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In other news; I have three hedgehogs in my garden right now. One large, two small.. ish.

Hawesy very similar here though a bit more cloud this evening. Down by the river this afternoon.

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

sunny_vale My optimism for the year was extinguished once we got another late season SSW. Those things are the deathknell for Spring & guarantee endless gloom. To think people were saying, "oh it won't be that bad this time!" or "we could be on the good side of the SSW!" well guys, it was even worse than last years SSW lol. Hope this isn't gonna be an every year thing now otherwise Spring is a thing of the past! I'm normally fairly optimistic & I was back in January but yeah, this is the worst period of weather I've ever lived through, can't lie!

If only it was ..... On this occasion its a warm easterly ..

Mapantz aww hope you leave some treats for them

TwisterGirl81 'though to not see a wisp of cloud somewhere in this country for a whole DAY would take a small miracle' I've just corrected your typo

Arctic day up temps mostly around 5-7C but very cold northerly biting. In the few sunny intervals felt nice enough out of the wind. Managed first cut of grass albeit in thick coat and hat. Quite happen with hitter. Old in the winter but this constant cold is getting tad wearing. Was going to say at least it’s dry but I hear rain now on the roof window…

Cloudy morning, mainly sunny afternoon which combined with light winds felt very nice even though max today was 10.5c. Showers of rain this evening and 5c, Met sticking to their guns all day that these showers will turn sleety around dawn. If it wasn't the fact that its useable light outside until 21:30 now, you'd think it was still mid March...

55.0 hrs of sunshine here in the first 24 days of April, 56% of average. It's still possible it could be the dullest April on record ( since 2000) as April 2000 recorded 75.5 hrs and currently holds the record.

A bit of rain recently 0.4 mm from another little feature that WRF picked up well.

2.9c raining ️ so much for dry until Sunday oh well… how are we still in this rut? picked up a bug in Londonford mixed with hay Fever lovely jubbly At least managed a good walk yesterday, lots of gardening and odd jobs sorted.. including stopping crows nesting in loft through broken vent cover… by crawling in loft space and blocking vent to 5cm

Heard the rain on the dormer roof when I got up this morning and although it looks to have passed through now, it’s left everything damp so nowhere near as good a start to yesterday and Tuesday. doesn’t look like a bad day coming up though, maybe a few showers but compared to the conditions we’ve endured for much of this spring, passable. just need the warmer air to push up ahead of Saturdays system and for that to remain to our south, then we may manage to get a half decent few days.

They really should release the actual figures. The raw numbers that are displayed on their own website plus others like meteociel and weather online are wrong and misleading. Still don’t understand why they don’t, considering they show the actual ranges on the anomaly maps.

raz.org.rain Not in summer though. Most deserts will still be 25-30c overnight. They can often get frost in winter. Las Vegas has a record low of -13c, which is the same as Heathrow. Albuquerque has colder average minimums that London from October until early April, (including an average January low of -3.1c which is colder than any part of the UK) and a record low of -27c. On the other hand, some desert climates are always warm, eg Djibouti has an average low of 21c in January and 31c in July.

18z NAM pretty much the same as the 12z just an absolutely classic look for a significant tornado outbreak across Kansas and Oklahoma. Soundings from Oklahoma Soundings from Kansas Only one major fail mode is really possible with this kind of setup, that being morning convection. Lets see what our cams show over the next 3 days. Here's the area forecast discussion from the national weather services local office in Wichita, Kansas "Saturday has the potential to bring significant severe weather to the area. Of course there is plenty of time for the forecast to change and there does remain some degree of uncertainty particularly in storm mode. A sfc low in the vicinity of SW KS is progged to deepen and move east/northeast potentially around central/south central KS by peak heating. Moderate to strong instability (2500-4000 J/kg) will combine with strong flow (60kts+ bulks shear), nicely curved hodographs/strong LL SRH, and strong 3CAPE (200j/kg). Any storm that can remain discrete or even semi-discrete in this type of environment will pose significant hazards from strong to potentially violent tornadoes, large to very large (2-3+ inch) hail, and damaging wind gusts." Wonder if a day 3 moderate will be issued, maybe not cause of morning convection but still a possibility.

We had a hail shower about 8.15 as i was driving to work, short and sharp, snow/sleet showers up at cropton forest first thing according to reports, it really needs to warm up, log burner lit again tonight with it being 2°c outside currently.

mike57 Yes, that's what I heard. We had a hail storm on the moors at 9am and it then stayed dry but bitterly cold until 3pm when it unexpectedly rained really hard. The sun came out later and it has actually been a nice evening, with the cold wind dropping right off on the NY coast. Alas, it seems we may be getting showers from a feature from the North Sea early tomorrow which may stick around until late morning. I do not normally say it, but I am actually glad that I shall be heading back to Cheshire later tomorrow.

Imagine being someone who is overjoyed by grey & wet! Would it be something like this? Dean Gray, the drizzle lover- "This has been the BEST 14 months I have ever lived through on this planet!!!! This stunning spell that started in March 2023 with those utterly stunning grey slate skies & that tantalising rain hammering against my skin for days on end has left me in somewhat of a euphoric daze. We had a disgusting blip late May & June 2023 with that absolutely vile sunshine & worryingly dry conditions that could have brought forward extinction of the human race but I decided to take matters into my own hands. I drew a pentagram, got some candles, 100 dead Spring rabbits & a photo of the sun with a knife stomped through it on a dead tree trunk. I performed this sacrifice to Beelzebub & in return I begged him for the UK weather to be like March 2023 forever!!!" "My wish was granted. One of the greatest months in UK Summer history occurred with the utterly perfect July 2023 & August, despite a few annoying blips of filthy sun mid month, kept a mainly dull theme. The 1st half of September was absolutely unacceptable though & I thundered back over to Beelzebub in a hurricane of rage & demanded a return to the weather I WANT. ITS ALL ABOUT ME I screamed in his face. He told me I need to up my sacrifice & so Immediately I unclenched my fists & rushed off to gather the items for my next sacrifice. Upon digging up my expired grandparents & placing them onto the tree trunk surrounded once again by the pentagram & candles, topped with the sun photo, this time with FIVE knives through it, I anticipated my desire to come true." "The weather changed almost immediately after mid month & then I spat out my caramel latte when a few days of 25c & sun appeared in early October....REALLY!!!!!! I charged back over to Beelzebub but he stopped me in panic & exclaimed that the man over there was upset at the poor weather & also started a sacrifice to him & of course I ahem...ended his journey on earth there & then. Ever since, I've had it all my way hahahahaha. Grey, wet, grey, wet, grey, wet, it's all because of me! 2023 was meant to be the start of a Mediterranean climate in the UK but I alone managed to change it to a slightly warmer version of the Faroe Islands!!!" "Nowadays I just dance in the streets in my red lingerie in a blur of complete euphoric bliss just knowing, this is our climate forever now! If anyone even dares go to Beelzebub with a sacrifice to change things, there will be dire, DIRE consequences. You have been warned. I love my life!" Yes I was bored & yes I am weird

Stunning while waiting for my flight to Gatwick

Mike Poole thanks Mike I'm afraid I'll breach every NW filter imaginable if I type what I really think of the last 6 months of "weather " locally. As always, in unsettled phases the NW cops for the majority of Atlantic systems but this period has been beyond the pale. Like many others I'm desperate for some warmth and sunshine but I'm struggling to see anything resembling this on the 00z NWP . Late season SSW is disastrous for Spring so I always get a feeling of dread when we see SSW's in late Winter. One year we'll see a major SSW in November and get the benefit HL blocking when most of us want to see it,ala Dec/Jan NOT April/May..

Some angry but unthreatening skies yesterday.

Walked out with Sophie and she was excited. Look mummy pure blue sky. That's how rare it is here ... Even my child notices!

Sunnyish start to the day. XC Weather forecasting that it will stay like this all day, whilst the Met Office says moderate rain from lunchtime onward. Jeez, how can they be so far apart in forecasting something that will happen in 3 hours?!

Looking at the Sat image and the direction of cloud travel, there are a few breaks. If there's one saving grace, the forecast has overdone cloud amounts for the last few days here and it's broken more than expected.

So anything mild now appears to have been pushed back until early next week at best. 5/6c overnight isn't a problem but when it only rises to 7/8c during the day it feels just as cold. On a different note, just watched the met-office online forecast (for the first time) and apparently -3 in England in late April is 'nothing unusual'.

Dare i watch the GFS 06Z "But...but...but the SSW will be different this time guys!" There's no other way around it- SSW = Sudden Spring Wrecker. We don't get a Spring if we get an SSW. The earliest we can expect ANY kind of settled sunny weather would be late May now but it's still a roll of the dice depending on all this crap northern blocking nonsense so we may just get the dullest year ever, time will tell!

Andy Bown Yep, here it is on my way back, looking your way.

What I’m finding more astonishing than how poor and cold our weather is, is that there’s not a single day on the 00Z where temperatures anywhere in the UK at any given time are above 18C… and that goes out till the 10th of May, 3 weeks from the start of meteorological summer.

*Stormforce~beka* Agreed. Woke up to a lovely morning too, but looking at the satellite, it won't last then that's it for the next few days. Pathetic really.

B87 that figure would get your sunshine stats back on the right track though to not see a wisp of cloud somewhere in this country for a whole month would take a small miracle though I’m surprised it hasn’t happened or that the sunshine monthly record has stood for over a century, crazy, must be one of the oldest records yet to fall? I thought this country was slowly meant to be getting sunnier

I recorded 304 hours of sunshine in May 2020. That's very close to what I have recorded so far this year.

B87 Don't forget May and the Autumn, the latter was surprisingly sunny for the SE: I suppose it's not that surprising, only March, July and December were seriously dull last year, and December barely even matters. April was a tad dull, the rest were either average overall or sunny. This year February, March and now April have all been dull, April especially so although it doesn't feel like it's been as dull or a duller month than March was, but the stats don't lie. Annual sunshine is a bit of a screwy stat, you could have January-May and October-December all dull, but if two out of four from June-September were significantly sunnier than average and the other two not below then the year would overall be sunny despite it being very dull per capita. Kind of like life expectancy stats for pre-modern eras I suppose where they don't tell the full story.

James1979 Yes. Pretty sure it was 14.5c on Xmas day in my area in 2023. Struggling to get above 10c for the last few days here lol, and with the wind chill, it's been a "feels like less than 10c" situation. Just madness. Ahh, Britain - one of the only places where all that separates a day in summer from a day in winter is the daylight hours. Indeed, the max/high on the summer solstice in June 2021 was actually cooler in parts of the country than the winter solstice of the December 6 months prior. A feat that very few climates that have "seasons" can make claim to.

Excellent as that would mean I will only be 0.1C out with my guess. Earlier in the month, it was looking like I could be amiss by as much as 2C!

markyo absolutely, 2°c outside, log burner roaring away at the end of April, superb weather....NOT

TwisterGirl81 And the same for here... 2023 January 113% rainfall 120% sunshine February 9% rainfall 111% sunshine March 238% rainfall 54% sunshine April 156% rainfall 93% sunshine May 84% rainfall 107% sunshine June 120% rainfall 137% sunshine July 134% rainfall 78% sunshine August 100% rainfall 95% sunshine September 120% rainfall 117% sunshine October 179% rainfall 107% sunshine November 118% rainfall 114% sunshine December 134% rainfall 41% sunshine 2024 January 86% rainfall 126% sunshine February 223% rainfall 67% sunshine March 219% rainfall 82% sunshine

Ok well overall in 2023 Exeter had 112% of its annual rainfall and 96% of its sunshine (January,, May and June really boosted otherwise poor sunshine amounts) I have to be honest I’m actually shocked at the results…the reality felt somewhat worse that the above figure suggests 2023 January 82% rainfall 128% sunshine February 13% rainfall 87% sunshine March 165% rainfall 42% sunshine April 107% rainfall 79% sunshine May 85% rainfall 127% sunshine June 25% rainfall 135% sunshine July 205% rainfall 74% sunshine August 87% rainfall 88% sunshine September 199% rainfall 97% sunshine October 124% rainfall 97% sunshine November 115% rainfall 107% sunshine December 138% rainfall 73% sunshine 2024 January 58% rainfall 126% sunshine February 187% rainfall 51% sunshine March 188% rainfall 81% sunshine As for April we are about 20mm away from our April rainfall average which I expect we’ll receive more than that this weekend, some websites predict us 30mm+ this weekend alone. As for sunshine we have 60 hours of sunshine to get by next week to reach April average which given the forecast I just don’t see us reaching so I think it’ll be a wetter and duller month overall but I wouldn’t imagine huge percentage deficit, probably moderately so….so I guess that’s a positive given how some months have been. Lets hope May and Summer really makes us forget this wet and dull period

carinthian now that is some snow, not the piddling amounts we have to put up with. It’s bad enough when wagon wheels and mars bars are affected by shrinkflation but these days it’s even snowfall.

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.

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

TwisterGirl81 Since last June!

CryoraptorA303 the dullness has been notable every month since I don’t know when

Derbyshire_snow Local FB groups are reporting sleet and wet snow but no snow on the ground.

A bit less rain but the air temperature is absolutely dire and we have cloudy nothingness

mike57 Would not be at all surprising there has been snow over the NYM this morning It is absolutely baltic here in Sheffield it feels more like December here then April it is absolutely vile.

A Face like Thunder Yes today has started with showers, which even had a few wintery bits in earlier according to Mrs Mike57. 5C, and a strong northerly wind this morning. I dont mind cold but this wind and wet just seems never ending this winter. Stove is lit and will be burning most of the day again.

A bit to my surprise, the sun came out at times during the afternoon, although still interspersed with mainly light showers. The main issue was the beastly wind on the coast which pegged temperatures drastically, with the East Yorkshire coast not getting above 5C today (BBC radio weather forecast). More of the same tomorrow it seems.

Got a nice thundery summer skies here Some sunshine but darkness within the distance