1977

The short run of wonderful summers was not to be extended in 1977. The summer was dull and wet in the SE but dry and sunny in the NW.

January. Colder than average (2.8C CET). Unsettled, often stormy, with heavy snow in the second week. There was a minimum of -18C at Braemar on the 18th.

February. Mild (5.2C CET) - the second mildest of the 70s (after 1974). Wet in the midlands and southwest, with flooding.

March. A mild first half, with SW winds. 20.2C was recorded at Exeter (airport) on the 2nd, the earliest date such a high temperature has been recorded. 19C was widely reported in the SW. The month was dry in the SE, often wet in the N and W. There was a well-documented shower of hazelnuts in Bristol on the 13th.

April. Slightly on the cool side (7.2C, compared with an averge of 8.0).

May. Overall, slightly cooler than average. Very sunny in the west: an average of over 9 hours a day from West Wales to Ayrshire. 306 hours of sunshine recorded at Anglesey. The month ended with a fine, warm spell. 28C was recorded on the 27th in western Scotland.

June. A very wet, cool month (12.2C CET): 1972 was the last June cooler than this, and there wouldn't be one cooler until 1991. The fine, warm spell that continued from the end of May ended with cold, windy (NW), wet weather on the 4-5th. The Queen's Jubilee Day, the 6th, saw more rain, particularly in the SW. It was the windiest day of the extended summer, with a gust of 50 mph at Dungeness. The maximum in Glasgow that day was only 7C. There were some spectacular thunderstorms on the 14th: 57 mm of rain in 45 minutes at Biggin Hill.

July. Very dry: the driest July since 1935 in many places. Much of the east saw less than 12 mm of rain, and East Bergholt (Suffolk) had just 0.2 mm. Slightly cooler than average overall. Although the first week was warm, the rest of the month was cool, with winds first from the NE, and then from the NW, as high pressure was located to the north and west of the country. It was however a very sunny month. 20 mm of rain fell in 10 minutes at Penmaen (Wales) on the 8th. There were some cool nights: the lowest July minimum record of -2.5C was set in the Scottish Highlands, at Lagganlia, on the 15th; at the same time, the highest temperature of the year for the UK (30.0C) was recorded in several places in Scotland (Paisley, and Glenlee, 7th; Onich, 11th). The minimum at Santon Downham (Norfolk) on the night of the 29-30th was only 1.3C.

August. Cooler than average. In a reversal of the more usual pattern, it was wet and cool in the south, but dry and sunny in the north. There were some violent thunderstorms midmonth. There were spells of heavy rainfall: 100 mm in an hour near Aberystwyth on the 15th in a very localised evening storm, with 3 cm hail reported. There was severe flooding in London on the night of the 16th-17th, especially in the western suburbs. 115 mm fell at Chalfont St Peters (Bucks.), and 113 mm at Ruislip, 96 mm at Pinner, and 82 mm even as far away as Bath. More storms on the 17th caused flooding in Essex. Yet in all this, Kent had no rain at all, but on the 27th, a storm gave 96 mm at Sidcup and 80mm at Bromley in five hours. A fireball struck a house in Tolwaorth (Epsom) that afternoon, blowing up televisions. In a good year for strange falls, there was a fall of grass out of the sky on the 9th at Poole.

September. About average temperatures. It was very dry over much of southern and central England.

October. A mostly unsettled first half, with some heavy rain, especially in the north and west. 100 mm of rain fell in Cornwall on the 5th. A tornado hit the outskirts of Grantham on the 8th. There was then maximum temperature of 24.3C at Pen-y-Ffridd (north Wales) as late as the 18th. This is the highest reading for the second half of October. Heavy rain led to serious flooding in the Borders on the 31st.

November. Mild and unsettled first half; often stormy. NW gale on the 11-12th: there was a gust of 83 mph at Fleetwood. Serious flooding of the Fylde peninsula on the 11-12th as a result of the storm surge. It reached 19C in Hereford on the 19th. There was a notable smog in Glasgow. The second half of the month was much colder, with northerly winds and some snow.

December. Severe westerly gale on the 24th. Overall, quite mild.