The Best\Longest Summers in Memory Discussion

Dom Phil Cobe

Were they any good ?

Birdnuts

Taking June and July - yes they were very good. August as usual though was naff in both years.

Rikand

2014 was a belter!

Dont mind August being bad because September-November were brilliant as well

Jpmarn

2013 was warmer than 2014.

murpho999

2013 was better for me.....we actually had a heat wave and days you could go to the beach.

2014 I thought was just ok, as it wasn't wet but I don't think it was any way as warm or as sunny as 2013.

2006 was another great one recently too.

Calibos

murpho999 wrote: »

2013 was better for me.....we actually had a heat wave and days you could go to the beach.

2014 I thought was just ok, as it wasn't wet but I don't think it was any way as warm or as sunny as 2013.

2006 was another great one recently too.

Do we live in the same town???

I spent the Summer of 2014 commiserating those in most of the rest of the country where convective clouds bubbled up at noon every day while a thin coastal band from Costa Del Bray through Playa Del Arklow to Wexford basked in sunshine and blue skies nearly every day from May to November with August being the only blip.

Certainly not quite as warm as that month in 2013 but months more blue skies.

Did you spend all your days at work in Dublin the Summer of 2014? Those few miles made all the difference just outside of the Wicklow/Dublin mountain cloud shield. Spent time at aunts in Dundrum just up the M50 where it was cloudy with the sun splitting the rocks back in Bray with the clouds coming from the west evaporating overhead before they hit Bray on the coast.

JCX BXC

Rikand wrote: »

2014 was a belter!

Dont mind August

I do, its when I get my holidays! What's the point in looking out the window at sun I. September-November when its crap all august.

Gael23

I think 2013 was the best. I remember spending the evenings in 30 degrees having BBQs most days.

Tarzana2

Gael23 wrote: »

I think 2013 was the best. I remember spending the evenings in 30 degrees having BBQs most days.

I don't think 30c was hit anywhere in Ireland in 2013. Maybe one or two spots on one or two days, but that was it. It was a good a summer overall but the really hot sunny weather was only about two weeks worth over the summer.

RobertKK

1995, three months of warm to hot dry weather, August was particularly warm/hot, many days in Kilkenny around 30C when we had a weather station...stupid local planners...
Fields burning up, father spent the summer drawing water to the cattle, we sunk a well before the weather broke, couldn't have got a better time given water levels were low.

Booms

John mac wrote: »

76 :cool: {showing my age here }

+1
But you try and tell that to young people today ... and they won't believe you! :mad:

Schadenfreudia

Taking the interval between summer '76 and summer '95 we are overdue a real summer. My money is on this year

sunbabe08

um, does 2013 not exist for some reason? i remember for several week lying out in the sun down in youghal. wall to wall sunshine, not a cloud in the sky

maquiladora

sunbabe08 wrote: »

um, does 2013 not exist for some reason? i remember for several week lying out in the sun down in youghal. wall to wall sunshine, not a cloud in the sky

Yep, 2013 and 2014 both had fantastic warm spells. Some of the best weather for decades in some parts of the country.

Schadenfreudia

sunbabe08 wrote: »

um, does 2013 not exist for some reason? i remember for several week lying out in the sun down in youghal. wall to wall sunshine, not a cloud in the sky

Compared to '95 and '76 the recent summers were only so so. Both were very long spells of good weather spanning the whole summer. In 1995 the dry hot sunny weather lasted the full three months; in August the temperature at Kilkenny exceed 25C every single day!

Both years set temperature records that have not been matched since.

Clonmel1000

My recollection of summer 2013 would have been 3 lovely weeks in July before and after that I'd have classed as average to ok..in any case this morning is like November

Schadenfreudia

Clonmel1000 wrote: »

My recollection of summer 2013 would have been 3 lovely weeks in July before and after that I'd have classed as average to ok..in any case this morning is like November

And a not very mild November day either!

Some interesting stuff you can now download from the met eireann site to compare summers; the monthly bulletins and detailed stats by station going back 30 years.

Schadenfreudia

We drifted into a discussion on what the best summers were in another thread.

Which do you regard as the best?

Younger folk who had lived through six successive bad summers 2007 - 2012 tend to look on 2013/2014 as great summers, but apart from the fact that different places may have had local good summers - what overall are the best summers of the past 40 years in the country as a whole?

High temperature, sunshine and dryness are the obvious ingredients - they don't always come together; very dry but cool and dull months, very warm but wet ones add to the mix.

So, what are you top five?

Without researching it (yet!) I'd it rate them:

(1) 1995
(2) 1976
(3) 1975
(4) 2006
(5) 1983

Other good ones were 84, 89, 90, 00, 03, 13, 14

The worst summer was 1985, though 2007 ran it close.

maquiladora

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

Compared to '95 and '76 the recent summers were only so so. Both were very long spells of good weather spanning the whole summer. In 1995 the dry hot sunny weather lasted the full three months; in August the temperature at Kilkenny exceed 25C every single day!

Both years set temperature records that have not been matched since.

2013 :

- Many stations reported their warmest July on record.
- Fermoy (Moore Park) recorded a highest maximum of 28.9°C on July 10th, its highest for summer since 1989 (24 years)
- Most other stations across the country reported their summer maxima as their highest in seven to 18 years.
- Cork Airport reported the highest amount of sunshine ever recorded for any given month since the station opened in 1962 (51 years).
- Knock Airport reported 475.2 hours of sunshine, its sunniest summer in 16 years.
- The maximum sea surface temperature of 20.0°C recorded at the M4 and M5 on July 17th and 26th, respectively, were the highest ever recorded in Irish waters

2014 :

- Summer percentage of sunshine LTA values and summer sunshine hours were highest at Belmullet and Valentia Observatory with 142% and 603.3 hours and 135% and 590.1 hours, respectively, both reporting their sunniest summer since 1968 (46 years)
- June's sunniest day was recorded at Belmullet on the 17th with 15.8 hours, its sunniest June day since 1995 (19 years)
- Most highest maxima across the country were the highest in at least five to 19 years (June)
- The number of dull days (less than 0.5 hours of sunshine) reported ranged from one at Dublin Airport to eight at Knock Airport, with Dublin Airport equalling its lowest number of dull days since 1990 (28 years) (July)
- Some stations, mainly in southern coastal counties reported their highest night-time temperatures in five to 19 years (July)

If that's so-so then I'll take so-so again this year please! :pac:

maquiladora

Poulter index puts the top 3 summers in the past 100 years as

1995
1976
2006

ComfortKid

maquiladora wrote:

If that's so-so then I'll take so-so again this year please! 

Definitely. 2013 was a cracker. It was beautiful for almost 2 months straight. And Sept was lovely too.

Oneiric 3

Not the world's biggest fan of continuous blue skies and relentless heat so would not really judge a 'good' summer on that alone. A summer, no matter how warm or sunny, is nothing without a good blast of thunder and lightning. In this respect, 2008, 2009 & 2014 are recent examples of what I would consider a goodish summer. In terms of the more traditional interpretation of what is 'good', 2013 wasn't bad I suppose, though I don't recall anything particularly special about the temps in 2014 despite a lot of dry and sunny weather. The last truly hot and sunny Summer I can recall would have to be 1995.

Elmer Blooker

maquiladora wrote: »

Poulter index puts the top 3 summers in the past 100 years as

1995
1976
2006

I'm amazed that 2006 came in at number 3! I would have put '83 '89 and '03 miles ahead! All I remember from '06 was about 2 weeks of good weather in July and nothing else.

1995 is hazy to me now but 2013 in the Northeast was absolutely outstanding. I dunno if we just got a 3 month gap in the cloud the rest of the country didn't get, it's weird how it's not ranked near the top. 2006 wasn't great here, I remember a lot of rain in July and August and overcast skies before that.

Schadenfreudia

maquiladora wrote: »

Poulter index puts the top 3 summers in the past 100 years as

1995
1976
2006

I remember all three clearly and I'm delighted that Mr Poulter agrees with my memory of them - '95 was extraordinary and for me, has done to summers what Nov/Dec 2010 did to winters - everything else is a disappointment.

Summer 1975 was very dry, I remember it set the longest record for continuous days without any rain in Dublin - something like 51 I think in June/July.

OI OI

Has to be 1995 for me, I remember it so well, the type of heat was so rare for this country. I had just turned 15 during the 95 galway races and was working for my father who was a racecourse bookie, I can still remember the massive lightening storm on the Tuesday, when one of the course commentators got a shock from a bolt of lightening that struck the top of the stand. The day itself was hot and sultry when a huge black cloud formed during the afternoon, we had 30 minutes of torrential rain and proper fork lightening, afterwards the sun came back out and everywhere was bone dry in no time. If only every summer was like 95 and every winter like 2010!!

kippy

As I suspected 95 is getting a lot of votes, probably because of the age profile here.

95 was my first year "working" and what a summer it was working in a bar at home. Back when drinking was still a sport, smoking inside still hadn't been banned and people went West for the whole summer for beach parties and what not.
Even though I was working I had plenty time to enjoy the summer and the first major bit of independence I had.

There probably have been better and "more sunlight" filled summers on that list but that one pops out for me.

Is there any statistics available that would give a generally accurate answer?
Number of hours sunlight in 4 month period in one particular place in the country for example? Must be available for the more recent years?

OI OI

As for as I can remember the Met.ie website gives a bit of background to the poulter index and it puts 1995 as number 1, just ahead o 1976. 1995 had 3 months of great weather, especially a roasting bone dry August, in contrast 1976 was better in the early part of summer, with an exceptional June.

NoCrackHaving

Does anyone know what caused 1995 to be so hot? Presuming some jet stream alteration over the North Atlantic?

Schadenfreudia

NoCrackHaving wrote: »

Does anyone know what caused 1995 to be so hot? Presuming some jet stream alteration over the North Atlantic?

At the time we were assured it was Global Warming and that by 2015 every second summer would be like that!

By 2020 Dublin would be well on the way to the climate of Bordeaux - funny how things don't always work out