Here's the next installment of our annual look-back at the year's weather in the UK. This time, it's the turn of 2007, a year which would bring huge weather disappointments to some and blasts from the past for others. A move to south-west England saw an effective storm drought for the EOTS teams, with one of the most thunderless years for a long time. However, wintry events earlier in the year gave widespread snowfall on a scale not seen for many years.

This section sums up the year for us, by displaying a photo or two from the most significant weather events we encountered during each month.

January 2007 - Chaos from all corners!
The month was generally very mild indeed, with unsettled conditions rattling in from the southwest on numerous occasions. The first major weather event was a severe gale which swept southwest England on the 11th. Bren visited the southwest, where Laura was now living, in time for this gale and spent an afternoon on Devon's coastal headlands. The first image below shows a cargo ship anchored just offshore, weathering the storm. The next major depression battered most of England and Wales on the 17th-18th, with widespread inland gales not seen for many years. Even in the heart of England, gusts exceeded 70mph and at Heathrow, a gust of 82mph was recorded. The result was numerous deaths and damage running into millions of pounds. Bren witnessed the storm in Weybridge, Surrey, where numerous trees were uprooted and widespread travel chaos resulted. The second picture below shows tree damage witnessed. The third image shows massive tree destruction in north Wales from the same event, and a possible explanation can be found here. However, it wasn't all mild madness! Towards the end of January, conditions became colder as a northerly flow set in. During the early hours of the 24th, a frontal system pushed south across the country, giving a fall of snow for many eastern and southeastern areas. The fourth and fifth photos show the snowfall in Weybridge, and a full photographic report can be found here.

February 2007 - More of the white stuff!
After a briefly mild start, a northerly quick set in during the first few days of February, bringing some colder weather with it. As fronts began pushing in from the southwest on the 7th/8th, another spell of snow was witnessed across many areas, including the Midlands and south-east England. The first photo below shows an early morning scene in Weybridge during that snowfall. More images from this snowfall can be found here. However, this front didn't succeed in removing the cold weather. This job was left to another front following in from the south on the 9th. This gave much heavier and more widespread snow across southern Britain, particularly across parts of northeast Wales and the west Midlands. We travelled up to north Wales as the snow was falling, and enjoyed a winter wonderland into the 10th February. The next three photos show some of the scenes from this snowfall event in north Wales. More images from this snowfall can be found here. The remainder of February was generally milder and more unsettled, with some heavy showers around. One particularly heavy shower gave some stunning mammatus across Weybridge later in the month, as shown in the final image.

March 2007- Delight after deulge!
March started off on a very unsettled note, as a series of depressions brought almost daily rain. Some of the showers were really rather potent, such as the storm in the first photograph below, which gave hail as well as torrential rain. The result of this was river flooding, even in the tradionally drier southeast. The second photo below shows the resulting flood on the Wey Navigation in Surrey, as water poured over the banks into surrounding fields. Into the second week of March, high pressure took hold, settling conditions down. There was plenty of sunshine by day and clear skies by night. The third photo shows a glorious day in south Devon, whilst the fourth photo shows a spectacular lunar eclipse, viewed from Surrey, thanks to clear skies. The settled weather lasted for about a week, but was swifty followed by more downpours. The fifth photograph below shows a particularly nasty thunderstorm in Weybridge on 19th, which looked like an atomic bomb! Finally, we completed March by characteristically chasing the Severn Bore for the only time in 2007.

April 2007 - Summer comes early
The spring month of April was very much summerlike in 2007, and broke records in terms of dry and warm conditions. It was definitely a month to be enjoyed outdoors, and the EOTS team spent their time in both Surrey and Devon. The first image below shows a typical evening scene, with sunset casting crepuscular rays over the Thames in Surrey. Conditions later in the month became ever more summery, as warm, humid air resulted in mid level cloud formations typical of warm, Spanish plume scenarios. The second image below shows some mid-level altocumulus as temperatures nipped into the low twenties Celsius, whilst the third image shows altocumulus castellanus, sometimes the signal for thunderstorms but not in this case.

June 2007 - Lots of weather - sadly missed!
June was a memorable month for many parts of the country, as the UK weather was dominated by cyclonic and potentially destructive conditions. The first major flooding event of the summer affected parts of northern England and the Midlands, whilst tucked in Devon for June and stuck in work, the EOTS team weren't able to document anything. The photos for June all come from just one day - the 19th. Warm and humid air began to pulse towards the UK from France, and brought with it some nasty thunderstorms. Once such storm hit Exeter during the afternoon of the 19th, and the photos below show its arrival. Firstly, altocumulus and cirrus increased, giving some optical phenomenon. Then, an amazing shelf cloud approached ahead of the thunderstorm. Lastly, the immense downdraft of torrential rain can be seen as a wall in the distance, as thunderclouds boiled overhead.

July 2007- Impressive clouds but we escaped the deluge!
July could be classed in much the same way as June - unsettled. There were plenty of showers and thunderstorms across the UK, not least the storms and torrential rain that brought some of the worst flooding in generations across the Midlands and central southern England. Earlier in the month, however, a downpour gave some impressive cloud structure as it moved away from Exeter. The first photograph below shows well-defined mammatus formations lowering from the anvil of the departing storm. Conditions settled quite quickly into the second week of July, and Devon in particular enjoyed some warm, sunny days. The second photo below was taken on the Southwest Coast Path near Dartmouth, showing the lovely sunny scenery. Around mid-month, warm and humid air returned to the UK, giving the torrential rain across central England. One noteworthy weather front gave quite spectacular cloudscapes across Devon, as the low-level winds once again interacted with Dartmoor to give undulations and swirls in the cloud bases, which actually made the local news. Photographs three and four below show just how intricate and spectacular these cloud structures were. Towards the end of the month, a cold front swept eastwards and revealled the most remarkable mammatus clouds on its rear edge as it moved away. The clearance was stunning and abrupt, and is shown in the last two photographs below.

August 2007 - A bit of everything - even some summer weather!
In the first week of August, there was a lot of dry weather across Devon, but weak fronts occasionally affected the southwest. One such front, on its approach, created some spectacular Kelvin Helmholtz waves above Exeter. These were, in fact, pretty much text book in appearance, as can be seen in the first image below. At the same time, other undulating waves were filling the sky, as can be seen in the second image below. Into the second week, and conditions became more lively, with showers and thunderstorms across south Devon. The third and fourth images below show one such line of thunderstorms which developed along a convergence line in south Devon. During the third week of the month, there were plenty of settled days once again with decent warm sunshine, as can be seen in the fifth photograph below which was taken near Moretonhampstead, Devon. Right at the end of the month, conditions were still settled, and the Dartmouth Regatta benefitted. In the final image, the Red Arrows are doing their stuff over the Regatta crowds.

September 2007 - A late summer
High pressure lay close to the UK throughout the first half of September, and it couldn't have come at a better time for the EOTS team, who spent the first week of the month camping on the Isles of Scilly. There were a few breaks in the fine, sunny weather whilst on the islands but things could have been much worse. The first image below shows a typical calm sunny day on the water between islands, whilst the second image shows one of the many beautiful sunsets we captured on the islands. It became more changeable mid-month with frontal systems affecting the south-west. In true fashion, the affects of Dartmoor on the clouds above didn't disappoint, creating some wonderful wave patterns, as seen in the third image. Towards the end of the month, there were more crystal clear, sunny days in south Devon, which we enjoy by getting in plenty of coastal walking. Despite the warm sunshine, as the last image below shows, autumn was hinting at making an appearance as the evenings became rather misty.

October 2007 - A high pressure month!
After a very dry September, October would see little change in the overall weather type as high pressure dominated conditions across the UK. The combination of a very wet summer and a very dry autumn, appeared to be just what the UK's trees needed in order to put on a full show of autumn colour. Some of the most spectacular oranges and reds seen for years filled the countryside, as shown on the first image below, taken in the EOTS team's new home of Leatherhead, Surrey. As the fine weather continued, lots of country walking was the best use of time, such as in the second image below which was taken in the South Downs in Surrey.

November 2007 - Wet wet wet!
As if to make up for the dry autumn so far, low pressure began to dominate the UK's weather during November, bringing with it wind and rain. It was a surprisingly thundery period in parts of the south, with thunder heard in Leatherhead, Surrey, on three consecutive days. During this mid-month period, over 70mm of rain fell in the North Downs over four days and this allowed the River Mole at Leatherhead to burst its banks, as shown in the first two photographs below. As an area of low pressure tracked across the UK on the 18th, rain became sufficiently heavy to cool the air and allow snow to fall. This settled quite widely in the Midlands, and even south of London snow was falling. The third image below was taken on Leith Hill showing wet snow. That's not to say there weren't any fine days in November, as the last photo in the sequence shows. A bed of autumn leaves line footpaths through Norbury Park near Leatherhead, on a sunny and calm day in late November.

December 2007 - The anticyclone
The month began much as November, with low pressure resulting in strong winds and outbreaks of rain. However, during the second week, high pressure over Scandinavia began building westwards across the North Sea, and this would come to dominate the UK's weather for some time. Clear, sunny skies interspersed with numerous banks of low cloud moving in from the continent resulted in alternate frosty and frost-free nights, with mist and fog becoming more widespread as time went on. Daytime temperatures struggled to rise whilst subzero overnight temperatures were realised for almost 14 consecutive nights in parts of the south and east. The first two photographs below show the frosty conditions in Leatherhead, with the first showing a mixture of frost and rime from freezing fog, and the second showing how frost accumulated on untreated roads. On the continent, conditions were much the same but even colder. The third photo shows our trip to Brussels' Christmas market, where despite sunny skies, temperatures held below freezing. Further west in Devon, frost was less severe but the sunny skies were just as welcome, as seen in Budleigh Salterton. Note that, despite the high pressure conditions, swell waves from the Atlantic were still impressive. Milder conditions returned in time for Christmas, resulting in a green festive holiday just about everywhere.

Will 2008 be a weather year to beat 2007? Here's hoping......

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