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The sunniest month ever recorded in Bradford was 300.1 hours in June 1957. There were quite a few 250+ totals in the 1940s and 50s (strange considering how much duller the winters were in those days because of smog), but oddly there's only been one since, 265.4 hours in July 2006.
1939/40 looks like something you'd expect somewhere like Finland: Dec 39 19.0 hours, Jan 40 19.6 hours, Feb 40 17.0 hours (dullest winter on record) and then June 1940 had 280.6 hours (about 80% above average).
The 1960s had the coolest and some of the cloudiest summers of the 20th century, yet still managed to record more sunshine on average than the last 10 years.
Months with >200 hrs sun.
1960-1969
June 1960: 248.6 hrs
May 1961: 217.2 hrs
June 1961: 229.3 hrs
June 1962: 260.5 hrs
July 1964: 219.7 hrs
Aug 1964: 215.7 hrs
Sep 1964: 213.7 hrs
May 1966: 222.9 hrs
June 1966: 205.4 hrs
June 1967: 210.0 hrs
July 1967: 239.5 hrs
Apr 1969: 207.6 hrs
June 1969: 262.8 hrs
July 1969: 229.2 hrs Total: 14
2006-2015
June 2006: 225.3 hrs
July 2006: 266.4 hrs
April 2007: 224.6 hrs
June 2008: 201.9 hrs
April 2010: 201.7 hrs
June 2010: 220.1 hrs
April 2011: 218.0 hrs
May 2011: 218.0 hrs
July 2013: 268.2 hrs
June 2014: 220.2 hrs
July 2014: 246.4 hrs
April 2015: 212.1 hrs Total: 12
In our geography class they said that clouds in GB are cold air that's moderated by the Atlantic, so maybe the same pattern that launches brutal polar attacks into eastern Canada and the US is the same pattern that causes all this cloudiness in the British isles. Altho it wouldn't explain why it affected Britain in the past ten years, cause in Eastern US the polar vortexes only dive down in some years (03, 04, 09, 10, 14, 15) and not in others
Since 2007 we have had an abnormally high number of summers with a southerly jet directly over or to the south of the UK, allowing repeated lows to smash into us.
Our normal summer setup is for the jet to be north of Scotland, with the southern half of the UK mostly under the influence of the Azores high.
In our geography class they said that clouds in GB are cold air that's moderated by the Atlantic, so maybe the same pattern that launches brutal polar attacks into eastern Canada and the US is the same pattern that causes all this cloudiness in the British isles. Altho it wouldn't explain why it affected Britain in the past ten years, cause in Eastern US the polar vortexes only dive down in some years (03, 04, 09, 10, 14, 15) and not in others
That's only one way Britain makes clouds. We also get them from tropical air modified by the Atlantic, continental air modified by the North Sea (produces sea fog 100 miles from the North Sea coast) Atlantic air that strikes the mountains (unlike the Rockies, they are not high enough to stop the clouds drifting over them so here is just as cloudy as the west coast), and central Britain's modern speciality, "infill"- the phenomenon where a summers day wakes you up with sunshine at 5am, completely clouds over by 9, then clears again at 8pm. In the pre-2006 era those days often just produced fair-weather cumulus in the afternoon, nowadays it's total overcast for hours.
Britain and its surrounding oceans are a huge cloud factory whose output increases year on year. Summer production has doubled in the last 10 years, but we can't export it. Because it has Mad Cloud Disease (which causes failure to respond to sunshine, dry air or anticyclones) nobody will accept it. Try to send it over to France, Holland, Scandinavia, America and it gets blown back. Why can't we just shut it down or outsource it like we do useful factories I have no idea.
It's exceptionally bad, even more so considering it has blown away June 2012 which recorded 118.5 hrs (which itself blew away the previous record of 132.5 hrs in 1990). The June average is 205 hrs at Heathrow (probably around 225-235 hrs for the unadjusted data).
Our winters have actually averaged out fairly normal in temps and sunshine since 2007. The super mild winters of 07/08, 11/12 and 15/16 were cancelled out by the super cold 08/09, 09/10 and 10/11 winters, with the rest being fairly normal. The winter of 2010/11 was the cloudiest on record here, but the rest have had a normal mix of cloudy and sunnier than average months.
It's weird when people on Netweather are saying that this has been a good summer month, and the warmest June since 2003. Down here it's been a complete failure.
Odd trend, as many of those records are quite recent. And considering the rather high latitude, less than 100 hours is like on the Faroes.
That's only one way Britain makes clouds. We also get them from tropical air modified by the Atlantic, continental air modified by the North Sea (produces sea fog 100 miles from the North Sea coast) Atlantic air that strikes the mountains (unlike the Rockies, they are not high enough to stop the clouds drifting over them so here is just as cloudy as the west coast), and central Britain's modern speciality, "infill"- the phenomenon where a summers day wakes you up with sunshine at 5am, completely clouds over by 9, then clears again at 8pm. In the pre-2006 era those days often just produced fair-weather cumulus in the afternoon, nowadays it's total overcast for hours.
Britain and its surrounding oceans are a huge cloud factory whose output increases year on year. Summer production has doubled in the last 10 years, but we can't export it. Because it has Mad Cloud Disease (which causes failure to respond to sunshine, dry air or anticyclones) nobody will accept it. Try to send it over to France, Holland, Scandinavia, America and it gets blown back. Why can't we just shut it down or outsource it like we do useful factories I have no idea.
How about a trade, we take all your clouds but in exchange you have to take the Polar Vortex that chills over the Hudson Bay every single ****ing year. I don't care where you put it, as long as it's away from the Eastern half of North America
These are the 10 cloudiest Junes at Heathrow. It's almost certain that 2016 will take the top spot. The raw 120W/m2 data for June 2012 was approx 132 hours, so adjusting all of them by 12%, you get a range of 132-170 hrs for the 10 cloudiest Junes, and 285-329 hrs for the 10 sunniest.
June 2012: 118.5 hrs
June 1990: 132.5 hrs
June 1987: 132.9 hrs
June 1977: 134.8 hrs
June 1991: 135.0 hrs
June 2007: 139.7 hrs
June 1979: 140.3 hrs
June 1971: 145.4 hrs
June 1997: 151.6 hrs
June 1981: 152.1 hrs
10 sunniest Junes..
June 1975: 293.7 hrs
June 1957: 284.5 hrs
June 1996: 282.7 hrs
June 1970: 273.3 hrs
June 1994: 265.0 hrs
June 1969: 262.8 hrs
June 1976: 261.2 hrs
June 1962: 260.5 hrs
June 1989: 258.5 hrs
June 1973: 254.5 hrs
The raw 120W/m2 data for June 2012 was approx 132 hours, so adjusting all of them by 12%, you get a range of 132-170 hrs for the 10 cloudiest Junes, and 285-329 hrs for the 10 sunniest.
In our geography class they said that clouds in GB are cold air that's moderated by the Atlantic, so maybe the same pattern that launches brutal polar attacks into eastern Canada and the US is the same pattern that causes all this cloudiness in the British isles. Altho it wouldn't explain why it affected Britain in the past ten years, cause in Eastern US the polar vortexes only dive down in some years (03, 04, 09, 10, 14, 15) and not in others
The PV hit us in 2016 as well. How do you think NYC went below 0F for the first time in years.
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