Best and worst weather years (in your location?) (climate, snowy, hottest)

[wawa1992]

In your current climate, what has been your favorite year climatewise and your least?

I don't expect an extremely detailed summary, but you can give one if you want


I used a rubric to grade each year in Nashville since 1970, on an A-F scale. The rubric, in both English and metric form, is included, as is the raw data.
90-100 A, 80-89 B, 70-79 C, 60-69 D, 0-59 F.

The absolute best year was 1977, scoring a 94.1% / A.
1978, 1979, 1989, and 2010 also were A's.
The absolute worst year was 2012, scoring a 67.8% / D+.
2007 was also a D.
No F's were given; every year had at least some redeeming value.

Technical data:

It's on five weighted categories. Category scores are not necessarily linear. "100" scores are difficult to obtain, but possible with very good setup. As Nashville is a C+/B- cusp climate, it's not ever going to be identical to my dream climate. "0" scores are so bad they are nearly impossible. Remember, a "50" is still an F.

Since ample warmth is virtually guaranteed and cold is in short supply, cold-based factors are weighted more heavily. The system rewards hot (but not blazing) summers, cold winters, high precipitation, and extremes in temperature.

Absolute maximum yearly temperature, weighted 7% of total. To get a 100, a max of at least 110 F / 43 C was necessary. For a 0, the max had to be under 87 F / 31 C.
The best scoring year was 2012, with a max of 107 F / 42 C giving it a 97% in this category.
The worst scoring years were 1972, 1975, 1979, 1982, 1994, 2001, 2003, and 2004, all tied at 93 F / 34 C and a 45% in this category.
The average high temperature was 97.3 F / 36.3 C, and the average score was 71.4%.

Absolute minimum yearly temperature, weighted 13% of total. To get a 100, a minimum of under -10 F / -23 C was necessary. For a 0, the minimum had to be over 30 F / -1 C.
The best scoring years were 1982, 1985, and 1989, each with minima below that -10 F marker and getting perfect 100 scores.
The worst scoring year was 2012, with a minimum of 19 F / -7 C giving it a 34% in this category.
The average minimum temperature was 5.1 F / -14.9 C, and the average score was 76.1%.

Warmest month (by 24-hr mean), weighted 18% of total. This was scored in halves of a degree, by taking the average high and low from the warmest month (by degree) and averaging them. To get a perfect 100, the warmest month had to average exactly 82 F / 28 C. To get a 0, the average had to be outside the 70 - 94 F / 21 - 34 C range.
The best scoring years were 1999 and 2005, both hitting the 82 F / 28 C mark exactly and a perfect 100.
The worst scoring year was 1976, at ironically 76 F / 24 C. It earned a 70% score. Dishonorable mention goes to 2007, at 87 F / 31 C, earning a 75% score.
The average warmest mean temperature was 80.2 F / 26.8 C, and the average score was 88.2%.

Coldest month (by 24-hr mean), weighted 32% of total. Methodology was the same as with the warmest month. To get a perfect 100, the coldest month had to be colder than 28 F / -2 C. To get a 0, it had to be warmer than 52 F / 11 C.
The best scoring years were 1977, 1978, and 1985, their winters all colder than 28 F and all earning a perfect 100.
The worst scoring year was 1990, its 44 F / 7 C average in its coldest month earning it a 50%.
The average coldest mean temperature was 36.3 F / 2.4 C, earning a 77.8% score.

Precipitation (yearly), weighted 30% of total. To get a perfect 100, precipitation had to be at least 60 inches that year. To get a 0, it had to be less than 20 inches.
The best scoring year was 1979, 66.37 inches and a perfect 100.
The worst scoring year was 1987, 28.85 inches and 46%.
The average precipitation was 47.12 inches, earning an 81.9% score.

The total average score was 80.2%, or a B-. 2 years were D, 20 were C, 19 were B, and 4 were A.

[srfoskey]

Well, in the past decade, 2007 was bad because it had extreme drought and 2010 was good because it had over a foot of snow.

I mostly based this off of rain and snow because snowy winters are almost always cold and rainy summers are almost always not too hot, plus I like snow and rain.

[jgtheone]

1992 was the worst year for the airport. Warmest month was march with an avg. max of 24.8°C, and 7 months averaged below 20°C. It was the second coldest year on record (18.6°C annual max.) and it also had +150 rain days.

2007 was the best year, as the average annual max was 21.3°C. The summers were very warm, whilst maintaining two cold months in June (12.6°C max) and July (12.5°C max). It was a little on the dry side, but the temperatures were too good. The warmest month was February with an average max. of 29.6°C.

[Jas182]

Best years for weather are 1911 (high sunshine in summer), 1976 (Long, hot summer), 2006 (overall warm year, except during winter)
Worst years were 2012 for consistent rain! No wonder why people thought it was the end of the world!

[Rams_Lord]

Best 2010- Extremely cold January, February, November and December, with a good summer

Worst 2014- Too mild overall, winter was non existent

[B87]

I'll go with years since 1948 as that's when Heathrow started recording.

The worst has got to be 1963; January averaged 0.8/-4.2, with Feb at 2.8/-2.2. The summer that followed was also awful, with July peaking at 21.1/11.9.

Honourable mentions for crapness go to 1980 with a July average max of 19.7 (the coldest on record at Heathrow), and 1988, where the summer highs averaged 20.0c in July, and 21.8c in August.

The best years were 1976 (averaged 3 months in a row with highs above 25c), 1989 (May-Sep all averaged above 20c, one of the sunniest summers on record), 2003 (sunniest year at Heathrow with 2003 hours, and the hottest day on record) and 2006 (July was the warmest month on record).

[dunno what to put here]

2013 was good - cold winter, warm summer.

[Shalop]

2012 was abhorrent:

https://weatherspark.com/history/310...-United-States




2004 was OK:

https://weatherspark.com/history/306...-United-States

[forgotten username]

I've only been here since 2013, so I wouldn't know

but where I grew up, Lyon, France:

Best years:

2003 - The best year ever: relatively cold and sunny winter with some snow, then a fantastic spring and hot summer

2006 - cold winter and hot july, August was meh though.

2009 - cold winter / nice spring / hot summer / nice fall / snow by mid december = win.

2009/2010 winter was one of the best winters in my adult life (2004/2005 being probably second)

worst years:

2007: no winter to speak of, then flurries in march, spring started off great with many days above 25c in April, then the summer was really rainy and cool. Fall came early.


Tie:

2013: Cold winter but of the humid kind, not much snow though, then very cold spring with bad rainy cold weather until late may. June looked like April, then summer was really warm and september / october were really nice as well with plenty of warm sunny days.

[sulkiercupid]

In my memory 2006 was easily the worst year weatherwise. Had an annual record low rainfall of 466mm, the grass was still brown in June, in what is usually the wettest month.

There have been no great years in my lifetime, some of the best years in Perth would have been a period from the 1890's to 1960's. Of the last 22 years 18 have been below the mean rainfall due to a significant reduction in winter frontal activity.