Dark, miserable day appropriate for New Year's Eve.

Lovely clear day, tempting me out for a walk at 3pm. Strolled through the park in the sunset.

Beautiful clear cold morning.

Cold with rain - pouring in the evening.

Thick fog all day, cold.

Extremely cold day.

Lovely cold sunny day.

Colder again though pressure down, beautiful clear sunny afternoon.

Clearer skies today, pressure up, colder.

Raining on and off most of the day. Walked home in it.

December 1998

December 9th. Unlike today in 1981, no snow today, warmer in fact but damp and foggy with rain in the morning.

10th. Warmer again today.

11th. Warmer weather we've had the last two days.

13th. Beautiful clear golden morning, cold though; before lunch it had got so dark and dismal that it seemed cosy inside - heavy cold rain.

Changeable, very mild at times. [...]

Very cold morning with thick frost.

Beautiful sunny winter day, very cold.

Still icy cold.

Very cold, real icy North wind.

Dark and rainy, but enough seasonal spirit to render things enjoyable despite the rain.

Foggy day.

Darksome morning, lots of rain later.

Glorious sunny winter morning.

Rotten weather, darksome and rainy almost all day except for one or two sunbreaks which displayed the autumn foliage to advantage.

November 1998

November 3rd. Still very cold.

4th. Continued cold, with biting wind too.

5th. Still cold, still windy.

11th. Another bright cold day.

16th. Beautiful cold cloudless sunny morning.

18th. Very cold in the morning with heavy frost, sun and mist. Looked like snow in the afternoon but it warmed up just a bit and rained.

20th. Very cold again.

21st. Very cold and clear.

22nd. Very cold day.

23rd. Really cold again.

29th. Beautiful weather, cold though.

'On the whole, the east was cold' [...]

Depressing walk to work through drizzle. Raining hard at 5pm so I accepted the offer of a lift all the way home.

Weather much better today.

Beautiful weather: bright, clear and cold.

Better day today, nice and windy with showers (not much sunshine in between, unfortunately).

Sun came out again at last. Beautiful weather all day with a strong lively wind.

October 1998

2nd. Noticeably colder today.

3rd. Colder still today, grey too. Town taking on a kind of grandeur in the cold grey afternoon.

4th. Cold again.

5th. Interesting weather later at 8 am, rain just finishing and clouds breaking up in the morning light, very cold and uplifting.

6th. Very cold.

7th. Exciting weather on the way home - cold with fresh wet wind sending dark low clouds flying.

8th. Another dark day of continuous fine rain and wind.

'Cold and very wet: the wettest since 1987.' [...]

12th. Sun again at last. Beautiful weather all day with a strong lively wind.

13th. Miserable damp grey weather.

'very dull in eastern England'

20th. Got French bread, edam, fruit juice and Private Eye and walked back to the hotel through the rain to have a picnic, reciting the bits of 'Slough' I could remember as I went.

23rd. Walked into town in the rain.

24th. Waited and waited for it to stop raining so I could go shopping. Eventually got tired of this and went out at 5.45. Walking back, the rain clouds were moving away and a beautiful clear post-sunset sky appeared with a low New Moon.

25th. Beautiful cold bright windy afternoon.

26th. Turned very cold after rain in the afternoon, but clear, with the New Moon after a glorious sunset.

27th. Interestingly windy, particularly in the afternoon.

28th. Very windy again, but cold and clear.

29th. Nice weather today - cold but like a Spring day deferred (or advanced).

30th. Another cold beautiful day. Went up to the top floor at lunchtime to watch balloons being released for some protest or other. They went up to about 200ft, I estimated, and drifted away in a bunch eastwards. Or rather they blew away as it was quite windy.

31st. Rained all day. Went out at 5.45 to to avoid any Hallowe'en annoyances. This measure was probably unnecessary as the continuous rain would've been enough to dampen anyone's ardour.

Clear autumnal evening.

A bit misty again - bit colder too.

Misty morning.

Beautiful weather again, too hot for a coat.

Damp start, but beautiful weather later. Went to Clacton by bus.

A damp dark foggy morning which made me think of the hobbits' departure from Crickhollow - about this time of year after all. Drove back to Chelmsford through the cold countryside.

23rd. Lovely weather, especially after all the mist and dampness earlier this week.

Went out for milk in the damp but slightly sunny morning.

Into town in the rain.

Rather nice sleepy journey home in the evening sun.

Weather interesting: hazy and deceptively hot itm, rain in the afternoon and evening. Probably a warm front.

3rd. Still raining in the morning, but cleared up in the afternoon for some golden September sunlight.

4th. Going out at 8.10pm it was orange dusk and windy, made me want to go to Eastchester and get drunk.

5th. Rained again most of the day.

8th. Rained.

30th. Enjoyably foul weather in the morning, heavy rain and wind but still warm. Cleared up nicely later. From the satellite picture I suspect a warm front.

'Warm, unsettled, very wet in the south and east' [...]

First day of autumn. Weather appropriate, sunny but hazy.

Felt a bit off-colour till the afternoon; white-sky hangover weather didn't help.

Walked into town in the afternoon, hot and humid and full of bastards.

Rain in the afternoon.

Cooler today, perhaps a bit Septembral in the afternoon.

August 25th. Weather much colder, which was good.

August 26th. Even cooler and greyer, quite autumnal. Because August is hot, usually, you forget that today is as far from the solstice as April 15. Definitely getting dark on the way home.

August 27th. Cool and sunny, Septembral.

August 28th. Weather same again but colder, and clouding over ita before clearing again. Indeed quite warm about 5pm. But another autumnal sign - huge flock of birds wheeling over the road in the evening.

Excitingly windy.

Beautiful slightly hazy late summer day. The season is about to turn - saw Capella on the 7th, and the sun was a bit further round to the south in the kitchen this morning.

Raining when I woke up at 6.30, duly fine before eleven. Almost always works, that one.

Definitely cooler today.

Cooled down a bit at lunchtime, much more bearable.

Much too hot today, even more humid than yesterday.

Just as hot as yesterday, plus humid, leading to intense irritability.

'The top temperature was 32C in London on the 10th.' [...]

Even hotter today. Cool breeze sprang up in the evening, luckily. Carried on reading Burmese Days, ideal for this weather.

Extremely hot again.

Gorgeous weather, real August stuff.

Hot and humid again.

Started off warm but turned grey and excitingly windy in the afternoon.

Rained solidly and heavily from 1.30 to 6.30, with some impressive thunder and lightning. 'The height of summer' said a bloke outside Staples sarcastically.

Very heavy rain for a short time in the afternoon.

Hot again.

Pretty hot.

Absolutely flawless morning at six o'clock. Bus driver cheerfully told me the schools broke up today.

Hot again but windy.

Beautiful weather, very hot. Walked home watching an impressive thunderstorm off to the East.

Raining again in the morning, but cleared in the afternoon to a beautiful fair-weather day with a strong warm South wind. Was quite struck by its beauty waiting for the 5.15 bus. A bit like that first evening of the summer holidays I remember from junior school.

Heavy rain in the morning.

So weather for the next 40 days must be going to be windy with sun-breaks.

July 1998

Weather turned very unpleasant today; cold and almost autumnal at lunchtime, then steady drizzle.

July 12th. Rotten weather. But after a day of rain, wind and grey clouds, the setting sun has just appeared at the retreating edge of the cloud blanket. Instant lift of spirits. Even Sundays can end well.

July 13th. After the last shower of a cold front day, the sun came through powerfully and lit up the most vivid rainbow I've ever seen in my life. You could even distinguish the indigo from the violet. Truly wonderful. Beautiful evening, clear, followed.

'Rather cool... and very dull. Changeable' [...]

July 27th. Peculiar weather, drizzly in the morning with warm hazy sunshine in the afternoon, sort of Septembral.

July 28th. Again, rain in the morning, hot in the afternoon, but sort of stuffy.

July 29th. Same weather pattern.

July 31st. Heavy rain and thunder in the evening.

'heavy rain on the 31st'

Absolutely beautiful weather in the morning - very hot later.

Very hot all day.

Windy and sunny, quite nice till it turned cold in the evening.

Greyish but warmer than it looked.

June 1998

Big cumuli led to rain in the evening.

June 2nd. Continuous rain in the morning, just heavy enough not to be drizzle. Brightened up to big cumuli at dinnertime, windy in the afternoon and a calmer, clear evening.

June 3rd. Sun and large cumuli alternating, very heavy cold-front rain just before 3pm, unfortunately while I was out on my walk.

June 4th. Greyish but warmer than it looked.

June 5th. Grey and cold.

June 6th. Grey in the morning but very warm, some rain (very large drops). Cleared later.

June 8th. Was away by 2.40, just as it started to rain - as forecast, impressively.

June 9th. Grey at first, brighter later, windy all day.

June 11th. Wind and rain. Rained all afternoon, watched Chile v Italy (good, 2-2). Then weather cleared up to a golden sunset.

June 13th. Awful weather, rained all day till about 8.30pm. At least at times it was heavy enough to be interesting.

June 14th. Rain in the afternoon.

June 15th. Rained quite heavily in the afternoon, with one clap of thunder; had brightened up by the time The Simpsons was on.

June 23rd. Raining at 7am.

June 25th. Trudged back from town - it rained, but luckily I'd bought an umbrella. Helped Mike move house in between showers.

June 27th. A thunderstorm in the evening.

'Very wet (fifth wettest June of the century) and dull' [...]

Beautiful morning, and the weather stayed lovely all day. Just now an amazingly clear sunset, the sky hardly red at all even with the still-golden sun really close to the horizon.

Walked back here in one of those beautiful evenings you get at this time of year, the sort that're almost too lovely to be convincing.

Weather terrible but just dark enough to avoid the white-sky blues. Striking effect in East in the morning with marbled dark grey stratus against a lighter background. Began to rain solidly in the afternoon which was unfortunate because I had to go into town.

Sunny, hazy afternoon.

Lovely weather again.

May 1998

Very warm today. East wind so continental air mass, presumably. Hazy and cirrus'y though.

May 8th. Lovely weather again. Had the window open all night.

May 12th. Beautiful weather, and a cool walk back in the dusk.

May 13th. Another hazy, cloudy start, but even hotter once it got going. Finished the website revamp itm, trudged into town in great heat. Horse-chestnut blossom out, cow-parsley high, very verdant.

May 14th. Same again, hotter still.

May 15th. Again - beautiful out.

May 16th. Well, weather even more beautiful.Extraordinarily clear.

May 17th. Beautiful weather yet again.

May 18th. Weather still sunny and clear, but cooler.

May 19th. Same weather again, cooler again.

May 20th. Cloudy start, warmed up a lot later, still hazy though.

'Very warm. Night-time minima were particularly high, with a notable warm spell from the 8th to the 20th' [...]

Trudged into town in light rain through verdant new foliage.

Sort of dreamy golden day.

May 1998 - start and end

Wet, dark, grey day, hardly fitting the season at all.

May 21st. Damp, dull, dismal morning, though the sun came out later.

May 23rd. Very dull weather.

May 24th. Equally unpleasant weather in the morning, brightened and freshened up in the afternoon.

May 25th. Another rotten start weather-wise - brightened up rapidly about noon.

May 26th. Weather terrible but just dark enough to avoid the white-sky blues. Striking effect in the East a.m., with marbled dark grey stratus against a lighter background. Began to rain solidly in the afternoon.

May 27th. Much cooler today; some sun, but clouds still heavy and leaden when it was out.

'Cool start and end' [...]

Good Spring weather.

Sunny and cool.

April 1998

Went to pick up the benefit forms in the rain.

April 3rd. Cold-front weather.

April 6th. Cold-front showers.

April 7th. More showers, thunder and lightning too. Lovely weather in between 'em.

April 9th. Good invigorating rainy weather.

'Generally extremely wet - the wettest since 1818 over England and Wales' [...]

April 10th. Dark and rainy in the morning. Terrible floods everywhere.

'Widespread and exceptionally severe flooding across the Midlands and East Anglia on Maundy Thursday 9th'

April 12th. A snow flurry at 2pm and several heavier ones later. Very cold (2 C).

April 15th. Miserable, wet, dark day. Quite heavy snow for a while, very wet though.

Widespread snow showers midmonth to the 15th, leading to a "white Easter" in some places

April 16th. Much better weather, at least till it started raining about noon.

April 19th. Rained most of the afternoon and was still raining at 6pm when I felt better and went out for a walk. I associate rain with recovery for some reason, possibly because of 'right as rain'.

April 22nd. Beautiful weather, hottest day of the year so far apparently.

'A warm day on the 22nd, though' [...]

April 25th. A short thundery shower about 6.30pm.

Warm weather. Summery smell in the evening. Nice.

No rain, quite warm.

Raining again in the morning.

Got wet going into town but it was spring rain all the same.

Weather changed in the day, it got very cold.

Having turned off the storage heaters yesterday, found it a bit chilly - the butter was less soft, for example.

Mild and grey again.

Beautiful weather first thing, went right off later.

Damp, grey, inauspicious morning when we set off at eight, but the sun came through and things improved.

Cold again, wet too in the morning, wind round to North.

Weather very cold with a strong East wind, and rain in the afternoon. To think I was considering turning off the storage heaters on Sunday. Lucky I didn't.

Alternating rain and bright sunshine.

Rained almost all day.

Bright and sunny, very spring-like, cold though.

Rained and blew hard early, was bright and sunny by 10 am.

Woke up at 8 am with a splitting headache. It was raining hard from heavy stratocumulus, and blowing. A Low Moment all right. Though I suppose the wind had a heartening effect.

Last day of winter, such as it's been. Sunny in the morning for my stroll to Sainsbury's - clouded over by noon. Cold-front type hailstorms about 4.30pm.

Strong, cold W or NW wind - grey again.

Coldish, grey, breezy day, not inspiring.

Glorious sunny morning.

Wet and dull to start with, cleared to a glorious sunset about 4pm.

Home through the back lanes (sun and mist, very nice).

Very frosty in the morning, but warmer.

February 5th. Again warmer. Brightened to a beautiful clear day at lunchtime.

February 6th. Still cold, but warmer than before, and damper, with a strong South wind.

February 7th. Beautiful weather. Really nice. Hardly like Feb. at all.

February 9th. Much warmer today, had the window open at work in the afternoon.

February 10th. Warmer still today.

February 11th. Even warmer than yesterday.

February 13th. Warmer still, like June. So much so that when it was getting dark about 5pm I had the strangest feeling it was summer and 8pm.

February 14th. Weather still warmer, cloudless and beautiful. Went round in shorts most of the day, had all the windows open. And still the first half of February!

February 15th. Weather bright and clear from mid-morning on.

'Extremely mild ... indeed, equal with 1990 as the mildest [February] this century.' [...]

Very cold and bright today.

The thick fog went away with my elevenses, revealing a clear, sunny winter day.

Damp, fresh and cloudy in the morning.

Weather very windy and rainy, but like in To Live Forever, at sunset the clouds tore apart in a great welter of (in this case) blue, grey and gold. Quite a treat to see, made me want to go somewhere. I haven't been more than five miles from home for about 3 months.

Colder and clearer today.

Cloudy in the morning, cleared later, then re-clouded and rained at lunchtime, showers in the afternoon, clear in the evening. Plenty of variety. None such at work, doing very boring prototypes.

Started very windy and cloudy, cleared up nicely later.

Very cold in the morning, side roads treacherous.

It'd started raining by the time I set off for home, got soaked again.

January 1998

Drove back here with assorted late Christmas presents through wind and rain.
January 2nd. Raining and blowing in the morning.
January 3rd. Raining hard when I got up at 9.20, so decided to walk to the Londis rather than cycle to Sainsburys. More heavy showers came along, hail in the afternoon too. Wind got ever stronger as the day went on.
January 4th. Very windy today, Force 8 (Gale) often. Quite impressive at times.
January 5th. Got absolutely soaked on the way to work - head dry though thanks to my handy woolly hat.
'A wet and windy first week, with particularly damaging gales 3-4th' [...]
January 9th. Very mild today, could almost be taken for summer from inside, if there were leaves on the trees.
January 10th. Even milder today, very Spring-like, as they even remarked on the news.
January 11th. Mild again.
'Very mild overall...'
January 20th. Snowed about 8.15am - didn't come to much. Very cold though, like yesterday.
January 21st. Weather extremely cold - dry though.
January 22nd. Still very cold.
January 23rd. Even colder today.
January 25th. Weather still very cold.
January 26th. Still very cold.
January 27th. Weather still very cold.
January 28th. Still cold, but better for a bit of winter sunlight.
January 29th. Just a bit warmer today I thought, more winter sunshine.
'..but drier and colder from the 20th on'