SunSean

danm More chance of surviving a fall off the empire state building than that coming off but hey, we live in hope! Lol.

Rare nice & sunny morning which reminds you of what April used to be like! But...our gorgeous friend, Stratocumulus is shrouding the sky back to a more November feel. We have reached our sun quota for the week now. I wonder what morning next week may have a couple of hours of sun?

Judging fairly, all months since March 2023 in my area- March 2023- Satanic. Worst March I've ever lived through. April 2023- Nice few days in the first third then utterly forgettable & boring. May 2023- Shockingly bad 1st half, very nice 2nd half. June 2023- Superb! Little did I know this would be as good as it gets. July 2023- Laughable. Worst July I've ever lived through. August 2023- Middle was actually quite nice but bookended by guff either side. September 2023- Stunningly brilliant 1st half, arguably the best weather since August 2022 but the 2nd half was boring. October 2023- Actually a lovely 1st half with sun & warm temperatures but the 2nd half collapsed into a rainfest. November 2023- Can't really bash this one in my area as we managed a sunny day every 3 to 5 days so no endless gloom. Fine! December 2023- One of the dullest months imaginable & one of the worst I've ever lived through. January 2024- Crisp & sunny, no complaints here! February 2024- Worst February I've ever lived through. Mild temps couldn't save this absolute greyfest. March 2024- One of the worst March's I've ever lived through but still a touch better than March 2023. April 2024- Satanic again. Worst April I've ever lived through. SSW- A gloomy-wet lovers bed buddy. So there you have it & the reason for my pessimism lately is this is the 3rd month in a row & 4 out of the last 5 that are contenders for "worst month I've ever lived through" Utterly depressing run of grey-outs & rainfests! In hindsight, the August to November period weren't that bad, just a bit on the wet side but December to April (and counting)... good grief....

This will be the first April in Shoeburyness history to not record a single day with 10+ hours sunshine. Satanic.

Since our old friend, the late season SSW, has annihilated our Spring yet again, give me your best & most suitable attempts on what it really abbreviates to! I'll get started- Sudden Spring Wrecker Satanic Sodden Weather Soul Sucking Wretch (If SSW was an entity) Sunshine Suppressed Wasteland Sabotaging Spring Wickedly

richie3846 Yeah its a tough one. I've done my best with my sunshine tables to factor in any notable adjustments (Heathrow/Charlwood) but making them a touch lower than necessary so that I don't have to adjust small under estimating like from places like Shoeburyness, Odiham etc (otherwise I'd have to adjust all 60 stations which would take forever lol) & so I've got as accurate as a comparison between stations as I can get. It may not be absolutely 100% accurate but gives you a rough guide at what places are doing better than others so I hope it helps some people at least!

richie3846 As I said in the sunshine thread, that calculation won't work for Brize Norton or other stations. Every station, annoyingly has their own percentage of under-reporting. Some of the absolute worst stations for recording sunshine way under- Herstmonceux, Wakefield, Almondbury etc Poor under reporting of sunshine- Heathrow, Charlwood etc A touch under actual value- Shoeburyness, Leconfield etc Close to normal- Manston, Brize Norton, Tibenham etc

Dare i watch the GFS 06Z "But...but...but the SSW will be different this time guys!" There's no other way around it- SSW = Sudden Spring Wrecker. We don't get a Spring if we get an SSW. The earliest we can expect ANY kind of settled sunny weather would be late May now but it's still a roll of the dice depending on all this crap northern blocking nonsense so we may just get the dullest year ever, time will tell!

richie3846 Heathrow's adjusted values don't represent every station though so you have to be careful. Heathrow & Charlwood are underestimating sunshine figures by quite a bit but other locations such as Manston, Brize Norton etc probably only underestimate by a tiny fraction. The easiest way to figure how much of a deficit at certain stations, for me at least (and even that isn't 100% accurate) is to check values on the ensoleillement map on Meteociel when there has been wall to wall sunshine, particularly in Summer months & you can see which places are worse than others for sunshine reporting. Herstmonceux is by far the worst reporter as they only record something silly, like 11.6 hours of sun on a perfectly clear day, while Heathrow & Charlwood would get about 14.2, Shoeburyness 14.7 max & places like Manston, Brize Norton 15.1. It's way more complicated & very annoying that stations don't adjust themselves! I try to keep it as fair as I can in my sunshine tables by not adjusting the ones that only need miniscule adjustments & then adjusting a bit less than necessary, other stations like Heathrow & Charlwood & it seems to more or less work out about right- but still not 100% accurate of course!

sunny_vale My optimism for the year was extinguished once we got another late season SSW. Those things are the deathknell for Spring & guarantee endless gloom. To think people were saying, "oh it won't be that bad this time!" or "we could be on the good side of the SSW!" well guys, it was even worse than last years SSW lol. Hope this isn't gonna be an every year thing now otherwise Spring is a thing of the past! I'm normally fairly optimistic & I was back in January but yeah, this is the worst period of weather I've ever lived through, can't lie!

Imagine being someone who is overjoyed by grey & wet! Would it be something like this? Dean Gray, the drizzle lover- "This has been the BEST 14 months I have ever lived through on this planet!!!! This stunning spell that started in March 2023 with those utterly stunning grey slate skies & that tantalising rain hammering against my skin for days on end has left me in somewhat of a euphoric daze. We had a disgusting blip late May & June 2023 with that absolutely vile sunshine & worryingly dry conditions that could have brought forward extinction of the human race but I decided to take matters into my own hands. I drew a pentagram, got some candles, 100 dead Spring rabbits & a photo of the sun with a knife stomped through it on a dead tree trunk. I performed this sacrifice to Beelzebub & in return I begged him for the UK weather to be like March 2023 forever!!!" "My wish was granted. One of the greatest months in UK Summer history occurred with the utterly perfect July 2023 & August, despite a few annoying blips of filthy sun mid month, kept a mainly dull theme. The 1st half of September was absolutely unacceptable though & I thundered back over to Beelzebub in a hurricane of rage & demanded a return to the weather I WANT. ITS ALL ABOUT ME I screamed in his face. He told me I need to up my sacrifice & so Immediately I unclenched my fists & rushed off to gather the items for my next sacrifice. Upon digging up my expired grandparents & placing them onto the tree trunk surrounded once again by the pentagram & candles, topped with the sun photo, this time with FIVE knives through it, I anticipated my desire to come true." "The weather changed almost immediately after mid month & then I spat out my caramel latte when a few days of 25c & sun appeared in early October....REALLY!!!!!! I charged back over to Beelzebub but he stopped me in panic & exclaimed that the man over there was upset at the poor weather & also started a sacrifice to him & of course I ahem...ended his journey on earth there & then. Ever since, I've had it all my way hahahahaha. Grey, wet, grey, wet, grey, wet, it's all because of me! 2023 was meant to be the start of a Mediterranean climate in the UK but I alone managed to change it to a slightly warmer version of the Faroe Islands!!!" "Nowadays I just dance in the streets in my red lingerie in a blur of complete euphoric bliss just knowing, this is our climate forever now! If anyone even dares go to Beelzebub with a sacrifice to change things, there will be dire, DIRE consequences. You have been warned. I love my life!" Yes I was bored & yes I am weird

Sentinel I've never known our area to be so dull! As much as rain annoys me, I'd be ok with it if we had lots of sunshine as well but this combo of wet & dull....Hell no! Make it stop lol.

The aim of this thread to hopefully jinx us out of this infinite satanic pattern has clearly not been working lol. Here we are, still in a never ending abyss of grey & wet raw sewage except it has somehow managed to get worse with it becoming chillier as the days get longer! For me, this is turning into the worst year I have ever experienced & 2023 was bad enough but at least that one had a good February, acceptable May, good June & September! This one has had nothing except a sunny enough January. Wow, thanks so much weather gods for a good January & warmth rest of year....

In Absence of True Seasons Unless its forecasting the usual garbage grey/wet sewage then its accurate to about 20 days out! Lol.

Cloudy all day with zero sunshine, totally clear after sunset, couldn't make it up! My absolute fave phenomena Have to wonder, has someone done a deal with the devil to prolong the eternal rain & zero sun hell mixture to a permanent basis?

reef Yeah all very confusing! Would be ideal if the weather stations adjusted the figures themselves.

AWD Always 10 days away! Be lucky if we even get a decent September at this rate.

reef 1637 hours was the raw figure recorded there. No idea how much of an adjustment they would need, if at all but the highest they recorded on any given day last year was a suspiciously low 14.7 on June 14th & 15th despite wall to wall sunshine & 16.6 hours of daylight. Weirdly, they were recording 15.6 hours as maximum days back in 2021 & earlier so not sure what happened.

Jamie M Definitely ain't happening this year that's for sure haha.

Azazel I'll second this. Easily the worst era of weather I've lived through. It's the reason I've drained lots of my savings on 4 solo trips abroad to get away from this absolute junk lol. Seems to be a never-ending infinite cycle of horse manure. Doesn't help getting 2 late season SSW's 2 years in a row too I guess lol. SSW (Sudden Spring Wreckers).

Jamie M It's real close, Shoeburyness annual sunshine hours are 1885 & Manston is 1845. Lately though, Manston has been absolutely smashing us down in Shoebury! We only just surpassed 1600 last year which is pretty pathetic for our area & this year we'd probably be lucky to hit 1400 at the rate we're going lol.

Metwatch Yeah maybe it could be luck. Shoeburyness are meant to be in like the top 10 sunniest in the list but we're more like somewhere from the North West these days lol.

Metwatch I've noticed Coventry seems to be one of the sunniest places in the entire UK. Always in the top 3rd of the table and often amongst the top 15 even. I wonder what gives? Considering your annual average is around 1550, less than even Shobdon who are always in the bottom third, something seems wrong. Either your annual average is completely wrong or the sunshine recorder at Coventry is recording too much! Meanwhile, Shoeburyness have only had 1 day above 9 hours sun since mid October 2023 (April 7th) in the dullest run in the stations history.

richie3846 Saying 7c & overcast drizzle in late April could be worse is like saying falling down a flight of stairs and only breaking both your legs could have been worse I like your optimism but there's no sugar coating it, these conditions are dire for this time of year lol.

baddie If I was a betting man I'd slap £50 on it being duller than May 2021. This pattern is set for life!