Summer 1996

[damianslaw]

1 minute ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

Yes, growing up in Tyneside I thought of 1994-96 as three good summers in a row.  Admittedly June 1994 had a west-east split due to a high frequency of westerlies, so some western areas had a rather cool cloudy month, but it was dry, sunny and quite warm in most eastern areas. 

I've always thought of the addition of 1997 to make "four in a row" marginal because of the last two-thirds of June 1997 (in particular the last week was a washout with maxima of 10-13C), and the hot August of 1997 had more emphasis on warm sticky nights.  But I certainly remember early June 1997 and parts of July having plenty of warm sunshine, and August was of course exceptionally hot.  Interestingly August 1997 was a very sunny month in parts of the north-west, less so in the south, which isn't that common in notably hot months.

There's known to be a perception among some that "summers were better in my childhood".  In my case, growing up in the 1990s, perhaps there's a strong case for arguing that.

We seemed to have batches of good and average/poor summers since 75 as follows 

75-76 very good

77-81 poor

82-84 average to good

85-88 poor

89-91 good to very good

92-93 poor to average

94-97 good to very good

98-02 poor to average

03-06 good to very good

07-12 poor to average

13-17 average to good

18-2? average to good 

 

[damianslaw]

Just now, damianslaw said:

We seemed to have batches of good and average/poor summers since 75 as follows 

75-76 very good

77-81 poor

82-84 average to good

85-88 poor

89-91 good to very good

92-93 poor to average

94-97 good to very good

98-02 poor to average

03-06 good to very good

07-12 poor to average

13-17 average to good

18-2? average to good 

 

Since 2012 we've not really had a poor summer.. and the way 2021 is shaping up I think that wont be broken..

[hillbilly]

2 hours ago, damianslaw said:

We seemed to have batches of good and average/poor summers since 75 as follows 

75-76 very good

77-81 poor

82-84 average to good

85-88 poor

89-91 good to very good

92-93 poor to average

94-97 good to very good

98-02 poor to average

03-06 good to very good

07-12 poor to average

13-17 average to good

18-2? average to good 

 

You should have 3 lists,Great,average and poor instead of clustering good years with average.

Only 1995 has been better than 1983 and 1984 to this day in these parts and you have them listed as average to good. 2008 and 2012 were both very poor indeed and cannot be compared with any year other than 1954 and 1956.To say we havnt had a poor summer since 2012 is debatable,there are a couple there that are quite borderline to poor.

[LetItSnow!]

I would argue that 2015 and 2017 would perhaps qualify as 'poor', no? take away the heat spike of Jul. 1 and most of the summer was very cool (at times cold), wet and dull. Jul. & Aug. 2017 were both wet and August was particularly cool. 

[Cheshire Freeze]

I remember a hot spell at some point in ‘96. Must have been July/August time as the Spice Girls were on the radio with Wannabe. I was 8 at the time and in my nan’s ‘94 bright red Frontera Sport  

Good times. Have some fond memories of the 90s. Shame they’re gone forever. Life was simpler back then eh

Edited June 24, 2021 by CreweCold

[Weather-history]

9 hours ago, Thundery wintry showers said:

 

There's known to be a perception among some that "summers were better in my childhood".  In my case, growing up in the 1990s, perhaps there's a strong case for arguing that.

 

[cheeky_monkey]

On 23/06/2021 at 12:36, damianslaw said:

We seemed to have batches of good and average/poor summers since 75 as follows 

75-76 very good

77-81 poor

82-84 average to good

85-88 poor

89-91 good to very good

92-93 poor to average

94-97 good to very good

98-02 poor to average

03-06 good to very good

07-12 poor to average

13-17 average to good

18-2? average to good 

 

i would put 82-84 in the good to very good catergory...82 was thundery not excessively warm..83 was hot dry summer..84 was very warm and thundery

[MP-R]

On 23/06/2021 at 19:38, damianslaw said:

Since 2012 we've not really had a poor summer.. and the way 2021 is shaping up I think that wont be broken..

We’ve had 50/50 summers rather than especially poor ones. 2015 I think is the poorest overall. 2013 was pretty good throughout with only mid June and parts of August letting the show down; 2014 was let down only by August; 2016 had a poor 10th June - mid July period but the rest of the summer and into September was often good; 2017 collapsed in instalments after mid July; 2018 was good almost throughout save for mid August onwards and 2019 was very episodic with a terrible first half to June and middle third of August interspersed with a lot of good weather. 2020 was very much the heatwave sandwich with a July the poorest (although not wettest) summer month.

All a far cry from the 07-12 period where only June 2009, August 2009 to an extent and June 2010 were decent months (here at least). 

 

[damianslaw]

2 hours ago, MP-R said:

We’ve had 50/50 summers rather than especially poor ones. 2015 I think is the poorest overall. 2013 was pretty good throughout with only mid June and parts of August letting the show down; 2014 was let down only by August; 2016 had a poor 10th June - mid July period but the rest of the summer and into September was often good; 2017 collapsed in instalments after mid July; 2018 was good almost throughout save for mid August onwards and 2019 was very episodic with a terrible first half to June and middle third of August interspersed with a lot of good weather. 2020 was very much the heatwave sandwich with a July the poorest (although not wettest) summer month.

All a far cry from the 07-12 period where only June 2009, August 2009 to an extent and June 2010 were decent months (here at least). 

 

Still think you can't class any summer since 2012 as particularly poor overall. You are right there has been some poor if not very poor spells at times in some, but these haven't been long enough or accompanied by just average conditions the rest of the summer. There have been long periods of good if not very good conditions.

[MP-R]

10 hours ago, damianslaw said:

Still think you can't class any summer since 2012 as particularly poor overall. You are right there has been some poor if not very poor spells at times in some, but these haven't been long enough or accompanied by just average conditions the rest of the summer. There have been long periods of good if not very good conditions.

Not poor, just distinctly ‘meh’. Need at least 2 out of 3 summer months to be good.

[cheeky_monkey]

5 hours ago, MP-R said:

Not poor, just distinctly ‘meh’. Need at least 2 out of 3 summer months to be good.

depends what you class as good..for me 2015 was a good summer in my location ..often dry ..rather warm with little humidity...if it doesn't rain much then for me that's a good UK summer...it doesn't have to be hot and sunny to be classed as a good spell of summer weather

[MP-R]

1 hour ago, cheeky_monkey said:

depends what you class as good..for me 2015 was a good summer in my location ..often dry ..rather warm with little humidity...if it doesn't rain much then for me that's a good UK summer...it doesn't have to be hot and sunny to be classed as a good spell of summer weather

Here, June was dry and mainly sunny, just never overly warm until the very end. July was then mostly dull and the final week was notably cool everywhere, with two rain events in close succession for the south on the last weekend. August had its moments in the first half, and a hot humid day on the 22nd but the rest of the month was a bit bland, late August again being very wet. Being a very westerly summer, and me being in the southwest, it was often cloudy despite not being frequently wet.

Sunshine and warmth are the benchmark of a good summer imo. Like you say, doesn’t have to be hot, but it does have to be sunny, and at least warm. I’m in southern England after all, not Shetland.

[TM1400]

On 23/06/2021 at 19:36, damianslaw said:

We seemed to have batches of good and average/poor summers since 75 as follows 

75-76 very good

77-81 poor

82-84 average to good

85-88 poor

89-91 good to very good

92-93 poor to average

94-97 good to very good

98-02 poor to average

03-06 good to very good

07-12 poor to average

13-17 average to good

18-2? average to good 

 

2001 was a good Summer while June wasn't special, it was still mostly sunny throughout, apart from a few days  however beginning of June was not that good but luckily it improved, however here it wasn't that dull even then, but a bit cool,  The end of June however improved more, and got warmer and sunnier into July. July wasn't bad the warmth from June continued into July , and July 2001 was sunny throughout not wall to wall blue skies but the sun was mostly always around that month it didn't go away for a prolonged period of time like 2005, Mid-July went downhill a bit but was still warm apart from 2 days but it was still sunny (Here at least) End of July 01 improved and became warmer again still not that hot some days were hot but overall was mostly very warm and sunny. July 2001 here didn't really have a prolonged dull period like the end of 2005. The warmth in 2001 continued into August and August 01 was really nice and sunny mostly, and warm. No overly prolonged hot weather, although 30c was reached  but most of August 2001 was pleasant and sunny and summery. 

Edited November 2, 2021 by TM1400

[Summer8906]

5 hours ago, TM1400 said:

2001 was a good Summer while June wasn't special, it was still mostly sunny throughout, apart from a few days  however beginning of June was not that good but luckily it improved, however here it wasn't that dull even then, but a bit cool,  The end of June however improved more, and got warmer and sunnier into July. July wasn't bad the warmth from June continued into July , and July 2001 was sunny throughout not wall to wall blue skies but the sun was mostly always around that month it didn't go away for a prolonged period of time like 2005, Mid-July went downhill a bit but was still warm apart from 2 days but it was still sunny (Here at least) End of July 01 improved and became warmer again still not that hot some days were hot but overall was mostly very warm and sunny. July 2001 here didn't really have a prolonged dull period like the end of 2005. The warmth in 2001 continued into August and August 01 was really nice and sunny mostly, and warm. No overly prolonged hot weather, although 30c was reached  but most of August 2001 was pleasant and sunny and summery. 

Very much a regional thing I suspect, but I'd rate summer 2001 above every summer since 2015, with the exception of 2018. Same would go for summer 1999 which was very mixed (average June, good July, wet August) but not terrible.

Here we're in a quite prolonged poorer run I would say: since 2007 I'd rate 2013, 2014 and 2018 above average, 2009, 2010 and 2016 average and the rest varying degrees of below average.

And we still await a significantly sunnier than average August. The last was 2005, so we've now beaten the 16-year gap between 1959 and 1975. And as for sunny AND hot Augusts, if we don't get one next year it'll be a quite astounding 20 year gap. Biggest gap in the 20th century was I think 1911 to 1933.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Summer8906

[TM1400]

14 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

Very much a regional thing I suspect, but I'd rate summer 2001 above every summer since 2015, with the exception of 2018. Same would go for summer 1999 which was very mixed (average June, good July, wet August) but not terrible.

Here we're in a quite prolonged poorer run I would say: since 2007 I'd rate 2013, 2014 and 2018 above average, 2009, 2010 and 2016 average and the rest varying degrees of below average.

And we still await a significantly sunnier than average August. The last was 2005, so we've now beaten the 16-year gap between 1959 and 1975. And as for sunny AND hot Augusts, if we don't get one next year it'll be a quite astounding 20 year gap. Biggest gap in the 20th century was I think 1911 to 1933.

Ah Yeh I see, we've had sunny Augusts since 05, August 05 was sunny here, so was August 07, sunniest August since 2003 here. But 07 was dull in the middle here. August 2016 had a sunny warm August.  2019 was warm and sunny too in August. None were overly sunny but they were all noticeably sunny to me and acceptable Augusts.  We haven't had any significantly hot and sunny August at all here since 2000. But we've had acceptable, pleasant ones. 2019 had hot weather in August but didn't last long. 2016 was pleasant and warm throughout tho. 

Even though data wise 2019 was warmer duke to higher temperatures. I preferred 2016 August as the warmth was more prolonged.

 

2003 is our sunniest August so far, and warmest, but it was mostly hot a for a few days at beginning of August and heat went away. Although much of the month here was sunny and warm still it just wasn't overly hot.

No August so far has beaten the 2007 sunshine levels, although August 2016 in my opinion was better and warmer here.