The criteria is not the quality of the weather in that year but whether it has made an impact on the memory.

For me, 2002 was the most forgettable year weatherwise that I lived through. I can recall hardly anything in that year that has stuck in the memory.

This year is starting to climb up the forgettable weatherwise list at least at the local level. Hardly any snow, frost, ice, sleet, hail, thunder and fog and we are closing in on the halfway point of this year. It has been a combination of rain, dry, sunny, cloudy and mild largely. Spring for me was boring, zero variety, the winter towards the end was tedious. National rainfall totals were outstanding but locally nothing particularly special.

Have to see what the rest of the year brings but it is on a par with 2002 thus far.

Past years that I have experienced that stuck in my memory, weatherwise

1985: cold wintry spells of January to March. Seeing snow fall at the end of April. A thunderstorm at night during May. The late May early June warmth. The poor August. The early October warmth, the cold November and the snow at the end. The mild December and the cold last week. Memorable.
1986: the early and late January snowfalls, that cold February, the March storm, the cold April, the heat of second half of June, the bank holiday washout, the cold September. Memorable
1987: the bitter easterly of January, the March cold and snowfalls, the beautiful warm Good Friday of April, early May snow, the awful June, thunderstorms of late August, didn't experience the October storm. Memorable.
1988: late January snowfall, February gale, diabolical July, late November snow, warm December. Pretty forgettable.
1989: really memorable, latter stages not.
1990: very memorable. Goes without saying.
1991: February snowfalls, chilly June. Back end of August, good. Pretty forgettable
1992: brilliant May and June with heat and storms, the cold October and the cold end to December. Fairly memorable.
1993: the stormy January, the late February snowfalls, the early June storms, the cold autumn and the wintry December at times. Pretty memorable.
1994: February snowfalls, the Easter snowfalls, the heat and thundery nature of the summer, that warm Novermber. Cold pre anticyclonic spell.
1995: fantastic year, unforgettable.
1996: wintry late January spell, the snowfalls of February, that cold May, decent summer, the cold November and December. Pretty memorable
1997: the early May wintry switharound and the May as whole, late June washout, the Christmas Eve storm. Pretty forgettable
1998: mid February warmth, mid April wintry, some heat in May. Pretty forgettable
1999: early February wintry spell, mid April wintry spell, the heat of May with thunder, the July, the poor August, the September heatwave. Fairly memorable
2000: early April wintry interlude, the autumn washout and late December snow. Up to autumn, it was forgettable.
2001: January to April wintry interludes, the warm October and late December wintry spells. Not particularly memorable
2002: forgettable
2003: the heat waves from April to September, the cold second half of October. Memorable heatwaves but little else
2004: early June heat, the thundery washout August, the white Christmas. Not particularly memorable.
2005: wintry mid February to mid March spell, the autumn with the turnaround during November. Not especially memorable
2006: March snow, the wet May, the hot July and September. Fairly memorable.
2007: the January gale, the warm April, the washout May to July. The last 4 months were forgettablr
2008: the sunny and temperature range of February, the wintry spells of late March-early April, the awful August, the wintry spells of late November-December. Fairly memorable
2009: the cold start to the year, the cold and snow of first half of February, the washout November, the wintry second half to December. Memorable events were either end but not a lot in between.
2010: very cold wintry start, March to mid November was forgettable. December was anything but unforgettable,
2011: pretty forgettable apart from Easter and late September-early October heatwave.
2012: the washout April and June but not much else.
2013: winter snowfalls and cold March, beautiful July.

A great post, but you don't think the winter of 2014 was memorable in terms of Atlantic storms? I have never known a winter like that for it.

In my case, out of memory, 2011 was quite boring in weather terms where it was dry and mild for most of the time.

Being a snow loving school kid in the late 80's was pretty forgettable 

Winter 1987/88 and 1988/89 were both pretty rubbish.

If in terms of merely local conditions, 2014 wasn't memorable at all in the greater Manchester region for rainfall, this being only a little above average and there was only one gale of any note.

What was 'memorable' however was the almost complete lack of snowfall, and even frost.

Probably something like 1997 or 1998 and so far this year has been rather boring too with an almost constant above average CET. Today is another example, quite warm but dull sky - perfectly sums up this year!

Although I've been lucky to have experienced most types of weather since moving here in the 70's...... from blizzards....severe thunderstorms....freezing rain....large hail...hurricane force winds....heatwaves and drought....very cold weather - I just lack a tornado!

I think I'm just far enough north, south and east to get some of the interesting stuff when we do get it.

This reminds me of a question which I posed to Kevin several years ago regarding the most "average" year. I guess that there are a number of ways to calculate this but one would probably start with looking at the lowest collective deviation from the monthly CETs... I recall that Kevin suggested 71 or 72.

Every year is the least memorable Except 1962/63 Winter.. That is the most memorable....

The CET figures for that winter suggest nothing out of the ordinary, although January does seem to have been on the chilly side. Were there local conditions that made this winter special in your neck of the woods?

Ah, I did wonder :)

Can't recall much about 2002 either.

Might be worth browsing through the monthly assessments from 2002 from the Met office to see if it brings back any recollections:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/2002

Great thread Kevin. I like that.

I'd agree that the early 70s never seemed to produce much by way of special weather ... I was then in Manchester with regular trips south to south to visit family.

My only personal memory of dramatic weather from those years  was that there always seemed to be thick fog just before Christmas when we were driving south to visit relatives, not just patches, but for hundreds of miles at a time, though some of that was certainly late 60s. We don't seem to get such widespread and dense fogs these days.

The most uninteresting and unmemorable years are those with both mild, snowless winters and very poor summers. 1924, 1932, 1948, 1957, 1998, 2002, 2007, 2011 spring to mind all having had little in the way of wintery or summery weather. There have been far more of these type of years recently than in any other period.

None of those have been entirely devoid of interest in the way that 2014 has - the year most resemblent of a relentless autumn. We have had no snow, hardly any frost, almost no colder than average nights, day temperatures mostly near average. Just no extremes at all. We've had one convective downpour in May, which wasn't that noteworthy, and the high rain total during the winter months was solely down to the frequency. There were no rain events of note. Haven't had a day with 25mm yet. Don't think there was any hail and there certainly hasn't been any thunder.

There has been an inordinate amount of dull grey drizzly days. Days as boring as they are unpleasant. I would estimate as much as 90% of days have started overcast reflected in the disgusting minima which have been almost 2C above average constantly. Almost every single morning I wake up check my weather station and find there's been no more than 1C variation in temperature overnight.

The seemingly record breaking number of murky grey days has however been partially offset by a higher than usual number of very sunny days. This is effectively the winter pattern where it's either overcast or mainly clear. I'm struggling to recall any interesting cloud formations like cumulonimbus and lenticulars. Even cumulus has been rare. Seems to have been only stratus or stratocumulus.

I really am beginning to think this year could have the highest annual minimum and lowest annual maximum on record. The lack of temperature variation is extraordinary. I am also thinking that May's sunshine total of 152 hours may not be beaten making it one of the lowest ever totals to be sunniest month of the year.

It really is killing my interest in weather completely. My Vantage Pro 2 weather station is into it's 10th year now and I wonder if it's worth getting a replacement when it finally gives up. If the last 7 years is a taste of what's to come then the answer is a resounding no

2012 for me; a year of unrelenting dross.

I'll second that David - Never known a year like it and the summer. Well the less is said about the summer of 2012 the better.

My favourite year - 1976.

The early 90s. 

I was too drunk to notice

Hard to pinpoint a year for me, I am a veteran of Winter 62-63 and we were living in the Hollinwood area of Oldham - it was fantastic Winter with snow drifts up to the bedroom window sills at one point. I remember having to climb out of the bedroom window in our terraced house as we couldn't get out of the bottom windows or doors! And then seeing my dad tunnel a way out onto the street, epic stuff. Will I ever see snow like that again in the rest of my life, probably not but if its happened before you can never rule it out. Whilst the Winters of 2010 were very cold they were not a patch on what I saw in 62-63 in terms of snow depth and drifts.

Least memorable years for me since 1980 are as follows.

1984, 1998, 2002, 2011.