North Sea Misty Low Cloud

[I remember Atlantic 252]

12Z looks horrid for next week, wont see the sun here at all, warm and sunny in Rhyl etc, and 10C with drizzle here

[Costa Del Fal]

I dont think its that bad mark. If you look at the cloudcover chart, only light grey colours are used showing mainly light/scattered cloud. The darker grey will show thicker cloud.

[MP-R]

Does low cloud off the North Sea affect northern France in these easterly setups? I'm off to Paris next Monday for a few days and will be taking lots of photos and would really love it if there wasn't prolonged leaden skies the whole time. The chill I can deal with, the depressing skies I can't.

[Alex95]

Does low cloud off the North Sea affect northern France in these easterly setups? I'm off to Paris next Monday for a few days and will be taking lots of photos and would really love it if there wasn't prolonged leaden skies the whole time. The chill I can deal with, the depressing skies I can't.

I'm going on holiday to Holland next week, about 20 miles west of Amsterdam. Therefore I'm also interested in finding out whether North Sea low cloud can be a problem for Continental Europe. I know it can be in summer northerlies in Holland, but I'm unsure about setups such as next week's potential easterly.

I think Paris should fare reasonably well next week with it being far enough inland, but once while I was there I experienced the same sort of cold, clammy rubbish that I experience here during a spring/summer easterly during a couple of mornings, but it always burned off by about 11am to allow for a nice warm afternoon.

If Amsterdam could see sunny afternoons next week with temperatures into double figures I'd be more than happy.

Edited April 8, 2010 by alza

[PersianPaladin]

Oh no. The dreaded haar season will be upon us soon. Sunny and 23ºC at Edinburgh airport, 11ºC and fog with drizzle in town.

Makes for a nice regional contrast though

[damianslaw]

I remember many a summer day runied by North Sea Haar in Sunderland City Centre which is only 1 mile away from the coast. However, on my journey from Newcastle to Sunderland and back again each day, the sun would often appear only 3 or 4 miles inland, temps in Newcastle on such days often being a good 5 degrees higher than Sunderland at least.

Cumbria does very well in easterly set ups especially sheltered western parts and the area around Carlisle, temps can be 10 degrees higher in Carlisle than on the east coast.

Another bigger contrast in temps can occur in the NW Highlands which tends to do very well under an easterly compared to Aberdeen.

[reef]

Im 7½ miles away from the coast and also remember plenty of days where it was dull, cloudy and misty here with temperatures struggling into double-figures yet a few miles inland it was warm and sunny.

The effect could be especially profound and prolonged this year due to the North Sea being at average or below average temperature after our cold winter. The sea fret tends to become less common after mid-June this far south (early June 2007 wasnt as bad here as further north) however this year that may not be the case.

[Summer of 95]

The dreaded stuff- please stay away! What amazes me is just how far west the damned stuff manages to get in the Midlands, usually while the BBC are going for sunny everywhere more than 20 miles from the east coast. It's well over 100 miles to the North Sea from here, yet we get plagued by it in these easterly spells nearly every spring/summer at some point. What's really annoying is that not far to the north (around Chester for instance) often escapes it as the Peak District breaks it up.

It doesn't affect Paris at all in an easterly; the next sea due east from there is the Pacific! In a northerly or northeasterly it can do, but by no means always; I've seen several satellite pics in those setups with all of Britain except Cornwall, west Scotland and Pembrokeshire clouded over, but the Continent cloudless.

[Rob]

Hate the damn easterly cloud, it's been such a nice day today, seems such a shame to spoil it

[Geordiesnow]

Well if there is going to be any North sea low cloud here next week, at least have some sea fog with it. Makes the weather a little bit more descriptive to say the least.

Plus when the low cloud rolls in during an summer evening here and you sea the bank of sea fog coming towards you, it can be quite a nice site. Other than that, i hate North sea low cloud with a passion especially when it does not burn off. I suppose one consolation would be that we do tend to escape the warm humid nights in that sort of set up but only because temperatures barely rises towards the mid-teens whilst everyone else gets warm temperatures in the mid twenties.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Yes, I agree with all of the above- I feel much the same about sea fog (as opposed to thick low cloud) in general.

But even with sea fog, I consider it inferior in many ways to the land-based fogs that sometimes occur in anticyclonic spells and warm thundery spells- they happen from time to time in Norwich and I've seen a fair number of them while on holiday in various parts of France. Except in midwinter they tend not to stuck around all day and some of the effects as they form in the evening and burn off in the morning can be very striking.

[Rob]

Well if there is going to be any North sea low cloud here next week, at least have some sea fog with it. Makes the weather a little bit more descriptive to say the least.

Plus when the low cloud rolls in during an summer evening here and you sea the bank of sea fog coming towards you, it can be quite a nice site. Other than that, i hate North sea low cloud with a passion especially when it does not burn off. I suppose one consolation would be that we do tend to escape the warm humid nights in that sort of set up but only because temperatures barely rises towards the mid-teens whilst everyone else gets warm temperatures in the mid twenties.

Agreed, fog gives the weather some sort of characteristic, you can at least describe it then

[I remember Atlantic 252]

Does look awful tomorrow esp for W midlands, prone area for the misty low cloud, where as N and W areas and SE areas look to mostly sunny, will be a cool day as well maybe around 10°C max, easterlies suck!

[johnholmes]

its arrived!

sightseeing tours now available for those lucky enough never to have experienced the N Sea version!

[Geordiesnow]

I have to admit, i have been surprised by the lack of low cloud around here during this high pressure spell. Yesterday for example was sunny virtually all day with not a cloud in the sky and it was such a pleasant day. Today is more cloudier but this is down to a cold front rather than low cloud.

I know other places had low cloud but this weather pattern has certainly been more sunnier than expected. Looks like this will change though as we go through this week.

[Bottesford]

The arrival of North Sea cloud yesterday timed in with my trip up Kinder Scout, Peak District. The whole area was covered in the stuff yesterday.

As we ascended to the top visibility fell to below 50m and the misty cloud was funnelling past at quite a rate! Then the water droplets began clinging to my hair - in the form of ice. Then it was time to turn back before we got lost up there!

Certainly made for a dramatic scene - not something you usually associate with North Sea low cloud!

[Thundery wintry showers]

I had some odd experiences on the way down from Cleadon to Norwich yesterday. It was sunny all the way down to South Yorkshire, where it became cloudy, and Lincolnshire in particular was covered in stratocumulus, but it was sunny around Peterborough. Low cloud again featured heavily around Ely but it was clear again by the time I got to Norwich.

Today has seen Norwich stay in the clear again, which really surprised me. I note Geordiesnow's point about a front rather than low cloud causing the cloud in Tyneside- this suggests that the "haar" that can clearly be seen on Neil Bradshaw's webcam must be restricted to the extreme coastal fringe.

[BlueHedgehog074]

I was also sort of expecting to see a little bit more in the way of low level/puffy clouds so far today, but it appears to have turned out to be more sunny than I first thought. I think the Northerly element of the wind has helped to prevent the low level clouds from drifting too far inland, but it is still interesting to hear that some places to the East have received cloud cover, yet other parts have missed out. On Met Office's latest observations, Shoeburyness, with an almost straight on Easterly wind, shows the sunny symbol, but I suppose the availability of the cloud and the positioning and shapes of the coasts has been helping to have an affect on who sees the cloud.

[Thundery wintry showers]

It's finally arrived in Norwich- just in the last hour or so.

[johnholmes]

Today is totally different from yesterday from a synoptic view.

Yesterday it was N Sea low cloud.

Today its a frontal zone. No cloud early on as the gradient is west of north not east of north.

looking at it accurately I'd better be more exact, the gradient yesterday was about 070 today in the morning it was about 010/020. So the surface flow was thus NE yesterday but N or perhaps a shade west of north this morning.

And again as I've stated today is frontal.

Edited April 13, 2010 by johnholmes

[Thundery wintry showers]

A quick look at the latest satellite images reveals that you are right- the cloud that has arrived in Norwich is indeed associated with the main frontal system. Something for me to remember in future- to take more note of the specific synoptic situation!

[BlueHedgehog074]

There is certainly more in the way of cloud cover now. But I would have to agree with you that having looked at the clouds, they do look frontal with a layer of status-cumulus with some lower level nimbostratus/stratus cloud beneath it. Probably might become thick enough to produce a light drizzle and rain, with one or two members reporting a spot of light rain in the "Todays Weather Thread."

[Summer of 95]

Amazingly, yesterday was probably the best day of the whole spell; after 11am the cloud cleared to leave brilliant blue skies all the way through to just before sunset. Was a bit cooler than Saturday due to the wind but in the sun felt warmer as there was none of that wretched high cloud (much of which I suspect to have been caused by aircraft BTW) which spoilt the weekend.

Today wasn't bad either; again the misty stuff cleared early (why doesn't it do that in June?) and in the sun it felt warm; the high cloud reappeared in early afternoon but not as extensively as on Fri/Sat and the cumuliform clouds didn't appear till around 6pm, and were well broken at sunset.

[Milhouse]

I've got to say i was dreading this week due to the fear than i would be always cloudy and cool. The latter has probably been the case but nevertheless that fact that its remained dry is more important to me. Although I do get very envious of western parts in summer reaching the mid 20s in glorious sunshine when we are stuck in the teens with stubborn low cloud.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

think this area W midlands is going to be really affected by north sea murk tomorrow, looks like taking a long time to burn off, really cool morning I reckon around here