Sky Full

Wow. Looks like science fiction scenery straight out of a Marvel comic book…..

Now that you’ve mentioned it, yes, I must say that the insect population seems to have dropped dramatically here too. Our buddleias are out at last and would previously have been covered in butterflies and bees but yesterday I saw only one solitary bee on the biggest bush. I have only seen one dragonfly pair this summer and so far even the wasps are mostly absent. Hopefully I can put this down to the recent very unsettled weather which brought us continuous rain and high winds for a couple of days - maybe they’ll all reappear as soon as the sun comes out again which looks likely in the coming week. In the meantime the swallows and martins must be having a hard time finding food…..?

Entering our 25th hour of (almost) continuous rain here. Some heavy bursts especially last night but mainly continuous and persistent light rain which is very penetrating when you stand out in it! It’s more than welcome, however, given the brown state of most of the fields and verges around here and of course the gardens will soak it up gratefully. The forecast is for another dry week ahead so this period of rain will keep the ground damp and help the countryside to remain green - and fire resistant! No complaints from me,

As much as the record breaking heat has been very memorable, and the sunshine very welcome for many holiday makers I’m sure (and ice cream sellers!), I don’t think there’s many on here who would choose a climate where this kind of summer event becomes commonplace in the UK if the flip side brought winters with no lowland snow and very little in the way of frosts. Unfortunately I have a feeling that deep winter cold in the UK is going to become increasingly rare in the years ahead and summers will bring more and more sizzling temperatures. Hope to be proven wrong as soon as January 2023 so I’ll bookmark this post and compare notes in six months time…….

Oppressive, humid 28C max yesterday with no wind to speak of….. refreshing, breezy 22C max today. Just 6C in it over 24 hours but a whole world of difference in the feel of the day. You can never underestimate the variability of the British weather.

For “fires ‘breaking out’ everywhere” read “fires being started by criminal arsonists everywhere”. I do not believe that fires start unaided just because it’s hot. If I had my way anyone caught starting fires deliberately in these conditions should be locked up for life.

The clouds associated with the front have all moved away to the north and the sun is out again. Now 27C by my thermometer and yet it is forecast to be 10C cooler tomorrow. That’s going to be a blessed relief, tbh. We didn’t reach the furnace temperatures experienced by those in central and eastern England but it was plenty hot enough for me! I will always remember this brief Portuguese / Spanish plume as the record breaker of 2022. Will we see another hot spell in August? Theres plenty more of the summer left to enjoy…..

Whatever activity there was on that front has now passed away to the north of me and the sun is coming out again. And the temperature’s going up. Again….

Raining again here. Quite heavy but not torrential. Garden is loving it! Luckily the chap got his tractor going at about 5:15 this morning and finished all the silage cutting before the rain started. Will now need to it dry out before baling it though.

Skies here now looking a lot different from yesterday: South East Overhead Must get some more activity out of this, surely?

Just had a short sharp shower which lasted about 5 minutes, and there is distant thunder somewhere to the west. Radar showing showers over the coast near Pembroke and more rain might make its way here later, I think.

The rain stopped almost as soon as it started. I can still hear distant thunder though.

Raining quite heavily here now. No thunder though.

I just heard a distant rumble of thunder coming from the south - looks like it’s near Carmarthen. EDIT: loud clap of thunder now - might be headed my way after all!

A tiny Welcome! Good to hear from you especially as you can stop lurching now! It’s clouding over rapidly from the south west here and the sun is disappearing. No sign of rain yet but you never know…..

It’s clouded over rapidly here and the sun is almost invisible now. Very muggy and still very warm but no sign of rain as yet.

A tiny amount of rain is forecast to fall in most parts of Wales over the next 24 hours. This is the most amount I can find which is forecast by the UKMO: Other models are showing much less than this and some areas may stay completely dry. Also depends on whether you catch a thunderstorm which may appear almost anywhere over the next 24 hours. An area of thundery rain is currently showing on the radar over North Devon heading north towards Carmarthenshire….

Outside thermometer is reading 27.5C in deep shade with a light (very light!) breeze. At 08:40…..

Here’s the forecast surface temperature map from the UKMO for 2:00pm covering Wales. Quite surprising how the steepest temperature gradient seems to follow the Wales / England border quite closely! Also note there is almost a 10 degree C difference between parts of the south coast and the north coast - you won’t see that very often!

I was somehow left off the invitation list to your wedding so I went to my niece’s wedding in London instead! It was a very hot weekend everywhere though. And they had a chocolate fountain . Had to take a fan up to the hotel bedroom to try and sleep that evening. I can’t remember it ever feeling so hot in the UK by night and by day. Until today.

Phew! What a scorcher….

Finally gave in and opened the windows upstairs because the air in the bedrooms is uncomfortably hot. It’s probably just the same temperature outside now but I want some kind of air movement to try and make it bearable indoors. Ground floor not too bad though as we’ve kept all the windows and doors shut and we have very thick walls! Hope it’s going to cool down over the next couple of hours……and I never thought I would say those words.

Still showing 32C on my outside thermometer in deep shade despite a light breeze. It’s hard to walk around outside. They decided that today was the right day to cut the silage in the field behind us but the tractor has now broken down in the middle of the field. The poor chap driving it has had to walk back in blistering heat, no doubt to wait for help to arrive. Doesn’t look like it’s run out of diesel, though, so maybe he’ll have to leave there tonight. Don’t know why they chose the hottest day of the year - ever - to do this work. It must be hellish.

Wrong thread…..

Here’s the projected air temperature chart for Wales at 5:00pm today from the UKMO: