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Another cool start to the day at 1c with very crunchy grass at 5.00am this morning when this photo was taken Looking NE out to the North Sea Turned into a warm sunny day with just a bit of high cloud . Maximum of 16c

Signs of a change beyond the weekend, still pretty usable weather for this coming Saturday and Sunday though... The shower risk increases next week with temps back down to average.. The ECM op perhaps a little harsh with pressure falling out to day 10...its much healthier on the mean, all be it a marked drop. Beyond that I feel we could be looking at another warm up and settled conditions after the first week of May. The GFS 6z illustrates this by bring g a similar situation to what we have currently... An Estly breeze again possibly developing.. Got a feeling in me water this summer is gonna have more legs than last year. Whatever your doing folks, stay safe and healthy.. And enjoy the next few days.

Lovely clear night saw 4 meteors overnight. Lovely morning and far warmer than the last couple days. 16c already. Rhododendron is coming into bloom which is always a hive of activity for the Bees (Really really need rain, grass has a slightly yellowish tinge in places)

Three more than me then. A last try tonight perhaps. Weather is same again today with bright sunshine and an Easterly breeze though perhaps not quite as strong as yesterday. Saw this photo of the Lawers range taken from above Pitlochry around 20 miles away (by a local). Still plenty snow up there at altitude.

Another lovely day. The local 'river walk' on the outskirts of Hadleigh was really enjoyable this morning. Quite some April we're having, with the possibility of it turning into the driest April on record for some areas. Tomorrow (Thurs) looking the best day of this week, with the nagging wind off the North Sea easing off allowing temps to reach a very pleasant 21C for many parts of our Region.

Lol, @Mr Frost, you beat me to print! Looking down to Inverness at left and Avoch at right; nothing spectacular at all, just calm...

Evening all! Hope you are all well. Wonderful spell of weather for many of us! (If not all!) 17C today and the sunset was just glorious.

Looking at the Gfs 12z operational next week doesn’t look too bad at all, sure there’s a few showers dotted around (some heavy and perhaps thundery) but with plenty of fine sunny spells and temperature wise, predominantly mid teens c range across southern u k / rather cooler further north but with some milder pockets at times, heights to the NE, even by the end of next week mean any Atlantic fronts bringing persistent rain struggle to make much eastward progress against the block and actually fizzles / gets pushed further west.

So few reports of Lyrid sightings so far, so may be they haven't peaked yet and may be worth another look tonight. I'll give it a go anyway. There's a little high, thin cloud drifting around still, otherwise just the same as the last few days.

Raw ECM values now suggest to me 25C may be reached tomorrow and Friday, and maximums above 20C in the south east until the middle of next week if rain stays away - a far better picture than forecast a couple of days ago. Clusters not working today but looking at ECM ensemble graphs, looking fairly average start to May with some rain around, perhaps settling down a bit more towards the end of the first week. I'm taking it with a pinch of salt though as the models haven't really settled on anything beyond D5 recently. Lack of data?

No... it's just that Highland roads never look that good. Patches of patches between potholes! On da beach this evening just before sunset (even pebbles have shadows) then down by the harbour where all the boys were hanging out I think they're usually out marking a course for the yacht club but there's virtually no boating activity at all now. Some bizarre light the last few days.

Got a bit hazy here this afternoon so not the clear skies this evening seen in recent days. Max was 14.6C but felt milder as the breeze died. Light cloud to the West did make for a decent sunset though. Out looking for the spaceship launched earlier but no sign, perhaps because of the thin cloud or maybe we just missed it. Lots of false reports about it from people who saw Venus and didn't think that it was not moving quickly across the sky from West to East.

Didn't see a single one here HC. Was out for 20-30 minutes last three nights, was even crystal clear. Still, I can now identify the northern cross and the summer triangle! Down to 3.9C last night and already at 15C this morning. As others have said, chilly wind is away and the sun is oot!

Just back in from looking for meteors with no luck. Sky dead clear again though with Venus shining brightly before setting in theWest. Getting cold now. Temp 5C and falling. Very unusual for the East coast to have several days in a row of brisk East winds with hardly a cloud in sight. Same wind has helped keeping the skies so clear though as it stops inversions or build up of pollution.

I couldn't find a collective noun for meteorites @shuggee but for meteorologists, there is a candidate for today's snigger: a shower!

I'd happily take this at the start of May:

One last look NE tonight then - see if we can see a surge.... (What's the collective noun for meteors?!) Got to 18.8C in my garden, half a mile away down by the Tweed it looked splendid:

Looking at the GEFS 6z there’s plenty more high pressure and glorious sunshine to enjoy during the next few days, the mean then shows what would be wintry charts if it was winter but then there are some encouraging signs that early May..MAY see another warm up!

Ne'er cast a cloot till May is oot! FWIW, my guess as to why we've nae seen a patch of North Sea filth this year is that, as we've not seen a single significant cold spell since March 2018, the upper layers of the North Sea should be warmer and deeper than is usual, at this time of year...?

Might be some tasty convection around, next Tuesday, should this GFS 06Z verify; light winds, cold 850s and SLPs of around 1008mb?

About the same here, a bit hazy but still really pleasant. Two late nights of Lyrid watching and I saw a grand total of.... THREE! plus another very bright streak nowhere near the Lyrids. Could have been anything, make up your own metaphor, or make a wish.

Not quite the same blue skies of last few days. More cloud around. Should burn away though

Next week is a work in progress so wise not to venture too far so in a nutshell the gfs version for the next three days, Our trough continues east and develops over southern Scandinavia as it phases with the main trough This partially opens the door to the Atlantic but the subtropical high and the trough over the western Mediterranean are still players as this pans out and it raises doubts as to how quick any unsettled weather from the west will arrive over the UK

I think most are aware of the current situation so keeping the waffle to a minimum Today a dry dry and sunny day with the usual caveat After a clear night with perhaps some bits and bobs of cloud around in the north another fine day tomorrow but the fresh wind will ease Another fine day on Friday but note the very slack pressure gradient over western Europe By Saturday the low pressure area to the SSW is developing a tad so a few showers in south western areas and a shallow trough is tracking south east south of Iceland The trough will bring cloud and some patchy rain to the NW on Sunday and showers may well be more frequent in the south west but dry and sunny again elsewhere

Today's dog walk looking down into the Clyde valley from Coulter woods. Still a patch of snow on Tinto.

GEFS 12Z temp. ensembles are nae too bad, when taking into account the operational run's rather lowly position...?

So, the westerlies are about to take control. But what's next? This? We can but hope! The GFS 00Z at T+384: To trust or not to trust? That is the question! The man from the ensembles, he say 'nyet'!

April 2018 was 2c above the 1961-90 series and May 2.1c so that month couldn't have been very cold at times otherwise we wouldn't have got that anomaly (we know March was) and as for 'another cloudy' one re: summers...not sure about that as sunshine totals of recent summers are on the rise. Attached shows the anomaly for 2018 and that is going by the warmer 1981-2010 series!

A bit milder again first thing this morning at 4c. Fabulous sunshine again but a fresh breeze. Currently 12c Sea fog visible in the Firth today though. Still a couple of snow drifts left on the Cawdor hills below 1500 feet Ben Wyvis however has a lot of snowcover for the end of April Calves smiling in the sun. Spring barley looking well Twilight at 10.30pm last night Mountains to the west in Wester Ross still have a lot of snow cover too

I know this is at the not-very-reliable range but... I think this adjustment by ECM (and GFS as others have shown) to the broad trough stalling west of the UK makes good sense. Reason? This: Barely has the recently concluded decline in AAM to neutral begun to move the pattern away from UK/European ridge developments, when AAM rises considerably again to bring those patterns back to the fore. This is how a gentle Nino-like 'lean' to the atmospheric state can bring us repeating spells of fine weather. The rising AAM stages are very important. I've found in my research that rising into +AAM (GWO 4-5-6 progression) forces European weather patterns more than falling to neutral AAM (7-8-0). Similarly, falling to -AAM (8-1-2) impacts more than rising to neutral AAM (3-4-0).

Here in 2016 it was exactly like that. Very quiet for the first couple of months of the 2016 storm season (except from a potent little storm on April 14) and in June, all of the storms erupted. I remember the beginning of June being very thundery. One June day that stood out was the 7th. A thunderstorm developed over N London and intensified rapidly as it reached here, with the anvil of the storm roughly being the size of Northern Ireland. When the storm arrived, it produced the most frequent daytime lightning I have ever witnessed in the UK. Almost all of the bolts were CGs and were actually striking in front of the main band of rain, instead of inside it. After the rain arrived, it started producing +CGs, with every loud crackle of the thunder shaking the ground. I have a couple of videos of the storm too, with the first one being 16 minutes long shortened into just under 2 minutes. I remember the few days after that were also very thundery, in which I don't have any videos of those storms unfortunately. The rest of June once again produced absolute corkers, most of them I didn't get on video but I got this on the 25 June 2016. In my opinion, July was as good as June, despite the month having less storms. Why? Because I managed to see two funnel clouds in July. I remember the first funnel cloud was at the beginning of July when I was in a PE lesson in Year 7/8 playing rounders and one of my friends said to my PE teacher 'Is that a tornado?' I didn't see anything at first but when I looked behind the tall tree, there was, fair enough, a massive rotating tube not far above the ground. In fact, there could of been some rotation at ground level. It looked exactly like the Wakefield tornado. The second funnel cloud was at the end of July, and at the time I'm pretty sure it was over south Cambridge. Don't have any videos of them both unfortunately once again. So yes, 2016 was the most thundery year in my 16 years and 8 months of living. Hopefully 2020 storm season will be as good!

I live just round the corner from you @Windblade and I don’t think the past few years have been pants - on the contrary, in the past few years I’ve seen some of the most electrically active storms ever (in the UK). In terms of frequency, pretty much about average I’d say overall really. We did have a very quiet start to the year a few years ago (can’t remember which, maybe 2017??) and then it went nuts from June onwards with rounds of intense storms over the following months. I’m enjoying the crystal clear skies and hope for a nice storm season, even if I have to wait til June/July

4 perfect days in a row and set to continue for rest of week the best April ever? 2011 was certainly warmer but sunshine is really quite something after today Heathrow will be on ~180 hours, the 200 milestone will be no problem this has been a better summer month than many August’s. Model output however looking less encouraging as we head into May.

A couple of forecast soundings for midday tomorrow

Good morning all! I have reviewed back my footage and caught 5 meteors on camera! I also got treated to a spectacular sunrise too! For those who struggle to see some of the meteors in the video, here's where they are: 1. Middle top 2. Bottom left 3. Middle bottom (this one is quite faint) 4. Far top right 5. Middle bottom/a bit to the left

850s are around 7-8c. They were around the same on the 11th April and we managed 25.5c, so as is always the case, uppers aren’t always the best gauge:

for 25c tomorrow like the bbc are suggesting is possible, we would need a 17c diurnal temp range ... that is of course possible. but the uppers arent what id have thought are expected to be high enough, being under +10c, and that possible high cloud as knocks points out. can we really get 25c under those conditions, without importing warmer air?.... personally i cant see it myself.

The ecm is not quite as keen to track the trough east and phase it with the main trough thus the Atlantic door is opened a tad wider and a developing wave tracks east over the UK by Weds

I didn't manage to see any last night, unlike the night before. So l am looking forward to seeing anything any of you may have captured, so thanks in advance for making the effort to film and post.

Eric tole on a cell with Meso characteristics.

Brett adair and Eric tole on a cell that's trying to drop a nado NR Canadian,Texas. Live Storm Chasing LIVESTORMCHASING.COM Watch live feeds as storm chasers try to see if their target verifies. Tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, and floods - we've got it all and more, live on our site and available as video on demand. Brett already had a brief touch down a few minutes ago.

According to this evening's ecm next weekend looks like finding the UK in a light gradient with perhaps a few showers but more persistent rain arriving in the NW Sunday afternoon

Hopeful for a hot humid thundery spell during May!

Here was Glencoe just a few days ago. I see someone decided to social distance by himself down the main basin!

That was a big signature been out looking and only saw one in the corner of my eye to the SE and not in the area,still too early to see anything as Lyra is still rising on the horizon if you can see the plough in the sky to the NE,then Lyra is below that. Lyrids Meteor Shower 2020 WWW.TIMEANDDATE.COM The 2020 Lyrids meteor shower will peak on the night of April 21 and early morning of April 22. Use the meteor shower animation to find out how, where, and when to see these shooting stars.

Say Hi to the high 18z at 120 v's 12z at 126 i want this trend to continue in cancelling out that dreaded Scandi trough this is always the case with the models MWB for unsettled weather to be forecast to then get pushed back everyday,i would happily take the GEM as this has been showing the same scenario for the last few days looking at the latest cpc anomaly charts for both 6-10/8-14 days it appears to me like we have a stand-off between hp cell to the NE with trough to the west/northwest so not a cold direction,in fact if we get to day 8> it could be quiet pleasant subsequent runs would/could tell the story soon,stay tuned and stay safe think....,NHS,....applaud NHS,....thank NHS now lets nip this virus in the bud in time for summer so we can get out and enjoy it thanks see you soon.