I've often heard talk of the phenomenally bad summer of 1956, reckoned
to be the "worst" of the 20th century. Not quite like for like, but
how does May/June/July 2007 compare with June/July/August 1956 in
terms of rainfall and lack of sunshine?

Nick

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 04:33:43 -0700, wrote:

I've often heard talk of the phenomenally bad summer of 1956, reckoned
to be the "worst" of the 20th century. Not quite like for like, but
how does May/June/July 2007 compare with June/July/August 1956 in
terms of rainfall and lack of sunshine?

We won't know until Wednesday.

--
Alan White
Mozilla Firefox and Forte Agent.
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, overlooking Lochs Long and Goil in Argyll, Scotland.
Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.gt-britain.co.uk/weather

wrote in message
oups.com...

I've often heard talk of the phenomenally bad summer of 1956, reckoned
to be the "worst" of the 20th century. Not quite like for like, but
how does May/June/July 2007 compare with June/July/August 1956 in
terms of rainfall and lack of sunshine?

Nick


Going by the England+Wales rainfall & sunshine totals:

Rainfall:

1956: JJA: 323.3mm
2007: MJ: 254.8mm

For MJJ 2007 to be wetter than JJA 1956 July's rainfall would have to be
greater than 68.5mm which seems likely given the 1971-2000 average is 57.5mm
and it has been somewhat wetter than average.

Sunshine:

1956: JJA: 464 hrs
2007: MJ: 331.2 hrs

For MJJ 2007 to be duller than JJA 1956 July's sunshine total would have to
be less than 132.8 hrs. The 1971-2000 average for July is 191.3 hrs so it
would have had to be a very dull July to be worse than 1956.

To summarise: it looks like MJJ 2007 will be wetter but sunnier than JJA
1956.

Adam

On Jul 28, 12:33 pm, wrote:
I've often heard talk of the phenomenally bad summer of 1956, reckoned
to be the "worst" of the 20th century. Not quite like for like, but
how does May/June/July 2007 compare with June/July/August 1956 in
terms of rainfall and lack of sunshine?

Nick

I think the summer of 1954 was even worse for continual
cyclonic conditions and was bad enough even for this 11-yr-old to
notice it and one has little "history" at that age. Summer 1956 was
a good deal cooler than the present one and there were a lot of heavy
showers and thunderstorms one of which made a huge wonderful mess of
the unmade-up road I lived in. (July 16). There was a foot (sic) of
hail in Tunbridge Wells on Aug 6 or thereabouts. Overall both summers
were probably more synoptically orthodox than the present one.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

"Tudor Hughes" wrote in message
ps.com...
On Jul 28, 12:33 pm, wrote:
I've often heard talk of the phenomenally bad summer of 1956, reckoned
to be the "worst" of the 20th century. Not quite like for like, but
how does May/June/July 2007 compare with June/July/August 1956 in
terms of rainfall and lack of sunshine?

Nick

I think the summer of 1954 was even worse for continual
cyclonic conditions and was bad enough even for this 11-yr-old to
notice it and one has little "history" at that age. Summer 1956 was
a good deal cooler than the present one and there were a lot of heavy
showers and thunderstorms one of which made a huge wonderful mess of
the unmade-up road I lived in. (July 16). There was a foot (sic) of
hail in Tunbridge Wells on Aug 6 or thereabouts. Overall both summers
were probably more synoptically orthodox than the present one.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.


A quick look at the E/W figures suggests that 1956 was wetter than 1954 but
1954 was duller than 1956.

For MJJ 2007 to be duller than JJA 1956 July's sunshine total would have to
be less than 132.8 hrs. The 1971-2000 average for July is 191.3 hrs so it
would have had to be a very dull July to be worse than 1956.

I'm well on course then as I've only recorded 88 hours from the first 28
days! I won't even get close to 132 hours let alone my 1971-2000 average
of 164 hours!

Weston Coyney weather station (North Staffordshire) 220 metres asl
--
Graham