ultimate monotonous "meh" summer! 18-19C, cloud and steady rain galore by the look of it.

1978 was cold and dull but not wet enough (186.4) to be considered.

2020 was outstandingly wet and dull, not far behind 2012. It was rather like the first half of 2012 followed by the second half of 2004. 2008 was another very dull and quite wet one that didn't make the cold category.

2002 was disgustingly dull, it didn't stand out for being cold or wet but I remember it lacked serious warmth and had quite a lot of days with rain.

Those 1985-88 summers were certainly cold but overall not especially wet or, 1987 apart, dull. They did have some awful individual months (a summer made up of June 1987, July 1988 and August 1986 would give 17.77C, 282mm and 379.7hrs) but no outstandingly bad whole summer. 1980 was far and away worse than any of them.

Many of the 1960s summers weren't too bad. Although they were often cool they contained a number of dry and sunny months.

Perhaps the tie breaker can be the "extended summer". Taking the summer half-year (April to September), we get:

April to September 1954: 16.33C (estimated, as above), 333.6mm, 835.9hrs

April to September 1958: 17.13C, 541mm, 837.3hrs

April to September 2012: 16.72C, 576.4mm, 792.3hrs

April to September 2007: 17.92C, 471.6mm, 894.1hrs

April to September 1980: 17.23C, 491.1mm, 884.1hrs

2012 is the worst! It's clearly worst of these 5 on two of the three criteria, and clearly second worst on the other. 2007 was nowhere near thanks to the splendid April and dry August and September. 1954 wasn't actually that wet, and the shoulder months were OK for sunshine. 1958 ran it closest; both Aprils were cold but 1958 was very dry and 2012 very wet. Both Septembers were very wet but 1958 was a full degree warmer.

It's 2012. Not just out of "those" summers but all of them for 78 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Addicks Fan 1981]

 Summer of 95 exactly and when we look at 2007 in more context it was only the wettest year for three years.  Reckon the cool and wet summer actually evened out the year.  September of 2007 was actually quite nice and october of 2007 was the driest that it had been since 1985.    

Relating to the summer 2007 itself I think that it was a mixture of 1949, 1954, 1964, 1970, 1973, 1988 and 1998 rolled into one summer.   

[BlueSkies_do_I_see]

I can't remember much of 2007 but in 2012 I remember saying to my wife let's book and go when there is a sunny week during August or Sept. August was rubbish and there was only one avg to good week 1-8 Sept 2012. Then it went into Autumn!

[Wade]

Can't really remember summer 2007 because I was about 4 but looking at the met office anomaly maps, in regards to temperature and rainfall they both complimented each other pretty well tbh. 2012 had some cracking thunderstorms I know that.

[Addicks Fan 1981]

 BlueSkies_do_I_see if you listen to umbrella by rihanna featuring jay z then it will transport you back to summer of 2007, the summer of umbrellas and floods.