Our weather

I have just borrowed a diary that belonged to my friend's grandfather. He was a farmer and kept records of the weather and how it affected his work. Actually there were three diaries, one for 1936. 1937 and 1938. They were very interesting. People talk about the hot summers we used to have 'in the old days' - but nothing changes really. The summer of 1936 pretty much followed the pattern of this year's weather so far. March was cold and windy although the 21st March was 'a beautiful spring day'. The next two days were quite good and then it went back to being 'frosty and cold all day'.
April was rather cold and wet and May was rather cold with very few nice days. June was warm but unsettled and there were some days that were too wet to go on the land at all. July was a bit of a write-off and August was quite good, but not special. October was the best month that year.

1937 was not much better. June was mixed with some sunny days but lots of winds. July was warmer but dull and there were still a lot of windy days. In the middle of July the weather was either 'dull and close' or 'hot and windy'. There were also a fair number of rainy days. August was the best month that year.

In 1938 May was bitterly cold and very windy, which dried up the land. However by 11th May it was warming up and there were some fine and warm days. On 17th and 18th it rained - which was welcomed by the farmer and he said it would do a lot of good. Towards the end of May it turned cold again and there was a sharp morning frost on the 21st, and on 29th it rained again, but a fierce wind blew all night.

June began well with fine, warm weather but was soon recorded as 'dull and cool' and on the 10th they had thunderstorms and big hailstones. There was a short period of warm/hot weather but the month ended with 'dull and muggy' on 22nd and 'dull and cool' on the 30th.

July was a bit of a mixture with rain, thunderstorms, winds and some dull and cold days. There were a few nice days but no long heat wave.

August was much the same for the first week but from the 9th to the 13th it was hot, however on the 18th it was recorded that the day was 'not much like August'. September was not very special either. So where were the lovely summers we used to get??