Rain Lady

Jan Still wearing at least 3 or 4 layers all over even indoors. Michelin Man style. So dark and wet and horrible I gave up the outdoors and had a snooze, hoping sun would be out again by tea time. Not a glimpse anywhere.

Windy, wet and feeling bleak. Some sun ths morning and temp rose to 9.5C. Now 8.2 C but feels colder. Spring has been put back in its box.

Clouding up more now. A beautiful new hatched orange tip butterfly flitting about in the sunshine this morning. First signs of pink buds on apple tree.

Sun. This is nice. Many birds busy at last setting up nesting and defending territories. The willow warbler came back last Saturday to its favourite patch, about 3 days early. Surprising considering the appalling weather since then. So a day for outdoor work -- but where to start?

Beefy shower streamer here now from north with powerful hail.

A little hail shower half an hout ago. Looks like more to come as there's dark clouds to north. 9.3mm for the last 24hrs expected more. 116.9mm for April so far. That's 668.3mm now for this year.

What a crazy day - lightning earlier this eve in that belt of squally heavy rain which came through the northwest. During the day a mad mix up of hot sun (briefly) and icy machine gun hail and lashing rain. Trees swaying in the spells of violent NW wind. Collected 9.0 mm this morning at 9 GMT. Current total for April is 107.6mm. Spent last few days trying to make progress with outdoor work, but everywhere is just too saturated to manage. Utterly disheartening. At a simple level the sodden veg garden is covered with thick lush weedy grass grown well in the warmer temperatures. There's no way anyone can even walk on it. But I could weep for the fields. Decades of work maintaining the network of tile drains and costing many thousands of pounds is now all for nothing. The drains have been silted up in the heavy rain since the start of July last year and it is impossible to get machinery on the land to clear them without causing damage. So now there is rush invasion taking over other species in the meadows. Even if the rain is suiddenly switched off it will be a very long time before the fields dry out and normal farming resumes. I've been told that arable farmers are also having problems. Seeds not yet in the soil. Overwintering crops ruined. I fear for food supplies whether for humans and farm animals next winter. Doubtful if places abroad can supply us reliably and cheaply when distrurbed weather patterns seem to be a worldwide problem.

Rain thumping down tonight here.

14.1mm for yesterday. April so far 82.2 mm. But caculating the last 31 days we've had 240.0 mm. Light rain at present and a softer feel to the day now that vicious wind has gone, Surprised temp dropped to 2.5C last night.

Metwatch Interesting to see the moss coatings everywhere. We have an unusual amount this winter/ spring -- places I've never seen it before.

Vile gale and rain. Large tree branches bending. Just had a phone call from a friend in Preston and she hadn't noticed weather was bad today.

carinthian Your farmer friend at Skipton is spot on!

An awful lot more to come. A big plume of wetness on the way. earth :: a global map of wind, weather, and ocean conditions EARTH.NULLSCHOOL.NET See current wind, weather, ocean, and pollution conditions, as forecast by supercomputers, on an interactive animated map. Updated every three hours.

Lashing rain on back windows from NNW this morning. 17.3 mm for the last 24hrs. Simply appalling -- how can farmers and other outdoor workers make progess with spring jobs in these conditions? Feeling colder too -- currently 6.1C. Sunless of course.

Fine sticky drizzly rain up here. 1.3 mm only picked up this morning though. That's 602.2 mm for the year so far. Calm -- so that's a bonus after the last 3 days blow.