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*Stormforce~beka* the grey skies act as an illuminator

SunSean Shap bottom, but the last 2-3 days have been quite sunny. A very poor month for sunshine on the cards.

How's it sooo light right now?!

Metwatch My 9.6 looks not far off, first time in ages I might be at least 0.5 degrees within final figure. Certainly a contrasting month CET wise.

Iceaxecrampon I know Keldas well, the bluebells are a treat. I remember visiting them in mid May 2020, north slopes and they were in bloom, whereas they were barely out same time 2021. Another fine day here, turning into a decent dry spell in the Lake District and we look best placed to see least rain in England in days ahead..As said this is the lakeland dry season, all quite normal to see eastern and south parts plagued by cloud this time of year whilst we bask in sunshine. Chilly frosty nights at present.

WillinGlossop Yes, its an impressive covering for so late but not a great fan of snowfall at this time of year. Just want some warm sunshine now but so much more appealing is a continental climate with its more extreme variety of weather. Hope you lot get some decent warmth and sunshine soon ? C

Evening all Early stages in viewing the 12Z output but, other than GFS, there seems broad agreement for the LP to end up just to the west of the British Isles by next Monday introducing South or South westerly winds so something a bit warmer or less cool for many. 12Z GFS OP goes a slightly different route keeping the LP to the south and building heights to the north after which it's a north-south split under an E'ly airflow. Dry to the north but windy but with the trough in charge further south a greater chance of rain or showers and quite high rainfall totals for the far south up to the first May Bank Holiday weekend. Control is more unsettled until far FI. ECM at T+168 follows to an extent with a good old-fashioned late April easterly (GFS 12Z OP at T+168 next to it for comparison):

Although officially not starting until June 1st, quite obviously the Atlantic now running at a record high temperature and lots of moisture over Africa we could well see a very early start.

Keldas. Glenridding Yearly visit to see the Bluebells. But we’re a week or so too early The Legendary Lung buster start up to Helvellyn. If you know you know. For a change we descended. Classic Grizedale. Memories of Nethermost Pike ahead in full winter conditions many a time. St Sunday to the left. Chill N NE breeze. Decent in The Sun when it broke. A good day.

carinthian wowza

NCAR updraft helicity for sat, Kansas and Oklahoma stands out with Kansas having a less discrete mode. Oklahoma has 2 prominent discrete storm tracks. As posted by @Eagle Eye the 12z NAM has a very, very potent environment, we'll see if the trend sticks but sat could genuinely be the highest end threat the plains has had for many years. Soundings from Oklahoma Soundings from Kansas

iand61Believe it or not, I cut my grass last on 30th March which was incredibly early in these parts but it was so warm then and grass sprouting! Now today, currently -2.4 c with a deep covering of snow for the past 4/5 days. Forecast to warm up over the coming weekend.

A dry and cool day with sunny intervals. At 1700 g.m.t Temp; 7.2c Max today; 8.2c Min last night; 1.9c Grass min; -1.0c Rainfall from 0800-1700 g.m.t; 0.0 mm Sunshine today so far; 3.6 hrs Mean wind speed; 10 mph N Highest gust today; 26 mph N at 0828 g.m.t 7 oktas Sc Vis' more than 50 miles

TwisterGirl81 Here's London since January 2023. Very few decent months in the last 16. Only 2 months last year were drier and sunnier than average, and the last month to see below 50mm of rain was May 2023. Very little in the way of warmth in either spring, with nothing above 23c until June in 2023.

A decent day, especially by the poor standards of this month. Sunny spells and pleasant enough in the sun. Minimum was 0c, max 12c.

SunSean did you copy this from Markyo’s diary? I am of course, just playing

Cut the grass on Sunday, cut it again today although with the blade set a notch lower and I’ve took as much off now as I did last time around. at least it looks more like a lawn and less like a upland meadow now but the sooner it dries out and growth slows down the easier it gets.

danm Maxes will be below average by the end of the month. May looking poor to start as well. We will need something special to get sunshine back on track for 2024. May will need 300 hours basically.

To highlight Spring sometimes resulting in better weather in the west compared to the east (often due to the increased likelihood of northern blocking at this time of year, and easterly winds that favour the west more than the east), I checked the average sunshine totals for April versus July. In April, many western areas average a very similar amount of sunshine to the south and east: By mid Summer, the south and east averages significantly more sunshine than the north and west: You can also see this for Spring as a whole compared to Summer as a whole: This is largely down to high pressure being far more frequently centred to the north/NW or west of the UK during Spring than at any other time of year, which will always favours sheltered western and NW'ern areas. Add in a late season SSW that increases the chances of northern blocking even more, and this pattern probably becomes even more accentuated.

Been in Cornwall since Monday and have to say while not particularly warm or walk to wall sunshine I have managed to get some colour on my skin. It’s felt pleasant enough and quite spring like so I definitely caught the right week to come. All down hill tomorrow though . . . As for the outlook - depressing. Utterly depressing. I’ve been broken. I thought that couple of warm days at the weekend might save me and it’s not been as dull as before but here we go again!!

Metwatch Yes. I think sunshine is also playing a big part. It's been really, really dull for April, especially recently (outside of some sun over the weekend, but with no warmth though). Bird and insect life seems properly subdued for nearly May, also.

SunSean worst part is that some are dead set on having this theme continue through summer too.

12.5c, and 57mm please.