1932

August 1932 saw one of the three hottest days of the century. It is also the latest date to reach such a high temperature (97F).


January. Very mild, with mainly SW winds:  flowed by -21C at Elmstone (Kent) on 30th. It was one of the mildest of the century in Scotland. It reached 17C at Killarney on the 3rd. A reading of a minimum of 10.5C on the 3rd might have been the highest January minimum in England on record. It was also a very wet month, especially in the north and west.

February. Dry and anticyclonic. It was the driest of the century over Scotland. On the 20th the pressure reached 1047 mbars over Scotland.

March. One of the two heaviest snowfalls of the year was 6-7 March, when parts of the country had 13 cm.

April. Wet and cool. Dull in England.

May. Another very wet, dull month, with severe flooding in the Midlands and North; Nottinghamshire and the Don Valley were particularly badly affected. It was the wettest May for 160 years in England and Wales. The first ten days were cold and frosty; it then became warm and thundery.

June. A dry month but with some heavy rain at the end. Cold NE winds at the start gave maxima of only 10C over eastern England on 4-5th. After a warm sunny spell mid-month, cold NE set in again around the 20th.

July. Unsettled: Cranwell (Lincs) had 131mm on the 11th and 61mm on the 13th.

August. A warm month (17.1C overall - the warmest since 1911). The first ten days were dominated by unsettled westerlies, but it was nevertheless still warm and bright in the south. An incursion of warm air then caused temperatures of 31C across the southeast on the 11th. Then an area of high pressure over Gemany sent a thundery low to the SW of England on the 19th, bringing very hot air up from the south into southern Britain. It was very hot (36.1C or 97F on the 19th at Camden Square, Regent's Park, Enfield, Tottenham, and Halstead in Essexn); it was 96F over a wide area of East Anglia: this is one the of the three hottest days of the century, and all the more notable for being in the second half of the month. It is the latest date to reach such a high temperature. 99F (37.2) was recorded at Greenwich, but in a Glaisher screen, so is now not accepted. In contrast, it was only 22C at Harrogate and 24C at Chester. It wasn extremely humid, with widespread thunderstorms later in the day. The minimum overnight 19-20th at Lympne in Kent was 22.7, a record for many years. Temperatures still reached 30C in London on the 20th, but it was cooler further north: 22C in Birmingham on the 19th, and 19C on the 20th. Thunderstorms on the 20-21, with flooding in the Midlands. The month ended sunny but cooler.

September. This was a mixed month, but was generally dull. An unsettled start, particularly in the W and N, but very warm in the SE on the 2nd. Warm and sunny midmonth in the south and east. Cooler and unsettled across the country from the19th on.

October. Unsettled, dull and wet. 6.7 inches of rain fell at Aberdenn and 8 inches at Newquay.

November. A dull month; only 26 hours recorded at Kew all month. The other heavy snowfall this year affected Scotland on the 23-25th; Braemar had 15 cm of snow lying on the 24th.

December. Very mild after the 12th.