Evening thunder

The first day since the 10th without an air frost (min 2.9C), so we stand at 16 air frosts this month. The mean min was -1.0C up to yesterday. Lowest min was -3.7C Lovely sunny spring days though with nearly 4 days of full sunshine. Recent Minima/maxima: Sat: -3.7C/12.3C Sun: -2.3C/15.1C Mon: -1.7C/12.8C Tue: -1.6C/16.0C I find it slightly interesting how it drops from 15.1C to reach -1.7C, yet it never would drop that far in a cold spell, e.g. after the 8C maxima earlier in the month it would never have dropped by 16.8C to reach -8.8C here, let alone in winter. Maybe ground temps act as a buffer.

We had 19 here, Dec: 5 Jan: 9 Feb: 2 Just wanted to post a few stats as my location seems to throw up a few surprising/interesting quirks: January 2014 had a lower temp (-2.7C) than both January and February 2013 (both -2.4C) All 3 winter months had a lower min temp than Feb 2021's -2.2C (though only just, Feb 2014 saw -2.3C). Guess that's the difference a clear calm night makes in a valley floor location. Westerlies can still be colder than cloudy/windy easterlies if it's clear with light enough winds.

A min of -3.7C here this morning, the lowest of the month. Didn't expect it to get quite that low. Although a couple stations within a few miles of here on higher ground, or on the coast, were several degrees warmer which is not unusual. I wonder how cold we would have been had we got a properly clear calm night right after the Arctic northerly.

A minimum of -2.7C this morning, which makes it the 12th air frost of the month. The coldest this month was -2.8C on the 7th, however we've had 7 minima below -2C. We could have had a couple of colder nights but they ended up having a bit more cloud in the end (so that follows the theme of the winter lol). That's not really an unusually low temperature for April here, because 8 of the last 14 Aprils have had a minimum of -2.7C or lower (2016 and 2017 both had -2.7C at the end of April which was more damaging with apple blossom etc in full flower). However we are in a river valley, nearby hillsides etc have had minima around 0/-1C recently. The lowest was -4.4C in April 2008, my first year of records.

Dry here too. It's ironic that April often seems the least showery month of the year. I don't feel like the weather has been tooo bad down here recently. Cool/cold, but no maximum below 8C. Tuesday felt coldest with temps varying between 6-8C during the afternoon, windy, and a few sleet/graupel showers (an early morning snow shower also clipped us). Several slight air frosts (lowest -2.8C), but some cloud prevented the lowest potential temps. Nowhere is the average April maximum 15-16C though, only some lowland areas in the south had >13C average maxima in April for 1971-2000. More widespread for the 1981-2010 average, but at Bournemouth Airport it's 13.5C, and London Heathrow 14.2C. So you could assume that's the average for about the middle of the month, and only towards the end of the month might the average touch 15-16C. I guess if we are happy to lap up those spells where maxima approach 10C+ above average, like the end of March, they have to be balanced out somehow.

I wondered if you had snow from that shower around 7am on Tuesday. We just caught the edge of it here with nice fluffy flakes falling slowly, starting with a temperature of -2.6C. Just to my west had more with about 1cm on Aylesbeare Common. Temps were then mostly about 6-8C during the day, with sleet/graupel showers. Then it dropped to -2.8C overnight, though 8 of the last 14 Aprils have had -2.7C or lower so it wasn't as noteworthy here as some spots further east. Cloud stopped it falling lower. Yesterday was mostly cloudy with a max of 8.2C. Mostly cloudy this morning too. 4.4C currently after a min of -1.1C at 11pm last night.

Tbh, It's probably true that summer 2018 was more damaging to native flora/fauna than frosts in early April which aren't that unusual.

Last year many places had frosts in May after a lot of spring warmth, at least this year things like apple blossom aren't flowering yet and tender plants shouldn't have been put out. Will be a shame for things like magnolias/cherry blossom get frosted though, although that often seems to happen here.

23.4C at the Met Office station in Bude on Monday. That's quite impressive for North Cornwall in March. Mind you it reached 25.3C there on the 10th April last year under a similar set up (ESE flow that comes over Dartmoor). In contrast Swanage on the Dorset coast saw a 12.7C max. 18.6C here, cooler as usual near the south coast but still very nice. Yesterday had high cloud until mid afternoon with a 16.4C max

I'm not ordinarily a fan of Spring cold but I would be up for some of the charts I saw this morning. An unusually cold northerly for April with sunshine and convective snow/graupel showers bubbling up during the day, with good cloudscapes and excellent visibility. Interesting to see a temperature switch-around typical of more continental areas too. This evening's ECM and ECM parallel sends the coldest air too far west but I'm not so keen on that because it has a higher risk of being wet and cold while I'm working outside.

I'd say it was a 'near average' winter here with nothing too interesting. January was perhaps slightly below average temperature wise but February was slightly above (-0.8C and +0.8C from my estimated 1981-2010 means). Virtually no snow, not unusual for low ground here but 2019 saw more snow, as did 2018 (most of that in March I guess with two falls of 15-18cm). It was also duller than average, so not a winter I'm particularly fond of. No unusually low minima, but -5.3C on 1st Jan was possibly my favourite feature of winter with the hard frost and orange sunrise combination on New Years Day. The February easterly was cold and windy but with no air temp below -2.2C. Indeed February had the 2nd highest 'minimum temp' for February in my 2008-present records (behind 2020's -0.1C). Fun stat... winter 2013/14 had a lower minimum than this February 6 times, usually off a westerly. Talking about 2010/11, that was in a different league here even if it was all about the December. 25cm of snow and -14.0C (on Christmas Day). January 2011 was still a touch colder than January 2021 here though, with -7.4C on the 31st. No winter since 2012 has managed -7C. It shows how things vary around the country.

Funny how hard it is here to get clear cold nights during cold spells these days. Yesterday was clear but too breezy so dawned at +2C while part of Devon & Somerset were -5/-6C. Last night it wasn't too breezy, but has turned cloudy. -5/-6C again a bit further west in Devon though. Last year for instance we had -4.0C on the 26th March following 12.6C the previous day, and that day then reached 14.7C, the 2nd highest that month. Yet we can barely get colder in a mid winter cold spell. I expect come May when I'm trying to germinate seeds it will be different and it will magically be clear with any northerlies, so we will get nearly as cold as the Feb easterly got here (only managed -2.2C).

We just had another bit of flurrying light snow, which turned progressively sleetier, and then had ice pellets mixed in along with the sun coming through for good measure... So I guess as well as marginal conditions at the surface (temp/dew 2.9C/0.3C), some was melting aloft and freezing into ice-pellets on the way down (850hpa temps are actually just above 0C here at 3pm on the GFS chart).

We actually have light snow here. Not very common on low ground in East Devon with a wind off the sea like this. Webcams in North Devon show rain or sleet in the heavier stuff there so must be borderline with warmer air aloft, 850hpa temps are near 0C (surface temps no warmer than here). Not settling but nice to see blowing in the wind. Temp 2.6C, Dew -1.1C

The below is due to my location in a river valley, so we are a colder spot when it is clear and calm, and one of the warmest spots when it's windy or cloudy. However, some fun stats: My lowest min was -2.2C. This was the lowest min since.. the day before the easterly started! That frost also looked more 'wintry' than anything the easterly gave, due to the dry air. I nearly had a minima as low in May 2019 (-1.8C). The infamous stormy mild winter of 2013/14 had 6 minima lower than -2.2C here, 5 of them happening under westerly airflows between the weather fronts. The max of 0.8C on Tuesday was fairly low for here. It's basically been cold and windy here. Sidmouth seafront looked pretty stormy on webcam at high tide this morning Technically we've had 4 days of falling snow, if you managed to see the snow grains. A couple of thin "dustings" that looked like a patchy slight frost. Not complaining as such, we don't typically do well in easterlies. Although we can, both 'beasts' in March 2018 saw several inches here, and Western Ireland looks to have got a good dollop yesterday, Britany got snow from a low too far south for us, and Ireland will get more tomorrow. It been good for drying the ground out.. although that will change as soon as it turns less cold on Sunday when it pours with rain lol

Hmm When does spring start?

Yesterday was dull and grey all day here with rain at times. Today will be dull and grey here with rain at times, but colder.. 3C rising to 5C. I have tomorrow off work and it will be dull and grey. The sun won't be seen for these 3 days. I go back to work on Tuesday, and it actually looks nicer, up to 12C with sunshine and showers, but I'll be stuck indoors all day. I don't like this winter I don't like winter.

-3.9C this morning. Wish I could take a trip west on the A30 and go walking on the highest points of Dartmoor today

Well we didn't have much of a southerly wind off the sea here and it seems it started as freezing rain, then the temp rose to 0.7C but it turned to snow on the back edge, there's a dusting of large flakes on the cars etc, above frozen sleet and ice. It's a bit of a frozen mess outside. Now have a big clump of showers just arrived from the west, it's 0.1C, and it is... raining!

Was -4.4C before midnight now so it's a shame it will warm up to about +4C with rain here in a few hours lol. Would have been the coldest of the winter so far without this system coming in.

-4.4C here just now, shame it will warm up to about +4C with rain here in a few hours lol Would have been the coldest night of winter without this system.

A nice frosty start and it was actually sunny this morning. (This is water left behind after the river came over, some floodplain flooding but nothing major here thankfully). I could live with this. It even felt like the sun was a just a bit higher/stronger today than it would have been a month ago. However, I'd more like to get to Spring and hopefully better or at least improving times.

-7C at Exeter then. That seems to be something hard to get recently, proper hard frosts under a high. If it looks possible we end up with un-forecast cloud like the last cold night of this cold spell just gone, which was meant to be clear and cold but was 100% overcast.

To be honest, a big freeze with snowstorms is probably what the country doesn't need right now.. with millions trying to keep vaccination appointments, or keep food delivery/click & collect appointments where I assume delays may mean the supermarkets might not be able to get to everyone. Then again... it may reduce mixing further so may help in that respect? as long as people don't all gather to play in the snow. However I don't do 'weather guilt tripping' so I will still enjoy it if it does happen (it won't change anything), especially as there's little else to do at the moment! However, I think I have to also be happy for it not happen this year. I'll just remember current the scenes in the MOD thread, next time it's suggested I shouldn't enjoy/find interest in Atlantic weather because it may cause a bit of disruption!

Just for clarity you've got ensemble member 21 selected there and not the mean