I've just been discussing this with my colleagues, in the context of pop music. But it got me thinking, if a year is judged primarily by the quality of its summer weather and the stuff in the charts, and by the way has a record breakingly cold December, does that qualify it as best year ever?

Think about it:

- Coolio - Gangsta's paradise
- 2 week heat wave in June including 30s in the highlands
- Oasis Some might say, Blur Country House
- 35C somewhere in Cambridgeshire
- Seal - Kiss from a rose
- Take That / back for good
- Hottest August on record
- Radiohead - creep
- -27 in Scotland
- Shaggy - boombastic

QED?

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2nd best summer on record - Not as good as 1976 though - but very very close.

 

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It was a cracker thats for sure. August was indeed the hottest calender month on record in N.Ireland - but I would agree that if longevity of fine weather is considered, - 1995 was pipped by 76.
The summer of 76 was also notable for me by Elton John and Kiki Dee - 'dont go breaking my heart' - those were the days.

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I was 18 in summer 1995, and just finishing my first year at university. Yes, those were good days!

1996 probably tops it for me in weather terms, though, with massively deep snow at the end of January and seemingly endless hot sunny days watching Euro 96.

However on the downside, 96 also brought the Spice Girls, Gina G and the Macarena.

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And for winter fan's don't forget December 1995 - The first genuinely cold, easterly month since February 1991 and the first time December had been cold since 1981!

Like Rob, I was also 18 in 1995 and this was and remains a true "Golden Year" from my youth.

For anybody that would like a re-cap of 1995/1996 I did a two part historical video for summer 1995 and winter 95/96 last year;

http://www.gavsweathervids.com/1995partone.html

http://www.gavsweathervids.com/1995parttwo.html

 

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Hmmm, no, the winter 1994/95 was pants although March had a spell of true cold zonality.

December 1995 was OK but nothing special.

For me as a whole the year 2010 was the best with two great winters in one calendar year, a dry fine spring, early summer was lovely although August was rubbish then a cool, dry golden autumn leading to that fantastic December.

1995 just doesn't come close.

Andy

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1995 was the most memorable year weatherwise for me.

It contained the ultimate summer month: August 1995

Hottest, driest, sunniest.

Full of variety and interest.

Forecasts from that year

January 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2aoSoCqQA3fjks_P9c2beks7

February 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2arc-leQSRcu8Fj45JBPmL-F

Wintry March 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2aqc9z95bwxFj-FD-rU0L3P2

April 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2arirNJwkkOrqI1e5gPvcx6T

May 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2aqQ58D0umFkmHYIUQCtKuWy

June 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2arz7ulAb-nrZ09ilQiF3qcU

July 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2apbL8JRzis4wZp2SMdOW6FB

August 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2aqyCFo-MTEeQMpEifs7wBGZ

September 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2ao2iR_xzkGP0e1eoic4MUuD

October 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2ar1Iw18kAseRKIHWHAtY9sb

November 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2arnkfpgdnvEFAtYs2h8Y2oP

December 1995
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWbt7RniF2aqu6Aptz9Hngv_XSqKrQRQ9

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It were a great year - probably one of the best years of my life in terms of personal events too, lots to look back on. What a Summer it was too and a bitter cold December.

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Great memories. Thanks for posting Kevin.

I've got a lot of BBC forecast's on VHS tapes from 1995 to 2005.

Might upload them to my personal YouTube channel. Could even embed some of them through to my website?  I tended to record the late night WeatherView quite a lot, so a lot of my BBC forecasts are a little longer than the standard weather forecasts...

Just not sure how to get them from VHS to YouTube, so any tips would be much appreciated.

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As some of you already know, that was my first full year as a tomato greenhouse farmer . . . boy, talk about the Baptism of fire! Just how I managed to get through that without walking out on the job, I'll never know. 

Music-wise was very good at the time as it was becoming experimental in nature again with techno, trance, rave and ambient. A workmate lent me a cassette tape saying "Dude, I think you'll like this, knowing how you like your electonic music", it was Exit Planet Dust by The Chemical Brothers . . . 

. . . As it turned out, that workmate was right.

 

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I have got a Sony DVD direct recorder. You connect it to a video recorder and it will record your videotape onto a DVD disc. Then I used Aimersoft video converter ultimate to convert and edit the DVD into a format that I can upload onto YouTube.

It sounds complicated but it isn't. It is a bit time consuming. Think of converting 6 hours of videotape onto DVD!

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Thanks Kev.

I'm going to try and get this done soon.

I wonder how many of the same forecasts we have recorded?

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Yes, 1995 is one of those I look back on and think what a fantastic year it was, one of those years that if you could pick to go back and give it a re run you would.

Long uni summer holidays doing a few lazy summer jobs. I remember early August especially being great, seemed to be in a beer garden every evening.

Then December 1995! White Christmas at our place and bitter hard frosts. My friend blew the radiator up on his car doing hand break turns on a snowy grass bank  He is a respectable doctor now with kids 

What about the summer of 1995? You haven't even mentioned it. How can you talk about 1995 and not mention that summer? Autumn 1995 was interesting. Who remembers the 8th October 1995, that glorious sunny Sunday?

For me 2010 had a remarkable start and end but in between there was not a lot to be honest.

The spring was snowless here unlike 1995, the warmest day that year was 22nd May. It was not that brilliant a summer.

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8th October 1995, a day I can tell you what I was doing almost the the hour!

Spent most of the day with my Cocker Spaniel walking on the North Yorks Moors and calling in at the village local for a swift pint and recall how packed the beer garden was for the time of year. I think I was off back to uni the following day so was getting in a final session.

Feb 14th 1998 is another one of those stand out days for me. As was 1st December 2010 my Mothers 60th birthday, road totally white over and snow blowing accross the road from the fields, nearly didn't make it!

 

Yes first 2 months of 1995 were terrible. Rest of the year was generally interesting though!  If we went March 95 - to Feb 96 then those 12 calendar months would be hard to beat.

I just had a weird thought.

1995 was 19 years ago.

Go back to 1995, 19 years before was 1976.

1995 seems like only yesterday and yet thinking back to 1995, 1976 seemed like a different era.

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Really depends on how old you are 🤔
1976 seems pretty recent to me - although I agree that 1995 seems like yesterday 👅

I seriously don't think I'll ever see a summer in my lifetime that will equal 1976 - 1995 was nowhere near it (IMBY at any rate !)

WRT the songs - Not that keen on 1990s stuff, but 1976 was no great shakes either (pre punk mush)

Brotherhood of Man, Pussycat, Silver Convention, Barry Manilow
[frs_sick]

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Chris (It,its)
Between Newbury and Basingstoke
"When they are giving you their all, some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy banging your heart against some mad buggers wall"