Does May get much better than 1992? May 1992 was the warmest May of the 20th Century with a CET of 13.6C. It was also the sunniest May since the great May of 1989 (which was also extremely sunny). This is one May I would have loved to have experienced!

The first week of May 1992 began a bit of the cool and showery side under an Atlantic north-westery, before high pressure quickly built through the country. At first this was quite a cool area of high pressure, before warmer air started to be imported.

During the middle part of the month however, things really started to warm up, with a southerly plume setting up from the 12th onwards. This brought unseasonably high temperatures for so early in the season. In fact Edinburgh recorded 29C on the 14th, with the mid-high twenties very widespread across the country between the 13th and 16th

After a very brief and half-hearted cool down, warm and even locally hot weather very much returned in the final third of the month. Temperatures were widely into the mid-twenties once again, with things even beginning to turn very thundery. Bristol recorded 17.5mm in just 10 minutes during a thunderstorm on the 23rd. Severe thunderstorms also dropped large hailstones which damaged crops in the East Midlands and parts of Essex, and another storm also dumped over 100mm of rain in just a few hours in parts of Hertforshire, which caused major flooding and landslides.

Another push of heat arrived for the Late Spring Bank Holiday weekend. This recorded 27.0C at Southampton on the Saturday, 27.3C at Heathrow on the Sunday and a peak of 28.2C at Norwich on the Bank Holiday Monday. There were also some further thunderstorms around over the course of this weekend too.

I remember that May very well. I was 12 at the time and was sitting my end of 1st year exams at high school that month, and I do recall a fair abundance of very warm & sunny weather here, with a bit of thundery weather thrown in for good measure. In fact, the period between 20th May and 9th June 1992 probably more thundery activity here than any other period of that length that I can recall during my lifetime. For instance, I can recall being awoken by a storm during the early hours of Thursday 21st May, and we had another thundery outbreak between 10 and 11am while I was in one of my morning classes.

The predominantly warm and settled weather that commenced in mid-May 1992 did continue until early July, but after that the summer of 1992 deteriorated somewhat, much like what happened in 1988.

Oddly, the potential heat of 14 May didn't materialise for us locally- cloud increased, southerly so warmish, 22C (27 had been forecast). It really got going the following Wednesday with a 25- we went river swimming in the Avon south of Salisbury. Then, the heat upped and we were jumping off the bridges over the Test in 27C, drinking chilled Gaymers K and listening to Erasure, before I had to fly off to Africa, leaving my entire river-swimming club to their own devices!

I remember this spell quite well, I had just bought my first car and was enjoying touring around in beautiful weather, followed by numerous tennis matches on the local grass courts.  A great May but a forgettable summer, in 1992.

I'm  almost certain this was the May when there were 2 straight weeks of unbroken sunshine. Completely cloudless, dawn till dusk, every day. I've never known anything approaching that before or since.

Turned very cold an grey here in Copenhagen over the past couple of days. Max today was about 6 degrees. Brrr for May.

My weather diary

1st: cloudy periods, mostly dry
2nd: Early afternoon showers with hail but drier later
3rd: dry, sunny, pleasantly mild
4th: dry, cloudy, spots of rains, mild
5th: sunny, warm
6th: cloudy, light drizzle
7th: sunny patches, cloudy, evening drizzle, mild
8th: cooler, showers, some heavy with hail
9th: cold, cloudy, drier brighter pm
10th: dry early morning, midday showers, drier pm
11th: early morning showers, dry rest of day
12th: sunny, warm, dry
13th: hot, sunny
14th: hot, sunny, hotter than yesterday
15th: cooler, fresher, sunny
16th: warm, sunny, dry
17th: warm, sunny, dry
18th: warm, sunny, dry
19th: very warm, sunny
20th: very warm, sunny
21st: hot, dry, sunny
22nd: hot, dry, sunny
23rd: hot, dry, sunny
24th: early morning thunderstorm, but dry hot, humid
25th: dry, hot, sunny
26th: dry, hot, sunny
27th: dry, hot, sunny
28th: rain in morning, dry afternoon, cloudy in evening, thunderstorms in night
29th: torrential rain in morning, dry afternoon, warm
30th: cloudy morning, dry, torrential rain mid afternoon with thunder
31st: mostly dry but a couple of showers