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B87 Depends on if the area sees anymore notable downpours, so far the last ~2 weeks or so have largely been confined to sub-millimetre showers with a lot of the total coming from the first week. 50mm seems a bit of a stretch for Heathrow at this point. Either way, 50mm will be a lot lower than the previous totals for February and March, and on par with January that was mostly dry on its own but saw two big storms either side of the month. As I've said, you have to look at the bigger picture; this month has been significantly less wet than most of the last six*. Sub-50 is going to be nearly half of March's total for most of the south and way below February's 100+ in many areas. Not the outcome people wanted, of course, it's still not been a historic April, but it's a step up from where we were. *In the SE, I'm aware that it's been very wet further west and north.

Our average spring sunshine is 509 hours. Assuming April ends up around 120 hours which seems accurate based on the forecast, then May will need to record almost 290 hours just to get to average. The 2nd dull spring in a row.

Methuselah Tamara is a great miss on this thread. I loved her indebth analysis.

Sherry I'll take it

CryoraptorA303 Heathrow is on 37mm and 99 sun hours for the month so far, and with plenty of rainfall and not much sun forecast for the final week of April, it will indeed be another wet month (and probably the 11th in a row with 50mm+), as well as being very dull. I doubt we will get more than 120 hours once the month is over, comfortably in the top 10 dullest.

Brown grass practically every year here!

So it was overcast for most of the day, and we had a brief shower, but the Sun is coming out for the afternoon it seems. This is what I mean, it's nowhere near as bad as March was. Both February and March were constant rainfests with virtually no Solar appearances at all round here. Over this month since the first week, the Sun has made an appearance virtually every day. So far south Kent seems to have blown the monthly average, but they were already close on around the 10th so they've clearly seen a drier than average mid-month. North Kent on the other hand is still quite below and along with Essex, south London, most of Norfolk, Lincolnshire, north Wessex and the far coast of the Sussexes and Hampshire might actually achieve a drier than average April. However it will nationally overall still be very wet with the SW Peninsula, Wales, the far north of England and Scotland recording levels of rainfall closer in line with a somewhat wet October. Sunshine also won't be completely horrific in the drier areas, certainly below average yes but far from the dullest month in recent history.

Way better than forecast. That high is hanging on for dear life today. Never the less, copious amounts of strong mid-spring sunshine, a light breeze & temps around average. A welcome day after yesterday.

Brown grass happens most years in this area. It can be down to soil type as well as weather. Soil moisture deficits of over 100mm are usually enough to cause it to happen, and this occurrence is in most years of the last 10 to 15. It's not a south of France phenomenon. It even happens as far west as Cirencester. Witney and Carterton are particularly prone because they seem to have sandy soils. Many summers reach deficits of 125 to 150mm in the south east as far west as Cirencester

In Absence of True Seasons yes it's very common over this way too. Most summer seasons see some sort of yellow grass stage. Some years it's really yellow by the end of September. It does depend on soil type also, some areas are the first to turn, usually sandy soils, with the clay tending to go patchy brown instead of full on brown. It could even happen this year, it doesn't take long, 4 or 5 weeks of dry weather in summer usually does the job.

*Stormforce~beka* nope, it works perfectly for us and has done for about 15 years!

raz.org.rain well gfs has been consistently showing 15/16 for London next week which I see as being average tbh nothing particular cold

What a difference a few miles make.Mower wheel spin in sodden ground,few miles away,bone dry with slight cracks are starting to appear.

CryoraptorA303 I have a theory that above average rainfall in winter and spring would actually render fauna more susceptible to heat stress. The foliage grows much denser in response to higher availability of water and responds more negatively when that resource inevitably drops. On paper this poses a much higher wildfire risk going into summer as there's more of an abundance of dried foliage to fuel the fires.

Sherry the start of May looks rather dire but I'm hoping it'll get upgraded to something more Mediterranean influenced

LetItSnow! correct! Mud is already beginning to dry and crack and it’s only been dry with temperatures in mid teens since Friday

So currently looks like warm sun between rain from weekend or that’s my take on it

Not really the same as going yellow though. When I think of going yellow I think of full on masses of yellows and browns in fields, not the odd patch looking a bit sad. That's actually happening here now, even though the actual soil moisture is very high, it's been so wet for so long now that the top layers are starting to degrade or disintegrate the moment it starts seeing a net loss of water, which is obviously happening now with the lack of stormy weather that we saw in March and longer periods without rainfall addition. With the way some of the open fields are looking now (with a lot of grass washed away due to said disintegration and drowning), you'd think it's been dry for the past five years! It's actually quite incredible how quickly the water can disappear in high spring between the strong Sun, high ambient temps (most of the time) and the spring bloom drinking all of it. I suppose that's how you end up with something like the summer 2018 drought, have the weather turn dry right as the Sun is getting really strong and temps are rising. Within a couple of weeks despite the wet weather of March and April it was already dry.

Decent enough April day from the off though quite cool in the breeze

The only year I can recall in the last 10 or so year where grass stayed green was in 2021 here, even last year it browed off in may/ June.

Addicks Fan 1981 to be fair, teleconnections analysts were given a lot of hell back in winter. I wouldn't be surprised if they're not interested in coming back.

CryoraptorA303 I disagree about the browning of grass in summer comment too actually. Many summers you can have a slight discolouration. I can recall 2013, 2016 and even August 2020 before the brunt of the unsettled weather. I don't think it's an every year occurence though, but it is common. Grass and mud are quite fickle at surface level. Similar to how mud can become dry and cracked after a dry week or two even if its been unsettled (depending on soil type and area I suppose, but I've definitely seen that).

Methuselah I think she will come online at an appropriate time.

Northwest NI It wasn't meant to be taken literally.

Looks like it’s turning quite a bit wetter for most of us for the latter part of this week and into next week.