East Lancs Rain

Why is it that only London seems to get exceptionally mild, dry and sunny/partly sunny days in Winter? Where I am, very mild weather in winter is nearly always accompanied by thick cloud and rain.

Currently 11.4°C with 92% humidity with light to moderate rain here, yet another typical day in this mild, dull and wet winter. February has been pretty awful so far but I don’t it’s been quite as bad as February 2020 which was an absolute washout.. Yet anyway…

stainesbloke Just out of curiosity, if you had to choose between having a Finland winter but with a Southern England summer, or a Spanish summer but with an Irish winter, which would you pick?

raz.org.rain I’m not sure, I reckon there’s a couple on here who might be happy with those conditions… But 14C in winter even if raining is far from cold. Probably a bit too warm for a winter coat if anything. In summer I’d agree that temp feels a bit chilly but not in winter… After all, I remember plenty of evenings in July 2023 here where it was around 13-15°C, overcast and damp. In fact Thursdays weather will not be much different from Julys weather at all as I took a screenshot of the weather forecast one day… High of 16°C and heavy rain was forecast on both Saturday and Sunday one weekend… I read a comment in here about a couple of pages back saying how we should have called the country a different name like great squelchdon or something. How about instead of England… Rainland. That seems like a more suitable name, especially at the moment. I agree with the comments above that our climate, esspecially over the past 8 months, has become milder, damper, duller and wetter, with the temperature difference between seasons and day and night narrowing. The last 8 months in particular have felt very samey. The only difference is it’s EVEN duller and wetter than it was in July and instead of being predominantly 15-18°C, overcast and rainy, it is now predominantly 7-11°C, overcast and rainy… It kind of feels like the UK has adopted the same climate of Ireland, which has an even more maritime climate than the UK. For example check out the climate of Cork for example (see screenshot below) which has average summer high of 17-19°C, average winter highs of 8-9°C, average winter lows of 3°C, with 204 days of year with more than 0.2 mm of rain, over 1200 mm of rain a year and a whopping 1427 hours of sunshine a year.. And it is one of the sunniest cities in Ireland apparently… Imagine if the UK had a year where we had a repeat of January and February 2020, March 2023, April 2012, May 2021, June 2012, July 2023, August 2008, September 2017, October 2020, and November and December 2015! It would be an absolute nightmare and probably would the the dullest and wettest year ever, as well as being totally seasonless.

A lot of rain here over the next few days, but… Oh well, as usual, at least it will be mild! ️ I would be happy with 14°C and overcast if it is dry with it. At least it would still feel pleasant. However in my location it is forecast to be 14°C but with heavy rain on Thursday… Now I do consider that a waste.

Actually got some patches of blue sky between the clouds today. Not feeling particularly springlike though as it’s only 7.3C (which is the average February high around here). Humidity is quite low at 66%. It won’t last though unfortunately at it’s back to the thick cloud and rain tommorow (and for the rest of the week). But at least it will be mild…

MP-R I don’t think there’s ever been a cold winter after a warm September though. Correct me if I’m wrong. Yes, it’ll be Sod’s Law we get a cold March and/or April with winters weather at times but for coldies it will be too little too late, and also annoying for people who want spring weather. A bit like the 1 week of hot weather at the start of September after a poor July and a mediocre August.

HurricaneSteve Yes I’ve noticed we don’t get as much fog these days even compared to 10 years ago. Probably due to less pollution, low emissions etc. I remember we used to get some days in winter where it would be foggy all day. The winds have been very light this weekend though, at least here anyway. Not a lot of sunshine though, a little bit yesterday, none today.

cheese Overcast but dry on this side of the Pennines, temp struggling today, currently at 6.7°C. *Stormforce~beka* The tiniest scrap of blue sky here lol. Blink and you’ll miss it.

Another cloudy and wet week ahead, but as usual, at least it will be mild… Yay.

I find low 20’s and high teens the most comfortable conditions in summer, so I find an average summer pretty good, from a temperature point of view at least… Not so good from a rain/sun point of view due to my location though.

Not a bad day here. Dry and bright with light cloud and sunny intervals. ️ Very light winds with a high of 8°C. Just been on an early evening walk. There was a shower but it wasn’t too heavy and it only lasted a few minutes. ️ Temp is 7°C but feels warmer than that due to no wind.

Summer8906 Yes I think my expectations have been lowered after a very poor July and a mediocre August, as well as all the wet gloomy weather over the past few months. I just want a bit of warmth and sun! At the moment, even a partly cloudy and dry 12-14°C seems wonderful. 17°C and sunny would feel like a heatwave.

Not very good here… Yet more rain forecast every day after Saturday here, and nothing particularly mild either. It is too much to ask for some mild, dry and bright weather?

Well yesterday the models were going for some high pressure for the rest of February. But they are now forecasting mostly more Atlantic dross… Yay.

Frigid What about the summer of 1976? I think that was pretty much hot and sunny all the way through. I definitely think it’s possible to get a summer where all three summer months are significantly warmer, drier and sunnier than average. Take May, June and July 2018, three exceptionally good months. If the hot and dry pattern was postponed just a month later, we would have had a summer with three classic summer months. I don’t remember June 2022 being too bad though, I remember quite a few warm and sunny days in that month. WYorksWeather It was probably a warmer month than expected due to the very warm sea surface temperatures anomalies, but that probably also made it even wetter. To be honest I’d be quite happy with an average summer this year. A summer with a repeat of June 2022, July 2011 and August 2023 would be ok for me.

reef I actually quite liked winter 2016/17. Mild and dry, with plenty of benign and usable weather. Cloudy at times sure, but it didn’t have all the wind, rain and Atlantic dross you get in a typical mild winter.

Weather-history I am actually a regular viewer of Scott Richards Weather channel on YouTube, he makes some awesome Timelapse’s and has made a few historic weather videos as well. https://youtube.com/@ScottRichards10?si=CuVUw8SqbFX0QFr3

A lot of the days were very cool though, I remember one day it was around 14C and raining all day. Came across a video on YouTube of walk through the streets of London in fairly heavy rain and it was filmed on an evening in July 2023. The temperature? 14°C… I would have expected London to be warmer than that on a summer evening in July, even if it was raining, considering the average max in July there is 24°C. Rainy summer evenings with temps in the low teens are fairly common up here but I would have thought not very common down in the Capital. Here are some timelapses in the NW England region from that month. Most days were below average (around 20°C here). I only remember having one warm sunny day with high of 25°C on a Friday, that was it. It was the mild nights that held the average up although even the nights didn’t seem that mild tbh. Definitely one of those months where the CET gives a totally false impression of how the month actually was.

MP-R Yes I remember that plume at the end of May 2017. I remember having a hot and sunny day in the mid 20’s, then a slightly cooler day, then I remember having a thundery shower or two on the Saturday. Didn’t get any big thunderstorms here though. Here is a time lapse of that day from the NW England region.

damianslaw Unfortunately the Pennines and Cumbrian fells don’t do us any favours, they give us less snow and a heck of a lot more rain. Funny how you didn’t get much snow from this event while a few of us in the region did, yet back in December you got a foot of snow while I didn’t get any!

severe snowstorm Unlucky. You had the same weather conditions the bbc weather app was forecasting for me on Thursday a few days ago. Got some snow here but it will all by gone by tommorow as it will be back to the usual rain. Yay…

Been snowing all day, although it didn’t start sticking on the grass until late morning, and not on the roads and pavements until late afternoon. Currently 0.8°C and still snowing outside. Considering the bbc weather app was forecasting cold rain here just a couple of days ago, I still consider it a win. IMG_4795.MOV

raz.org.rain Unlucky, I actually got some snow here, although until late afternoon it wasn’t sticking on the roads and pavements, only on the grass. A nasty cold wind though as you say, and it’s currently just 0.7°C here. IMG_4795.MOV