58 replies to this topic

[Mr_Data]

Who can forget this spell of weather, where the summer of 1995 reached its peak.

25th July-22nd August 1995

CET: 20.4C
Mean Maximum: 27.1C
England and Wales rainfall: 7.7mm

29th July: 32.4C at Nottingham
30th July: 32.4C at Nottingham
31st July: 32.6C at Heathrow
1st August: 35.2C at Boxworth
11th August: 33.8C at Worcester
20th August: 32.3C at Cheltenham
21st August: 33.0C at Cheltenham
22nd August: 33.6C at Cheltenham

Heathrow maxima for that period

July
25th: 28.6C
26th: 26.3C
27th: 24.9C
28th: 26.2C
29th: 30.6C
30th: 31.2C
31st: 32.6C
August
1st: 34.3C
2nd: 33.0C
3rd: 32.2C
4th: 27.5C
5th: 27.9C
6th: 26.6C
7th: 22.8C
8th: 22.2C
9th: 26.3C
10th: 29.3C
11th: 31.8C
12th: 31.3C
13th: 25.9C
14th: 25.4C
15th: 29.9C
16th: 30.6C
17th: 27.9C
18th: 29.8C
19th: 30.7C
20th: 30.2C
21st: 30.6C
22nd: 28.9C



The peak of the summer was late July-early August




25th July-4th August CET: 21.8C


There was a secondary heatwave peak just after mid August




15th-22nd August CET: 21.1C



They were the days!

[Summer of 95]

Yes, absolutely unforgettable; those days on end of glorious sun and sitting outside all evening- how different to this year!

As I remember it the summer got going bang on the 21st of June; (after teasing us with a hot first week of May followed by several spells of cold
northerlies) between then and the end of August it only rained on about 4 or 5 days (and most of them were thunderstorms including a brilliant one on 10th July); it was a rare day that July and August that did not reach 25C, nd 30C was reached on numerous occasions. Then after a mediocre September (but nowhere near as bad as the previous year's, not around here where it was the wettest since...1994) summer came back in October culminating in that Sunday I remember that was certainly warmer than any day this July has been.

[Thundery wintry showers]

In Cleadon, the main hot interludes of late July/early August was tempered by sea breezes although the weather was still sunny and comfortably warm with temperatures in the low to mid 20s.

The hot spell around 18 August frequently featured a slight breeze off the land, fending off the sea breezes and giving the hottest spell of the summer here, with a week of maxima around or above 25C, and a couple of days reached around 29C.

I remember the month of August 1995 also for a very dramatic day of showers on the 27th from a NNW airstream, with large hail and thunder that afternoon.

The warm October day referred to was most likely the 8th, which had unbroken sunshine and high temperatures over a large proportion of the country- it reached 23C here.

[cheeky_monkey]

i remember we had too sleep downstairs for about 5 weeks..because it was just too hot upstairs...thats never happened since!

[Optimus Prime]

The most memorable summer of the 20th century for me. Simply for it's astonishing August.

[Mr_Data]

Here's a Countryfile forecast from that amazing summer..still need to brush up on my editing!

Edited by Mr_Data, 11 January 2012 - 19:25 .

[Thundery wintry showers]

Looks like those forecasts were covering late July/early August 1995 judging by the easterly breezes and the references to "sticky" weather- I remember the second "wave" of hot weather around the 18th-22nd having less humidity as well as less of an east wind.

My tolerance of heat is a lot better than it was back then, so while at the time I was quite happy with the sea breezes in Tyneside, these days I'd probably be lamenting missing out on the heat and potential for isolated thundery downpours. I remember that the sea fog mostly struggled to penetrate beyond the sea front at South Shields/Sunderland although there were certainly a few occasions when it penetrated as far inland as Cleadon.

[Bishop Brennan]

Thanks for sharing the video Mr Data

So many happy memories of the summer of '95. I was 21yo at the time, and I remember what seemed to be day after day of endless sunshine and scorching temperatures, Brian Lara batting for hours on end, and of course the Battle of Britpop (well it seemed important at the time).

I worked near Edgbaston back then, so I used to catch a train to & from Birmingham every day. At the peak of the heatwave the evening trains kept overheating and breaking down as they left Moor Street............not a pleasant experience, stuck in a train carriage with no air-conditioning along with dozens of very sweaty fellow passengers.

Bish

[Aaron]

I'll be glad if we never see a summer like 1995 again.. give me 1990 any day..

Anyway, temperatures peaked at 31.1c here in Leeds, which is nothing exceptional and has been almost matched as recently as June 2011

[wegmuller23]

Ahhhh.........remember that spell very well, bliss. Got married on 3 August in Bath, roasting hot day and later on got stung in the mouth sharing a can of Stella with a wasp. Turned out to be a prescient omen. Apart from 76 and 2003, probably the best August I can remember.

[Milhouse]

Hoping for a repeat this summer. Although i would be getting a little frustrated living here on the east coast looking at that forecast.

[jean91]

remember quite well this spell of hot weather too.i was studying in uk during 1995 and decided to stay on and work during the summer.
Would always remember on my days off would take the tube to go as far off from London and enjoy the countryside.Could have done with air con in London
Also remember quite well that in 1995 a heat wave occured in Chicago and don't remember the author but a book was published about it : heatwave of 1995: autopsy of a disaster ( sociologic book not weather related )
Question though? was August 1995 warmer than August 1997 ?
In France August 1997 was unbearable, ( 16 straight days over 30c in Paris) much more so than 1995 but thundery too.How was August 1997 compared to 1995 in UK?

Edited by jean91, 11 January 2012 - 22:34 .

[Thundery wintry showers]

August 1997 was about as hot as August 1995 over much of eastern England, but cooler in the north and west. However, this hides the fact that the heat was achieved with the assistance of a very high average minimum- in some regions the positive anomaly by night was comparable to the anomaly by day. Humidity was also often higher, leading to many uncomfortably warm and sticky nights. Also, averaged nationally it was only a little drier and sunnier than average, in contrast to August 1995 which, averaged nationally, was the driest since 1947 and probably the sunniest of the century.

It's worth noting that quite a few recent Augusts have widely beaten August 1995's average minimum temperature but none (not even 2003) have come close to achieving a similarly high average maximum with the exceptions of some coastal fringes. August 2003 was comparably dry in many areas, but again, sunshine wise no subsequent Augusts have even come close.

[jean91]

Thundery wintry showers, on 11 January 2012 - 23:01 , said:

August 1997 was about as hot as August 1995 over much of eastern England, but cooler in the north and west. However, this hides the fact that the heat was achieved with the assistance of a very high average minimum- in some regions the positive anomaly by night was comparable to the anomaly by day. Humidity was also often higher, leading to many uncomfortably warm and sticky nights. Also, averaged nationally it was only a little drier and sunnier than average, in contrast to August 1995 which, averaged nationally, was the driest since 1947 and probably the sunniest of the century.

It's worth noting that quite a few recent Augusts have widely beaten August 1995's average minimum temperature but none (not even 2003) have come close to achieving a similarly high average maximum with the exceptions of some coastal fringes. August 2003 was comparably dry in many areas, but again, sunshine wise no subsequent Augusts have even come close.

Oh ?
Here in France August 2003 beats them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!minimum or maximum
only thing 2003 did not beat is the straight days in a row over 30c ( for Paris ) not sure but think it is 16 or 17days ( august 1997 may be on or just a touch under record for in a row over 30c)

Edited by jean91, 11 January 2012 - 23:30 .

[davehsug]

I remember it well. Weeks on end of sweltering in my van. It finally broke on the Wednesday before I went on holiday to Blackpool. But then I have form. I'm the one who went away at the precise moment the 1976 spell ended!

[AderynCoch]

Mr_Data, on 11 January 2012 - 19:25 , said:

Here's a Countryfile forecast from that amazing summer..still need to brush up on my editing!

That's wonderful - the long, hot summer of Britpop and Scatman John revisited. Thanks ever so much for uploading all these videos. They're a treat to watch.

Judging by the Test match at Old Trafford, the Michael Fish forecast was from Sunday 30th July that year. A look at the match notes on Cricinfo for Day Four (also 30th July) state that: "Streakers (male and female) interrupt the match very often." I'm willing to bet the weather played no small part in that!

I think the Ian McCaskill forecast is from the day after.

[Thundery wintry showers]

jean91, on 11 January 2012 - 23:27 , said:

Oh ?
Here in France August 2003 beats them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!minimum or maximum
only thing 2003 did not beat is the straight days in a row over 30c ( for Paris ) not sure but think it is 16 or 17days ( august 1997 may be on or just a touch under record for in a row over 30c)

It did- the stats from Weather Log confirm this. It's all down to the positioning of high pressure- the August 2003 heatwave affected continental Europe (especially France) to the greatest extreme, as a hot airmass sourced to the south of Spain trickled up towards France by the 4th and covered the whole of France until the 13th, giving widespread maxima of 40C (and I know all about it as I was there for some of it). Meanwhile, Britain lay on the periphery of the heatwave, and although the first third of the month was similar in character to August 1995, and occasionally hotter (hence some national temperature records being set), the last two-thirds were somewhat cooler and cloudier as westerly winds persisted on the northern flank of anticyclones.

Conversely the August 1995 heatwaves actually affected Britain most, as the airmasses we got weren't generally sourced a long way south- airmasses from central and southern Europe became established over Britain giving temperatures a long way above average, while central and southern Europe often weren't unusually warm. The weather did turn cooler and cloudier after the 23rd, with a showery north-westerly incursion and then a cloudy anticyclone at the end, but the exceptional heat, sunshine and drought from the 1st-23rd had already done enough to make it a record-breaking month.

[damianslaw]

Best summer of my lifetime certainly - only 33. It beat the likes of 1990, 2003 and 2006 hands down. It was exceptionally dry , Haweswater revealing the remains of the old hamlet of Mardale. Week after week of dry hot sunshine, the 6 week school holiday coinciding with the hottest sunniest and driest period of the summer. It came to a crashing end in september with a very wet 10 day period to start the month.

I would rate 1995 as a whole the most interesting year of weather I can recall, with lots of variety and extremes from the heat of the summer, the cold spells in the spring interspersed with warm spells, the wet september, the exceptional warmth of october and the bitter cold of december, only jan and feb failed to offer any great variety.

[Mountain Snow]

I was only 10 at the time so the only thing I remember was a two week holiday on the Isle of Man. The cottage we rented was a poky little place for a family of six, but that didn't matter as we spent all day, every day on the beach, just a stones throw away. Swimming in warm water, building huge sandcastles, barbecuing while watching the sun set, best summer holiday in the U.K. ever!

[Lauren]

I remember that summer, despite being young.

We have pictures of our garden where all the grass is yellow and crunchy, that's never happened before or since. Long days of playing in garden.

If I recall correctly there were several good thunderstorms as well.

Edited by Lauren, 15 January 2012 - 12:29 .