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Can't see as to why the Quiet Sun is to 'blame' for a cold spell, unless it's also to 'blame' for the Australian heatwave. How does one account for last year's US heatwave, for that matter?

No real surprise to see that March 2013 had a record breaking negative AO with a final value of -3.176 which easily beat March 1962 (-2.848) and is the most negative spring month on record since at least 1950. www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/monthly.ao.index.b50.current.ascii.table The 500mb pressure anomaly chart for March 2013 tells the story.

I have a mid April birthday and this could be the first year of my life that my parents' hawthorn hedges might not be out by then which would be remarkable. In a strange way, all this extreme weather may help to convince the powers that be there is something might be awry. Everywhere you go people are talking about this delay to spring. If this carries on it will be difficult to ignore. On a more positive note, when the warmth does come, the plants will explode into colour which should be spectacular to behold!

Indeed, when in the sun and out of the breeze it was hard to believe that it never got to 10C here today!

Todays daytime temps -around 9 to 10C fairly widely show the influence of the increasing warmth of the Sun as we go further into April.This in spite of cold upper air of -4 to -6C across the UK. The 850`s don`t always tell the story when the Sun`s out at this time of year.

Yes I totally agree, it's not as if everywhere is experiencing a cooling, many places quite the opposite as shown in Australia, the US etc. It has also been unusually hot over Eastern Europe for the past few summers.

I think it's mainly an issue for North Sea coastal areas whenever we get synoptic setups that are often associated with low cloud from the North Sea, but yes, I don't think the low SSTs are generally as big a stumbling block as some are fearing. I remember that in Tyneside the summer of 1996 got hot at times (it got to 27C around the 21st July, and hit 30C on the 18th August), following a cold winter and spring, and there was a fine May there in 2001 following frequent cold weather from January-April, and that region of the UK is particularly prone to "haar" during late spring and summer. 1975 was a particularly good example of a year with a cold spring followed by a hot summer.

It matters not what we wish for as the weather will do exactly what it likes.

Min -8.5c definitely a record April low! Quite a few Winters have not been this cold!

-8c which could well be the coldest April night I have ever recorded!

There seems to be a consensus developing for 2002- I think we're all struggling to come up with anything memorable about that year! Two minor things I can recall- a warmish settled spell in late March and I also recall a very warm start to October with glorious sunshine in the Manchester area at the start of the month. There was also a decent warm spell in late July which coincided with the start of the Commonwealth Games. I really can't recall much else.

In recent years, 2002 and 2011 probably the least memorable. Indeed 2002 probably the least memorable of my lifetime, hardly recall anything noteworthy all year. 2011 had its moments in the warm April and warmth of late Sept early October, otherwise it was an exceptionally tedious year with very few extremes. Going a bit further back, 2000 other than the notable wetness of the autumn and the very wintry last week, was by and large preety devoid of interest. 1992 was also a very non-descript year apart from a few decent thunderstorms in the summer and the cold autumn in general. 1995, 2005, 2009 and 2010 certainly go down in my book as the most varied and interesting years of recent times. The first 7 months of 2006 were also exceptionally varied for cold and heat, but the year as a whole was let down by the mind dumblingly dull last 5 months with anomalous warmth continuing in September. 1993 was also a very contrasting year like 2006 but with a much milder first half compared to a very chilly second half. I like my years to have a bit of everything with extremes, i.e. cold snowy weather at times - or even better lengthy cold snowy periods, switcharounds in spring from cold to warmth, thundery downpours in summer interspersed with dry heatwaves, mixed autumns with a mix of everything i.e. fog, frost, wet weather. 2010 was nearly the perfect year in this regard albeit let down by the lack of switcharound conditions in spring and lack of heatwaves and thunder in summer... 2009 perhaps is a better match with decent thundery weather in the summer and greater levels of heat, with a more varied autumn. 2005 was a good year in this respect but let down by lack of cold weather in the winter, probably have to go back to 1995 for such a year indeed bookend the period April 95-March 96 and you'd have my ideal year.

Might get to double figures in the sunshine. Would be the first time in almost a month - it'll seem warm when (if!) we return to seasonally average temperatures. Heating bills for the last 6 months have been ridiculous, all months below average some significantly so.

I would agree - hot weather (usually from southerlies or south-easterlies) has only a short sea track and wouldn't be modified so much. The low SSTs would make any Atlantic weather feel cooler - but perhaps have less energy (and thus rain) in them than usual. This could be a good thing for reducing the likelihood of long periods of wet weather at least during late spring/early summer.

Does anyone have historical SST information? I was just thinking about previous cool/cold springs- 2006 springs to mind- I imagine SSTs were below normal then and we still had an early warm spell in the first week of May that year. I really do question how much of an influence the low SSTs will have on any potential warm weather- I think this may be being overstated by some. If we get a southerly or a south-easterly wind they pass over quite short stretches of water so I imagine modification would be minimal, and direct easterlies only cross a relatively short stretch of the North Sea for the southern half of the country.

The above is supported by the GFS, but I think there's a good chance that, at least over the northern two-thirds of the country, it might be more of a step-change.The UKMO and ECMWF have the low pressure systems tracking further south which will most likely leave the maxima of 10-13C restricted to southern England, with warmer temperatures further north being down to warmer nights under cloud and rain, but the ECMWF operational runs and ensembles have consistently been showing a strong build of pressure to the east of the British Isles for next weekend. There is the possibility that the weather might flick a switch and suddenly turn warm, sunny and dry for next weekend, after a rather cool cloudy changeable week, which I imagine would pleasantly shock a lot of people.

Only patchy snow cover left in the Black Mountains. Although there are some big 6+ foot drifts in places. If the snow doesn't come to you, go to it!

Sea temperatures are starting the season well below figures we usually see at this time of year. Effectively we are not much longer than a week or so from the middle of Spring and Spring itself is yet to start, let alone any summer type weather. The effects you mention already in terms of low cloud and mist are very true, but for some time to come any warmer airstream is surely going to be modified by these anomalously low sea temperatures. The 12.5C isotherm is at least some 300 hundred miles or more further south than usual at this time of year The atmospheric feedback pattern from the long extended winter season is going to impact too I think and I am not sure the jet stream is going to be compliant this summer for those wanting heat. Possibly the coming late Spring and Summer is the hardest yet to predict - all bets seem to be off atm

So many dead sheep & lambs, Oh! How we laughed!

Hopefully this year will see a departure from the last 6 summers where the jet stream was sent crashing into Spain. Strong heights over Europe will be key to how this summer pans out. Hopefully we can get high pressure in the right place for warmth just as its been in the right place for cold since mid January.

The point is that the energy released was miniscule compared to the atmospheric energy fluxes that are occurring continually. Furthermore, the nature of the energy release took place in a matter of seconds with dissipation as light and soundwaves from between seconds to a few hours (infrasound waves were recorded in Antarctica) meaning that it didn't represent a long term affect on the atmosphere. It's not a matter of ruling it out, it's looking at the evidence and balance of probability as far as it is known rather than just going on a hunch.